My Journal

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WrongTurn

New member
Hi, I'm Jim.
I have been addicted to food and have been working on this issue for the longest time. Like most, I'm conflicted with wanting to eat the supposedly good stuff, pizza etc. And wanting to eat as much as I want while also not getting fat, heh, oh and not have to work it off. So those 2 desires are at conflict within my brain. Time to pick a side and give it support and strength. It's getting way out of hand and the older you get, well eating right is a better insurance policy than eating like a pig and using health insurance to fix whatever I broke, 1 oz. of prevention vs. 1lb of cure and all that.

The reason I'm using this forum, I have been keeping a journal offline and would seldom make updates, it's lonely when you do it alone. It's probably the social aspect, not as interesting to keep at it when I'm on an metaphoric island.


Strategy:
1. Journal and Post it online daily
2. Read/respond to someone else's journal
3. Keep track of my caloric intake, exercises

I've been doing number 3 for a long time, but it's so easy to give up 1 day and pick up the next when I'm disgusted again, or no longer in denial or forget the pain of trying again, it's a roller coaster.

From the Guideline:
How much weight do you want to lose? Been down this road, would like to just lose the gut and smile at myself in the mirror, so to that end, whatever number.

What is the timeframe for reaching your target weight? Again, too much constraint seems to backfire on me, as long as it takes.

How do you want to accomplish your goal (what methods do you want to use)? By the above 3 strategies. Doing it alone didn't work, I'm wise to that now, and other forums such as sparkpeople just wasn't enough, I need something that I can post easily why I'm eating what I'm eating etc.

Who or what can support you in reaching your goal? Hard to find people, most that I know that are fat are not interested, those that aren't are just not eaters, so they are not interested, god bless the internet for finding my niche like minded people working on the same issues.

When will you start? Today, already started.
 
hello jim :) welcome to the forum... amazing that you've decided to make a change now. and dont worry, there are plenty of people here who WILL make sure u stcik to ur plan... the amount of support you get... it SUCKS to let them down :)
so i'll be dropping in from time to time... all the best!! and keep updating!
 
Thanks Surya

I've been at this dieting thing for some time, years, don't know exactly how many but at least 10. In that time I've tried so many ways to see what works for me, only recently I found posting online for the whole world to see rather than keeping a private "hidden" journal effective for me.

Your in India! I see losing a few lbs./kilos is becoming a world wide problem

Day 4:
Went for a bike ride this morning to the local gorge to set GPS coordinates there for fun, wow it was so green. This is the first time I've ever seen the vegetation so lush, it was amazingly different, I didn't recognize the place. Then I realized it was only in the fall that I visited the gorge. The place looked like Sherwood forest of robin hood fame. I plan on going back tomorrow for a walk with my camera. GPS reading for my ride is either 8.2 miles or 10.1 miles.

Had a good day calorie wise yesterday. I made it a goal to eat just under 2k calories a day , this is day 4 of that goal. I was about 100 calories over last night, but those 100 calories were productive, to stop hunger pangs and to alleviate mood, however, I controlled the calories. I'm still feeling the urge or compulsion to eat at night, but I'm slowly weening myself off that habit.
 
WrongTurn said:
Thanks Surya

I've been at this dieting thing for some time, years, don't know exactly how many but at least 10. In that time I've tried so many ways to see what works for me, only recently I found posting online for the whole world to see rather than keeping a private "hidden" journal effective for me.

Your in India! I see losing a few lbs./kilos is becoming a world wide problem
Click to expand...

yea online journals are wayyy better than private ones. ive seen that myself. maybe its because it makes u feel accountable to ur followers!!
and yes fatty-ness :)D) is a huge problem here in India as well. its psycho... the number of people becoming chubbier and chubbier. it wasnt a problem even one generation ago!! :'(
 
Hey Jim. Welcome. I'm with you ... I find that having to be accountable TO someone helps me a lot. Even if it's just a bunch of people on a message board. :)

When I journal here, I'm much better about sticking to plan and making good decisions.

Hope to see more of your posts!
 
Welcome to the board Jim,

I commend you for finally taking a stand, and staring the weight problem in the face. I think this forum is an incredible resource, because there are a lot of people looking for each other to succeed! Great to hear about your biking workout. Im sure it was more interesting that running on a treadmill :p

As for late night eating, I used to be in the same boat. What I did was take a second, and see whether I was actually hungry, or just bored. If I was bored, getting up and walking around, maybe getting a drink really curbs the craving. However, if youre hungry, it is just your body letting you know it needs fuel. Late night eating isnt terrible, as long as youre feeding yourself healthy food (boiled eggs, some carrot sticks, even a peice of string cheese are always great snacks). Have a great weekend, I'll be snooping by every now and then!
 
Hello Jim, welcome to the Forum. :)

Awesome work on the biking!! :waving:

Take Care
 
Thanks everyone for the welcoming. Is there a welcome basket? Ah Kindred spirits and yet I feared a post beating should I become lazy in getting myself out of bed this morning but chalked it up to imagination and went back to bed, j/k. 3 cups of coffee later and I was out the door for my bike ride.

Andy. I think I'm not eating enough protein, might be why I'm hungry at night and eating more calories than I intended for the day. I'll see if I can eat 33g of protein 6x a day.

Day 5:
Got in my walk at the gorge. Additionally, tried to ride my bike there this morning at 5:30 am, but only got about 1.2 miles before I had a dangerous problem with my bike that shortened my trip. Until I had to turn back, everything just seemed serene, calming, beautiful, quiet, peaceful, addicting.

When I drove back to the gorge for me for my walk I took some amazing photos of the gorge, my sherwood forest. While there I scaled up a hill utilizing some root outgrowth for support and leverage. I'll have to pick up some boots to climb the hills further. Lot's of fun.

I did manage to fix my bike later in the day and I'll be heading back to the gorge in the morning again.

Calories Yesterday:
2,181

Calories today:
2, 386 - 300 of those were late night.
143g of protein. I think I might need to up the protein to see if my calorie count will reduce since I'll be less hungry.
 
Day 6:
Had another awesome day. Spent 3 hours hiking and riding my bike. Felt like a kid when I discovered a new trail and allowed myself to follow each trail as far as it would go, so wound up spending more time that I had originally planned. The forest felt like I was in some medieval time. Not sure of the actual mileage, but at least 10miles round trip.

Didn't do as well as I had hoped with calories, way too many carbs and over budget on fat grams and still not enough protein. I'll have to start planning on what I eat the day before so that I know before hand how much protein. I'll do that tonight.

Still hopeful and reading other journals is very inspiring and motivating.

Cal 2252
Carbs 278g
Fat 67g
Protein 128g
 
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Sounds like you're doing well.

One thing that really helps me with eating is planning everything out in advance. I know that can sound overwhelming, but really it takes me 10-15 minutes on a Sunday evening to put together a quick list of what I'm going to eat each day.

I use an Excel spreadsheet, but you can do it on paper .. just draw out a grid with days of the week across the top and your meals and snacks down the side. Then just fill in the details.

And the other thing is just because you wrote it down doesn't mean you can't deviate from it. I frequently find myself making changes on the fly because I got invited to lunch or I saw something at the market that looked good, or whatever. It's not carved in stone, it's just a good guideline to help you keep on track and keep your meals balanced.
 
Thanks Zephyr. Feels great to be here.

Kara. Thanks for the advice on planning out the week. Now that I think about it, I am doing so much better than I was a week ago. Before, I wouldn't have watched my numbers as accurately nor cared much if it was off. Of course it helps posting my journal here online and having that comrade of like minds such as you, working to improve ourselves. I seem to really care what my carbs, fat, protein and overall calorie count is today. Also I'm looking forward to fun again, code for "exercise" :).
 
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Exercise:
Today walked uphill for 30 min, biked to the bank, I love it when I have a destination when biking in the city, looking at buildings get's old and boring.

Food:
Ate the same amount of protein as yesterday but, carbs and fat are lower, which reduced my calorie count today, and I'm not hungry so making some progress. I'll have to pick up some chicken breast next trip to the grocers to up my protein intake without affecting the carb and fat numbers. Also, I didn't eat any sugary deserts, did have watermelon, and no fried foods.

Calories: 1700
Carbs: 176g
Fat 56g
Protein 126g
 
Day 8

Exercise: Indoor exercise sucks for me.
Planned way more than I could chew today. Don't really know if it's the huge boredom of routine or the same old same old exercises, but barely put a dent in the amount of exercise I planned to do today. I got more exercise when I was outside on my bike, or hiking, but unfortunately it rained all day. I guess the reality is, while I prefer indoor exercise for it's convenience, it leaves for too many distractions and it's so easy to stop. Outside if I had fun and rode 3 miles, I'd eventually have to ride the 3 miles back. On a treadmill I don't have that looming over me, I could just hit stop, no need to turn around. I'll have to plan more outdoor activities.

3 miles full incline on treadmill - did 1.2 miles for 30 min on full incline.
150 Hanging ab crunches - didn't even do them

Carbs
Tried to drastically limit my carbs and eliminate junk, processed sugar foods, but by evening my head felt like it was in a vice. I attributed this to sugar withdrawal. Much like I had to wean myself off of soda, cold turkey is very uncomfortable. So hoping feel normal again, I had some watermelon for a total of 68g. That didn't help much. Caved in and had a cinnamon bun, another 60g, so 120g of carbs all within 30 min, but for some reason that did the trick, my head feels normal again. Not sure if it's actual physical withdrawal or psycho somatic. At any rate a slow weaning always seems best for me.

Protein:
Protein amount is getting higher and more frequently, ate chicken leg meat boiled in soy sauce all day and so didn't feel hungry at all, had about 9oz.

Weight:
I'll have to pick up a new scale sometime this week.

Calories: 1,878
Carbs: 237g planned 112g
Fat: 48g planned 50g
Protein: 137g planned 225g
 
That was rather disgusting & insulting. Please keep those type of comment's out of my journal. Thank You.
 
WrongTurn said:
Carbs
Tried to drastically limit my carbs and eliminate junk, processed sugar foods, but by evening my head felt like it was in a vice. I attributed this to sugar withdrawal. Much like I had to wean myself off of soda, cold turkey is very uncomfortable. So hoping feel normal again, I had some watermelon for a total of 68g. That didn't help much. Caved in and had a cinnamon bun, another 60g, so 120g of carbs all within 30 min, but for some reason that did the trick, my head feels normal again. Not sure if it's actual physical withdrawal or psycho somatic. At any rate a slow weaning always seems best for me.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's really interesting. I wish I knew enough physiology to tell you what's going on!
 
I know a lot of people who have had carb/sugar withdrawal issues. There are reliable studies that indicate for some people sugar might be physically addictive, but it hasn't really been investigated all that much past a few surface studies.

I think the cinnamon bun might have been a bit much ( :D ) but I think the concept of weaning yourself off slowly is a good one, considering you're suffering so much physical discomfort. Also try to keep healthy sugary/carby foods around. Instead of a white flour starchy sweet cinnamon bun, try to turn to something like dried fruit or fruit leather - plenty of sugar concentrated there, but less fattening overall. :)
 
RunningGirl - my bad.

Kara - It's kind of funny but I feel fine today. There is another cinnamon bun in the fridge, I've only been tempted, but not desperately craving for sugar today. Might be that sugar withdrawal. Today's carb numbers are much lower and I don't feel that vice.

Calories: 1492
Carbs 81g planned 112g
Fat 77g planned 50g
Protein 112g planned 225

Protein was low, I was only at 1100 calories till late evening, so had fried chicken for some protein and convenience, kind of shocking how much that shot up the fat count. The important thing though is I feel fine and not hungry.
 
Wow, calorie counted before but never really followed the minute details till I posted on here. Never realized how much protein keeps me from feeling hungry till now. If I wanted to eat more protein, calories yesterday I would have ad to force myself. However, bad foods require no coaxing.

Calories: 1537
Carbs: 173g planned 112g
Fat: 40g planned 50g
Protein: 118g planned 225g

Exercise
Bike ride, 2 big hills, 2.44 miles and intense.
 
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