Posts by mdillman3

it's probably quite a bit of both those reasons.  I know i'm not getting enough healthy foods, i'm adjusting to a new job so i'm having trouble getting smart choices for meals and at the same time i'm trying to restrict calories (to 1600 a day, which hasn't worked once)...also, because of the new job and also largely because my husband and i bought a house two months ago, I'm constantly feeling stressed.  I'll try doing yoga and making healthier meal choices!  thank you for helping me realize i'm not hopeless!

definitely just take it one day at a time, you will get there.  Every little bit towards the right direction is going to help you get more motivated and keep committed to yourself.  If you can't find a friend to go to the gym, go for 10 minutes here and there as a break, lift a few weights, walk on the treadmill, choose healthier snacks, etc.  You just need to keep telling yourself that every little think helps...it's a slow and gradual process, not something that needs to happen overnight.  Good luck to you!!!

Oh oh oh....and Swan Song by Robert McCammon is my ABSOLUTE favorite book.....it's about 900 pages but it is an EXCELLENT book.

thank you for the awesome post.  It led me to another awesome video, which led me to the website:  improveverywhere.com

Which is full of awesome fun little videos of things like this.  I just spent over an hour on their website...haha...i wish I lived in NYC and could participate!!

I wanted to ask this same question...I hit my maintenance goal around December and I kept counting up until this past week...I was getting too obsessive also and I could feel myself creating a problem and unhealthy relationship with food (almost every thought throughout the day had something to do with food).  I stopped counting abruptly last week and I've felt great since.  I have more or less stayed around the same weight and I can't help but do a mental count everyday, but it feels much better than when i was counting.  but i know it has only been a week, so I hope i stay around this weight, since i just bought a new bathing suit that I'm really looking forward to wearing.

Original Post by crunchynut:

this was kinda inspired by reading through the 'remember the days..' topic about how the majority of us used to eat whatever we liked when we were younger and still somehow managed to maintain.

i used to be like that.. i'd probably average 3000 calories a day (more at the weekend) with no real exercise and i think my heighest weight ever was 135 at 5 foot 4, and that was when i pigged out more than ever for six weeks straight over a summer. i was a little chubby, but not huge. then i got an eating disorder, went down to below 100lb and now i'm at about 120, but still addicted to counting.

my question, really, is has anyone ever just thought 'RIGHT, i'm going to completely stop counting and eat whatever i want' and not ended up ballooning because of it? like almost maintained in the way that they used to?

i'm not expecting to maintain on like three chocolate muffins and milkshakes a day obviously, but i mean just with an unrestricted lifestyle in general. i'm still young and i want to enjoy being a teenager, without obsessing over calories/nutrition any longer. any experiences?

 This is almost creepy, but I'm 5'4", always maintained my weight around 130 lbs throughout my life by eating WHATEVER I wanted...then after getting married I gained and got up to about 143 and decided to start counting calories and lost weight.  I'm down to 123 give or take a pound or two and I JUST decided to stop counting calories (literally like last night while I was eating crawfish and deciding it would be too difficult to figure out the calories in the 3 lbs b/c i didn't know what they were cooked in).  So today is the first full day I am saying to myself...eat reasonable amounts of food, watch my weight (by weighing every couple days and eating more or less by what i weigh) and finally be free of the counting of calories...

So, I'm still going to come on this site to track my weight and to read forums and stuff, but I'm not going to count anymore...I already feel sooo free.  Not knowing what calories I still have to eat/don't have to eat-makes me not think about food constantly.  So hopefully it is possible, but I'm still so shocked to see a post that is SO similar to what I've been thinking about today and yesterday.

okay...even though this post is going towards a very silly side...I just wanted to add to it (in a serious way)....THANK YOU people of Calorie Count....it was really relieving to find a group of people who support embryonic stem cell research and understand the benefits of it.  I am so happy the ban was lifted and spoke that joy yesterday at my office...which turned out to be a BAD idea.  a debate was quickly started (see my journal entry) and it has left me with such a horrible sense of distance from the people I work with, so I've been reading up about it since and almost posted a topic in the lounge but was afraid of the same response I got here at work....so it makes me SO happy too see all of you supporting this also!

Original Post by gem86:

I refuse to buy skinny jeans. Just because Im 5'2 and have curves. that being said. I also have muscular calves, always have and it kills me because I cant even buy knee high boots because they wont zip shut. I have a pair of imposter uggs and I cant tuck my pants into the books cuz my calves take up all the room.

 

I am the same way...my calves are enormous and I don't understand why (genes I guess).  The skinny jeans look is cute with the flats everyone is buying these days, but I'm also curvy and short, so the flats won't happen and neither will the jeans!  I definitely will look into the 'straight' legs soon though after all the advice from this post.  Do you guys remember when 'straight' jeans were the ones only 'nerds' wore in high school (i remember, because they're the only jeans i had until my senior year...).  Seems like these trends are taking us to yet another new 'style'.  it's harder to keep up now that i'm getting older (i turn 26 tomorrow!) 

Original Post by littlegraycloud:

If you feel you carry your weight badly, then it might be worth your time to start weight training.  Building muscles might help.  But that would also have to be done with an increase in calories, just to make up for the calories you burn doing so. 

The link gi-jane posted is really good.  I would suggest going there.

 weight training...definitely what you need.  Losing weight won't make a difference, you're at your lowest weight that's considered healthy for your height, eat a lot of protein and a maintenance amount of calories and try a program like New Rules of Lifting for Women (a book)...it's fun and very good for toning up!

Haha, yea, I've been here for two mardi gras prior to this, but luckily never encountered these.  I like just thinking amazing desserts like this don't exist, that way i don't seek them out.  I had a "cinnamon & sugar" filled kind with white icing.  She didn't say cream cheese, and I looked on the site and it also didn't say 'cinnamon cream cheese', so i'm hoping that'll mean there were a LITTLE less calories in them.  I guessed about 300-350 for each I think?  i have a feeling there were more though...oh well!!  I won't weigh myself for a while anyway because I just started NROLFW the other day and my legs are S O R E.  So sore, that I know they're retaining water so my weight will be higher for a bit regardless.  I'll eat a defecit like I said, for a few days...this weight thing is exhausting, but I worked hard to get to maintenance and I'm not letting this awesome cake ruin it right before the summer is here (you know, which in louisiana is about a month away).

Yea, I'm not sure where you were reading your information to try to solve this problem, but you probably need almost 2000 a day just to MAINTAIN the weight you're at now.  If you want to gain, I'd say eat about 2200 or slightly more for a while and you'll get back to 119 or whatever in no time (well, a couple of months really.)  Then eat at LEAST between 1800 and 2000 (depending on your work out days.)

No wonder you were still losing.

^^ I don't count sugar free gum, but if you're having a NON sugar free mint, you may want to count it.  The brach's mints have 20 freakin calories in each stupid mint.  The cinnamon ones have even more.  I can eat three of those a day and consider it a 'snack'. 

And no, not obsessive to count ketchup or other things that will amount to anything over 10 calories throughout the day (that's my rule, haha).

yep, i dream about food pretty often.  Vivid dreams too, and during the dream I feel guilty for eating all the pastries and donuts and other awesome foods I don't eat anymore (not because I'm restricting, but because they're so full of terrible things and no nutrients).  But I gotta say, I wake up feeling satisfied, like I really did eat them, and the guilty feeling in the dream goes away completely when i realize it didn't happen.  I love those dreams!

whoops...double post

Hey everyone!

I'm so terrible at keeping up with you all...everyone sounds like they're doing great...  The protein bars sound great.  Is splenda proven to be bad for people?  Even in moderation?

i'm jealous about the cruises! I went to Progreso and Cozumel on our cruise...I think those are the only two islands we went to, I can't quite remember now though.  It was carnival so all the food was free and it wasn't gormet but it was all tasty, especially the sushi bar!  And the 24 hr pizza!  I had so much fun that week!

The writing is doing good, I turned it into the double spaced 'manuscript' font of courier new (i think that's what i'll need to use, i need to do a little more research on that one) and it's over 56 pages now!  Haha, it would be about 23 of the original pages i was using, with the times new roman single spaced.  I figured i'd go double spaced because i plan to print it and go through it to refresh myself on everything i have so far and change any errors.  It's going great though, which is really exciting!

My husband and I are Steelers fans, so last night was a great night for us...not so much for my maintenance or healthy eating though...I ate SOO much (probably over 4,000 calories...ick...oh well).  It was all really good though, and I'm eating a defecit of about 500 a day (so i'm eating between 1300-1500/day) for the next few days to get back down to where I was.  It was fun to take a day off though (and I didn't enter any of my calories, which I hardly ever do.)

Hope you all have a great week!!