<p>CCC (wow, that is so much easier than typing your whole name out!!!),
Yes, this is always a hot topic on CC - but I think it’s a great topic to talk about and I think its GOOD that it elicits a lot of response - it can apply to most people! Take what you will out of it, but as does many threads on CC, we all kind of make the thread not just about you but about all of us!!! ;)</p>
<p>I just wanted to also point out that IF you were to log your food online you don’t have to weigh a thing. There are many options for even just one food item (vanilla yogurt - all brands, all sizes, 1/2 cup?, 1 cup?, ounces? - so many to choose from you can just estimate) - I have never used a scale.</p>
<p>Re: what you ate yesterday. Did you feel satisfied? Do you know that it is less calories or carbs or whatever than what you normally eat?? </p>
<p>Overall it looks decent! Again, depending on your current weight, height, activity - all that - the amount of calories you should/could intake we don’t really know. But I agree - sub in raw veggies instead of the crackers (keep the cheese),</p>
<p>I track online via Weight Watchers e-Tools (on my smartphone) - it’s easy as pie and I don’t use a scale either. I tell it what foods I’m eating - including brand name foods or restaurant foods - and it calculates it all. Then I integrate it with the activity link tracker so I get X activity points a day. It works. When I don’t follow it, it doesn’t work. When I do, it does. It’s as simple as that.</p>
<p>Just wanted to add that I have been using MyFitnessPal since the first of the year to log all of my food intake (and exercise times) and I think it was instrumental in my wieght loss of 40+ lbs. Once I became aware of the quantities I was eating (and drinking) and the associated calories, I was able to moderate and also make better food choices. I logged food quantities by estimating (or reading off the package) for five months before getting a food scale << it’s surprising how different, for instance, a volume measure is from the associated grams/ounces.</p>
<p>Anyways, as far as diet goes, here’s what I think contributed significantly to my weight loss: limiting adult beverages to 2/day, eliminating processed sugar and wheat products (baked goods, including bread), stopped smothering everything in cheese, nuts for snacking instead of chips, limiting pasta to no more than one night a week, portion control, targeting 6 glasses of water a day. Before I tried it, I used to pooh-pooh all of these things, but now that I’ve changed my eating habits, I believe it’s all sustainable.</p>
<p>I read some of the earlier posts in the thread. So a couple of people who posted seem to think there’s nothing you could possibly learn about weight management from someone who has been thin their entire life? Really? Do you have any idea just how silly that sounds? We haven’t eaten anything for the last how many decades? Pffft. I’ll agree I may have an extra mouse or two running on my internal wheel, but you know…</p>
<p>My eating habits aren’t ultra healthy, but I’ll tell you some things I don’t do and some differences between how I eat and I’ve seen others eat whom it appears have trouble keeping off weight. I don’t drink soft drinks. I rarely drink alcohol (maybe a 1/2 glass twice a month). I don’t go through whole containers of ice cream or whole big bags of chips at one time. If I go to a place like Olive Garden, I’m not finishing off that plate of pasta. I’ll probably look and think, hey, maybe a 1/3 of that. I say I like sweets too much, but no, I don’t eat the whole package of cookies in one sitting. I also have no idea if this makes any difference, but I don’t think I’m capable of wolfing food down at the speed I’ve seen some people do. </p>
<p>But no, I couldn’t possibly know anything, could I? I’m definitely <em>not</em> a food expert, but I have observed a few things over the years. </p>
<p>Yep, I’m getting a little more blunt in my old age. </p>
<p>When I read about folks consuming way too much of certain kinds of foods or drink, my reaction is that, wow, it must be difficult to crave whatever it is to that degree. I don’t know how exactly one solves that. From what I’ve read various people write, seems like food tracking, cutting back on carbs, and avoiding trigger foods altogether helps a lot of people.</p>
<p>But when we all talked about how removing those temptations also had the unexpected side benefit of “calming” those cravings somewhat – thus creating a virtuous cycle where we didn’t feel as drawn in by the cookies / crackers / bread / whatever and thus didn’t have as much temptation to manage – you pooh-poohed it!</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean weight loss isn’t possible. It just means you have to be honest with yourself when you either slip up or consciously decide to let it slide and put it on the back burner. Are you suggesting that there are ways in which to lose weight / maintain one’s desired weight that involve eating whatever you like whenever you like with no regard to anything? Because that just isn’t life. There is no such thing (pun intended) as a free lunch. Unless you are blessed with a super-speedy metabolism, you’re going to have to make choices to lose or maintain weight. That is how things work.</p>
<p>Nice job on the first day, CCC, but maybe an B for the Gundry plan. Grapes and peaches are both high-sugar fruits. Apples and slightly green bananas are my usuals. Carrots are the one high-sugar vegetable that needs to be eaten in limited quantities, and only raw. Those crackers at night are not good. I’m not sure about your salad dressing, but watch for sugars - even many italian dressings have corn syrup.</p>
<p>One of my favorite things about the Gundry diet is it changes the way you shop more than the way you eat. Most of what is in the house (other than our “kid’s food”) can be eaten in unlimited quantities. Others are easy to count: 2 fruits per day, 1/2 cup of nuts per day (4 handfuls), 2 eggs per day, 2 slices of cheese per day, etc. </p>
<p>A hot topic in nutrition research right now is lectins, found in large quantities in wheat and corn, legumes, nightshade plants, dairy, and eggplant parmesan. It’s worth noting that these foods are also high on the allergy lists. Ricin, the poison made from castor beans, is a lectin. They work by binding to the insulin receptors on fat cells telling them to grow, but also block the leptin receptors that would tell them to stop growing. They are also tied to immune response like arthritis. Glucosimine works by binding to the lectins. Most lectins are blocked by the digestive system, but NSAIDs increase gut permeability allowing more into the bloodstream - a Catch-22 for people with arthritis.</p>
<p>I took glucosamine for years for joint pain, something I no longer need as the pain has disappeared with a low-carb diet.</p>
<p>Exercise is not a good way to manage weight. It is essential for good health and fitness, but not effective as a weight loss method. It can HELP, but not nearly as much as food management. I am a competitive distance runner and gradually gained weight in my 40s and 50s. The little tweaks I occasionally tried to do to reduce what I ate didn’t work, and I really did a lot of exercise, so I thought I just wasn’t ever going to weigh what I wanted to weigh. In 2008 I joined WW at Work to support some staff members who were very obese, and I wound up losing 30 pounds that have stayed off! I didn’t count points and I didn’t deprive myself. I just had to make serious adjustments in what I was eating and learned some good substitutions. Now I eat all the foods I want to eat, but have been much better about moderating. I’m not perfect, but I stay in a 3-4 pound range- gain a little in the winter months and seem to be lower in the summer.</p>
<p>I’ve read (from reputable sources) that experienced runners are more efficient and don’t burn as much as newer runners. I can say that running and LOTS of dedicated exercise has helped in my 25 pound weight loss.</p>
<p>The Cardinal Fang Pastry Diet has you biking across Europe, stopping at every bakery you come to. Works like a charm. If you’re doing loaded bike touring in mountains, you can eat anything you want and you will still lose weight. Sadly, many people have jobs that prevent them from going on weeks- or months-long bike trips.</p>
<p>I’ll tell you why I’m skeptical of most diet plans: they don’t work. We know they don’t work, because we can look at the millions of people who go on diets, and then look at whether people are, on average, losing weight. They’re not. And then we can look for people who have lost a significant amount of weight and kept it off for five years-- almost no one.</p>
<p>Oh and Deborah: you don’t want to eat an entire plate of spaghetti, so you don’t. You don’t want to eat very quickly, so you don’t. You don’t want to eat an entire package of cookies, so you don’t. You don’t like alcohol, so you don’t drink it. I’m having difficulty figuring out what advice you’re giving to the people who do like spaghetti, cookies and alcohol. Be you?</p>
<p>Cardinal Fang, you don’t have to find what I wrote useful or helpful. Somebody else might. Like anyone else, I feel entitled to offer up my input. You can pooh-pooh it all you like, doesn’t make you more right.</p>
<p>Oh, and there’s nothing sanctimonious about acknowledging that people find a task difficult.</p>
<p>Difficult because changing habits can be hard, and difficult because dealing with any kind of bodily addiction to or craving for a substance is hard.</p>
<p>Exercise certainly helps, but you figure a 10 mile run burns 1000 calories (roughly). It is pretty darn easy to put that back on with a big breakfast! That’s what I had to learn- just how many calories were in some of the things I thought were not particularly bad. H and I thought one of those giant Arby’s BLT deli-style sandwiches was a “light” dinner- of course you had some fries or something with it! WW taught me that the thing was pretty fatal!</p>
<p>I find that not eating after dinner, ie 7pm, is very doable only because dinner had no carbs and the entire day had fewer carbs than the typical American diet would have. It works for me at least.</p>
<p>Another comment for people who are serious about losing a little weight - you might not want to be “fanatic” about your nutritional intake, but seriously, until you start thinking and approaching each meal/snack with a thought to if you want it/need it/can justify it, you won’t have control. It doesn’t have to be an intense thought, but overtime becomes a quick survey in your head - “ok, I know we’re having pasta for dinner tonight - that means I should plan breakfast and lunch with as little carbs as possible” - or “Ah! Cupcakes in the breakroom at work! I REALLY want one! Well, I want it but I’m not that hungry so how about I just take 1/2 of one and eat it real slow”</p>