2019 Weight Loss Group


SpiritDragon
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Well, Fast Sunday makes food logging a little easier.

Breakfast:  Sadness and hunger

Lunch: Sadness and hunger

Dinner: 4 small-ish homemade tacos, some potato chips with chicken/cheese/tabasco dip 

No snacks, no soda.

Spent most of the day in the back yard finishing up the construction of playground equipment for my kids that their grandparents got them for Christmas.

Edited by unixknight
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Jan 5:

Woke up at 7:30.

8:00 - tamagoyaki (eggs, nori sheet, salt and pepper), 2 pieces of toast, 16 ounces 1/4 oj 3/4 h20

10:00 - 1 snack pack of bbq fries (potato chips) and 20 ounces of coconut juice (drove a few hours to go out of town and had to munch on something or I go crazy)

12:30 - 20 ounce soda (still driving)

4:00PM - 6 ounce sirloin steak with wild rice and clam chowder, 16 ounces of water with lemon wedge.

Jan 6:

5PM - chicken ceasar salad, 20 ounces of 1/4 lemonade 3/4 water.

6PM - 1 snack pack of cheetos and 20 ounces coke zero (driving again).

9PM - 20 ounces coke zero (still driving).

Today - I'm sick.  It's now 5PM and all I had to eat was lucky charms around 10AM.  I need to hydrate so I'm trying to will myself to get up and get some water.

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45 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

Jan 5:

Woke up at 7:30.

8:00 - tamagoyaki (eggs, nori sheet, salt and pepper), 2 pieces of toast, 16 ounces 1/4 oj 3/4 h20

10:00 - 1 snack pack of bbq fries (potato chips) and 20 ounces of coconut juice (drove a few hours to go out of town and had to munch on something or I go crazy)

12:30 - 20 ounce soda (still driving)

4:00PM - 6 ounce sirloin steak with wild rice and clam chowder, 16 ounces of water with lemon wedge.

Jan 6:

5PM - chicken ceasar salad, 20 ounces of 1/4 lemonade 3/4 water.

6PM - 1 snack pack of cheetos and 20 ounces coke zero (driving again).

9PM - 20 ounces coke zero (still driving).

Today - I'm sick.  It's now 5PM and all I had to eat was lucky charms around 10AM.  I need to hydrate so I'm trying to will myself to get up and get some water.

I'm sorry to hear that you're ill today. This must be your third day of logging now. I'll have to go over them all, and I think @unixknight has also submitted three days now, and look at key factors for each of you to address.

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On 1/3/2019 at 8:16 AM, unixknight said:

So I thought the Pepsi withdrawal was over after Saturday. I was wrong. I was comically, catastrophically, absurdly wrong.

All I want to do right now is sleep. My head hurts, I have zero energy and if anybody says anything to me that's annoying they may well go through the plate glass window behind me near my cubicle. I work on the 8th floor.

 

I'll start today's food log now, and edit the post as the day goes on.

Breakfast: A tuna sandwich 

Nursing a bottle of lemon water

Lunch: Brought a bowl of leftover black bean soup

Snack:  A couple hunks of beef jerky

Dinner: Gonna have some fried rice, General Tso chicken, and a spring roll.

 

 

On 1/4/2019 at 7:54 AM, unixknight said:

Today's food log:

Breakfast: Peanut butter and banana sandwich

Lunch:  Pho

Dinner: Frozen pizza probably, as it's D&D night

And lemon water to sip all day.

 

On 1/5/2019 at 7:16 PM, unixknight said:

Well... Today wasn't great.

Breakfast: Sausage & eggs scramble

Lunch: Tuna sandwich

Dinner: Spicy Italian sub w/wheat, mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato, olives

... and a 17 oz. Pepsi.

I went ahead with the Pepsi because I succeeded in my week purge plus a couple days.  I don't plan to have another anytime soon.  It just wan't quite the same.

My daughter and I went out to a comic book signing.  Marvel has acquired the rights to do Conan the Barbarian, and I got issue #1.  One of the authors was at a comic store in Annapolis so we went to go get it autographed, then we went to the game store next door and did some browsing.  Did a good bit of walking around.

 

8 hours ago, unixknight said:

Well, Fast Sunday makes food logging a little easier.

Breakfast:  Sadness and hunger

Lunch: Sadness and hunger

Dinner: 4 small-ish homemade tacos, some potato chips with chicken/cheese/tabasco dip 

No snacks, no soda.

Spent most of the day in the back yard finishing up the construction of playground equipment for my kids that their grandparents got them for Christmas.

Okay so let's evaluate what you've presented so far. The main thing that stands out is a shortage of fruits and vegetables. It looks like salad didn't hit the menu, or a side of green beans or carrots for that matter. Without serving sizes it is hard to tell how much each food item is contributing though. How much lemon water do you think you are having on a day to day basis? Looking back at your log and thinking of your intake is there anything you think would make a big difference to you in addition to your soda purge? Is there any chance some foods or snacks were eaten without thinking about entering them into the log?

Keeping in mind that you are the expert on you so your ideas will trump mine, I would have you pick one of the following to start with:

  • Aim to drink one gallon of water per day
  • Try two new recipes this week that are over 50% vegetables by volume
  • Have a salad with dinner X times this week (where x is more than zero, but not pushing the limits of your reality) Aim to eat a matching volume of salad (not packed) to whatever the main course is.
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4 minutes ago, SpiritDragon said:

Okay so let's evaluate what you've presented so far. The main thing that stands out is a shortage of fruits and vegetables. It looks like salad didn't hit the menu, or a side of green beans or carrots for that matter. Without serving sizes it is hard to tell how much each food item is contributing though. How much lemon water do you think you are having on a day to day basis? Looking back at your log and thinking of your intake is there anything you think would make a big difference to you in addition to your soda purge? Is there any chance some foods or snacks were eaten without thinking about entering them into the log?

Keeping in mind that you are the expert on you so your ideas will trump mine, I would have you pick one of the following to start with:

  • Aim to drink one gallon of water per day
  • Try two new recipes this week that are over 50% vegetables by volume
  • Have a salad with dinner X times this week (where x is more than zero, but not pushing the limits of your reality) Aim to eat a matching volume of salad (not packed) to whatever the main course is.

I would estimate on average I'm doing about 40 - 60oz of water/lemon water a day.  You're right about the veggies, though the black bean soup had a bunch of carrots in it, the tacos had lettuce and tomatoes in them.  So that's a little but I get that still isn't enough.  I'll make an effort to up that amount by at least getting back on juicing.

I've been diligent about avoiding the snacks, though it's easy to stay that diligent in the short term.  It probably won't last, though having some sense of accountability helps a lot.

If I can get started on the juicing, that would go toward your second bullet item, though the wall there is that the kitchen is a shambles at the moment, as we're getting some work done.  In the meantime, I'll do the gallon of water.

Today's log:

Breakfast:  16oz of chicken broth (better than anything for warming one up) and a turkey and a small turkey and cheese sandwich

Lunch: beanut butter and banana sandwich

Dinner: roast chicken (about 3/4 of one chicken breast), 1 cup of mashed potatoes, 2 tbsp poultry gravy, 1 cup of steamed broccoli

And so far, about 20 oz of lemon water

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On 1/2/2019 at 10:46 PM, anatess2 said:

Jan 2 Food:

Lucky Charms and almond milk

rice, grilled chicken breast, grapes, diluted pineapple juice (1/4 juice to 3/4 water).

Snack size bag of potato chips and 7-up (I was thinking this would suck to have to write on the journal if I give in to the chips craving.  I get an F for self control.)

Honey glazed chicken wings and rice

pandesal dipped in coca cola (I was dreading laundry as my washer was broken for a few days and left a mountain to wash.  Ate the pandesal a few minutes before midnight because I was feeling sorry for myself).

I’ll do better tomorrow.  I bought some carrots.  Yeay me.

 

On 1/4/2019 at 8:16 AM, anatess2 said:

Jan 3 Food:

Woke up 9AM

1PMish:  2 cups rice, 1 can tuna, 1 tbsp soy sauce, approx 16 ounces water with about a tbsp of orange juice.

4PMish:  chicken pot pie (chicken, green beans, carrots, onions in pie shell and sauce), approx 16 ounce water with about a tbsp of orange juice.

6PMish:  2 choc chip cookies and approx 16 ounce Coke zero.

9PMish:  4 pieces of tortilla chips, ~16 ounces water with ~1tbsp orange juice

12AMish:  1 animal cracker and ~4oz water.

Went to bed 3AM

Hubby asked me to go to the gym with him.  I wanted to say yes but ended up saying no because... there are lots of mirrors in his gym.

 

On 1/4/2019 at 11:14 PM, anatess2 said:

Jan 4

Wake up 9AM.

10AM - 1 cup lucky charms, 1 cup almond milk

11AM - 16 ounce of 1/4 orange juice 3/4 water.

3PM - Subway Friday.  It’s tradition.  6-inch seafood sub (Italian herbs and cheese bread, seafood, lettuce, tomato, vinegar, salt and pepper), Lays potato chips, 32 ounces of 1/2 crystal light lemonade and 1/2 water.

10PM (didn’t get home until then) - lunch plate size beef tips stir fry with onions and bokchoy and white rice. 16 ounces 1/4oj 3/4h2o

11PM - banana egg roll. gulp of water.

2am bed.

 

1 hour ago, anatess2 said:

Jan 5:

Woke up at 7:30.

8:00 - tamagoyaki (eggs, nori sheet, salt and pepper), 2 pieces of toast, 16 ounces 1/4 oj 3/4 h20

10:00 - 1 snack pack of bbq fries (potato chips) and 20 ounces of coconut juice (drove a few hours to go out of town and had to munch on something or I go crazy)

12:30 - 20 ounce soda (still driving)

4:00PM - 6 ounce sirloin steak with wild rice and clam chowder, 16 ounces of water with lemon wedge.

Jan 6:

5PM - chicken ceasar salad, 20 ounces of 1/4 lemonade 3/4 water.

6PM - 1 snack pack of cheetos and 20 ounces coke zero (driving again).

9PM - 20 ounces coke zero (still driving).

Today - I'm sick.  It's now 5PM and all I had to eat was lucky charms around 10AM.  I need to hydrate so I'm trying to will myself to get up and get some water.

One of the most glaring points that stands out from your log is that you don't eat at consistent times at all. I'm not sure if that's something that you would like to address or not, but having more routine eating times can help to establish a pattern of when not to eat as well, which can cut down on mindless eating while doing other things.

As with others, keep in mind that you are the expert on yourself. What stands out to you? It might actually be a good idea to go back over your food log and memory and think over what changes you think could be made that would be the most do-able and beneficial for you before reading on.

Okay. You're back. Did you have any epiphanies?

If you have some ideas I'd love to help you refine them and make them into bite-size action items. If not consider one of the following new behaviours:

  • Pick one meal to eat at a consistent time. If a set time is just not going to fly aim for a two hour window to start by.
  • Find and try one new recipe that is mainly vegetables every week until you find at least five that you enjoy enough to alternate
  • Replace chips with carrot sticks on all but one day of the week
  • Replace juice, pop, punch or any drink that has calories, or would have calories if it wasn't a diet version with good old H2O. You can keep the lemon or lime wedges if you like for a little flavour. Aim to do this 5-6 days per week to start as well

Remember to just pick one for now and stay committed to it. If you like the idea of one of these, but find it too challenging, let's work to make it easier to start with and then we can always increase the challenge later as you have built up your success implementing it.

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Ok.  Day 1 of gaining back my motivation and habits.  So far: Yogurt for breakfast, homemade chili for lunch, eating a BAPOC now for snack. 

Home is hard.  Home is where the birthday cake and chips and cookies and massive PB&Js and stress lies.  I can easily down 2000 calories tonight at home while nursing my various dramas and traumas.  I attack this problem in two ways:
1- By mentioning it openly here in hopes that fear of shame (you people probably call it "accountability" or "support system" or some such) will help.
2- I will stop by the store on my way home and get some unbreaded chicken chunks.  If I am unable to abstain from unhealthy eating, at least I'll be eating protein instead of all the worse options.

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9 minutes ago, unixknight said:

I would estimate on average I'm doing about 40 - 60oz of water/lemon water a day.  You're right about the veggies, though the black bean soup had a bunch of carrots in it, the tacos had lettuce and tomatoes in them.  So that's a little but I get that still isn't enough.  I'll make an effort to up that amount by at least getting back on juicing.

I've been diligent about avoiding the snacks, though it's easy to stay that diligent in the short term.  It probably won't last, though having some sense of accountability helps a lot.

If I can get started on the juicing, that would go toward your second bullet item, though the wall there is that the kitchen is a shambles at the moment, as we're getting some work done.  In the meantime, I'll do the gallon of water.

Today's log:

Breakfast:  16oz of chicken broth (better than anything for warming one up) and a turkey and a small turkey and cheese sandwich

Lunch: beanut butter and banana sandwich

Dinner: roast chicken (about 3/4 of one chicken breast), 1 cup of mashed potatoes, 2 tbsp poultry gravy, 1 cup of steamed broccoli

And so far, about 20 oz of lemon water

Awesome. We'll hold you accountable to one gallon of water per day. All of the other good things you're doing will still help and be great, but they are for bonus points. The test is making sure to drink the gallon of water.

Your dinner tonight looks like an improvement. Great job with the detailed measurements and the broccoli!

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48 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

Ok.  Day 1 of gaining back my motivation and habits.  So far: Yogurt for breakfast, homemade chili for lunch, eating a BAPOC now for snack. 

Home is hard.  Home is where the birthday cake and chips and cookies and massive PB&Js and stress lies.  I can easily down 2000 calories tonight at home while nursing my various dramas and traumas.  I attack this problem in two ways:
1- By mentioning it openly here in hopes that fear of shame (you people probably call it "accountability" or "support system" or some such) will help.
2- I will stop by the store on my way home and get some unbreaded chicken chunks.  If I am unable to abstain from unhealthy eating, at least I'll be eating protein instead of all the worse options.

You can count us to publicly shame and humiliate you in the name of support :)

Is home always this way or just currently due to a recent birthday?

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57 minutes ago, SpiritDragon said:

 

 

 

One of the most glaring points that stands out from your log is that you don't eat at consistent times at all. I'm not sure if that's something that you would like to address or not, but having more routine eating times can help to establish a pattern of when not to eat as well, which can cut down on mindless eating while doing other things.

As with others, keep in mind that you are the expert on yourself. What stands out to you? It might actually be a good idea to go back over your food log and memory and think over what changes you think could be made that would be the most do-able and beneficial for you before reading on.

Okay. You're back. Did you have any epiphanies?

If you have some ideas I'd love to help you refine them and make them into bite-size action items. If not consider one of the following new behaviours:

  • Pick one meal to eat at a consistent time. If a set time is just not going to fly aim for a two hour window to start by.
  • Find and try one new recipe that is mainly vegetables every week until you find at least five that you enjoy enough to alternate
  • Replace chips with carrot sticks on all but one day of the week
  • Replace juice, pop, punch or any drink that has calories, or would have calories if it wasn't a diet version with good old H2O. You can keep the lemon or lime wedges if you like for a little flavour. Aim to do this 5-6 days per week to start as well

Remember to just pick one for now and stay committed to it. If you like the idea of one of these, but find it too challenging, let's work to make it easier to start with and then we can always increase the challenge later as you have built up your success implementing it.

Ah yeah.  Meal times is a necessary after thought in my life.  I eat when I remember to or I'm craving something.  I can work on this.  Dinnertime is consistent for my family when the kids are back in school, which is this week so that should start to look better.  I'll work on getting breakfast consistent so that should make 2 book-end meals at least on track.

Chips to carrot sticks...errrm... how about fruit instead?  Would that work?  I can replace chips with banana?  Or strawberries?  Or grapes?

Mainly veggies... ermm... how about this... I'll work on 3 of the bullet items - consistent mealtime, chips to fruit, and no more soda, and forget about mainly veggies.  

Okay... ready, set, Go!  I'll report tomorrow.

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10 hours ago, unixknight said:

Well, Fast Sunday makes food logging a little easier.

Breakfast:  Sadness and hunger

Lunch: Sadness and hunger

 

3  ¶ Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not?  wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?  Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
4  Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
5  Is it such a fast that I have chosen?  a day for a man to afflict his soul?  is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?  wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
6  Is not this the fast that I have chosen?  to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7  Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?  when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
8  ¶ Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
9  Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.  If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10  And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
11  And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12  And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
13  ¶ If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14  Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

(Old Testament | Isaiah 58:3 - 14)

(Said in good humour)

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1 hour ago, anatess2 said:

Ah yeah.  Meal times is a necessary after thought in my life.  I eat when I remember to or I'm craving something.  I can work on this.  Dinnertime is consistent for my family when the kids are back in school, which is this week so that should start to look better.  I'll work on getting breakfast consistent so that should make 2 book-end meals at least on track.

Chips to carrot sticks...errrm... how about fruit instead?  Would that work?  I can replace chips with banana?  Or strawberries?  Or grapes?

Mainly veggies... ermm... how about this... I'll work on 3 of the bullet items - consistent mealtime, chips to fruit, and no more soda, and forget about mainly veggies.  

Okay... ready, set, Go!  I'll report tomorrow.

Work on only one of them. Choose which one you can commit to and go for it 100%. If you do the others that's great, but we want laser like focus on achieving one before building others on top. It sounds like starting with book-ending your meal times will be a great starting point. If you have succeeded at that for 90%+ of the time for the next two weeks then we'll build on it. It sounds slow and it is a little out of the gate, but when you really start to master some small things one at a time the cumulative effect becomes powerful.

You can certainly negotiate fruits for veggies in place of chips. It was just one of many places to start so that you have a choice and I am not dictating - it's amazing how much having a say in things helps buy in.

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@anatess2 girl, you need to eat (I understand while sick, eating takes a back seat). When you are healthy again, you have got to give your body food on a regular basis. Food is fuel--you are basically running your car on a nearly empty tank. By not eating regularly, you are sabotaging your health--even if you eat healthy, going without food for such long periods deteriorates your health.

 

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Ok.  Day one was a success.  Ate responsibly, worked out, finished the day 500 calories under my plan.

Today is day two.  Here is where I've been failing since Thanksgiving to get back on track.  "I did fine yesterday, that means I've earned [whatever I notice is going into my mouth at the time]".  That's a lie spawned by the pit of hell, which leads to the next lie "Well, I blew it today, might as well go all out."

So, had my breakfast apple.  Have my emergency chicken here at work with me if I weaken.  Chili for lunch, BAPOC, maybe a walk around the building.  Then going home prepared for home.  Birthday cake is gone, but someone opened up another one of those big tins of three kinds of popcorn.  And those cookies are sitting there, because apparently I'm the only one that likes them.  

Honestly, treating the whole thing like I'm in recovery from a dangerous addiction seems to be my best way of getting into the proper habits.

Day two.

Edited by NeuroTypical
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5 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

Ok.  Day one was a success.  Ate responsibly, worked out, finished the day 500 calories under my plan.

Today is day two.  Here is where I've been failing since Thanksgiving to get back on track.  "I did fine yesterday, that means I've earned [whatever I notice is going into my mouth at the time]".  That's a lie spawned by the pit of hell, which leads to the next lie "Well, I blew it today, might as well go all out."

So, had my breakfast apple.  Have my emergency chicken here at work with me if I weaken.  Chili for lunch, BAPOC, maybe a walk around the building.  Then going home prepared for home.  Birthday cake is gone, but someone opened up another one of those big tins of three kinds of popcorn.  And those cookies are sitting there, because apparently I'm the only one that likes them.  

Honestly, treating the whole thing like I'm in recovery from a dangerous addiction seems to be my best way of getting into the proper habits.

Day two.

Great job with day 1.

If no one else likes those cookies consider throwing them out. If you had some dirty magazines around the house wouldn't that be the thing to do? Why make it different with this temptation - especially when the excuse, "it's for the others" is off the table.

By making change very simple and gradual you can often avoid the, "blew it today" mentality. It's a lot of stress having forbidden food around you all the time. You may need to have planned outlets such as every third day you are allowed a certain sized portion of XYZ goodie or perhaps you just need to enlist the help of the family to clean up the home environment as it will benefit everybody. Easier said than done, I understand.

In any event good luck with day 2.

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50 minutes ago, SpiritDragon said:

You may need to have planned outlets such as every third day you are allowed a certain sized portion of XYZ goodie

Oh absolutely.  What works for me is the 'cheat day'.  I track my weight daily and stick to a responsible plan.  Every time I weigh in at a new low, I get a cheat day to eat as much of whatever I want.  Then it's back to the plan.

I've lost 30 lbs that way.  This is from my LoseIt app: about two year's worth of tracking.  That peak to the low was about 20 lbs, spanning four or five months of discipline, complete with cheat days once, maybe twice a week.  This is the habit I'm struggling to regain.

2025834059_IMG_E14051.JPG.b17334030c97e856986205b8f20f65d8.JPG

 

(That was 2017-2018.  I've since gained most, but not all of that back.)

Edited by NeuroTypical
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My husband does the same thing, NT. He eats within a certain amount of calories (no matter what the calories--which means he can eat donuts everyday as long as he's within his calorie count). Then he has a cheat day. His problem was sometimes those cheat days kept extending. He's now trying a cheat meal vs. a whole cheat day.

Me? I can't do cheat days. I have a very unhealthy relationship with food (who doesn't?) and if I do a cheat day, then it eventually turns into cheat years. Someone once described a cheat meal/day as "so, it's ok to be in a healthy marriage 6 days a week, but 1 day you can cheat on your spouse? does that make sense? why choose to do that with your health?" That really resonated with me. Now I have changed my vocabulary. Instead of a cheat meal, I choose to eat this meal even if it isn't as healthy as other choices. For whatever reason, that helps me to look at my choices and make primarily healthy ones.

 

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Today is Day 3 for me. Doing really well! So far, I've lost 4#. I don't officially weigh in until Sunday morning, but I wanted to see how much a difference it can be when I'm 100%. Pretty significant! 

Reading of everyone's success, not so much success, and suggestions help me. I appreciate everyone being so open on here! And thanks, SpiritDragon, for making great suggestions/advice. BTW, I'm someone who shortens people's names. Why is it I wanted to shorten yours to Spit? LOL!

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3 hours ago, beefche said:

My husband does the same thing, NT. He eats within a certain amount of calories (no matter what the calories--which means he can eat donuts everyday as long as he's within his calorie count). Then he has a cheat day. His problem was sometimes those cheat days kept extending. He's now trying a cheat meal vs. a whole cheat day.

Me? I can't do cheat days. I have a very unhealthy relationship with food (who doesn't?) and if I do a cheat day, then it eventually turns into cheat years. Someone once described a cheat meal/day as "so, it's ok to be in a healthy marriage 6 days a week, but 1 day you can cheat on your spouse? does that make sense? why choose to do that with your health?" That really resonated with me. Now I have changed my vocabulary. Instead of a cheat meal, I choose to eat this meal even if it isn't as healthy as other choices. For whatever reason, that helps me to look at my choices and make primarily healthy ones.

 

This is an excellent point about cheat meals/days and so on. They are definitely not for everyone. Sometimes one cheat meal can do enough damage to offset an entire weak. On the flip side, for some people they are great as part of a program that plans for them. I find it really helps people to know they are "allowed" to eat treats from time to time. The trick is keeping those treats in responsible portions and keeping from time to time meaning something closer to weekly/monthly (my annual pop) than daily, or more frequent. I can agree the word cheat can have bad connotations and lead to excessive overindulgence. I prefer to call them treats, goodies, and or outlets/escapes, but also don't like to have them thought of as rewards especially not for working out, the math is never in favour of eating a treat that was "earned" on the treadmill. It is way too easy to underestimate the calories in the goodie and overestimate the calories burned exercising. I also don't like the inverse of punishing oneself on the treadmill (or other form of exercise) for slipping up. It builds into the idea that exercise is punishment instead of self-care and the math still doesn't work out.  

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11 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

Oh absolutely.  What works for me is the 'cheat day'.  I track my weight daily and stick to a responsible plan.  Every time I weigh in at a new low, I get a cheat day to eat as much of whatever I want.  Then it's back to the plan.

I've lost 30 lbs that way.  This is from my LoseIt app: about two year's worth of tracking.  That peak to the low was about 20 lbs, spanning four or five months of discipline, complete with cheat days once, maybe twice a week.  This is the habit I'm struggling to regain.

2025834059_IMG_E14051.JPG.b17334030c97e856986205b8f20f65d8.JPG

 

(That was 2017-2018.  I've since gained most, but not all of that back.)

Sounds good. If you find that you cycle up and down it may be worth revisiting how you are going about things to create some more sustainability. On the flip side, I also totally understand seeing that something has worked before so you know it works and it works for you. There is nothing wrong with doing those things that have worked in the past as long as you can also find ways not to rebound and find yourself back to square one every year or so.

For those that love Cheat meals and cheat days it works best if the other days are stacked the other way. I've heard of great results following the Slow Carb Diet from Tim Ferris's Four Hour Body. I haven't used it myself or with any clients, so I'm going on hearsay and promotional testimonials. It makes sense though that you can cycle lower calorie days with higher calorie days and keep the metabolism from becoming sluggish as it tends to when calories remain restricted. It's just that the routine days are very repetitive and plain - all worth it for some though because they know they can have anything and everything they want in a few days.

It might be up your alley. I'm not sure what the best advice for you is, other than to stick with it. By this I mean stick to a plan long enough to give it a chance to work, but if it's not working or you find yourself yoyoing then consider looking at a different method. There is something out there that will work and it will work long term. I think you may be close to finding it, but I am also cautiously concerned about what appears to be an up and down cycle which some research suggests may be more dangerous than staying at a steady weight, even if the steady weight is heavier, although the evidence isn't as robust as would be ideal https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4241770/

 

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