So, who's on a diet? « Columbus Underground Messageboard

Columbus Underground Messageboard » General Columbus Discussion » Everyday Chit Chat

So, who's on a diet?

[225 posts] [46 contributors]

Topic Rating:

(Total Ratings: )
Rate this topic:

Started 2 years ago by Lakee911
Latest reply from berdawn

Tags:

12…12 Next »

Lakee911
Clintonville (South)
Login to Send PM

So, who is on a diet?

I'm trying to be on more of a lifestyle change than a "diet." I've once again begun to track what I eat (http://www.fitday.com). It's worked well for me in the past. Portion control for me has gotten out of hand. That's my downfall--I just love to eat! Food coma is good. lol

I joined a biggest loser contest at work a few times now, and I actually managed to get down to about 175 (past my goal of 180) when I was extremely active last summer. That's my new goal..that I want to maintain...11LB to go.

I've also started running ... or 'trying to run' as I tell people. I'm starting small, but maybe I can do a 5K or something at the end of the summer.

I just want to be healthy...

What's everyone else doing?

Jason

Posted 2 years ago #
catnfiddle
Giant Corncob District
Login to Send PM

I'm starting a pilot program at my school this week via The Wellness Forum. If we do well on this it'll be rolled out to the rest of the school, so I'm hoping to be a skinny guinea pig by the end of it.

Good idea to start a thread on this topic!

Posted 2 years ago #
TaraK
probably at the coffee shop
Login to Send PM

I tend to think of diet as an ongoing, lifelong work that can always be improved on to work toward a healthier goal, like most things. I've been trying to figure out what I want to improve on next. I've been trying to work up the courage to finally cut out artificial sweeteners without adding in sugar. I know it will really be a matter of adjusting my palette and disciplining myself the patience to do so.

Posted 2 years ago #
sugarplumclarey

Login to Send PM

When I stopped breastfeeding my daughter I gained about 15 lbs. in two months. The only way to lose it was to eat fewer calories than I burn, plain and simple. Unfortunately it's a matter of discipline and there's now way around it.

People who exercise don't necessarily lose weight. But they might still look and feel better.

The most helpful thing for me is to shift the focus from what my body looks like to how it feel inside, selecting foods and routines that maximize my wellness. Think like a hippie :)

Posted 2 years ago #
Lakee911
Clintonville (South)
Login to Send PM

As you all have said, I think discipline has a lot to do with this. I'm very stubborn so that helps me here. :)

Posted 2 years ago #
sixby9is42

Login to Send PM

I've been on Weight Watchers since August 2009 and have lost 56 pounds so far just by controlling my diet. It gives you a daily and weekly intake allowance; the weekly allowance keeps me from going crazy. No restrictions on what you can eat, just how much. Pretty much no exercise; I may take a walk every now and then, but that's about it.

I still have 24 pounds to go to my goal weight, but I'm thinking about moving that up, depending on my workout plans/goals (gaining muscle weight).

At the very least, I'm planning to start preparing for a 5k so I can do a Turkey Day run or something else in the fall.

Posted 2 years ago #
Lakee911
Clintonville (South)
Login to Send PM

56 lbs! Way to go. Congratulations!

Posted 2 years ago #
pez

Login to Send PM

Lakee911 wrote >>
So, who is on a diet?
I'm trying to be on more of a lifestyle change than a "diet." I've once again begun to track what I eat (http://www.fitday.com). It's worked well for me in the past. Portion control for me has gotten out of hand. That's my downfall--I just love to eat! Food coma is good. lol
I joined a biggest loser contest at work a few times now, and I actually managed to get down to about 175 (past my goal of 180) when I was extremely active last summer. That's my new goal..that I want to maintain...11LB to go.
I've also started running ... or 'trying to run' as I tell people. I'm starting small, but maybe I can do a 5K or something at the end of the summer.
I just want to be healthy...
What's everyone else doing?
Jason

Getting started running is tough, but once you can get past the boredom, there's no better exercise (maybe swimming). I started training to run the Race for the Cure 5K a couple years ago, before that I'd be lucky to do a mile downhill. When I finished it the first time, that was the furthest I'd ever run. Since then I've kept it up and nudged it every week or so. My normal run now is anywhere between 3 and 6 miles 4-5x a week.

I agree that the key is discipline, both on the caloric intake and exercise side, regardless of what you hear it still calories in minus calories burned. For me the discipline come from setting goals and putting markers out in the future. My current discipline comes from a wedding I am in this summer, long term I have a trip to Jamaica booked. I'm a firm believer that you always have to have something to look forward to, even if it's something small, to keep yourself motivated.

Last piece of advice... don't buy one of the new iPod shuffles with the controls on the headphone cable. If you exercise in them, they fail as soon as the first bit of sweat hits the control device. Can't tell you how many miles I've run hearing "Playlist.... all songs" repeated over and over.
.

Posted 2 years ago #
Nate
Suburbs
Login to Send PM

I wouldn't call it a diet, but I've made substantial changes to the way I eat over the last few months. Diet to me sounds temporary, but I've changed a lot of things that I hope to be permanent. I know weight loss can be extremely difficult, and I don't want to make light of it or make it sound easy, but here's my experience over the last 6 or 7 months:

I've cut down on going out to eat and now do so maybe 1-2 times a week, if that. I also have tried to step my game up cooking-wise and try to prepare 75% or more of my food. I also make healthier food than I used to, and am a lot better with portioning. The big thing, I think, was cutting out alcohol pretty much altogether. I know this can be tough, depending on your situation, but for me it was key.

The weird thing is that I never really intended to make these changes to lose weight, but rather to save money and prepare myself for the lifestyle changes I am expecting when we have our first child (which is only a week or so away!). All in all, I'm about 60 lbs lighter (191 as of this morning) than I was at my heaviest weight and I feel a hell of a lot better than I used to. And I've saved a ton of money that I'm sure will help with the diaper fund.

Posted 2 years ago #
rus

Login to Send PM

Lakee911 wrote >>
56 lbs! Way to go. Congratulations!

Indeed! Great work!

I'm on one as well. I sympathize with liking to eat; for me, portion control wasn't enough. For the first month, I crash dieted. Dropped 7 pounds in the first week.

Worked back into eating what I like ( MEAT and lots of it! ) on the weekends. During the week it's protein bars for lunch and something veggie like for dinner ( note: eating things you can tolerate, but don't like, really helps with portion control ). Breakfast ( when I remember to eat it ) is plain oatmeal.

Down to 17% body fat and lost 25 lbs and two pants sizes so far in a year and a half. Also kept up with the workout.

I'm hardly perfect.. the occasional weekday meat here and there and I feel guilty as hell not eating red meat every single day... but it passes and it does work.

Posted 2 years ago #
Core_Models
Columbus
Login to Send PM

I sort of re-engineered the "flat belly diet", only in the sense that I decided the addition of MUFAs was silly. Basically I do 4 400 calorie meals a day.

First: Strawberries, blueberries, nonfat yogurt, skim milk, chocolate protein powder, banana smoothie. Surprisingly filling.

Second: Normally a second smoothie, although may sub in a Kasha meal (the whole grains make them crazy filling and they're surprisingly delicious at under 400 Cal)

Third: Big meal, lately I've been really focused on chicken. I do one of two things.
1. Fried Chicken. Take a chicken breast, half it thick ways. Put Quaker Oats, pecans, lemon pepper into the food processor and grind it down. Wash the chicken in egg white/skim milk then coat it in the mix, and fry it in a small amount of extra virgin olive oil in a pan. I usually do some fresh green beans with this and MAYBE a little cottage cheese if I'm extra hungry.
2. Stir Fry. Half a chicken breast, green beans, red pepper, all diced and stir fried then served over 1/4 a bag of steam in bag brown rice and then seasoned with sweet and sour sauce.
Both of those are extra filling because of the whole grains.

4: I normally don't actually eat a 4th 400 cal meal, but I can if I want to...so this could be anything from a few oreos to treat myself to some cottage cheese, whatever I feel like eating.

Posted 2 years ago #
sugarplumclarey

Login to Send PM

Ohh I do have one secret weapon to share: popsicles! They have maybe 30-70 calories each depending on what kind you get and I love them for snacking. They are convenient, yummy and satisfy whatever naughty food I'm craving (coconut, chocolate, fruit, etc.)

Posted 2 years ago #
somertimeoh
Harrison West
Login to Send PM

I've made changes to my diet for health and financial reasons since January. Down over 20lbs so far and cut my food budget (grocery and restaurants/takeout) by 65% which is AMAZING!

1. 3 meals and 1 snack/day

2. Workout at least 5 times per week - mix of cardio and strength training. Change cardio every week.

3. Limit processed foods - I'm living by the 80/20 rule here. Making a conscious effort to eat "real food", but not beating myself up if I need to grab a Lean Cuisine or something in a crunch.

4. Seriously cut back on the booze and it sucked in the beginning, now I rarely think about it.

5. Try one new thing every week - fruit/veggie, protein, snack, etc.

I actually hit a plateau for about 3 weeks so I got to INCREASE my calorie intake and started losing again. That was awesome. Since I track what I eat I was able to show it to my trainer and we could make a change. Otherwise I would have just continued to be frustrated!

I'm reading a lot of books about nutrition and pretty much all of them say that if you're at a weight you want to maintain and you have an active lifestyle, as long as you're eating a balanced diet of real food, you don't have to count calories. I can't wait to get there! :)

PS - get a heart rate monitor! I have this one and it's been an amazing tool to help figure out how many calories I'm really burning during workouts. Those machines are so wrong. SO WRONG and not in the good direction, lol.

Posted 2 years ago #
Lakee911
Clintonville (South)
Login to Send PM

Core_Models wrote >>
1. Fried Chicken. Take a chicken breast, half it thick ways. Put Quaker Oats, pecans, lemon pepper into the food processor and grind it down. Wash the chicken in egg white/skim milk then coat it in the mix, and fry it in a small amount of extra virgin olive oil in a pan. I usually do some fresh green beans with this and MAYBE a little cottage cheese if I'm extra hungry.

That sounds super yummy...and healthy. I was reading it to the girlfriend and we're going to try it this week. Thanks for sharing.

somertimeoh wrote >>
I actually hit a plateau for about 3 weeks so I got to INCREASE my calorie intake and started losing again. That was awesome. Since I track what I eat I was able to show it to my trainer and we could make a change. Otherwise I would have just continued to be frustrated!

Can you explain this to me? Stopped losing, so ate more and down you went? Huh?

Posted 2 years ago #
Lakee911
Clintonville (South)
Login to Send PM

Well, I actually didn't do too bad today for day one of being back on the lifestyle (not a diet). My personal custom goals are the following.

Unfortunately my food journal doesn't show my personal nutrition goals but they are as follows.

Calories: 1500 - 2000 Cal / day (I did 1906 Cal today) :)
Saturated Fat: < 15.0g / day(I did 14.4 today) :)
Cholesterol: < 200mg / day (I did 700+ today) :( :( :(
Sodium: 1000 - 1500 mg / day (I did 4772mg today) :( :( :( :(
Dietary Fiber: > 25.0g /day (I did 38.3g today) :) :)
Calcium: 1000 - 2000 mg /day (I did 1108mg today) :)

Posted 2 years ago #
patient_zero
Falafel District
Login to Send PM

Jason, maybe it's best for you that there's no Los JalapeÃƒÂ±os near Polaris! Good luck with your weight loss plan.

Posted 2 years ago #
somertimeoh
Harrison West
Login to Send PM

I was averaging around 1650 calories a day and working out 2ish hours, 5+ days a week where I would burn around 800 calories each session. 1650 calories didn't provide enough fuel so I wasn't losing. Upped to 1800 a day where I'll stay until I stop losing again. I'm learning that there are no rules, which is hard for a Type A'er like me. I want a plan and a checklist, but that's just not the way it works. Learning to be flexible is what's going to make this stick so I'm just going with it, lol.

ETA - I'm always over my fiber too! It's weird because I remember hearing all the time years ago how Americans never get enough fiber and I'm usually WAY over. I wonder if things are artificially pumped with fiber now. Who knows, lol.

Posted 2 years ago #
rus

Login to Send PM

somertimeoh wrote >>
I've made changes to my diet for health and financial reasons since January. Down over 20lbs so far and cut my food budget (grocery and restaurants/takeout) by 65% which is AMAZING!

Awesome! Good work!

Posted 2 years ago #
Lakee911
Clintonville (South)
Login to Send PM

patient_zero wrote >>
Jason, maybe it's best for you that there's no Los JalapeÃƒÂ±os near Polaris! Good luck with your weight loss plan.

Ha ha ... If I can do this 5 or 6 days per week that will meet my needs. Thanks. :)

Posted 2 years ago #
TaraK
probably at the coffee shop
Login to Send PM

Core_Models wrote >>

1. Fried Chicken. Take a chicken breast, half it thick ways. Put Quaker Oats, pecans, lemon pepper into the food processor and grind it down. Wash the chicken in egg white/skim milk then coat it in the mix, and fry it in a small amount of extra virgin olive oil in a pan. I usually do some fresh green beans with this and MAYBE a little cottage cheese if I'm extra hungry.

I've never been a hardcore fried chicken person, but I wanted a way to make healthy chicken tenders, sans actual frying without compromising on the crispy coating. So I do this:

INGREDIENTS:

Dijon mustard (or whatever kind you like)
A little buttermilk & a little bit of melted butter (1 TBSP? 2?)
Panko w/a little salt and pepper thrown in
Chicken breasts cut into strips

1. Mix wet ingredients & dip chicken.
2. Dip into panko -- don't over handle.
3. Toss on a cookie sheet (I line with parchment) and bake @ 425 for about 12-15, until golden and crispy.

I love making these and they come out nice and crunchy. For an equally quick side, I roast green beans or asparagus on another cookie sheet with some garlic and kosher salt. (Not at the same time, though; don't want too much steam in the oven or the tenders won't be crispy.)

Posted 2 years ago #