So two years ago (or roughly that) I made a log and was pretty diligent, at least for a short time, about logging my food intake. And it was working. I was losing weight, at least.

Then I did what I always do - I self-sabotaged. I quit logging because I find MFP somewhat annoying. I had a cheat day that would turn into a cheat week. My exercise frequency decreased, because I can always find a reason not to exercise (something always hurts). Basically I lost motivation, lost focus, and of course the usual happened; I regained much of the weight I'd lost.

So what's different this time? I'm reading Venuto's book and will be talking about my mental state and how I'm trying to improve that as much as about what I eat and my exercise. I'm pretty fed up with being a fat little midget (and while there's nothing I can do to get taller, there's plenty I can do to get leaner/healthier). I know my weight is effecting my chronic back pain. And really, I KNOW I can do it if I just stop derailing myself at the first sign of either success or adversity (I find both equally problematic).

I'd like this forum to help me stay accountable. If I'm not logging, PM me and talk ****. Encourage me. Yell at me. Don't take my bull**** at face value. Help me help myself.

Some things I've got going for me:

1) I have a new account to a local gym through my work, really good deal/price (no sign up or maintenance fees, reduction of normal monthly fees), and it's literally walking distance from my apartment. My plan is to use this mostly for group cardio, which I find helps my motivation, as well as some weight training.

2) I'm not starting from ground zero in terms of nutrition/workout knowledge. I've actually been pretty trim/healthy at different points in my life. I just have a fabulous tendency to get really, really lazy, especially when I'm accountable to no one.

My diet isn't terrible, although it's probably more carb heavy than is optimal for calorie reduction and satiety. I eat a ton of fresh fruit and lean meat. I know a decent amount about the types of foods I should eat. I don't always follow through with what I know, but if I can start applying it consistently I should have a good framework.

Things working against me:

1) I have a history of self-sabotage. I SAY that I'm trying to make long term lifestyle changes, as opposed to being on a diet, but somewhere in the back of my head I feel like I'm depriving myself and that I will be able to relax my exercise/nutrition needs. Some of this stems from my relationship with food and emotional eating - as described in Venuto's book, I'm particular susceptible to eating when bored/stressed, using food as a reward (my family did this growing up, I have years of bad thinking about this to undo), and allowing myself to "cheat" when I've been doing really good OR when I'm starting not to see results.

2) My boyfriend, whom I live with, is going to be of no particular help. The vast, vast majority of terrible food in the apartment is his, and while a lot of it isn't particularly tempting, when I am bored I tend to go for it. This includes candy and chips, primarily, which he wants for his lunches for work. He has consistently refused to NOT have these around.

Goals:

Go to the gym 3x per week
Eat no more than 1600 calories per day
Lose at least 1 lb a week
Update this log daily
Finish Venuto book and form long term, medium, and short term goals

I have a new food scale (my old one broke) coming soon. I wear a pedometer already (Fitbit).

Progress thus far:

I was weighed for a group weight loss challenge at work a few weeks ago. My team is already out (one of my coworkers, 1/3 of the team, had a stroke - she's out of work indefinitely), but that's my baseline. I meant to weigh myself this morning, but discovered that the battery was dead. Add battery to shopping list, and I'll weigh myself this morning to see where I'm at right now.

Today's exercise: First day at the gym, did a spin class. My thighs are killing me. Also I'll have to be careful of my right knee; I felt it try to give out when I pushed down fairly hard and my leg went completely straight. I've hyperextended this knee twice in the past.

Food so far:

120 calorie Gatorade - I don't often drink many calories (I drink primarily water and diet soda), but I'm careful about my electrolytes during the summer, as I once was hospitalized for a severe electrolyte imbalance (water intoxication). I'm probably full of **** on this one and shouldn't drink the Gatorade at all.

Breakfast/lunch - 2.5 large eggs scrambled with ~1.5 lunchmeat turkey breast and 1/8 of a cup of shredded colby jack cheese. Also had a bagel thin with ~ 2 TBLS of strawberry preserves.

A Gatorade bottle of water and a diet soda so far as well.

For dinner I plan to make chicken breasts (a whole pack, with leftovers for lunches) with a garlic quinoa/brown rice mix and some other vegetable thrown in. If I have a snack today it will be a whole fruit.

Other random thoughts:

I'm looking to keep my calories below 1600 regardless of my exercise on any given day.

Also I'm not particular afraid of being a bit hungry. I mean, I don't really like it, but I don't fear it. I'm a bit hungry right now and I don't consider it a big deal. I'm trying to reframe it as a good thing, meaning I'm probably at a calorie deficit. As long as it's not sharp or ravenous hunger, I'm going to try to basically ignore or reframe as positive some minor hunger.

I think a fair line for how long this log lasts is 3 weeks

Cool, nice to see you back. You mostly know what to do, so not much to add. Some quick thoughts:

Post every day (just repeating this).

I would suggest viewing your calorie goal as a weekly average instead of a fixed daily thing, the reason being I think you could be like "1850 calories? **** this diet bull**** I'm eating all the chocolate" on a day when you're stressed or whatever. Viewing a 1850 day as a failure isn't very good imo. I also think 1600 might be too strict of a goal, but I don't know what "fat little midget" means exactly, so maybe that's what's necessary for you.

lolboyfriend

If you're going to be bothered by short-term upswings on the scale, make sure to be consistent about when you weigh yourself (otherwise upswings will be frequent and unnecessary), and try to at least consider a 3 day average or something.

Gatorade thing is in your mind (my nice way of saying you're full of ****).

Good luck!

Solution to problem: get your bf to actually lift and care about nutrition- easy said than done though.

GL OP and how did you come up with the figure of 1600 calories? If it is what was recommended by MPF, I would suggest you to re-evaluate.

Definitely try to drink 0 calories.

Get your boyfriend on board and explain how important this is to you. I find it somewhat odd a grown man needs candy and chips with his lunch, but if he really needs them (lol) he should keep them at work rather than at home.

Well I wouldn't fault anyone for thinking that but I'm trying not to allow any thoughts of failure.


Yeah that's not going to happen and I'm not going to beat my head against that brick wall.

That is a MPF recommendation but it around where I was aiming last time too so I think it's pretty accur.

Why, do you think it's not a good number?

Everyone knows that fading jdock is a winning strategy. So early congrats OP on your 3+ weeks of success.

I don't think it's a good long term plan. I would just take your average calories consumed each week and decrease it by a few hundred then gradually go down each week while upping cardio. Hitting a certain amount of calories everyday for 2+ months on a diet means hitting a plateau rather quickly or doing a ton of cardio.

Thanks!





I mean when I was on track a few years ago I was losing 1-2 lbs a week aiming for like 1490 calories and never hit a plateau. Maintenance for a female who stands all day for work but is otherwise essentially sedentary (I walk about once a week for three miles on average, but tend to fall off in cold weather so that average is way off in the winter when I rarely walk and the summer, when I go out much more regularly) should be around 2k calories correct?

If you assume 2000 or thereabouts is maintenance then 1600 is a 20% reduction in calories but only a net 2800 calorie loss per week, which isn't even a pound per week.

Obviously I on average consume more than maintenance which is why I gained back all but 10 of what I lost last time.

Regarding electrolytes, they make both pills, caplets, and zero-calorie little fizzy drink tabs for them. I like Hammer Endurolytes personally. I use them for cycling - I carry them around in an old empty film canister, although I don't know where the average person would get one of those these days. Carrying them in altoid tins works too.

Don't drink calories, it's really the worst. Especially ****ing gatorade, because it's nearly as bad as coke and not even good-tasting.

Well I really like Riptide Rush gatorade but yeah I need some alternative.

And I have little Altoid tins, they had a sale at Costco and I've got a draw full of the little mini ones to use at work.

I'll look into some kind of electrolyte alternative. I realize this paranoia is not logical (it's not like I'm anywhere near as active as I was in basic training, nor do I carry around a canteen of water that I suck down at regular intervals), but almost dying makes me really jumpy about exercising a lot in warmer weather.

Otherwise I really do drink almost exclusively water and diet soda, and I've tried to cut down significantly on the latter because I think, although this might be junk science but meh w/e it's not like losing it could hurt me, that the artificial crap in it might trigger severe migraine type headache that I developed several years ago.

The two primary exceptions to this are:

1) Fruit/veggie smoothies. I will drink one of these for breakfast once or twice a week. Not juicing the stuff, blending it all up. I admit it's primarily fruit, but I do add kale as well. So a normal smoothie would be banana/strawberry/blueberry/kale with enough orange juice to make it drinkable. I sometimes add greek yogurt to this as well.

I plan to start thinning the orange juice with water because I know OJ is not particularly healthy. But when I drink this, it's usually my whole breakfast.

2) I'm not a huge consumer of alcohol (because I'm on opiates for chronic pain), but I do on occasion have a drink. It's usually one, no more than two in an evening, and it's either a glass of wine, a mixed drink like a whiskey and ginger ale, or a hard cider.

When I have one of these I'll certainly note it, but I am not a regular drinker of calories. The gatorade is in the house for my boyfriend, who is a mail carrier and spends the entire summer walking around and sweating.

Next time I get gatorade for him, I'll get flavors that I'm less likely to drink at all (there are many flavors of gatorade I don't really like).

I mean obviously he doesn't NEED them, no one does, but when I don't buy them he gets pretty pissed off.

He doesn't have an office at work. Maybe I can talk to him about putting them in his "office" at home (our spare bedroom) and adding them to his own lunches. His normal lunch, which I pack, is a sandwich, two pieces of fruit, a bar of some kind (granola or breakfast or energy) and the chips/candy.

His office looks like some sort of hurricane went through there so he'd have to clean up a bit to fit the stuff (I get it at Costco so it's in bulk). I rarely go in there, though.

Also, total calories so far for the day are at 630 (Gatorade, eggs, turkey, cheese, bagel thin + preserves).

BF sounds like a keeper.

He has his flaws, as do we all.

Dinner - ~8 oz of chicken breast w/ seasoned breadcrumbs, garlic quinoa/brown rice mix, and sugar snap peas.

Snack of medium nectarine + string cheese.

Dinner plus snack was roughly 900 calories total so total for the day is ~ 1530.

Pedometer says I took ~12k steps today.

I'm stiffening up from the work out but I know I'll live through it. Between sports when I was younger and military PT I'm generally familiar with how sore I'll be restarting more vigorous physical activity. As long as my back stays roughly the same wrt pain/spasms the rest doesn't concern me much.

Trying to figure out which class at the gym I want to take tomorrow (Monday/Tuesday is my weekend).

You should do squats.

Let's get to where my legs don't feel like rubber from a 50 minute aerobics workout first. If I start ramping up my cardio and lifting right away I think the overall pain will exceed my tolerance.

I don't plan to ignore weight training indefinitely but I need to get used to the increased activity/cardio first.

Although just doing air squats for form in the meantime couldn't hurt.

I recently went from 2,700 maintenance to eating like 15-1700 calories a day and had basically no problem doing it for several days in a row. I'm not working so it might be harder if I'm working all day and need more energy, though. But at 6'0" 222 (and doing squats and bench/overhead press 3x week) I had zero issues with a 1,500 calorie day. Just watch your calories like a hawk. You eat 3 almonds you log it. I'm serious.

If you find it hard to steer clear of fast food, basically every place has cobb salads or grilled (never crispy) chicken salads which are great for lunch and very low calorie. I will eat these salads dry sometimes (no dressing) and people, especially women, seem to think this is impossible or crazy. Salad dressing is awful, though. If you MUST use it use as little as possible just to moisten the salad (and not to augment the taste). The grilled chicken gets you decent protein for the caloric intake.

I shed like 16 pounds in 23 days.

Also, liquid calories are terrible. Forget the Gatorade unless you actually heard a doctor tell you you need it or you'll die.

Your boyfriend should be a little more supportive but like you said he's not perfect.

Squatting with no weights is probably not a bad idea until you can start adding weight. My wife went from air squats to squatting 3x5x95 in like 3 weeks or something.

Good luck. It's super easy to find Nutritional Facts online these days and always make sure you discover how big a serving is.

Oh, "cheat days" are for losers. I "cheat" by eating like an 80 calorie fruit snack bag but it's not like a full day of cheating. I'll still stay right around my limit for that day.

Eat huge green leafy salads with no dressing. It helps ward off the hunger pains. Also cheat once or twice a month. If you're in this for the long haul it won't affect you that much.

Good luck OP. You got this.

For most of my life I ate salads dry.

I do use dressing now sometimes but I'm always careful with the amount. Lunch is a salad about 2x a week, I should probably increase that.

Until I get my food scale I'm ball parking certain things (like the ounces of chicken) but I look up pics online to use for comparison purposes. I'm pretty conscious of the tendency to underestimate caloric intake and usually try to err on the side of overestimating.

Cheat days for me are problematic. I'm not really at the point where I can relax for a day and get back to business. So a cheat snack or treat rather than a whole meal or day is it for the time being, and I'll probably use that for the occasional alcoholic drink.

Also chicken will be a staple as I know it's lower in calories than red meat, I prefer it to pork, and I'm not big on fish/seafood although I'm contemplating trying to incorporate fish into my diet somehow.

Eventually, grilled chicken salad for lunch ~every day starts tasting good.

you can also replace the gatorade/electrolytes with more potassium, calcium, magnesium and a bit more sodium, etc in your diet.

also, what opiates are you taking. plz dont say tramadol

Tramadol with percoset as needed.

Also I like chicken just fine right now.

but seriously chicken is great, and the skin is fine to eat. it contains a decent amount of poly and mono fats--provided it is not deep fried or w/e

Look you guys don't have to sell me on the merits of chicken. I like chicken.

I woke up sore but not as sore as I expected. Of course the resistance setting I used on the bike wasn't that high. My butt and right knee were the worst.

I went to another class today, something called RIPPED. Kicked my ass hard. I had a hard time keeping up with all the moves and had to use modified moves fairly frequently, especially with the constant jumping. There was some squats and light weight lifting included in this tho.

I'm feeling pretty drained at the moment.

Lunch (I woke up only about a half hour before I had to leave for the gym and skipped breakfast) was a turkey and cheese sandwich with mustard (I don't like mayo), baby carrots, and seedless red grapes. MFP puts it around ~600 for the entire meal.

That's a good start. Should be pretty easy to eat a 900 calorie dinner and hit 1,500 for the day. And be totally full.