Posts by annacabana

congrats!!!

your story is very inspiring.  you lost weight the healthy way.  it sounds like grandma is very proud of you! :)

thank you so much, gi jane.  that's exactly what i needed to hear!  and i'm so glad that you're the one to respond.  you always give the best advice on the site. :)

yeah, don't feel guilty about food.  last night i over-ate quite a bit, and i actually felt good about it because i was able to eat foods that i normally don't let myself have.  and today i had some chocolate and cheese curls.  it takes some training, but you need to teach yourself to be ok with budgeting "bad" foods into your diet.  and you should still eat what you want, but your wants will change over time.  like now i'd rather have a bowl of fruit than a slice of cake, or carrots instead of potato chips.

a good example is my lunch today.  i went to arby's and had a regular roast beef with arby's sauce, a side salad with 1/2 packet of honey mustard dressing, and a diet blackberry iced tea.  that all added up to being about 430 calories.  you take the good, you take the bad, you take em both and there you have... a yummy, guilt-free meal!  moderation is one of the facts of life!

in my experience, it's always harder in the beginning.  and besides that, social situations are hard!  my friends, family, and my boyfriend's family all pressure me to eat.  there's always food around and if i don't eat, they start interrogating me about avoiding the food.  then i feel guilty for doing the right thing!

after you've been counting for a while, you'll be able to estimate how many calories things have in them just by looking at them.  i've gotten pretty good at that.  it's also easier to eyeball portions just because you've gotten so used to seeing how much a cup or an ounce is.  i think it also gets easier to say no.  now i only see food as calorie counts, and i debate whether or not the food is worth it.

another thing i do is avoid counting when i know food will be an issue, like on holidays.  like on easter, i ate until i was full and that was that.  i also indulged in some soda bread (my boyfriend's stepmom is irish) and a white chocolate cross.  i didn't bother to count because i knew it would upset me.  when it was all said and done, i think i more or less are my maintenece calories.

when i eat normally, i don't really do "free" calories.  i just eat what i want as long as the numbers add up.  but like i said before, i debate whether or not a food is worth the calories.  a mcdonald's double cheeseburger isn't worth the 440 calories to me, so i don't eat them.  but if i wanted one, i could work it into my calories every once in a while.  it's all about moderation.

it varies month to month for me.  and i'm perfectly fine while i'm on my period.  it's the 1-2 weeks before that are murder.  my general mood swings bounce from happy to crabby to hungry to horny lol.  and they're all so extreme!  i'm on the pill and it hasn't helped (or made anything worse).  all of my friends go through the same thing.

i always gain like 3 pounds of water weight too.  and it always fluctuates day to day during that time, which is annoying until i remember what time of the month it is!

i control the cravings by having just small amounts of what i crave.  or if it's a trigger food (for me, candy and bakery), i tell myself that i'll eat it later when i get a chance to get out and buy it.  when that time comes, my craving is over and i never end up buying or eating the sugary mess.  i save soooo many calories that way.

to combat the crabbiness, i go for a nice long walk.  by the time i'm done, i feel great and relaxed.

i hope this helps!

my mom does that to me.  we're both over weight. i'm a little heavier than she is, but at least i'm trying to lose weight and be healthy!

last week she made a comment to me that i need to exercise and do crunches to get rid of my belly.  i walk 4 miles a day!  what does she do?  go up and down the stairs twice and call that her daily exercise.  i tried to get her to count calories.  apparently to her, a meatloaf sandwich with a side of beef stroganoff and a glass of buttermilk is only 220 calories.  sadly i'm not kidding.

then she yells at me for having a bite of a cookie... while she's scarfing down cake.  don't even get me started on the belly poking and the "you need to lose some weight, chicky babe."  UGH.  i despise being called "chicky babe" by her, which makes it worse.  she tries to put me down all the time because she just won't try to lose weight if it takes more than 2 weeks.  i've completely given up on helping her lose weight because she won't listen.

she complains about her fat friends too.  she has no room to talk.

now when she starts putting me down, i start bragging about my weight loss.  she shuts up real quick.

i eat separately.  even though my boyfriend and i are both trying to lose weight, i have to eat smaller, more frequent meals or i'll binge.  so i typically don't eat when he eats, or anyone else in our families.  i feel bad cus his mom is just like your husband.  she cooks meals that have too many calories for me.  i feel bad not eating her food, but i have to do what's best for me.  she hasn't said anything about it yet, so i hope she's not upset.  my parents just got used to it.  my schedule prevents me from eating with them most of the time anyway.

just talk to your husband and tell him that you're doing it because you need to in order to lose weight and be healthier.  you could also look online and see if you can make his favorite recipes with healthier, lower calorie ingredients.  like using low fat cheese or whole grain pasta instead of the regular versions.  good luck!

i hear it from thin and fat people.  my mom is a classic yo-yo dieter.  she has been known to fill the house with cakes, pies, and cookies, then yell at me and tell me to control myself and resist temptation if i even look at the desserts.  she's overweight.  i got it from a skinny bitch at work too.  one time she said, to my face, that watching fat people eat disgusts her.  and she said that WHILE we were eating dinner.  WTH?!

i guess in theory you could lose weight if you wanted to.  but you also need to be willing to commit to a weightloss plan and a whole new lifestyle.  even then, it's hard!  you have good days where you think "boy, this is easy!"  then you'll have bad days when you just want to go eat everything that panera has in stock.  just like everything else in life, you have to work hard to get what you want.  critics don't take that into account.  they either don't understand, or they need to put you down in order to make themselves feel better about their own lifestyle.

my advice is to ignore what they say and vent about it in these forums.  keep counting your calories and working out.  don't let them get the best of you.  what they really want is for you to fail so they can put you down more.

bob kelso from scrubs once said, "nothing in life worth having comes easy."  words to live by.

bring some carrots and/or celery to snack on.  it's high in fiber and vitamins, and extremely low in calories.  some apple slices or grapes are good too if you want something sweet.

what i do to keep cravings, binges, and the need to snack at a minimum is break up my meals into many small mini meals.  none of my meals are over 400 calories and i eat them frequently throughout the day.  i really just graze all day and when i do, i never get the urge to snack outside of my planned meals/snacks.  it also prevents me from binging at night like i normally would.  maybe you could split your lunch up into 2 mini lunches?

omg i love them all!  i seriously can't decide which i like best.  the new vegetarian pot stickers are sooo good.  the portabello marsala is amazing too.  maybe that's my favorite of the new ones?  the beef tips portabello are great from the old meals.  i love the country breaded chicken too.  the red pepper alfredo is great too.

i think healthy choice has lower sodium than the other brands too.  i absolutely HATE lean cuisine.  the pasta tastes like paste.  smart ones are good, but healthy choice is my absolute fav.  i wish they were cheaper tho.  oh well, i guess i'm just paying for quality.

i was just so sick of being fat and lazy.  i lost 30 pounds a few years ago, got lazy and stopped watching what i ate and exercising.  then i gained back 50.  my boyfriend wants to lose weight, and he is currently in a biggest loser competition at his work.  that competition was the last bit of motivation we both needed.

we've been on track for about 2 months now.  he's down 13 pounds and i'm down 14.  we're working on this as a team.  i crab about the water weight that comes with my time of the month, and he listens and reminds me that it will come off soon and i'll be down even more weight.  and i help him by making sure he is eating enough calories and having well balanced meals.  we even have our cheat days/meals together.  we also go on nice, long walks together.  trying to lose weight has really brought us together.  he definitely helps keep me motivated.

i know this sounds mean, but extremely fat people keep me motivated too.  it seems like everywhere i go now, i see people who are morbidly obese.  at the mall, at the grocery store, everywhere!  i don't look down on them, but it reminds me that i'm losing weight because i don't want to be like that.  it pushes me to keep going even when i feel like giving up or taking a day off.

i don't hold on to my old way of thinking at all.  i can't eat like that anymore, and i don't feel lazy either.  after a cheat meal, i end up feeling sick and i spend a lot of time in the bathroom.  my body just won't let me eat garbage anymore.  i actually want to get out and exercise more.

the only thing i still want to change is my exercise habits.  i like walking outside, but i need to get myself moving on days when the weather isn't so great.  i keep telling myself to go mall walking, but i just haven't been able to motivate myself enough.  luckily the weather has been goreous the past few days.  hopefully i'll be in the exercise groove when the weather gets bad again so i'll want to hit the mall for a walk.

Original Post by onewookie:

Their primary purpose is to make you lighter by separating you from the contents of your wallet.

LOL you're absolutely right!  there's all kinds of useless garbage that is sold promising more weight loss, or a quick fix.  in the 1920's "sanitized tape worms" were sold as a diet aid.  this "sweat suit" is no different.  they just want your money.

walking is great exercise on it's own.  i lost 30 pounds from walking 30-60 minutes (1.5-3 miles) a day.  i don't own weights and i can't afford a gym membership, so walking is pretty much my only option, for now at least.  walking, combined with a proper low cal diet, is doing wonders for me.

my friend's sister thought about going on alli.  my friend showed me some info that alli actually tells you about that crapping in the pants thing.  apparently they describe it as looking like "grease from a pizza."  ew.  i told my bf about the greasy seepage and he was horrified.  i mean, it's bad enough that it may make you crap in your pants.  it's SO much worse that it's greasy!

besides that, you need some fat in your diet for healthy hair, skin, and nervous system functions.  i just read an article that said people who are on extremely low fat diets tend to look a few years older than they otherwise would because they don't have enough fat to keep their skin healthy.  if you're losing weight it means that you can to be healthy and look good.  you don't want to add years to your face!

i plan on hitting clearance racks for jeans because i don't want to spend $40 on jeans i'll only wear for a few months.  i'm just going to size down when my stuff gets ridiculously big on me.  my pants are a little baggy, but i can deal with it.  i'll wait until they're falling off.

i barely survive my cheat days!  i'm not talking about weight, but the impact of the food on my stomach and colon.  on easter i didn't count, but i didn't exactly over eat either.  i had 2 slices of ham, about 1/2 cup macaroni salad, 1/4 cup potato salad, and 1/2 cup broccoli casserole.  omg i thought i was gonna explode!  i didn't eat again until like 8 or more hours later.  i had a cheat day a few weeks ago and had 2 slices of pizza.  i was in the bathroom all night.  same thing happened from a mcdonald's cheeseburger.  i guess my body just can't handle the fatty stuff anymore.  i see it as a good thing because when i'm tempted, i remember how sick i felt when i cheated before.