My Big Fat Journal

Pineola said:
I have a new mission to get organized as well. I'm going to go through my house one room at a time. Starting with the downstairs bathroom tonight when I get back form the gym. It is the smallest room in the house so I thought I would start there to get going. I like the 7 habits planner. You pick out what your main roles in life are and what you want them to be. Wife, Friend, Mountain Climber etc...You then plan your week based on things you need to do be the very best you can be in those roles. I may just start that thread soon, Val.
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Oh no! If you get organized I will feel left out and then I will feel like I have to get more organized too! I could certainly use the motivation- so good luck! And just think of the calories that we could burn while we were so busy getting organized... hopefully lots.

So this 7 habits planner sounds interesting too... I'm interested in hearing more about it. From what you've said above though, my only worry is that I would end up losing my job if I followed it completely ~ I can't imagine that I would put "accountant" down as one of the main roles I want to assume in my life.:p
 
I am feeling very irritated today with all the counting, the counting the endless counting. I don't know if counting calories is really for me. My intention was to eat small portions and exercise when I first started. I then started noticing that things I thought didn't have many calories really did have a lot of calories. I saw how well counting calories was working for TwinMom and others here and I didn't really trust my own food knowledge so I started counting. I spent over an hour last night putting nutritional information into Fitday last night because the food I ate wasn't in there. I really can't do it. I think I will just pick up a reference guide and kind of keep a aprox total in my head. It's not working for me. If it turns out I don't loose weight that way, I will need to go back to counting, but I'm tired of it and it is affecting my attitude big time. I did have Paul bring the postage scale up from the basement so I could start weighing out foods to see just what 2oz of avocado looked like as I really have no idea. I normally would just eat it all!!!

On that note. I did well today so far. Didn't touch the big box of doughnuts at work, nor did I take candy from the candy basket. I did go to the Chinese Buffett at lunch, but they have a grill there and you can pick out your food and they cook it. I got a big load of veggies with some chicken in it. None of the fried, covered in sauce food that I would normally get there. I had a 1/2 cup of the soft serve, but I thought that was fine.

Twin--no I am not a closet Mountain Climber--that was just an example, but I may be a diver or just play one on TV :)

Val, the planner I am talking about is a Franklin Covey Planner. The book is the "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" which I have never read, but my company sent me to a seminar this year which I found very interesting and I am sure would be very helpful if I would get off my a$$ and do it. You are supposed to start out by writing a mission statement then decide what your roles are based on your mission. I like that it keeps you actively doing things that support the person you want to be.

I'll be back later. I have to go get some exercise. I just needed to get that calorie counting thing off my chest. I was really grumpy today...I feel better now.
 
I can relate to not wanting to count the calories, it's something I've never felt enthusiastic about doing either. I just try to keep an eye on my portions and not snack on unhealthy stuff like crisps, sweets and cake.:)

By the way, pakora is basically veg (though can be made wit meat) fried in batter and Go Ahead rasberry bakes are sort of low fat cake bars. Go Ahead is the name of a brand of snacks we have in the UK that are meant to be lower in fat than choccy bars etc.:D
 
I know it can be frustrating to count calories but you have to find a system that you feel comfortable with first. And the fitday may not be the answer for you. I just keep mine in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that I made myself. Most of what I am eating is unpackaged so I use foodcount.com to locate calorie content.

If one system doesn't work for you, toss it out until you find one you like. Whatever you choose should be easy and fun to use. Otherwise it will make dieting feel like such a burden!!!!

If you've got Excel I could send you a copy of what I made for myself. Just pm me. But keep hanging in there!!!!
 
counting

Aw, I am sorry you are feeling frustrated. I tried and rejected fitday myself. I keep a spiral notebook and a calculator beside my bed. Old fashioned, but it works for me. I have noticed that as I have started to remember a lot of the values of my "regular" foods, it is getting easier for me to keep track of my calories.

Bottom line is - do what feels right for you and what works! I think whatever you do should be something you are comfortable with doing for the rest of your life if need be. That's why my diet includes ice cream! :D
 
Thanks for the suggestions ladies. What I liked about Fitday was you could look and see how you were doing on getting your nutrients for the day, but I was finding everything I put in there had to be customized. I'm sitting at my desk with my wrappers and my magnifying glass trying to read how much vitamin k is in the dang protein bar I ate....I'm done with that. I think I need to go back to school and get a degree in Nutrition. I like the simple idea of a spreadsheet or just a notebook.

Crunchie, you have such fun sounding food in the UK. I had always heard English food was bland and boring. I think I was mis-guided.
 
I use fitday too. I find I ahve to customize alot of things for a very accurate measure cause all my food is Chinese dishes... but I usually don't. I pick the item closest to what I ate. Or I pair things together that were the ingredients to the dish I had. Like if I had chicken teriyaki, I'd choose roasted chicken and teriyaki sauce. It's just easier this way. I heard in the pro version, it's much better though. Hope you have a better day tomorrow!
 
I do a combination of what Twinmom and C do...I keep a pad of paper in the kitchen and write down the totals of what I know (ie. yogurt, 60cs, pria bar - 170cs) etc then I input the items into fitday as quickly as possible. I really don't pay attention to all the nutrient charts, etc, it's easier for me to take a multivitamin and be done ;)

Often times fitday comes up with a different calory count of the item I have with that has the packaging right in front of me, so I find I have to tinker with the quntitity on fitday to get the right calories
 
Hey Pineola, I know what you mean about needing a degree, and of course they keep moving the goal posts about what is good nutrition.

I don't like counting calories that much, but i do find it useful if things don't fit very well into my portion system. It is based on healthy options, so if you have something higher in fat or cals than you should be then counting cals can help keep track. I just approximate the cals though, rounding up to the nearest 10, or 20 depending on how much easier it makes to tot it up. I think maybe if the weight stops coming off I may have to rethink that and be more accurate though :rolleyes: .
 
I must agree with the fitday complaints. I find that I pretty much have to customize most of my foods that I eat but I pretty much eat the same kinds of things all of the time. I too found that not all of the packaging calories and the fitday calories matched. As for punching in every little detail that is on the package I got sick of doing that all of the time, so I decided to just put in the essentials cals, protein, fat and carbs that is all the program needs to calculate.

There is nothing wrong with a pen and pad I just like using the computer.
 
With the online calorie counters -i'm going over the the darkside and abandoning fitday for sparkpeople... the site is a little too "happy" and 'cheerful" and very graphic intensive... but it's got tons of customized foods that fit day doesn't have... and I ran a side by side comparison for 1 week -where i entered the same thing into both programs.. and www.sparkpeople.com came out more accurate... (the water counter is annoyingly cute though -i like getting the water to splash over the top :)
 
We have somevery VERY bad food here in the UK, I think Scotland is the unhealthiest nation in Europe sadly because we're all addicted to take away food. One of the worse things we have here is "chippies" where they sell chips with fish in batter, fried chicken etc. At one stage people were buying chocolate bars that had been deep fried in batter *boak*, think this was the height of disgustingness but they sort of went out of fashion. Chippies tend to deep fry everything so if you ask for say a pizza and chips you'll get a fried pizza (though I must admit fried pizza actually tastes OK). I remember once Scotlands football team was playing Italy last year and the Scotland fans were singing "we're gonnae deep fry yer pizza, deep fry yer pizza". :D

I always feel a bit ashamed when I see all these adverts on the telly saying "did you know that one zillion billion people in Scotland are over weight", that played a wee part in kicking me up the bum as I felt a bit ashamed on behalf of my nation you see.:(
 
I hear you, Cruncie. I feel the same way. Times that I have been planning travel, I have often thought about going to other countries as the typical fat American. I wouldn't go near France or Italy being as fat as I am! :)

I probably would like that fried chocolate. I like weird things. One of my favorite things is to put some pc's of chocolate in a croissant and putting it in the microwave for about 10-15 secs. Oh, my god I can't tell you how good that is...with coffee? It is the best thing ever. You have to use good chocolate though. None of that cheap Easter Egg chocolate.

Thanks for all the tips on the calorie counters. I am going to check those out for sure. I would also like to see the .xls you use, Scarlett. I'll pm you on that. Mal, I can take the "happy" as long as it works. At least with a computer you can shut it off. I work with someone who is like that 75% of the time.



M2M do you think vitamins really work? I read an article once that explained how your body doesn't really absorb them. I have been taking them, but I was just hoping they worked.

I am finding that I have become a very all or nothing kind of person. I don't think I like it. I would find it hard to estimate my calories or not count everything like you do, InitialC/Jen. If I am going to count it is going to be correct!!!! I'm a freak!

Good news!: I discovered "All you can Eat" buffets have lost there luster for me.

Bad news: I ate two "fun sized" 3 Musketeers today.

Thanks for stopping by everyone. I appreciate it.
 
I think I would love deep fried Snickers bars, because I love salty and sweet ... mmmm .... and Nigella Lawson does mini Bounty bars deep fried with pineapple. Well, we could have the pineapple ... :rolleyes:

Pineola, your stomach must be shrinking!!! It makes it so much easier when your body no longer wants big quantities of food. Your doing great! ;)
 
I know what you mean about the counting Pineola. When I was counting everything when I tried to lose weight before, I was getting very discouraged. I might start doing it again later but right now I don't think I could handle it without wanting to give up and it's more important to me to eat foods that I know are healthy and work more on exercising everyday at this point. Maybe you just need to shift your focus and try doing something else like a different exercise to challenge yourself and then go back to the counting another time. I know you can do it!!!
 
Thanks, everyone. I love the salty/sweet too Mrs. Bear. It is my down fall (well one of them, there are so many when it comes to food) Nothing like the creamiest richest ice cream with some kind of salty nut in it. OK....enough of that. I already blew it today. They opened a new Mexican restaurant near my office and I work with this guy who always wants to take me to lunch because I help him so much. We both really, really wanted to check it out. We are very bored with the food selection in our neighborhood. One thing looked just as bad as the rest so I had a chili relleno w/beans and guac. I haven't even tried to figure out yet what it was.....Oh, yes and lots of chips. Now I'm thinking about ice cream! It may not turn out to be as bad as I think as the beans were fat free. It's all the cheese and the deep fried I'm worried about. I had a pretty low cal breakfast so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I'll let you know what it all added up to. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it is not over 2000 for lunch alone.

Mal, I signed up for sparklepeople to check it out. I had to laugh at some of the graphics on there. I was imagining the irritated look on your face. You are so funny!!

So I had a good day.....lost 2lbs according to the weigh in. I wish everyone a perfect weekend. Take care.
 
Mrs Bear said:
Nigella Lawson does mini Bounty bars deep fried
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Nigella could boil brussell sprouts and make it seem sexy and like it's going to be the best tasting stuff ever... however, right now, Iam remembering that deep fried bounty bar show and I'm getting hungry (and I'm not a big chocolate fan either... :(
 
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

4400 Calories!
 
Pineola,
It's one day in the life - it's not every day you're eating 4400 calories.

Just let it go, dust yourself off and start new with your next meal. You've already lost 12 lbs, you know the weight WILL come off.
 
ohhhhh

Oh, NO WAY! 4400! ACK!!!! I think I would faint dead away. Okay, M2M is right, you have been good, and one day is not going to kill you. Maybe your body will let go of lots of calories the next couple of days because it had such a feast today. Well, maybe. We can hope! :eek:

Don't beat yourself up, and don't binge the rest of the weekend away. Get back on your pony and ride on. :)
 
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