Posts by missmay

You can also do it in the crock-pot. Pierce the skin in several places, stick the whole thing in the crock pot, add a cup or two of water and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Voila!

Let it cool a bit before cutting it and removing the seeds.

I am rather shocked that anyone would suggest that Anna Friel needed to lose weight... everything I have seen her in she looks prettly tiny, in a natural way. Good for her for standing up for realistic standards!

gadzooks: I love Chuck and Pushing Daisies too! :)

Original Post by gadzooks:

I often binge out of boredom, but I also comfort-eat a lot.  When I had mono (and didn't know), I felt insanely lethargic and binged like crazy for two months.  There's definitely a correlation.

Try to get out of the house.  Do some exercise.  Find things to distract yourself.

 Wow, finally someone else who had the same mono experience I had! I gained weight with mono, but the classic symptom is to lose weight. I felt so jipped! :)

And in reply to the OP, I, too find myself eating more when bored, lazy, procrastinating, etc. Yucky weather doesn't help, either. My advice would be to get out and do something first thing in the morning. Go for a jog or head to the gym or something. It will help you feel like you are accomplishing something, and hopefully curb the excess eating. Good luck!

My mom spends $160 a week for the five of us, but 3 of us buy our own lunch stuff much of the time. Also, no one else in my house really eats healthy, so I buy some stuff for myself at times (I spend about $15 a week on my own lunch stuff and other healthy things I want for myself). My mom scours the Sunday paper for coupons, cross checks the weekly circulars and makes a detailed grocery list before going shopping.

Some of the things that I snack on at work (I keep them in my drawer):

Almonds, though be sure to put them into individual portions or else it's too easy to go overboard (at least for me). Half an ounce (12-15 almonds) is 80 calories.

Sugar free pudding cups, only 45 calories

Dry cereal measured into 1 serving portions

Fruit -- apples, bananas oranges grapes... anything you want

Fiber One bar 140 calories but nice and chewy so it takes awhile to eat

Fun size packages of M&M's... not really healthy, but I usually will suck on one at a time so it takes a really long time to eat the whole thing. Thus my mouth is busy and I feel like I treated myself. 1 package is only about 90 calories (20-23 M&M's).

One thing I just came up with but haven't tried yet is to make my own "Trail mix" with a few almonds, a few M&M's and some cereal (I bet Fiber One or Kashi Go Lean would be good).  Again, its all about keeping my hands and mouth busy so it feels like I am eating alot... usually when I snack at work its not because I am actually hungry but more like I just need a distraction (terrible work ethic I guess!).

If you have access to a kitchen you could also try making yourself a cup of herbal or decaffeinated tea. Sometimes drinking something hot will take my cravings away.

I have more ideas if you would like some, but I hope this helps you get started!

I have the most basic that I could find - it was $4.29 at Linen's n Things.

I agree with what everyone else has said, it is really eye opening to see what you have been misjudging and which measuring cups are inaccurate. For instance, 1 ounce of Cheerios (1 cup according to the box) goes quite a bit past the one cup mark on my measuring cup. My scale has a dial so you can use any container and set it to zero before adding the food.

I eat cereal with milk, oatmeal with a banana or pumpkin, toast & eggs or yogurt & fruit for breakfast (just one of those things not all). I keep almonds in 1/2 ounce (80 cal) portions stashed in my desk drawer to snack on. Also unsweetened applesauce and sugar free pudding cups are good. For lunch I will have a tuna sandwich or a can of Progresso soup or a Lean Cuisine as my main item, then a Dannon Light'n'Fit yogurt (60 cals) and some frozen veggies. I keep a bag of veggies in the freezer at work so that I can just heat some in the microwave each day. Later in the afternoon I will have another snack, usually an apple or banana that I brought from home. I usually have another snack when I get home at about 5; something not too healthy like Wheat Thins, then dinner at about 6:30. Dinner varries wildly... maybe pasta with sauce, veggies and bread would be a typical dinner. For dessert (if I have calories left) a little fat free frozen yogurt or a piece of fruit or a sugar free jello cup (10 cals). If I have no room left left but want something after dinner I will make a cup of herbal tea with 1 packet of splenda.

Hope this helps. :)

I also noticed that I tend to eat more on non-exercise days than on days when I really go for it. On weekends I usually do 45-50 minute very brisk walks plus go up and down stairs with laundry baskets and such. Yet I have no problem keeping my intake low on those days.

I think it might have something to do with the fact that exercise reduces appetite. So on days when you are exercising your body doesn't feel like eating much, but then on off days it has to make up for the days that you pushed it hard. That is my own theory at least. :)

I found an article about the exercise/appetite thing:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6712923.stm