Posts by alianthe

I heard about this diet from a medical student friend of mine. She was reasonably impressed with his data, as was I, although I didn't think I could do it at the time.

However, calorie counting with a healthy consistent daily restriction was NOT working for me emotionally, so I tried JUDDD. I've been on this diet for about 3 weeks now. I have down days (850-900 cal) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and up days the rest of the week. I have exercise as often as I can - lately I've been lucky if I do mild calisthenics a few mornings a week, but that's improving slightly.

I have chronic joint pain, insomnia, and depression, normally. Just this week, I'm finding that my pain is a little bit less, but within normal variation. My sleeping patterns are beginning to stabilize - whether that's due to the diet or recent efforts, I'm not sure. My mood, however, is MUCH improved. That could be due to improved sleep, attitude shift, or the diet. I'm still in the depression borderlands, but the world isn't grey or black anymore, and that's GOOD.

When trying to stick to a calorie limit every day I was miserable, even though normally I LOVE healthy foods like whole grains and raw spinach and salmon and water and soybeans. I have a daily expenditure of about 1800, and the absolute least I could eat consistently was 1580 daily. And of course, I plateaued within a few weeks at that rate. Plus, I was miserable about food. Hubby always wants to make dessert, but I always had to tell him no, because it was a hardship to cut enough calories to make room for one slice of cheesecake in a week. I nearly never got to have any chocolate or wine, which, in moderation and only very high quality, are among the pleasures of life.

I've found that I have to plan my down days carefully (lots of water and tea and a well-balanced smoothie plus very small but protein-rich lunch & dinner), but I'm a LOT happier. A 20-calorie hard candy can technically fit in my down day regimen, but it's a recipe for a VERY bad day (I'm hypoglycemic). But if I've planned my eating properly on down days, it's easy-peasy to resist the chocolate or carrot cake. All I do is promise myself I can eat it tomorrow (I'm not denying myself, I'm just procrastinating ;) ), and then I really do eat some tomorrow. My metabolism has not fallen into survival mode - in fact, I'm dropping weight again, at a healthy rate.

I thought I'd end up binging on unhealthy foods on my up days, but, oddly enough, I don't. I have a moderate amount, and the rest of the day eat healthy. And I'm HAPPY about food again! On up days, I'm generally comfortable between 1880 and 2000 cals, usually the lower end of that range. Which means my average daily calories have gone down, with a net decrease in diet-re lated stress.

So, I haven't been on it long enough to see what the long term effects are like, but personally I like it. Is this diet for everybody? Hell, no! Can I see myself doing this for the rest of my life? Only if it really does treat my joint pain. It does have a "maintenance" level, but again, it would have to treat my pain like it says it might. Otherwise, probably not. But in the meantime, I'll stay on it as long as I feel the benefits. If I decide to go off it, yes, I'll stick to ealthy maintenance eating patterns.

Congratulations on getting yourself on the road to recovery.

Now comes the hardest part of all: teaching yourself what beautiful is. Believe it or not, you can imprint yourself with a new idea of what is beautiful, what is proper, what is good. All you have to do is look at what you want to see as beautiful and repeat often enough that it is. If you feel like you're lying, tell yourself otherwise. Look at as many examples of healthy as you can. I know that's hard when you're surrounded by what you are, but there's one beautiful healthy body that's really close at hand - your own. This is, assuming you really are recovered and back to a healthy weight and shape.

Don't try this if you don't think you're ready for it. The last thing you want is a setback after all your hard work. But, if you think you can handle it, I'll tell you what kept me reasonably sane through middle and high school: standing in front of a full-length mirror and telling myself over and over that this was beautiful, this was right, this was exactly perfectly what it should be. Repeating over and over and over "that's beautiful, she's beautiful, I'm beautiful," until I believed it. I still have to do that every now and then, to remind myself. The world we are bombarded with is full of unhealthy images of unhealthy people, and people around us with unhealthy ideas. You can defend yourself by teaching yourself that healthy is beautiful.

Well, I'll be honest, these days my BMI is up in "overweight," so I often do include among the "that's beautiful, she's beautiful, I'm beautiful... I would be healthier if I was nicer to my body with healthy food and exercise, but I'm beautiful nonetheless."

Another one that I've heard works wonders but I don't really use myself is "I love myself."

Good luck!

Hey, I just had to add my $0.02 here.

Please don't be put off by people who look at your pictures and your stated goals and think "eating disorder." We're really sensitive about that on this site, because so many people hurt themselves so badly and so irreparably that way. Lots of ED people use our calorie counting methods to hurt their bodies, and we only want to help people HELP themselves and get healthier - not the opposite. To be totally honest, just going by your pictures and your stated goals, I'd be worried, too! But pictures really don't tell the whole story. If your mom and your doctor said losing this weight will be good for you, listen to them, of course. Some of us may think you look skinny in your pics, but your doctor knows better than some chick on the internet who's only seen pictures, right?

I, too, went through my later teen years as a vegetarian, and developed quite well, but I ate a LOT of soy and milk and eggs, along with fresh spinach and lots of lush and delicious, brightly-colored veggies. I'm certainly not going to try to talk you out of being veggie, or vegan, but I do think you should either do more research or talk to a nutritionist about good vegetarian nutrition for the growing woman's body. I'll bet there's someone on the faculty at your school, or someone on the lunch staff, who could help you there - either as a healthy vegetarian themselves or help you find a nutritionist on the cheap.

As for your concern about the carbs... your body needs carbs. Short term sugars like white sugar or fruit juice are going to burn out quickly and leave you crashing if that's all you eat. Whole fruit will last a bit longer and help you, but you'll get more bang for your buck with longer-term carbs, like whole grains. If you get lots of fiber, that will help you lose weight and improve the health of your digestive tract, too.

So if you're feeling a bit blue, have a piece of fruit. If you're feeling tired, have some peanut butter on a slice of whole grain bread. If you're hungry... EAT.

By the way, you DO need adequate protein, to be healthy OR to lose weight. As I'm sure you already know, vegetarianism won't get in the way of your getting adequate protein. It just takes a little planning. So if you're ovo-lacto, don't be shy of the milk and eggs. If you don't do dairy, beans together with rice, or nuts with grains (hummus or peanut butter on bread, for example), and lots of tofu are the way to go. You may not think so, but your body is actually still developing a little bit. Sure, you've got boobs and booty and you're not going to get any taller, but your body will still be refining itself for a few more years. You want to be healthy and hot, right? Not sticks of bone with soupy flesh like a meth addict. So you've got to get your protein and plenty of vitamins and minerals.

So I suggest listening to your doctor, using the CC tools at the top of the page, doing some more research on good vegetarian nutrition, and above all, most importantly, listening to your body. Be nice to you, you deserve it! 

Original Post by meleba:

For me, a binge is out of control eating. Like when I just randomly consume a whole pint of ice cream without planning to. It feels like a compulsion, and afterwards, I feel insanely guilty and not at all satisfied.
A slip up is where I look at the ice cream, am tempted by it, and dish myself a double serving. I know it'll make me gain, but I don't care. Then I enjoy the ice cream, and afterwards just work extra hard to burn off the calories. (No major regrets.)

 Good post! That sounds about right to me.

Yes, that's perfectly okay.

Seriously, what this is a ll about is feeling good. To feel good, you have to listen to your body. Do your clothes fit well? Do you feel healthy? If so, keep eating like you're eating and living like you're living, and ignore the scale.

Obsessive scale checking can really get you down, and beating up on yourself emotionally is physically unhealthy. So just do what you have to do to maintain a healthy feeling body, and leave the scale alone. Only weigh if you're curious, or maybe every couple of months if you think you need to. Your weight is really only one indicator of your health, and it's not a very good one at that. Listen to your body - it will tell you far better than a scale can, especially once you've reached a stable weight.

Congrats to you for losing weight when you had too much, and then defeating your eating disorder! Those are both enormous accomplishments! And congrats for forgetting to weigh yourself. In your case, that's probably just one more sign of good health. 

My man also does a lot of the cooking, and though he tries to be as supportive as he can be about anything I do (absolutely anything), it can be a little annoying for him if I'm constantly going around behind/beside him to find out how much of everything he's putting in. I can understand this, on a lot of levels. First of all, he might not remember what he put in! Second, we have a small kitchen, and I get in the way if I try to measure as he cooks. Third, if I measure after he cooks, yeah, that looks kind of anal retentive and can make a person wonder if he did it "right" in the first place. Fourth, some people have a food-love relationship that makes it really really hard for them if you dissect something they cooked for you. It's almost like you're dissecting their love for you. Luckily, my man isn't like that.

Here's what I do: in the morning (or the night before) I ask him for the recipe of what he's going to make tonight/tomorrow. In an interested (NOT accusatory) tone of voice, I ask him if he's planning to make any substitutions, if there's anything about the recipe that he thinks he'll want to change, what effect butter versus olive oil would have on the texture of the food, etc. I learn a lot about him and his approach to cooking, that way. Then, when I'm next on CC (usually from work) I put that recipe into the recipe analyzer on CC, and tag it. I write it up as if it was just one serving, and decide about what fraction of the full amount I want to eat. Then, when I get home, I eyeball how much food it made (take a look at his dirty dishes if he ate before you did), and decide how much to serve myself based on that. When I can next get on CC again, I edit the recipe for serving sizes and add it to the log and see how I did. With a little practice, I can keep my calorie counting awareness and keep my logs, but not put it too much in his face.

Remember, your results are&nbs p;only as good as your&nb sp;data, and our estimates about how much we burn each day are just that - estimates. Our calorie-burning estimates when we exercise, or based on our height/weight/age/gender/activity are ballpark figures. Even our weight is a ballpark figure, including as it does fluxtuating amounts of water, fat, and muscle. There's no point in weighing everything to the gram to pinpoint your exact calorie consumption in order to calculate an exact calorie deficit when your calorie expenditure number is a ballpark figure and not exact, either. The point is to raise your awareness about what you're eating and what you're burning, and try to get them to match up about right to get the results you want. Stay in the right ballpark, and you'll be fine.

You're totally right - it doesn't matter what other people say if you can't bring yourself to believe them or agree with them. I have friends whose body issues keep them away from mirrors altogether - then they don't feel that self loathing. This might or not be practical, and depending on the situation it might or might not be helpful. It certainly shouldn't be a long term solution.

But, you could always try weight lifting. First of all, it makes your body feel good. I don't lift a lot of weight, but as I'm doing it I start to feel strong and powerful. As my muscles move, I feel more capable. And, as I watch my figure change shape as fat converts to muscle, I feel sexy. It's good to feel strong. If you're feeling flabby, try doing some crunches every day, some pushups every other day, and some lunges or squats the opposite day. You'll tone right up, and that might help you feel more attractive. And try to ignore the scale the best you can, because muscle is heavier than fat. If you keep the same dress size while you're weight lifting, you will probably find that you're gaining a little weight, and that's because you're stronger and have more muscle than before.

Just be sure to up your calories a bit to compensate, because not only are you getting exercise, but as your body changes and has more muscle, it will take more calories just to keep you going.

Right now you may feel that *weighing* less is going to make you feel better, but lots of people out there can tell you that, in your situation, it won't. Feeling strong might. Feeling muscular instead of flabby might. Feeling that you're building yourself a better you might.  

I know what you mean! I used to never get hungry, and sometimes I just would forget to eat. You already know it's not good for you to eat too little, so I don't have to lecture you. I think my years spent forgetting to eat or just not being hungry are at least a small part of why I'm overweight now - my body thought I was starving even though it wasn't telling me to eat more, so my metabolism slowed down. At the same time, I trained myself to eat when I wasn't hungry, and went overboard.

Here are some good health y, caloric, but lightweight (not- filling) snacks to get in some extra calories (and I agree with redkitty on this - nuts and berries are your friend here!):

- granola

- seeds, nuts, soybeans

- raisins and other dried  fruit

- add a little flaxseed meal or wheat germ or oat bran to your cereals, smoothies, oatmeal, any baked goods you make, etc. This will give you the good fats your body needs without much in the way of bad fats, and add a little protein boost. I at least can't taste them.

- drink 100% fruit juice. It's yummy and high in nutrients. But have it with some whole wheat toast or a handfull of nuts, so you don't get a sugar rush/crash. Also, many people find that their bodies don't have the same "full" signals from liquids as they do from solids. 

- cheese is another good one, although do this in moderation as there's plenty of cholesterol in it. Still, it's important to get a certain amount of that, particularly the good cholesterols. If you're worried about that, eat more oatmeal and almonds to help your body maintain a good balance. Try a slice of fresh mozzarella on a slice of tomato with a piece of fresh basil in between, and tell me you can eat just one. Actually, even if you did eat just one, that's fine, too.

- and of course, don't forget a piece of nice dark chocolate every few days. Not something you want to eat tons of, but as a "sometimes food" it really goes far. And, in moderation, it can even be good for you.

I'm going to agree with the other ladies here. Keep up your exercising, but be good to yourself.

If your hip exercises hurt while you're on your period, skip them for the first couple of days and pay extra attention to another part of your body instead. You won't have made yourself overly uncomfortable, and you won't have skipped your exercises, either. Good all around.

Also, I'd suggest an iron supplement, if you're going down that road. You're going to be a bit low on iron because of the time of month. I find that if I don't get extra iron a few days before my time, I get a lot more tired and complainy, and it's hard to care about doing my exercises. Some extra spinach & beans or a little pill can give me just the boost I need to stick with it.

The burn meter keeps track of time and caloric burn rate. When it says you burn 1700 per day at a sedentary lifestyle and 8 hours of sleep per night (remember that question on the setup page?), it's actually calculating that you spend 8 hours burning at your base metabolic rate (laying around and breathing), and then 16 hours at a sedentary lifestyle rate (standing up, putting on your clothes, holding your head and hands up while you sit in your chair typing...).

When you tell the burn meter that you spent 2 hrs at the gym and in that time burned 600 calories, it changes its calculation. Now, it says you're spending 8 hours at base metabolic rate, plus 2 hours at 600 calories per 2 hours, plus 14 hours at a sedentary rate (not 16 like before).

You didn't gain extra time in your day, so you can't just add your daily calculated burn to your gym time burn and get an accurate number.

Edit: keep in mind that metabolic burn rates for activities are by necessity estimates, so peacelovehominy has a very good point. It's giving you a ballpark figure. This is because it's calculating and rounding like a computer, and the result it gives you is only as good as the estimate you were able to give it to calculate from. 

Besides the dehydration thing, I've also heard that often when people eat too much and don't drink water, their bodies become used to getting their water intake through food instead of by drinking it. So they get HUNGRY when their bodies need water. Which makes them eat more, drink less... you see where this is going.

If that was you, once your body starts getting more water in liquid form, you will feel thirsty when your body needs more water, because your body would really rather you drink the water than eat it (it gets into your system faster). If you've been drinking lots of soda and eating salty snacks and only getting your water through food for a long time, you may be very dehydrated, so it may take a while before you've replenished your body's supply of water. In any case, a body that is used to getting its water through drinking will generally feel thirsty more often than a body that is used to getting its water through eating.

And, there's one more thing - your body may be flushing out toxins. All sorts of things like breathing polluted air, eating preservatives, smoking, not washing off your makeup, drinking caffeine or alcohol, or taking many medications, can put extra toxins into your body. For a lot of toxins (but not all), the most effective way to get rid of the toxin is to flush it out. (Those toxins that you can't flush out with water get removed by sweating or crying or pooping). So you'll be extra thirsty if you have extra toxins to remove, even if you aren't dehydrated anymore.

Personally, I fluctuate up to 5 pounds in water weight from one day to the next, depending on how much salt I eat, how much water I drink (or don't drink), how many preservatives and other nasties my body is trying to flush out, and the phase of the moon.

So all I can really tell you is... relax. :)