<p>^I am having cramps a lot…could it possibly be because I hate salt? I consume lots of food rich in potassium, but it seems not helping much. I can cramp up any muscle in my body, even my belly muscle, it is very uncomfortable and sometime I cannot finish my swimming routine if I cannot get rid of my foot cramp in a water. I might start eating more pickles and lox as these are practically only salty food that I actually like.</p>
<p>^^ New tidbit there. I, too, thought low potassium was the culprit for that so I’ve been trying to be sure to consume banana or mango.</p>
<p>^Banans are not that rich in potassium, there are other foods that I richer and I eat mangoes all the time also. Google potassium rich and you will see whole list of foods, but they seem not helping me much.</p>
<p>You can cramp from lack of potassium too. Maybe also magnesium. I had this problem last summer playing tennis (2-3 hours in 80-95 degrees) and added potassium and that didn’t help so I added salt and that solved the problem.</p>
<p>^I will definitely keep that in mind. I have had this problem for years and it is more in a summer as I swim in a summer only. I will start eating pickles, they are zero calories anyway and my BP is OK, so no concern for salt intake. I was told before that I probably do not consume enough salt. So, prunes (for potassium) and pickles from now on, I wonder how they taste together, I will try!</p>
<p>MiamiDAP has me blocked, so someone might want to tell her that swimmer foot cramps are frequently caused by not relaxing the muscle for a period of time- i.e. holding the foot in the same position which can cause it to cramp up.</p>
<p>I can’t say I have ever been to the cheesecake factory, my d & her friends used to like it in high school, they would go after a day of shopping and movies downtown. </p>
<p>I don’t generally go to chains and then they are local chain restaurants. [But he still doesn’t have one in my neighborhood](<a href=“http://tomdouglas.com/”>http://tomdouglas.com/</a>). We don’t go out to eat more than a handful of times a month unless we are on vacation, so I want to go someplace that I have heard about where I can try new things. Also i dont usually order something that I make myself, although a brewery in Ds college town has a wonderfully eclectic menu & I love their Mac & cheese.</p>
<p>I also like going out for lunch instead of dinner if that works better w my schedule. The portions are smaller/cheaper and so you don’t have to carry around a doggy bag.</p>
<p>I also admit I am pretty picky about what I eat. I don’t want warehoused chicken, fish harvested with unsustainable practices or fruit reeking of pesticides.
[Not this picky.](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube) almost.
Plus it has to be yummy.
I mostly just travel to where my kids live, and those areas have good selection of places to eat. I would undoubtably have to learn to not be so picky if I lived some place with less density.</p>
<p>But to address thinking about calories, I guess I do it automatically and my taste buds have adjusted for the most part. Things that are deep fried, battered, with dairy based sauces are more caloric than things that are closer to the state they were in nature.
Also harder for me to digest. Going to restaurants that don’t serve heaping portions helps too.</p>
<p>Re cramps, I would expect that dehydration, lack of calcium/ magnesium to be more of an issue than sodium . I used to get a twitch on my lower eyelid and consuming more dairy stopped it. You could also try an Epsom salt bath ( which is actually magnesium sulfate & what they used to administer intravenously o prevent women going into preterm labor. ) It relaxes smooth muscle, try about a cup.</p>
<p>I received this for Christmas and I am pleasantly surprised at the results. It involves a lot of motions that I don’t normally do (boxing, short sprints, soccer goal tending, etc.) and it really woke my muscles up. The down side is that I am sure that I look completely ridiculous when I am using it.</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> EA Sports Active: Nintendo Wii: Video Games](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/EA-Sports-Active-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B001MBUGLY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340833384&sr=8-1&keywords=ea+active]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/EA-Sports-Active-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B001MBUGLY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340833384&sr=8-1&keywords=ea+active)</p>
<p>What not to do- go to the store hungry and breaking the rule if you don’t buy it you can’t eat it. Hit Trader Joe’s this afternoon and I was hungry. I thought about buying a bar of dark chocolate but forgot.(I don’t crave sweets so dark chocolate is great since I can have just one square and stop) I bought my S a box of mini crackers with peanut butter. The crackers are not something I normally buy. Got to my car and thought I will have a couple of crackers, the next mistake was instead of just grabbing a few I brought the box to the front seat. I proceeded to eat the entire box on my drive home.</p>
<p>miami, a knowledgeable person told us that, “Swimmer foot cramps are frequently caused by not relaxing the muscle for a period of time- i.e. holding the foot in the same position which can cause it to cramp up.” You might want to consider relaxing it periodically before it starts to cramp. It is such an uncomfortable feeling.</p>
<p>Mom 60, I used to go to the trader joes by my school because it was easier to go there than the one by my house in terms of energy level for shopping.
However, by the time I would go, it would be about 4pm and I was starving, plus it was a good hour away from home.
So I would just have a few snacks to hold me over.
Some Mochi iice cream or wasabi chips, or Thai peanuts.
And some pita chips.
& mini peanut butter cups.
By the time I got home I wasn’t hungry anymore!</p>
<p>I’m not a researcher but I do think if you want to lose weight you have to do two things: (1) reduce caleries going into your body and (2) increase the caleries going out by burning them off with exercise. </p>
<p>I do have some advice for folks trying to do that:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Skip meals. Start with breakfast. Instead of breakfast eat around 11 or noon when you are starving and then don’t eat again until dinner. That way you are essentially combining breakfast and lunch into one meal and by eating later in the day it will hold you until dinner. </p></li>
<li><p>Do not eat or snack before you go to bed. The last meal of the day is dinner. It will tough, at first, especially if you are used to eating but the body will soon get used to it and it won’t be as bad. </p></li>
<li><p>If you can’t skip a meal replace it with something better. A smoothie full of fruits and soy milk or soy powder is a great way to replace a meal. </p></li>
<li><p>Walk, job, play basketball or tennis, lift weights or all of the above. Do it with a friend. But do it. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>The most important thing I can say is soy milk. It is amazing. It tastes great. I love it. I had a smoothie today for lunch but used soy powder because for some reason the soy milk doesn’t mix well with the strawberries and peaches. It was divine. Here is the thing, I sometimes skip dinner and instead have a glass or two of soy milk. I don’t even need to loss weight but it that good! Good luck. It is tough for some folks to cut weight. Don’t stress about it, but if you want to cut, it can be done.</p>
<p>To the OP - I’ve lost almost 50 pounds in the last year and am sure the last few pounds to go will be that tummy bulge. Way back on the Weight Loss thread I asked about it and was advised to do planks, which I never get around to doing. I have noticed that the bulge disappears when I am laying down, though!</p>
<p>ACCecil- skipping meals is really bad advice. Frequent, small meals is a much better plan.</p>
<p>I agree skipping meals is really bad advice.
Breakfast like a king,
Lunch like a prince,
Dinner like a pauper.
Is a healthier way to eat and you will sleep better too.</p>
<p>Some people’s digestive systems work better with frequent meals, I seem to do better with spacing them out.</p>
<p>Last thing I would do is skip meals. I enjoy eating too much! I’ll eat less, eat better, but I’m going to eat!</p>
<p>A few years back I lost 30 pounds, and kept if off for a couple of years. When my mother went into her final decline, over the course of the 9 months I let my good habits slide. </p>
<p>Now, over a year after her death, I have the 30 pounds back. What worked for me last time was:</p>
<p>Exercise- vigorous on the elliptical 4x a week for about 50 minutes per session.</p>
<p>Food- 4 or 5 small meals a day. No snacks.</p>
<p>Minimized white bread, potatoes, pasta, etc. still had the occasional sweet.</p>
<p>I was not down to an ideal weight, was still 10-15 lbs. over my weight when I was younger. But the exercise & getting rid of bad carbs really cut down the belly. I could wear low rise jeans.</p>
<p>Now, between my belly and my arms, I can’t stand it. I am easing into the exercise again. It’s harder now than a few years back.</p>
<p>I don’t believe in skipping meals, but I suspect some people are perfectly happy on two meals a day. There was a very funny article in the New York Times Magazine about how Jenny Craig for the French didn’t have “Anytime bars” because they don’t believe in snacks. </p>
<p>I did have to laugh at ACCecil’s suggestions I am so not a fan of smoothies or soymilk! And breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, I feel ill if I don’t get it. To each his own!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Many people do really well on 2 meals a day. I only eat lunch and dinner, sometimes with a late afternoon snack, usually with an evening snack. I never eat breakfast. It’s kind of a trendy approach in fitness circles these days. There’s even a fancy new name for skipping breakfast: intermittent fasting.</p>
<p>It’s all part of figuring out what works for each person. The two meals a day schedule works for me because I have have huge fantastic meals. I try to “limit” lunch to 400 - 500 calories and dinner to 750 - 1000 calories.</p>
<p>I do best when I skip breakfast, too, as long as I am doing my ordinary routine it works very well. Once I begin eating for the day, I am hungry, just drinking all morning works to delay that.</p>