<p>Pizzagirl, your eating habits are larkish, anyway. I’m the opposite. I’m never, ever hungry in the morning, but there is no way I could not eat after 6 pm. That’s usually when I start cooking dinner. And although it probably isn’t good, I normally have a late evening snack because I feel hungry for one. </p>
<p>I’m a believer in working with one’s body rather than against it. I would never go on a diet that required me to not eat after 6 pm, because it would mean 6 hours of being ravenously hungry every single day. I’d rather control my weight with exercise, and with (as much as possible) removal of temptations that I know I’d succumb to.</p>
<p>I’m an owl and I have to eat breakfast. I’m also often hungry late at night. We never have dinner at 6 pm since dh is never ever home that early.</p>
<p>I have a fixed meal plan on weekdays and a different fixed meal plan on weekends. It is all food I enjoy. The calories are under 1,000 for the group of food I have through early afternoon. Dinner is additional calories.</p>
<p>I eat a different dinner every night that rotates between 6-8 ounces of chicken, filet mignon, scallops, salmon, pork, tuna or chicken salad and my favorite grilled sweet Italian sausage. I add 6-8 ounces of either broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green beans, asparagus, salad or green peppers. During the fall I will add root vegetables like parsnip or beets to switch things up. I use butter or olive oil on the vegetables for taste.</p>
<p>On the days I work, I get up at 4:30 am. I have to force myself to eat at 5:00. I’m not hungry, don’t feel like eating, but since I won’t get lunch until 12:30 or 1:00 (occasionally if we’re swamped, possibly later), there is NO WAY I could function without having had breakfast. </p>
<p>I normally love breakfast, but force feeding yourself an omelet at 5:00 in the morning is a real challenge.</p>
<p>OP, my suggestion for losing 10 lbs is to use one of the online food diaries, such as LoseIt or MyFitnessPal.</p>
<p>Takes all of the guesswork out of how much you can eat. You will have to weigh and/or measure reasonably accurately, but if you tend to eat the same things it gets simpler and simpler to record your consumption.</p>
<p>I was successful using a food diary on paper previously, but in the intervening couple of years the free apps have vastly improved.</p>
<p>Along the lines of Consolation’s suggestion, my wife and I used weight watchers online. Very easy to input foods and the points are simple. I need simple. Has worked for us. We have each dropped 35 lbs over the course of a few months with very little pain.</p>
<p>The only thing I don’t like about MFP is that it sets daily goals for protein and carbs that don’t work for me AT ALL, because I have to follow a low carb WOE in order to control T2 diabetes. The program would have me eating a ludicrously high amount of carbs that would put my blood glucose through the roof. I haven’t found a way to reset it. But it is easy enough to ignore.</p>
<p>Gee, this thread has been busy. Who knew it was such an interesting subject? </p>
<p>Thanks to all who suggested using an on-line food recorder like My fitness Pal or others. I honestly doubt I will do that. I work from home on a computer all day and even though I’m still on it now, I can’t think of anything I’d rather not do is spend more time in front of the computer! Plus, I am becoming AWARE of what I eat, but do not want to weigh food portions, etc. Just making changes in not eating breads at home or at a restaurant is big. Not having eggplant parm, which I love, is big. Not for awhile. Not eating french fries is easy. Won’t miss it. Buying and eating a ton more fruit and veggies-easy. Staying away from Diet Coke and chocolate-harder, but will do it.</p>
<p>Not having pastas or potatoes as often is fine. Having more proteins is fine. I definitely don’t want to become so obsessive that I weigh my foods. And write everything down. It may take a bit longer that way, but that’s fine too.</p>
<p>Nrdsb4: Very cute! </p>
<p>Today was day 1 in my new eating habits: </p>
<p>Breakfast: an egg with a piece of Canadian bacon and a slice of cheese on top of a low carb piece of toast. 3 or 4 grapes
mid morning snack: a peach
lunch: a small low carb wrap with Hummus and veggies
mid afternoon snack: a handful of grapes and a yogurt
dinner: sliced turkey breast over salad with feta cheese and pecans
evening snack: carrot sticks w/hummus and cheese & crackers</p>
<p>How did I do? (Don’t be tooooo critical! :D)</p>
<p>I am a real believer in weight watchers. It is the only method that made me realize the actual quantity of food that I was eating and taught me healthful eating habits. I use the app on my smartphone to track everything that I eat for the day and it keeps me “honest”. I lost 15 pounds on WW from October to March of this past year. I kept it off until a few weeks ago when I had a two week vacation spree and put on 5 pounds. I am now tracking my food intake again because I need to get back on track before it gets worse. </p>
<p>Your day today ^^ would be too much for me to lose weight.
Today I had two cups of coffee in morning. I am not a big breakfast person and didn’t eat until lunch, when I had 2 oz of boars head maple ham (just the deli slices rolled up, no bread), a plum, and a weight watchers ice cream sandwich.
Midday snack was a cup of grapes.
Dinner was 1/2 a sweet potato, steamed asparagus, 5 oz grilled pork chop, honeydew melon, small salad w ginger dressing and 5 oz of red wine. Yes, I actually weigh and measure.
Weight watchers gives you a certain amount of points per day and all foods and drinks have point equivalences. I like to spend more points on dinner rather than equally through the day but you can spread them out however works for you. I don’t eat hummus much since it is too many points. I would rather spend my points other ways. </p>
<p>I highly recommend that you join weight watchers.</p>
<p>Just logged in a saw that hummus is not bad point wise on weight watchers. I was mistaken. Two tablespoons of hummus is 2 points, which IS a reasonable diet snack. </p>
<p>Your day is fine CCC as long as you are watching your quantity.</p>
<p>CCC, I don’t track intake, and I don’t try to lose weight as I’ve always been very thin. I think your meals for the day sounded fine, but what do I know. ;)</p>
<p>seiclan, That may be the worst pitch for Weight Watchers in the history of the world. </p>
<p>(1) You ate less than 900 calories for the day, by my reckoning.
(2) You weigh each gram of food that goes in your mouth.
[(3) Doesn’t Weight Watchers have you eat any green vegetables?]</p>
<p>You managed to lose some weight, but then you gained some of it right back. So, this does not seem to me to be either appealing or effective. If there’s no way to lose weight except by starving yourself and obsessing about food, it’s just not worth it because it’s painful and unpleasant and you can’t keep it up. (Plus, green vegetables are yummy.) </p>
<p>I mean, if we check in with you five years from now, are you still going to be weighing every grape that goes in your mouth? That’s no way to live, and it turns out, people don’t actually live that way in the long term.</p>
<p>Lol cardinal fang! When I read it back it doesn’t sound great but I do think that losing 10% of my entire body weight over a 6 month period is good. I have already lost 2 of the 5 regained pounds. I am a small person. I always gain weight if I eat over 1200 calories a day. I am only 5’ 1" so keeping my slim is a conscious effort now. I eat tons of veggies. Today I had salad and lots of steamed asparagus. But yes, when I am in losing weight mode, I weigh and measure everything. When dining out I pre plan what I will order and eyeball the sizes. They teach you how to do this at the meetings. For instance, your palm of your hand without fingers is equivalent to about 3 oz of chicken etc. </p>
<p>I only weigh And measure when losing weight. When I am maintaining I don’t do this I just try to make good choices. </p>
<p>I have been doing this for over 20 years. It works for me.</p>
<p>Hi CCC - I have been following a low-carb eating agenda for a few years now and have lost about 30 pounds (still working on another 8 or so but I think I am going to have to ramp up the exercise to be successful).</p>
<p>Anyway, I have not read the entire thread, but I have two possibly-helpful thoughts about your food for today. First, grapes are a pretty high-sugar fruit. Unless you are super-attached to them, you might think about substituting berries (which have more fiber and less sugar). For me, eating berries is just as satisfying as grapes, so that’s an easy switch for me. Also for me, it’s just as satisfying to eat the cheese without the crackers, so that’s more carbs that you might be able to cut fairly painlessly.</p>
<p>CFang, WW doesn’t “make” you eat anything. Green vegetables are basically free food on the plan. It encourages plenty of vegetables, fruit, protein and low fat dairy. You don’t count calories; you manage points, which are based on fat, carbs, protein and fiber, NOT calories. You don’t have to be “religious” and you have splurge points built in. You can eat whatever you want, within reason. I regularly “bake in” treats that I like so I don’t feel deprived. </p>
<p>It’s very sound and it incorporates exercise. It doesn’t put you “too low” on calories. </p>
<p>And yes, for the rest of my life I will have to be mindful about food, or I’ll gain weight and feel sluggish. That’s life. I have to “manage” it the way I have to manage my money - you can’t just eat or spend with abandon. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy food, going out, etc.</p>
<p>lol on the grapes! I almost never eat them, but had just bought a batch for H and S2 and that’s what I had in the house at the moment for fruit besides peaches! I almost always have blueberries and raspberries in the house instead of grapes, but I know S2 likes them so I bought them for a change.</p>
<p>I’m not sure I’m ready to become fanatic yet. Just changing my mindset to make some changes is the 1st step. I can become stricter as I go along?</p>
</p>
(Don’t be tooooo critical! :D)</p>