tl;dr ahead. Cliffs: cutting sugar from my diet; catch me eating sugary crap and get some $$

I'm not at all a reg on this forum, but I don't know of any other sites that allow logs and have the kind of participation/feedback that there is here so I'm going for it I learned a lot last time so I hope it works out again. Also, my little added incentive will probably work a little better here than other places Old log from two years ago was here if anyone cares: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/85...s-log-1370612/

Quick summary: I'm a 34-year old amateur but competitive tennis player that plays 2-3 times a week and strength trains twice a week. I'm doing a lot better in terms of injuries these days, and tennis-wise I'm actually easily in the best shape I've ever been in, but I still have a few issues that recur that I will probably try to address here soon. I will also be posting my training here (especially strength related stuff), hopefully to get some feedback. For now though, my immediate concern is that my diet needs a major overhaul.

I won't be weighing in until tomorrow morning since I just got back from vacay this afternoon and it was pretty bad in terms of eating/drinking, but I know I'll probably fall somewhere in the mid-130's. For reference, in my log ~two years ago I started at 117. For someone that's 5'2.5 that's a pretty big difference, but I will say I'm only now starting to have issue with clothes not fitting. All my athletic stuff fits just fine but the professional clothes I own are getting tough to fit in so that's where I really draw the line. That stuff costs way too much have to buy all new clothes

Anyways, the catalyst for the weight gain has been my new job. I started in March and was around 122 then, and a) it's been demanding time-wise, leading to bad decisions/habits and b) we have unlimited free food stocked in the kitchen. The latter sounds great except they try to stock it with "healthy" snack foods that really aren't - granola bars, nuts with m&ms in it, etc. And there's candy everywhere. I love the job but I have to figure out how to deal with this or risk gaining some serious weight. In the past I was great at controlling my environment - if it's not around, I can't eat it. That's not as easily in my control now and the way I handled it in the past didn't really address my inability to say no when it's there.

The base of my diet isn't actually bad (vegetarian, lots of fruits/veggies although not enough protein), but the biggest problem for me easily is added sugar (at least 3-5 sugary items per work day, often including soda). I believe it is affecting my energy levels as well. Tomorrow and going into the holidays I know for a fact that it's going to be everywhere with people bringing in things and clients/vendors sending stuff. I haven't planned out much else yet in terms of my goals, but I want to start now and this is clearly the one thing that will have the biggest impact. I've even conditioned myself to thinking I need sugar before matches/workouts, which is of course ridiculous and purely mental.

So, here's my plan. I will define sugary foods as anything which has obviously added sugar (natural sugars in veggies, fruits, dairy etc. do not count). This is already going to be hard enough for me, and I'll do my best when ingredients are available, but if I have a glass of wine or piece of bread out at a dinner I'm not including sugar that might be added there. I'm going to start logging all my food here, and if I post anything that falls under that category, I ship $100 to the first poster following that post. Obviously dependent on self reporting, but this doesn't do anything for me if I'm not honest. I've been commissioner for the TWSS FF leagues and had several marketplace transactions here before, so I'm definitely good for it. I think $100 is the amount that will hurt just enough to make me stay away and I know similar incentives have worked for me in the past.

Two upfront exceptions: my boyfriend's birthday will be this coming weekend, and I'm going to allow one piece of cake for that. The second of course will be Thanksgiving, but the limit will be one piece of pie. I'll start by committing to log for the month of November (starting tomorrow) and go from there. I probably should address artificial sweeteners (I drink far too much diet soda) but that's too much for me to handle all at once. Alright, bring on the first day at work after Halloween

wtf? why is my name banned??

Change this and I bet you could keep in a decent amount of sugary foods and still lose weight. I have a feeling trying to cut this from your diet entirely and suddenly isn't going to work and you're going to fixate on it hardcore.

I don't know, I say I don't get enough protein as compared to standards around here, although I haven't tracked it in a while. Either way it's not an issue of hunger, however. I do it because it's there and free and everyone else does. Hell, half of the time I've already eaten and that doesn't stop me in the slightest. I do intend to try and improve protein intake regardless, though, as I'm sure it would help my recovery.

I also don't actually intend to restrict calories - I'm mid season in my local league and depending on how things go will need to keep playing at least a few more weeks before I get to offseason. I've never been able to cut without it affecting my performance so that will have to wait until the season's over. At that point I'll have three months to make changes if I need to. My goal right now is mostly to break this habit before I add on another 10 pounds.

Ah okay. Yeah if it's more from boredom eating than satiety maybe this is a good strategy.

Starting weight 136.3 - a little worse than I was hoping but not a surprise post vacation. Used a body fat calculator to come up with a bf % of 26 - two years ago I was 25.5% so glad to see that's actually not changed a lot! Not perfectly accurate I'm sure but it gives me a starting point

Making a hemp protein/soy milk/strawberry shake for breakfast and bringing vegetarian chili to work for lunch - a big part of my downfall is really just poor planning so we'll see how it goes.

So, like, how is tennis going since X years ago? Better than reducing sugar?

Your name is probably censored because it's too sugary. We H&Fers have to protect ourselves for such empty calories.

Quite well, actually! Aside from from rolling an ankle earlier this year I've been pretty consistently injury free, which helps. Only one loss this season so far with one match to go this Wednesday, and then on to the playoffs, hopefully I've gotten a lot better on the mental side of the game - I've usually fallen apart come playoff time but I hope to be past all that by now. I guess we'll see! I'm also a lot stronger now (although still lolweak compared to all of you), which has really improved my groundstrokes.

Anti sugar campaign going really well so far. Easily 500 pieces of Halloween candy or more in the kitchen today and not even tempted. I think something about mentally committing to not touching any of it beforehand makes it a lot easier not to. Easy to say on day one, I know

Only 1 loss? That sounds pretty impressive to me. Gl in the playoffs!!

What is the plan to get rid of 500 pieces of candy? I can't imagine having the willpower indefinitely to avoid delicious candy staring at me, .

lol I've totally been baiting coworkers and clients to eat it as much as I can. and otherwise staying as far away from the kitchen as possible. you're right though, by the end of the week it's going to be really hard to keep saying no....

Yeah, problem is the woman who beat me basically owns me and totally destroyed me this last time. Can't look ahead yet but if I want to win I will almost certainly have to beat her at some point.

Success for day one at least

Breakfast: hemp/soymilk/strawberry smoothie
Snack: banana and 100 cal pack of almonds/walnuts
Lunch: veggie chili and kombucha
Snack: second serving of veggie chili
Dinner: 1/4 leftover veggie quesadilla, two pieces toast w/almond butter, kale/blueberry/soymilk smoothie

Also throw a caffeine pill in there and two no calorie sodas, plus a good amount of water.

Kinda screwed up the timing though. I was only at 1k calories by the time I left for tennis practice. Luckily I only do one hour on Mondays but I really struggled the first half hour. I livened up once we started playing out points at least. It takes more thought/planning as opposed to just grabbing crap in the kitchen so I gotta pay better attention. Day got away pretty quickly and I kinda felt like I was eating a lot since the breakfast smoothie was split in two and I had two snacks. Usually I try to get 75% of my calories in before tennis if I'm playing after work.

Totals:
1900 cals (probably ~350 burned from tennis)
90g protein, roughly ended up at 50% carbs/30% fat/20% protein

Not really sure what maintenance is for me right now but 1900 strikes me as a bit low for a workout day. A lot of fruit too since I don't end up doing a lot of complex carbs.

Usually tomorrow is a strength training day but with a match on Wednesday I'll be taking the day off. Probably a good day to work on some mobility stuff.

Caffeine pills and no calorie soda is worse for you then sugary sodas and candy bars. You should have to pay $200 for every one of those you consume.

ever hear of coffee?

Now that you owe me $600. I wish you all the best....

Cheers,
Powder

You can probably do the calcs pretty easily yourself, but I'm virtually certain that 1900, even on a day where you burn 350, is still a caloric surplus for you.

lol. I've tried to switch to coffee, just can't stand it. Caffeine pills are mostly just straight caffeine, can't really see what would be the problem there... I have some caffeine powder as well that I may just try to work into my smoothie this morning instead. I agree the diet stuff is awful but one thing at a time I already had a pretty nasty headache last night which I can only assume is the diet change since I don't really get them often.

Myfitnesspal says maintenance for me is 1610 so I'm going to disagree there. I usually find I lose weight if I go by their "maintenance" calc. For instance, first day and all but I was at 135.0 this morning. Doubt it was a surplus yesterday. I prefer to see how my body reacts since the calculators seem to put me too low imo.

Good day today but again with the headaches.

Breakfast: hemp/soymilk/mixed berry/broccoli smoothie (not as awful as it sounds )
Snack: apple and 100 cal pack of almonds/walnuts
Lunch: veggie chili and carrots/hummus
Snack: milk and banana
Dinner: caprese sandwich (wheat bread, mozzarella, tomatoes, a little basil and balsamic vinegar)
Also an electromix (electrolyte powder), caffeine pill, one diet soda, and some water but not enough

Total: 2324 cals, 101g protein (17% protein, 36% fat, 46% carb). High but typical day before a match.

No workout but worked on my back today. About a month ago I had a neck muscle spasm to the point I couldn't turn my head, and ever since I have this nagging tightness behind my right shoulder blade. I roll my upper back with a couple of lacrosse balls taped together and it always pops quite loudly (new for me) but the tightness doesn't ever seem to fully resolve. Keep meaning to get it worked on but hasn't worked out yet. Legs were pretty tight too, typical tho.

There is probably some variation in the calculators but it's not like there is a massive disagreement here. Even if you accept MFP as correct, then you've got maintenance of 1610 + 350 burned = 1960. If you ate 1900, then you've got a 60 cal deficit, which probably within the margin of error of your calorie measurements. Even if your measurements are perfect, with a 60 cal deficit, it would take you almost 2 months to lose a pound of fat.

If you're empirically losing weight faster than that with 1900 cal days, then you're either more active during the day than you think, burning more playing tennis than you think, or eating less than you think.

Maybe. But either way I'm just tracking for the sake of it, not planning to change anything for at least a couple of week By then I should have a good idea.

I guess you are not really trying to lose weight, only cut sugar?

Not yet. After my tennis league finishes I'll want to focus either on improving body comp/getting back into the mid-120s but for right now it's just about making a change to my diet/not trying to gain any more.

Wat

Speaking of, some jackass brought in more candy today - nearly twice as much candy in the office now compared to Monday even though people have been eating quite a bit of it. No doubt I normally would have averaged a good 20 pieces/day at least. Glad I had a lot to keep me busy today and then ducked out early

Won my match but guess I was wrong about not still being a headcase won 6-0 in the first set and then completely abandoned my gameplan. It's fairly simple; she can't hurt me as long as I keep the shots deep, hit away from her, get first serves in, and attack any short or high shots. After winning the first set I started hitting everything short, right to her, and missing all my first serves. Oh well, 3 hours and 5 match points but I got there Should solidify my spot in the playoffs so it's all good.

Breakfast: cheddar cheese cubes and apple slices
Snack: apple and milk
Lunch: tofu bowl with black beans, veggies, and guac
Prematch/during: snap pea crisps, milk, bowl of watermelon, banana
Dinner: veggie chili, protein shake

Also two diet sodas and two zero calorie Monsters for the match.

Totals: 2308 calories, ~1236 burned during tennis/warmup
135g protein (23% protein, 26% fat, 51% carbs)

Pretty nasty headache for about half of the day, and I woke up totally starving this morning. Even after breakfast I felt like I hadn't even eaten. I've read that's a fairly normal response to sugar withdrawal so I guess I just hope it doesn't last much longer.

Oops, add pretzels and hummus to breakfast. Totals were right tho since I pulled it from MFP. Also tofu bowl had rice.

Did you actually lose focus from the gameplan or just started struggling with the gameplan all of a sudden?

Congrats on the win!