Posts by liswobble

Soup is probably the best bet. Just about any restaurant would have a good soup choice. For instance olive garden has the minestrone. With a salad, light on the dressing, you've got a good meal. I looked at the Chili's menu online and every one of their soups except the baked potato soup is 400 calories or less per bowl. Their soup is good. They also have an extensive "guiltless grill" menu and post the stats, look it up. At chinese restaurants order the "house special wonton" soup. It's basically the same everywhere, a tureen filled with shrimp, chicken, ham, wontons, and veggies that will fill you up for very few calories.  

For real you're okay! Like yesterday I thought I'd blown it b/c I ate Mexican food for lunch, chips and all. But, I had exercised for an hour in the morning, didn't eat anything the rest of the day, just some sugar-free jello that night, and went to bed early (8:30 which probably saved me from eating again while getting some good sleepytime).  Haha new favorite trick...instead of dinner, go to sleep :)

I'm not surprised that people's heart rates don't get as high as they expect during yoga because the focus on the breath enables the body to work more efficiently. Fit people's bodies use oxygen more efficiently than unfit people's bodies, which is why their resting heart rates are lower and they can work harder without running out of breath/going over mhr. Yoga mimics that.  

Will you lose weight doing yoga? Can't hurt, I say. And it makes other exercise easier for sure due to the cardiovascular and muscular benefits. Notice I'm not skinny though.  

The best stretch I've found for relieving head-forward tightness in the back of the neck: sit up straight as you can, then without moving your body pull your head down and in like you are trying to give yourself a double chin. You should feel a strong pull in the back of your neck, and I feel it all the way into my upper back.  You can also do this laying down.

Neck/back massages can also help. Just lotion up your hands and knead both of your shoulders on either side of your neck. Simple but it helps. It's a nice and relaxing thing to do for yourself at the end of the day when you're watching the tv.

I wonder what you mean by "out of breath most of the time." As in panting which is okay... or gasping for breath and getting a stitch in your side? Anyway it seems to me that if you find improvement in your performance week by week then your body is in the zone where it is working hard enough to stimulate improvement but not too hard and you're fine - but if you find the same workout gets harder and harder then yes you are probably working too hard or not allowing enough time and/or variety to allow muscles to repair themselves.

For instance, my mom and dad both have the same personal trainer for weights and they both had about 80 pounds to lose starting out.

Weight training time being equal, my dad started out his cardio on the treadmill at about 3.8 at a steep incline for an hour a day. He lost about 30 pounds but was constantly tired, even started taking naps at the office in the afternoon and within a few months he had quit his cardio altogether because he says he tires out within a few minutes.

On the other hand, my mom started out her cardio at 3.5 on a treadmill at zero incline for TWO whole hours a day (one in the morning one in the afternoon.) She has lost over 70 pounds in less than the time it took my dad to lose his 30. The trainer has taken her off cardio machines altogether for a while.

The moral of the story is, do what you can stick with and if you have fat to lose, do a lot of it. :D 

It's really great to read about all of the supportive, wonderful men in your lives! :D

I am not married but I definately have gotten different reactions to my weight and weight loss goals from different guys I've dated recently.

Example of a bad reaction: "The last girl I dated was a big girl, and I don't like that...but you're hot." (Then he refused to work out with me and tried to feed me fast food and ice cream.)

Example of a good reaction: "I like big girls so I don't want you to lose any more weight...but if you want let's go play tennis!" (Then he proceeded to run me back and forth the tennis court like a pony show.)

I couldn't help but fall for Tennis Guy right there. :)

This is tough considering you're vegetarian. Cutting out the higher-calorie grains leaves you with...fruits and veggies, hey. And at 1300 calories...you gonna be hungry, no 3 ways about it. That's awfully low, have you looked at the calorie counts for what you were eating in a day that made you fat in the first place? Knowing that, you can make a more informed decision on how many calories you can eat to lose weight.

But, if I was trying to eat 1300 calories, I'd make sure to get enough protein. Do you eat dairy? If so, eat a couple servings of fat-free or 2% cottage cheese per day. Fat free greek yogurt is high in protein too.

Also make sure you're getting enough iron, which is harder to do for a vegetarian and will make you feel weak (therefore hungry) if you aren't getting enough. Some low-cal fortified cereal would help with iron intake. There is some out there that's pretty "special" that provides 45 % of daily iron intake for 110 calories a serving. That and some unsweetened soy milk and a piece of fruit will get your day started for about 250 calories.

Then get in a protein snack midmorning like the cottage cheese and yogurt. Cottage cheese mixed with lite yogurt is really good, tastes like cheesecake.

A cut-up grapefruit sprinkled with 2 tbsp chopped walnuts is another favorite filling snack.

SOUP. If I had only 1300 calories I'd eat a lot of soup. Soup is really easy to make lots of different ways. For instance for asian soup, in a pan heat up your broth into which you have put a couple slices of fresh ginger and a little soy sauce for seasoning. Add noodles or rice (shirataki would work), cook them through, then just before serving add any kinds of sliced veggies (cabbage, carrots, broccoli, bok choy, snow peas) to fill up the pan, and a few frozen veggie potstickers and cubes of tofu to heat through a few minutes. Garnish each bowl of soup with a few drops of toasted sesame oil and some sliced green onions. it is a smorgasbord, you can eat the whole pan for less than 400 calories, the trick is the little bit of high-calorie items are mixed in with the low-calorie stuff, and the warm liquid fills up your belly.  

It was about time someone screamed Fats are Good! Sure they are, but the fat in dairy is generally the unhealthy saturated kind, plus those calories could be better spent on fruits and veggies which are lacking in the sample menu. Or else what would you suggest be cut to make room for these items within the calorie allowance? If we actually ate the entire amount of fruits and vegetables recommended we would probably never go hungry again, and lose weight too because they are so low in calories for the volume. But we don't prioritize right, eat the yummier stuff first and max out our allowance and go hungry. 

If a person is eating a balanced diet it is virtually impossible not to get the fats one needs even while cutting out added butter, oils, and eating only non-fat dairy. Healthier fats would come from small amounts of nuts, avocados, olives and fatty fish but I still say even those aren't necessary. I made my original response trying to address the entire issue, which I see as a person trying to get the most energy and satisfaction from the least amount of calories. If the OP happens to be a volume-satieity eater (like myself) this might work better than the current low-volume, high fat and sugar menu presented.    

You are effing adorable!

I mean I understand that basically you're calling me out for optimism in a case where there may be nothing she can do. haters  

That aside, if muscles can't get longer then what is stretching, in your vast wisdom? It seems to me that while there is a maximum length a muscle can possibly be, due to exercise and inadequate stretching many people's muscles are not at the maximum length (ie range of motion.) They are in fact shorter (and bulkier) than they could be. Therefore, stretching will elongate muscles to their full potential and could (possibly) decrease the bulk in this situation. Or I'm full of crap, I say try it and see if it helps since there is no other helpful information forthcoming.

It's easy to make farmer cheese and a good way to use milk that is going to go bad.

I know what you mean, I have huge calves which I attribute to being in marching band in my teens and having to stand on my tiptoes and march around that way for long periods of time! Anyway, I actually like my big calves and get lots of compliments on them. Anyone who follows me up a flight of stairs always has something to say :D They look even bigger because my ankles are so tiny and I've honestly learned to love them for what they are.

Try learning to love them, but if you can't, the only thing I can suggest is stretch them out. For instance, step up onto something (a step or a curb) and let your ankles hang off, feeling a nice stretch. I do think it is possible to stretch out those knobby muscles a little!

Also wear things that flatter your calves. I've found that things that tie around my ankles obscures my little ankles and make my legs look more uniform...bear in mind I actually don't like that, but you might! Also if you wear skirts make sure they hit on the narrowest part of your leg either just above or just below your knee. Don't ever wear anything that hits right on your calves because it will draw unflattering attention to them. Also, flattering shoes to wear would be heels with pointed toes. Heels make your legs tense slightly and look smaller and leaner. Pointed toes elongate the leg -- the longer something is, the narrower it looks! Hope this helps! 

(not sure if you're a woman or man I just realized..)

Oh also - exercising would be good for you, mind and body.

Rock on, just like the other guy said!!

Okay I thought this was interesting -- if you go to my pics you can see a before pic of me, at the bottom left column, the one with the blonde girl in the foreground. Then above that there is a pic of me kissing a girl on the cheek. Funny, same two girls as in the other pic, only with me lost 90 pounds and her gained 90 pounds. Spooky.  

That would be an old friend of mine. She eats fast food for every meal and candy and chocolate bars in between meals. She cannot stay off the candy. Once I went to visit her (at the time she lived a couple hours from me) and took a little cooler of food to eat for dinner and breakfst b/c I knew that was the only way I'd eat healthy for the weekend. I also took a bar of premium dark chocolate with cocoa nibs as a treat, and mentioned I had it but never got around to opening it. Well I woke up the next morning and found that during the night she had gone into my backpack, took the chocolate bar and ate the entire thing! The wrapper was sitting there blatantly on her desk. That's issues.