Preventative Measures!! -A Diet Diary to Stop the Snacks

N

notprobable

New member
First off! I'm Lucy, I'm 18, I live in england, I've been a size 8/10 all my (teenage) life and stayed at around 9 stone (126 pounds) and I was really happy, really confident, and loved my body. I get depressed when I see photos of myself from those days, and wonder what happened. I'm now nearly 10 and a half stone (147 pounds) after being on the contraceptive injection for 6 months. 147 pounds may not seem like much to some people, but I'm 5"3 and it's tipped me over the 'overweight' border on the BMI chart :(

SO, I'm making a diary because it seems to have helped so many other people lose weight. I understand that my weaknesses lie in snacking without thinking, so recording food and becoming more aware of my calorie intake, I hope, will help!

I'm just back off holiday, and my eating has bee out of control for the whole week. Im on a bit of a down, so I'll write down what I'v had to eat today, so that hopefully I can Identify what im doing and where I'm improving.

Today I have eaten:
One slice of pizza - 160
One bacon sandwich- 190
One Sausage sandwich- 194
Chocolate muffin- 386
Half a white chocolate easter egg- about 300
About 5 'celebrations' chocolates- 200
Creamy cheesy pasta carbonara- around 600

EQUALS: 2030 calories. Oh my lord. :nopity: To be honest, today was a bad day food-wise, no exercise done, but it's because I was on holiday until about an hour ago, so I went a bit crazy with the eating.

According to
These are the calorie stats for someone of my age/ weight/ height:
Maintenance: 1918 Calories/day
Fat Loss: 1534 Calories/day
Extreme Fat Loss: 1151 Calories/day​

So here we go! WISH ME LUCK!! x
 
Hi, and welcome! Congratulations on taking the first step towards losing weight. Have you checked out some of the other diaries here to see what other people are doing and what's working for them? (I'm a calorie counter, and although my maintenance and thus goals are a bit lower than yours, you're welcome to steal ideas from me if they help)

Watch those calorie levels, though. The safe minimum recommended for any adult is 1200. You shouldn't deliberately aim at something like 1151 per day. Yes, it's 1000 under your maintenance, but you just don't have that much wiggle room given your height. (The way to get more allowance and thus be able to eat a bit more or have a 1000 calorie deficit is to exercise more, as you'll see if you play with the tool you were looking at. Whether that's possible or not is a question only you can answer)

Don't worry too much about today, what's done is done. Start the program tomorrow.

I'd recommend experimenting with some different foods (look at the calorie labels first, don't just grab anything) and see what you can find that you like the taste of, is low or lowish calorie, and is filling for the amount of calories you get. (In my food diary, it's the stuff I eat all the freaking time. It works, I like it, I can't knock it)
 
Welcome, Lucy :)
You're one of the lucky ones and your target weight is well within reach.
You can definitely get your eating in check and get back the body you miss.

Don't worry about today's intake. Everyone eats badly on holidays haha.

You've come to a great forum. Everyone here is really supportive. I can't wait to follow your progress.
 
PS I don't think i've ever worn a size 8/10 in my life haha. What clothes size are you currently wearing?
 
caffeinehigh said:
PS I don't think i've ever worn a size 8/10 in my life haha. What clothes size are you currently wearing?
Click to expand...
Well I used to always say that I was a 'size 9' -It was annoying that some size 10s fell off of me and some size 8s were too small. Now I'd say that I'm a comfortable size 12. I know that a size 12 isn't all that much to some people, but it's all about what you're used to, and I know that what I am now isn't my 'true' weight, it just doesn't feel right. Even if I got back down to my size 10 I'd feel a lot happier. I have quite a 'petite' frame, so this extra weight just doesn't fit well on me, some people really rock it, my size 14 best friend has all the right curves in all the right places, but I just get a big tummy and arms haha.
 
Good luck with the weight loss! I never want to be able to fit into 12 jeans again :( A lot of the heavier people told me I looked great but it is totally subjective since they would have been happy being smaller but I was really unhappy being bigger.

My friend who is like a size 20 always tells me she can't imagine being as small as I am which is crazy since in high school we were the same size and then she gained 25 pounds one summer and then an extra 100 or so since then (10 years). She got on the birth control shot one summer and then she just kept gaining. I have never had the shot but my sister has and she seemed to pretty much stay the same.

I am also completely envious of the girls who gain weight and at least gain it in boob too! I always have small boobs so its either small boobs with a nice flat stomach or small boobs with a fat stomach.
 
The Diet starts TOMORROW! (what if tomorrow never comes?)

For the past 2 days, well, it hasn't been great at all. Part of my problem, I think, is that living at home means I have limited control over what I eat sometimes. Yesterday was a classic example, I started the day full of hope, went to town, had a light salmon salad (no mayo) and a fruit smoothy, I was feeling very proud, and when I get home? BAM. mum pushes a chinese takeaway towards me from across the dining room table of doom. :reddevil:

WHYYYYYY :( So The day continued, and I consumed what I can only imagine was on average 10,000,000,000,000 (about a gazillion-billion) calories.

Today I was at work. I work at a coffee shop, so my diet when at work consists of mostly coffee with full-fat milk (thats how it comes out of the machine....). Today's lunch was a small bowl of ratatouille, and when I finished that I caved and had a few chips.

I feel really stupid and weak. But I know that the only way this diary is going to work is if I am honest with myself.

The house is always full of chocolate and carbs (My little sister is diabetic, she needs to be able to grab sugar and carbs when she needs them) and then my
mum and my boyfriend say to me 'You look fine, you're just curvier!' and for some reason I use this as an excuse to grab a cupcake. :drooling: This diary, for me, is trying to tackle the reasons why I sometimes overeat, and not just listing foods I'v eaten.

We had a bit of a family domestic last night, it all got a bit out of control and we all ended up getting very upset and angry (I shan't go into too much detail!) But I found myself sat in my bedroom, just wanting to eat, I just wanted something sweet and chocolatey, because I was feeling a bit low. Maybe I'm a secret comfort eater and I didn't know it? Who knows.

ANYWHOS. So that's my contribution for today. Over-and-out.​
 
I can tell you are going to be a good diariser. You include lots of relevant stuff so that other people can help you. And you think well about what's going on.

However, one thing I will say straight up. A meal of chinese takeway may not be such a terrible thing to happen to you. Its about the portion size with food like that.

But listen don't blame it on your mum or your family either. Try to figure out how best to live in the house with all those difficulties and do what you need to do. How to get more control over your eating.

Here's some suggestions from me.
1) don't discuss your weight with your family. Don't complain about what they do with food. Try to separate your behaviour from theirs. And stay focussed on what you are doing, not on what they are doing. If your mum tries to give you food and you don't want to eat it, say no thanks, i'm cooking for myself today, or i've already eaten. Or if you want to eat what she's trying to serve you, just eat a reasonable amount of it. About what they'd serve in a restaurant. Not more.

2) I drink full cream milk on my diet and i've lost weight. I have reduced the number of coffees i drink though to one per day. But it is a good one. A delicious expresso made half and half coffee and milk. So don't blame the machine. Either drink what's there or get yoursef a skinny latte from another vendor. Or drink water instead. YOu can even bring your own thermos of coffee or tea to work if you need to.

3) Eating after an upset like that is normal for a lot of us. I think your appetite is triggered by a chemical reaction in the brain. That's my theory. And then perhaps it becomes a habit. How to avoid this sort of event, you need to work on avoiding emotional distress and stress in general. If you do cave in and binge for comfort and stuff. Just resolve to get over it by the next day and continue on again with your diet. As you grow older, it may get easier to handle this sort of thing but you should try to start doing it now. Avoid arguing with your family. Learn this by mindfulness training. Read wikipedia to get yourself started. Learn and learn more about mindfulness and try to start a practice. Its especially good during stressful times. Soon after you've had a fight, you should be able to go and sit yourself down somewhere quiet and meditate yourself back to happiness and calm rather than eat your way there.

4) All it takes to do any or all of these things is decision and focus.

5) Drink water. Make it your main drink to keep you going starting with a glass when you first get up in the morning. Buy a water filter for your home so that you don't have to pollute the planet with all those bottles of water. Me i drink tap water but i know a lot of people don't like doing that.
 
Miscalculation?

So, DAY...ummm... 4? (Not sure, I skipped a day or so. anyways, it matters not)

BACK TO SCHOOL! well, 6th form college.
There has been a lot of building work done on our school, so now we have an all-singing, all dancing new 6th form block. Goodie. and on my return to school, I'm faced with the poshest cafe I'v ever seen in any school, with the most amazing array or gourmet pininis, sandwiches, but most of all, PASTRIES. Now I must say, pastries are my total and absolute favorite food of all time. I could possibly eat them until the proverbial cows come home. However, I shan't and a wont, and I limit myself to maybe one, after an exam. (I have like, 4 exams over the next month, so I think maybe a treat could be on order after all this hard work?)

Anyways, one of the plus sides of being back at school is the amount of running around. My school's pretty big, and consists of around 70% stairs. On a busy day like today, I must get on average about 30 mins of exercise done, because of all the rushing around and doing chores. Whilst on the way to a meeting, I ran up 3 flights of stairs. Nearly died, but whatever. It's all good stuff.

So, here's the damages:
1 Cuppa tea -15
1 sausage roll (oops!) -384
1 Mochacinio -232
1 nutri-grain -140
1 Jacket potato with tuna -270
1 small portion of pasta with a blob of philadelphia -170
1 Banana -105
TOTAL: 1316

Exercise: Alot of strenuous walking, carrying art things around, running up stairs etc. But still, pretty 'light' exercise.

So, if today's stats are true and I havn't missed anything out, then it looks pretty good? I'm aiming for around 1500.... but im sure I'v gone wrong somewhere because I thought I had eaten alot of naughty food, but it's actually not looking that bad? do any of those calorie stats look wildly wrong to you? I was fairly famished when I got home, so maybe I didn't eat enough today? No idea.

[Lesson of the day: Sausage rolls are a no-no.]

Over-and-Out.
:cheers2:​
 
fortyfour said:
I can tell you are going to be a good diariser. You include lots of relevant stuff so that other people can help you. And you think well about what's going on.

However, one thing I will say straight up. A meal of chinese takeway may not be such a terrible thing to happen to you. Its about the portion size with food like that.

But listen don't blame it on your mum or your family either. Try to figure out how best to live in the house with all those difficulties and do what you need to do. How to get more control over your eating.

Here's some suggestions from me.
1) don't discuss your weight with your family. Don't complain about what they do with food. Try to separate your behaviour from theirs. And stay focussed on what you are doing, not on what they are doing. If your mum tries to give you food and you don't want to eat it, say no thanks, i'm cooking for myself today, or i've already eaten. Or if you want to eat what she's trying to serve you, just eat a reasonable amount of it. About what they'd serve in a restaurant. Not more.

2) I drink full cream milk on my diet and i've lost weight. I have reduced the number of coffees i drink though to one per day. But it is a good one. A delicious expresso made half and half coffee and milk. So don't blame the machine. Either drink what's there or get yoursef a skinny latte from another vendor. Or drink water instead. YOu can even bring your own thermos of coffee or tea to work if you need to.

3) Eating after an upset like that is normal for a lot of us. I think your appetite is triggered by a chemical reaction in the brain. That's my theory. And then perhaps it becomes a habit. How to avoid this sort of event, you need to work on avoiding emotional distress and stress in general. If you do cave in and binge for comfort and stuff. Just resolve to get over it by the next day and continue on again with your diet. As you grow older, it may get easier to handle this sort of thing but you should try to start doing it now. Avoid arguing with your family. Learn this by mindfulness training. Read wikipedia to get yourself started. Learn and learn more about mindfulness and try to start a practice. Its especially good during stressful times. Soon after you've had a fight, you should be able to go and sit yourself down somewhere quiet and meditate yourself back to happiness and calm rather than eat your way there.

4) All it takes to do any or all of these things is decision and focus.

5) Drink water. Make it your main drink to keep you going starting with a glass when you first get up in the morning. Buy a water filter for your home so that you don't have to pollute the planet with all those bottles of water. Me i drink tap water but i know a lot of people don't like doing that.
Click to expand...

Thankyou! yes, I hope im keeping this diary in an interesting way, and I can understand that it's helping me already. If, each day I keep track of what im eating, and 'knock out' specific foods that are contributing to my high calorie count, eventually I can get to a regime I can stick with. Water is gooood. When i feel like snacking, I now try and grab a low sugar drink or cup of tea instead, because it seems to suppress the craving, and I don't drink enough fluids anyway, so it's all good! (tap water is fiiine. it's there to be drank!)

Yes I suppose in blaming my family im just clutching for excuses. There are no excuses, I'll just have to take responsibility for my own diet :)

Thankyou for your advise and support! :)
 
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