Did anyone else used to be completely oblivious in their "healthy" efforts to lose weight?

Here were some of my dieting mistakes before I found this site, most of which sprung from the belief that "because it's from Whole Foods, it will help me lose weight":

• Frequent dinner: one avocado, spread across 5-6 large rice cakes or 10-15 smaller hors dourves crackers with shredded romano cheese on top. Little did I know this "light, healthy dinner" probably clocked in at around 600 calories
• Organic trail mix in laaaarge quantities
• A LOT of soy milk - the nonfat versions - in chocolate and vanilla. It's soy, which isn't milk, so it MUST help me lose weight, right?
• Cheese on crackers is a healthy snack that I should eat to hold me over for dinner.
• Even though it's ice cream, it's fine because it's Half Baked.
• Odwalla drinks and bars are very light and healthy.

Anybody else learn how ignorant they were before they started counting calories?

Hmmm, let's see. I would go to asian places and order deep fried tofu. I would be so proud of myself because I was eating tofu! And it tasted great. I found out the reason it tasted so great was because it's like a million calories.

I'd like a double cheese burger with no condiments and a small fry thankyou

I ate nuts by the pound! nuts are healthy...

Just one coffee couldn't hurt even if it was every day...Biggby's iced mocha mocha!!! because I'd given up so much already...

I just said no thanks to a small chocolate shake at Arby's for 510 calories! Before I would have thought, oh one small shake can't hurt!

granola bars!

little did I know that they were incredibly high in sugar. eventually I realized they didn't hold me over very long either. some types of granola bars are good, though. Atkins advantage bars don't have too much sugar. Balance bars are like candy bars, but healthy! Eat them in moderation, though.

"I'll have a veggie burger, all the toppings, with large fries and a DIET COKE"

 

oh yes, because drinking a diet coke evened it all out in my head, and the salad on the burger made it a balanced meal... 

I was shocked when I actually started logging the number of calories in the food I would eat.  I quickly realized that even the healthy meals I would eat probably had 800+ calories just because of the quantity I would eat.

It really has helped me to log all my calories because I never would have guessed before that I was capable of eating 1,000+ calories in one meal without even being stuffed.  If I ate to the point of being stuffed, that was 1,500+ calories.

I would guess that few people not counting calories have the slightest idea how many calories they really eat in a day and I would bet most are eating a lot more than they think.  I certainly was.

LOL nice thread and yes, for 27 years I was totally in the dark about the "right way" to lose weight and get healthy. I ignored common sense and felt the only way I would lose weight was through starving myself -- I was SO wrong. I stopped believing in the popular fads and media and did my own research and 6.5 months later, I'm 65 lbs lighter and absolutely LOVE the way I'm doing it now!

I went from 319lbs to 253lbs since June and I'm so glad I finally saw the light -- there is no secret, it's all about balance, moderation, staying active, and eating REAL food. Blah, no more "100 cal" packs fo me LOL.

Snackwells (enough said).

I use to think cutting way back and eating very little was the way to go...little did I know that as soon as I ate good quality foods and more of them I'd lose so much weight. :-)

yes, i totally agree in the fact that the "100 cal packs" are deceptive. heres something that made me laugh. my mom has a friend who has a son my age. and, sadly enough, their family's eating habits are far from good. anways, once, her son was looking at a box of girl scout cookies, samoas i think, and was like, "wow! girl scout cookies are actually good?" and his mom is like, what?!? and hes like, "yeah, it says here two cookies are only 140 calories!!"

haha... those 100 cal packs make 100 cals look like a smaller amount and healthy....

That's funny that you mention that because a ton of people at my work are totally clueless...they think "organic", "all natural" or if it's from Whole Food or Wild Oats means not only can you eat a ton of it but also that it's healthy...

It's all about portions.....

Kashi bars are good! I get them at Costco and they come in a variety pack.

  I used to work at a gym and people would grub on all those "energy bars."  One of them has about 40 grams of sugar (might as well just drink a Mountain Dew!)

I was fooled by low-fat labels into thinking candy was healthy along with muesli bars which I decided to eat more of :\ then there were times when I'd eat 2-3 avocadoes AS A SNACK.

i thought that eating more would make me stronger / bigger... (...yea...) so it wasnt uncommon for me to eat 10 (yes 10!) meat sandwiches in a sitting (sandwiches healthy right?). Thats about 1500 calories in the BREAD alone! They werent even that good! ohhh if i would have understood calories like i do now...i could have planned those calories into SOOOO much cake and icecream ...oh well....

I once replaced soda with juice....genius....

Before I started measuring food, I had NO idea how many calories I was consuming.  I made fairly decent choices (mostly balanced, mostly healthy) but I  ate far too large a portion.  I thought "all I had was cereal and milk" ... but I had three servings of the cereal and probably 2 cups of milk!  And then a big glass of orange juice (at LEAST 12 oz).  And I thought that was a "light" breakfast! 

 

 

I think I was probably most naive about muffins!  Or any baking type of thing, like buns, scones, cakes, cookies...because I was thinking it was mostly carbs..but there's so much fat in those things!  Also things like dips/spreads/cheeses.  I guess I didn't realize how little of those things it takes to add up to A LOT of calories. 

 

Here were some of my dieting mistakes before I found this site, most of which sprung from the belief that "because it's from Whole Foods, it will help me lose weight":

• Frequent dinner: one avocado, spread across 5-6 large rice cakes or 10-15 smaller hors dourves crackers with shredded romano cheese on top. Little did I know this "light, healthy dinner" probably clocked in at around 600 calories
• Organic trail mix in laaaarge quantities
• A LOT of soy milk - the nonfat versions - in chocolate and vanilla. It's soy, which isn't milk, so it MUST help me lose weight, right?
• Cheese on crackers is a healthy snack that I should eat to hold me over for dinner.
• Even though it's ice cream, it's fine because it's Half Baked.
• Odwalla drinks and bars are very light and healthy.

Anybody else learn how ignorant they were before they started counting calories?

 

granola. I always thought it was so healthy, and it tasted so awesome, that I never even thought to look at the calories.

oh, and the mindset of, "you ate so well today you can have a (fill in the blank with something super high in carbs)." yeah at the end of the day all that healthy eating was for nothing.

Sharz96, I did the same exact thing with the cereal. I could easily down 3 bowls of cereal and milk at one time and I never thought twice because all I ate was cereal. yeah.. that has been my biggest change.

Yep granola was definitely one for me too! 

Honestly I can't remember how I used to eat really =P I remember when I started counting calories it was like, =O MY GOODNESS!!!!!!

One thing I do remember is Triscuits though!  I seriously ate about a box a day because they are healthy and full of fiber!!! right?? haha =P

I remember my snacks last year for finals that I thought were healthy...and uhh..yeah not good haha

*saltines with peanut butter (LOTS and it was the kind with hydrogenated oils!)
*yogurt covered raisins and pretzels
*trail mix
*dried fruit (but had lots of crap added)
*sunflower seeds (no idea there were so many cals for so little!)
*granola bars (with lots of sugar added)

That's about all I remember right now!  When I started this post I didn't even remember that much though =P haha

Oh and before I found all those LOVELY foods I used to not eat breakfast or lunch, then come home and make a triple-decker PB&J (white bread and icky PB and jelly) and have a frozen pizza for dinner, and that was it.  Or pizza pockets, or other frozen thing of the sort =\  I never ate until night and only those kinds of foods...needless to say I didn't lose ANY weight that way!  I did that for 4th-9th grade and that's when I packed on the pounds!