Posts by was128

It's hard to transition from the life of a student to the worker bee, since you suddenly don't have as much free time and control over your schedule.  Since you are working long hours, perhaps, instead of vietnamese food for lunch, go to your gym, work out hard for 30 minutes, and have a protein shake on the way back to work - most gyms, especially swanky ones sell them - and have some fruit on hand for an afternoon snack.   Find a buddy at work who also works out and it will make it easier to get out of the office for your workout.   Have a good breakfast in the morning, and indulge in the office snacks only on special occasions, rather than daily - i.e. it's okay to eat a small slice of cake for someone's birthday, but not okay to eat the Monday morning donuts every week. 

Take the time on the weekend to prepare foods that are easy to eat during dinner for the week.  A big pot of chili or soup, a huge salad, bags of veggie snacks, a bunch of cooked chicken breast that you can throw on your salad, or heat up with a baked potato in the microwave.   Having food that is easy to eat at home will make you less likely to eat out during the week.  Save eating out for special occasions as well.

Don't take a vacation from your healthy lifestyle when you are away. 

You might want to change the kind of vacation you are taking - if you go to an all-inclusive resort, it can be difficult to resist the unlimited cocktails and food (or maybe you think you need to get maximum value for your dollar by eating as much as possible!!)  If you go to an all-inclusive resort, try to get off the resort, or try some of the sports activities, rather than just lying on the beach - or if you do lie on the beach all day, realize that it's okay to skip dinner because you haven't expended much energy throughout the day, or just enjoy the fresh fruits and salads that are always a part of the buffet.  

But most of all, you need to change your mindset - the fact that you let everything go on vacation seems to indicate that you still have a dieting mindset, so you let yourself take a break from it.  Once those new habits just become part of your normal routine, then it should be less of a problem to just eat normally when you are away from home.

I am also working on getting into a natural eating mindset.   I started by excusing myself from dieting for a while, and eating whatever I want when hungry, but paying close attention to fullness.   Trying to eat only until 80% full. Definitely don't eat while doing other things so that you can pay attention, and have containers ready to package up your leftovers.   

Then once you are doing that, you'll also notice yourself getting hungry for meals (or sometimes not.)  I find the hardest part is not eating when you feel you should be eating - like dinner time when you just aren't hungry that day.  

Once you have a pretty good grasp on this, you can start trying to eat healthier food.   I workout pretty hard, and eventually got to a level of fitness where I really noticed that eating junk food/drinking alcohol makes me feel terrible during a workout and during life, and eating healthy food makes me feel better.  

Once in awhile I log foods for a nutrition/calorie check, to make sure that I'm on track.  But I find that I lose weight pretty easily when I pay attention to these few things.

My guess is that if you aren't currently experiencing success it is very difficult to admit failure on a regular basis, even to a stranger:  "Yup, still at the plateau", "Sigh, going up again."   When you are doing well, telling someone about it pumps you up, but when you are doing poorly, it is demoralizing - so it isn't realy all that surprising that people would want the communication when they are on a roll, and that they would shy away from it when the success slows down or reverses.

A friend who is maybe in a similar situation created a work plan for herself.  She is working on a major project.  At the end of each day, she takes 30 minutes to make a list of things to do for herself the next day and to monitor her progress on the things she accomplished that day.  It's really helped break the last leg of her project into chunks that she is able to complete and feel good about. 

Instead of sitting at your desk, worrying and eating, go for a quick walk around the block.   Let yourself brainstorm or meditate on the task at hand and then go back inside, sit down and do some work.  Repeat as necessary.  Make sure that when you eat you take a break from the work and eat with conscious attention - eat lots of veggies to be fuel for your brain and body.

I hated seeing photos of myself on facebook, too.  But it actually became the motivation I needed to lose weight.  I didn't want to be the fat one in the photos.  Occasionally now I look at photos and think I'm the fat one, only to realize that is actually someone else, and I'm the skinnier girl I didn't look at :)  I don't mind looking back at old photos now, either, since I see how far I've come.

Also, I had a lot of bad photos, and noticed that some people on facebook always look great in their photos (despite the fact that they aren't super attractive in life), and did a lot of reading on how to be more photogenic.  It's all about posing for best effect, and  having a camera face ready - practice.  (Take a lesson from Paris Hilton: http://www.gossiplist.com/blog2/archives/0067 07.html)

I hate deadlines, and I also hate the nit-picky calorie discussions (oh no, I ate 100 extra calories, what should I do!?), so thanks for the no nonsense group idea.

Strangely your question of why I want to lose weight is surprisingly hard to answer - I want to see if being lighter makes working out easier, I want to look great in photos, I want to be as healthy and fit as possible because I'm not getting younger, and yes, I want to look good in clothes.   Really, I'm just tired of feeling soft and pudgy. 

My wake up call at the beginning was seeing 200 on the scale.  I started counting calories etc, and got down to about 185.   But I don't want to count forever, so now my goal is to eat when hungry and only until I'm full enough (and do a sanity check on the calories once in awhile).   I eat pretty healthy food, I just tend to eat more than I really need to - because it is tasty.  I work out quite a bit, but want to add some more cardio in the form of jogging.

I've been running in fivefingers. I don't get shinsplints at all because you are forced to be much lighter on your feet.  (This is the article that convinced me to try it in the first place: http://nymag.com/health/features/46213/)    If you want to go with conventional runners, still try to land lightly when running - it should probably help with shin splints.

I also do a very heavy boot-camp style work out, and suffer from the red face that lasts and lasts.   I don't think there is anything unhealthy about it.  It's mostly to do with your skin tone and sensitivity - I mean, I turn red with very little provocation anyhow.  It's a good sign that you are getting a good cardio vascular work out - and all that blood flow near your skin can only be good for you.   I usually throw some cold water on my face right after the workout - feels great and reduces the time to having a normal skin tone again.

I have this same problem.  I've fallen off the wagon for a bit, but am ready to get back on.  For me, munching on anything - even veggies, just encourages more munching.

A few tricks:

Once you have reached the full point, brush & floss.  If you are lazy like me, this will make you less willing to eat so you don't have to do it again.

Don't watch TV.  Have you noticed how often people eat in shows?  Whatever they are eating, I start to crave it - even when I'm full. 

Do something that requires concentration or both your hands.

Have a big glass of water around.

Use the will power wisely.  It is easier to say, no I won't even go to the kitchen, then to say I'll just eat this one piece of chocolate.

Enlist outside help, get your partner/friend/roommate to ask you if you are hungry if you suggest getting a snack (or even asking yourself this question can help.)

Very flavourful, balanced meals help avoid the craving for more flavour.

I've recently added a lot of exercise, and gained weight but no extra girth.  I think if you are the sort of build that puts on muscle easily, then you could gain some weight that way.  Also, eating differently can make you retain water as your body gets used to the new diet. 

Pitas are made of the same ingredients as bread, how could it possibly be better?  (Just check the calories - it seems better maybe because it looks like a smaller amount then bread, but in reality it's just less fluffy - piece of whole wheat bread is about 60 cals, a whole wheat pita is about 120.)  Who wants a life without bread anyways.   I hate "low"  (low cal, low carb, low fat, low sugar) foods.  Just eat a reasonable amount of regular healthy food and exercise.  But if you really want to have the sandwich ingredients without the bread, just make yourself an anti-pasto snack - buy the good quality stuff - olives, pickles, sun-dried tomatoes, strong cheese, and nice cold cuts (or even better, a sliced up chicken breast or steak or something).   Have a nice glass of wine with it too.  mmmmm.

I'd start with eating on a schedule.  Start slowly - give yourself mealtimes where you can eat what you want, and don't eat the rest of the time.  Eat slowly and try to stop once you are no longer hungry.  

Find something that will keep your mind off eating - learn a new skill that you can do for procrastination.  (knitting, crossword puzzles, anything that uses your hands and keeps you interested.)

Don't buy ice cream to keep at home.  If you really love ice cream, take yourself out to a parlour on an ice cream date once a week or once a month and really enjoy it; (walk or bike there.)

I think if you can make small changes that don't require serious dieting, calorie counting, or tonnes of exercise, it is much easier to maintain.  Though it doesn't hurt to log everything you are eating for a week or so to realize what your problem areas are.  It can be quite a revalation to see that you eat 3500 calories a day (or at least it was for me!)

According to the FAQ, the nutrition grade is based mainly on vitamins & minerals, and not so much on anything else.  If you are getting a low grade, you need more fruit & vegetables of different varieties in your diet. 

Sugar makes you feel good.  If you are sick, stressed and maybe a bit depressed, you probably want sugar because it gives you that happy feeling for a little while.   

But I know what you mean about losing motivation;  I tend to be really motivated for awhile and then it just goes away.  Just try to keep on with eating properly and exercising when you can.   Cut yourself a little slack.   One pound is not the end of the world.   One day, you'll wake up and find yourself super motivated again and you'll be back on track.