hate diet plans.

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Originally Posted by smilingcat

I really hate being this overweight. I want to be back down at 125 pound when I felt my strongest. I'm 5'4". Is 125 pound realistic for my height and my age?

I hate gaining weight every year. It's slow but after many years, it does add up. My mother was never this heavy. My father was never fat. And my sister still run marathon so now I'm the fattie in my family and I hate it.

So how do you manage to keep yourself motivated on a diet? I love food. Foodie of sort but I don't really have a sweet tooth except for chocolate. What are some of the sensible diet? Besides yes calories in calories out. Portion control just leaves me craving for more and I end up binging on a regular basis... How does one maintain self-control when you feel hungry. Carrot/celery sticks will NOT do.

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I think 125 might be realistic, but I don't think that number should be your driving force. Go by how you feel. You might feel great at 135 now. Get too low, and you'll feel weak and tired on your bike.

I think you should never feel starving. That portion control does this to you, makes me think your "diet" portions are too little too late. Eat a good breakfast, then eat a snack 2 hours later, even if you don't feel hungry. If you're not hungry, make the snack fruit, if you are hungry, go for bread with peanut butter or cheese. By lunch, you should be ready to eat, but not starving. Try eating 6 times a day, and see how that feels. Drink 8 glasses of water a day.

Since you love food, try some new recipes. That might help you stay motivated. You don't need to eat carrots and celery. Eat what you love. Ride you bike, too. That's important.

SmilingCat - I think those that are saying that determining your target weight is very subjective are VERY correct. I have been battling with this too trying to figure out what a realistic goal is. After OCDing about it for about 3 weeks now I come full circle back to my original approach of 'what the hell' I feel good. I mean I think I'm in pretty good shape, I can run 5 miles any given day, bike up to 50 - 60 miles, do spin classes back to back and shovel out 3 cars with 5 foot snowdrifts. I have to think of these things when I start comparing myself to what is 'normal'. According to those charts I'm a horse, oh well whatever, i feel good and I look pretty darn good too. I have about 10 lbs I'd like to see go but I'm over freaking out about it. BTW, I use quinoa quite a bit. It's pretty tasty if you cook it with some seasonings, much like rice. Stuffed peppers are awesome made with it. Great with chicken and is feel it is much more satiating than rice. Another thing to keep in mind, drink drink drink. For me that makes such a huge difference. I'm a hardcore coffee drinkers too so I make myself drink extra water on days I drink tons of coffee. I hope this helps. Please don't get down over your weight, you will get there. It's not always a simple recipe to find the right combo for weight loss.

oh dang. now i have to make up a quiona broccoli (with optional cheese and bacon) casserole recipe. i was afraid of that.

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Originally Posted by tangentgirl

oh dang. now i have to make up a quiona broccoli (with optional cheese and bacon) casserole recipe. i was afraid of that.

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Ha ha...too funny! I'm guessing one could make it just like any other broccoli & rice casserole, only replacing the rice with quinoa.

For meatless protein, we eat a lot of beans. Black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, any bean will do. With brown rice or quinoa and plenty of veggies, they make a great meal.

Also tempeh or tofu, eggs, and cheese. I like organic yogurt and nuts for snacks. I add a scoop of unsweetened whey protein powder to my cereal.

We do eat poultry and fish but also try to have several meatless meals a week. Better for the planet and for our health, we think.

Oh, and that quinoa/broccoli casserole recipe sounds good. :D I don't find that quinoa tastes like broccoli at all. To me it tastes like whatever it's cooked with (seasonings, broth, etc.) It's important to give it a GOOD rinsing prior to cooking to get rid of the coating of the individual grains, which can be bitter.

How 'bout Michael Pollan's rules:


Eat food
Not too much
Mostly plants


Pretty much covers it for me.

Thanks for all of the protein suggestions - the one I always forget (and really like!) is yogurt. I do love the greek yogurt.

To answer the question of why not more poultry and fish - I feel better about my environmental impact not eating more. Plus - if I eat fish much more than I do now, I really have a tendency to get very tired of it. Luckily, I do not have a cholesterol problem at all. So - we do lots of dinners with eggs as a protein (e.g., scrambled eggs with shrimp and green onions + salad). Lots of beans at our house too - and quinoa (but it's a grain in my book too).

Back the the OP - I caught that you said you binged. Along with some other things you said, I'm going to suggest a different tact along with all of the great suggestions.

It sounds like your relationship with food is complicated and may be covering up other aspects of your life. Food gives us a quick high, we can "stuff" our feelings, forget about life for awhile. I would enlist the help of two professionals: a therapist who is competent in eating disorders and a nutritionist to devise a diet plan that you can follow. Exercise is part of the equation, as you know, but you cannot out-exercise a lousy diet. Think about how many calories you burn on a treadmill & compare it to a twinkie. That's the idea.

It's known that some overweight women have experienced physical and/or sexual trauma in their developing years. Unconsciously, they overeat to make themselves unattractive. I'm not suggesting that happened to you, but "they" are discovering that many of us have that history & we deal with it in different ways.

Shoe shopping, anybody? ;)

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Originally Posted by Veronica

Without knowing your body type no one can really say if 125 pounds is realistic for you. I'm 3/4 of an inch taller and my lean body mass is 117 pounds. I'd probably be dead at 125. :rolleyes: I weigh 148 now and I'm working at losing 8 - 10 more pounds. You really have to decide what's appropriate for you as an individual not compare yourself to women the same age and height.

I don't diet. I do eat a lot of protein - I try to get 117 grams a day. It's hard. I do limit my sugar intake and try to keep my carbs more complex. I don't eat any fake sweeteners and I do have a substantial sweet tooth. Although now I don't really crave any sweets. There's a bag of Ghiradelli chocolates in my frig. It's been there since Nov. 1. :D We picked up a couple of very interesting books a couple of weeks ago in the Eat This, Not That series. The super market guide is kind of eye opening and can help you make some better choices that cut down on fat and calories.

Veronica

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:)Hey V...

how do you figure this # out?
Is it your low number on what's recommended on a chart? Or what you are measured at now? I know you have/used-to work with a personal trainer for a lot of your stuff.

How do you figure this much protein?
I know as fitness peeps we need more protein overall due to our activity. I googled and found an equation, and that's still bit higher. Which, actually I'm asking because I feel like I could use more protein. I eat, and I'm still starving in a sense, desperately seeking for something my body is craving. I'm not even hungry. I just ate. But, it's a really weird craving. And yes, like others, I do have a sweet tooth... but I don't want it when I feel this way... it's almost like a call for a New York strip lol.

OK... or if V doesn't see this... someone who knows in general how to calculate protein needs chime in. Here is one google thing I found in this link. http://exercise.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/protein_2.htm

It's based on how much lean mass I have and it's really the minimum I should be getting in a day.

It's funny to think about how my eating has changed since I started working out with a trainer. When I started with her I was still doing a 200k a month and so I was doing a good bit of riding. And I ate a lot of crap. :D 2- 4 Red Bulls a day was not uncommon, a homemade chocolate chip cookie every day, pizza multiple times a week... My weight then fluctuated between 155 - 158 and I was 26% body fat. In spite of riding 300 - 400 miles monthly on my bike.

Today I had:
B: a protein shake after my morning workout with my trainer, 3/4 cup non fat Greek yogurt, mixed with some sweetened yogurt and 1/2 cup of cereal
S: a Fuji apple with 2 tbs peanut butter, about 2/3 in the AM and the rest after work
L: 6 oz of chicken and some unknown amount of green beans
D: Thom's away, so I had a whole wheat EM with 1/2 tbs of butter and jam and another protein shake.

I weigh 146 and have 19.8% body fat. Dinner is usually a plate of fish, steak or chicken and little else, but I didn't feel like doing that just for me. :rolleyes:

What I eat has been an evolving process. I just recently took out the yogurt I had been having with my lunch. It was 140 calories and I really don't miss it.

I do drink coffee in the morning and I use whole milk in my coffee, my protein shakes and oatmeal. We have tried going to the lighter milk and the calorie and fat savings just aren't worth the loss of taste for us. I also drink a container of oj over about 10 days. I like it when I first wake up. Mostly I just drink water.

It's working and I feel good. I don't feel unduly hungry and my energy level is good. I had gotten into some bad habits over the late summer and fall (pizza is so evil!) and had started gaining fat and losing muscle. It's nice to see that trend reversing.

Weekends are much less structured for me and I don't eat so cleanly then. My latest thing is guacamole with Trader Joe's pita bites. Yeah... I know not the worst thing in the world. And a bottle of champagne. :D

Veronica