<p>Tracking your calories is simply an informational tool (and maybe a bit of motivational tool). Stepping back from that, the real trick is to take a look at what you are eating and picking out a couple of things that you can live without. For example, I decided that I can live without soda, fruit juices, sweet tea, Doritos, Pringles, Red Twizzlers, Dunkin Donuts coffee rolls, and Sour Gummy worms.</p>
<p>Just triage your diet and pick out some things you can axe permanently in order that you can continue to enjoy something else.</p>
<p>I think the other thing about tracking is the phenomenon of observed behavior. I always started my tracking with the tracking itself being the goal. No judgment, no need to make changes, just committing to recording accurately (weighing, measuring and logging) every bite that went in to my mouth.</p>
<p>The act of observing alone changes the choices you make. Just knowing that you will record that unnecessary snack or even more significanly when you measure out your food for purposes of recording, you tend to scale back the amounts, because you quickly see that your portion size of cereal is not the same as the manufacturer’s and once it is on the food scale it is impossible to “unsee” that information.</p>
<p>NMinn- Does not sound good! I hope you feel better really soon.</p>
<p>Thought the streak might end today. It was a little rainy this morning and we have SO much to do to move. To say we are behind is an understatement, but no one is moving in (i.e we haven’t sold the house…) so there isn’t horrible pressure. We decided not to run until later in the day. We had a Vanderbilt game at 12:30, which meant an afternoon run. It was 58 degrees, but we were NOT feeling it at all. I had H drop me off about 3 miles from home and I added on to get my 6- LONG RUN for the week. A long run is anything longer than your usual run, in my opinion. It might be 3!</p>
<p>I think the websites make it easy but I am near a computer with LiveStrong up and running 16 hours a day. Sometimes 24 hours when I’m working really late. If away from keyboard, then I just put it in later.</p>
<p>Went to Marshalls and found a pro-combat and tried it on. It fit and was comfortable in the changing room but I tried to figure out why I would want one of these. I did a service motion and what happens is the shirt rides up and down and then you’re left with horizontal wrinkles in the mid-section. I see the same thing with the pros. Nadal and Federer both wear these things in matches as do many women on the tour. Most of the male players that I see in practice wear t-shirts (typically of the companies that they have contracts with) or no shirt at all if it’s really hot. So my take is that they wear the tight-fitting stuff because they are required to for their clothing contracts and it’s made tight to show off their bodies.</p>
<p>So I didn’t buy the pro-combat.</p>
<p>I went to Sports Authority and bought three shirts, one was $20 and two were $22. I thought that I’d take a look at Dicks and went to the mall (which was absolutely packed) where these shirts were $25. So I’m still going to pick up another two, probably from Sports Authority next week.</p>
<p>I’m absolutely amazed at the resiliency of the American consumer.</p>
<p>One last note - I had a look at the clearance racks at Dicks. There was stuff from Adidas, UnderArmour, New Balance and lots of stuff with no brand that I could identify. There was no Nike stuff on clearance. Is Nike at the top of the sports clothing food chain?</p>
<p>Yes. Nike spends the most on celebrity endorsements (Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods) and has the premium pricing brand. Almost all the companies sell the same stuff: a lightweight loose fitting t-shirt, a slightly fitted tech running shirt, spandex stretchy shirts, and tech collared golf/coaching shirts.</p>
<p>I like Nike shorts the best – they fit me well, the styling is plain, they have options with pockets. I was lucky and stocked up on six pair of their running shorts and a couple pair of their tennis shorts this summer at Marshall’s and TJ for about $15 a pair (instead of $30 at Dicks). I like the Nike long-sleeve running shirt I found at Marshall’s (but I’ve never seen another one), but have had better luck with addidas, C9, and reebok for short sleeve shirts. You might like the UnderArmor tech shirts (not the spandex). They seem to fit a little looser, like the Nike t-shirts. Also, the neon yellow New Balance running shirt I bought fits loosely. So does the ACSIS long sleeve shirt I wore today. Reebok tends to fit more like adiddas. It may be a Euro thing!</p>
<p>The Champion C9s are trim, too. The best deal of the year was the boatload of those Marshalls had for $5.99 and $7.99. I found one long sleeve version for $9.99.</p>
<p>I think the Pro Combat is designed to compete with Under Armor for the muscle crowd and as undershirts. For example, Tiger Woods often wears a spandex long sleeve under a tech golf shirt on a cool day. But, he’s also ripped. I don’t think the spandex is a great look for geezers like me.</p>
<p>If you can sit tight 'til summer, Marshalls and TJ had the Nike shirts you like all summer long, in a lot of colors, generally for $12.99. At various times, I saw black, blue, red, gray, and yellow. They had such a steady supply, along with Nike running and tennis shorts, that I expect those to be a more or less regular seasonal item at Marshalls in the same way that the reebok and adiddas fitted tech shirts are regular items.</p>
<p>It’s just the wrong season for that stuff now.</p>
<p>Clearly - people buying them now apparently have no choice if they want the product. I think that I’d like five or six right now and will wait and see for a bit. Or do a little more trading. I think that I’m just going to get the Champion shorts - I think that they’re pretty cheap at their regular price at Target when they are in season.</p>
<p>idad- I know from reading this thread you have been very successful in getting fit. I was wondering in the beginning of your lifestyle change did you find yourself eating basically the same foods. For example I eat basically the same breakfast every day, I alternate between 3 different things for lunch and have the same snacks during the work day. All of those meals are healthy, adequate calories and not the source of why I am heavy. At night when I am home I eat too much at dinner and snacks that are not the best use of calories- too many and not nutritional stars for sure. I never feel that I am hungry during the day and enjoy every meal- so lack of variety does not seem to be an issue.
I was thinking that maybe I should try the same technique at dinner- pick out several foods I like that fill me up and have good nutritional value and rotate those at dinner. Then I need to do what you have said and have several foods that are just off limits.</p>
<p>I was wondering if you did something similar early on until you got to the stage where you controlled your eating?</p>
<p>Tom – I’m not iDad, but I had really similar issues with evening eating as you’ve described. A couple of things that helped me: a string cheese if I’m really hungry at 5:30 (we eat dinner about 6:45 or 7), larger portions of “good” foods at dinner (in my case – as with iDad, lower carb – so bigger salads, more meat, more veggies), and then a big glass of water about a half hour after dinner. (That’s when I take vitamins and fish oil, so it works for that too.) At that point, I turn off the light in the kitchen. On the salad front: I found that I needed to “kick it up a notch” to really eat a large salad. A huge bowl of lettuce doesn’t do it for me. Got to have some variety on different nights – different lettuces, different stuff added in, and different dressings. The flossing and brushing your teeth after you’re done eating for the evening also seems to be a pretty good mental cue that food is done for the night. You might give it a try. </p>
<p>Like you, I have a very standard set of breakfasts and lunches.</p>
<p>As some of you know, I typically run a tad under 2.0 miles in 30 minutes on the dreadmill. Today I did a whopping (don’t laugh at me, please) 2.16 miles. Instead of running 15 minutes at 4.5 mph (a recent personal best), I did 18 minutes at 4.5 and 3 minutes at 5.0 mph. No biggie. No problem. Hardly a difference between 4.5 and 5.0. So I should be able to do this routinely, right?</p>
<p>arabab- thank you. I will try your suggestions.</p>
<p>Veryhappy-good luck. I find you really do not notice the small incremental change on the treadmill. I bet if you add a little bit each workout you will be surprised where you end up in a fairly short time.
I can run/walk an hour on the treadmill at an elevation of 1 or 2% and depending on the time of my warm up or cool down I have built up to about 5 miles. If I jog the entire time it is closer to 6 miles but I usually walk some because I talk to some friends. It does not take long to increase your time and distance. And yes a good part of it is in our heads.</p>
<p>Yes, I would say that I have gradually fallen into a little more of predictable routine on what I eat, probably more now than at the beginning.</p>
<p>As I’ve tracked my food, I’ve just found combinations that work and that I really like, so I tend to have those pretty consistently.</p>
<p>For example, I’ve learned to balance my dinners. If I’ve going to have 14 ounces of beef or pork, I don’t need the 500 calorie dinner salad with the blue cheese and olive oil. So, I’ll broccoli with the steak tips and the salad on a different night with chicken breast some shrimp or whatever. So, almost all of my dinners come in under 1000 calories. Also, some variety has been sacrificed to the fact that I really don’t eat potatoes, rice, or pasta except as the rare exception.</p>
<p>I’m more consistent with lunches. It’s almost always soup or a big salad or bacon/eggs or cheese omelet or – as a change of pace – turkey or tuna sandwich on rye bread. I try to keep lunches to 500 calories or less.</p>
<p>I’m not a breakfast eater. Never have been.</p>
<p>Late night snacking is my biggest challenge. Tracking what I eat has helped me be a bit more disciplined with that. I’ve settled in on fairly healthy snacks: nuts and fruit mostly, but I still have to watch the quantities or they will gradually start sneaking up. I’m at the point now where noshing on crackers or chips or pretzels is just not something I even think about. I don’t have it in the house. That stuff is waistline killer. Same with desserts. I never had a single piece of candy or cake over the holidays. I did have two gingerbread cookies that my wife baked.</p>
<p>One of the interesting things is that, while you are losing weight, you are getting a significant amount of calories from burning off your own fat as fuel. One of the challenges of switching to maintenance is that, when the fat is gone, so are those calories. So, you’ve got to eat more, with a learning curve on figuring out how much more. When my weight stabilized, I was ravenous.</p>