Posts by hoshizora

That does not add up.

148 grams of fat? 279 grams of protein? All under 1600 calories? Beyond impossible. If you want the best advice, you need to paste your actual values.

The foods you list are too much carb for not enough protein and fat You definitely need to get some proteins in your diet. If you are vegetarian, like your lack of meat suggests, there are plenty of soy products out there that are healthy. You'll need to keep any eye on salt, but there are some good frozen soy and non-soy products if you are pressed for time and not afraid of a little processing, like Quorn. Maybe if you really need a boost back on track and are having difficulty cooking, try adding something like Boost shakes while working on getting proteins into your diet. susiecue gave a great list.

The analysis also has a hover where you can see a basic breakdown of what DV you're getting of some nutrients, but keep in mind that's based on average needs and yours may be different.

I woke up one day and quit eating meat and eggs. Then I woke up one day and quit milk, to the dismay of my aunt who had bought a coffee for me as a pleasant surprise, but it was very important to me. Then I woke up one day and added eggs and dairy back. I bet one of these days I'll wake up and go back to vegan. I've heard other people say this is how they did it. I've found that people who try to ease in have a harder time. Maybe that's not about method, though, but mentality--if you wake up and decide to do it, vs feel like jumping in, it's a different level of conviction and interest. And if you don't want to go all the way, that's fine, and maybe it will be a step to going all the way as you find you don't miss what you gave up. But if you ever do decide you want to go for it fully, going slowly after making that resolve is probably not the key to success.

As others have said, you can't be a sort of vegetarian, but you certainly can opt to eat mainly veggie foods, and cut back on animal products, and it's obvious you understand that vegetarian and vegan are all or nothing terms. Ambiguity is a big problem for fully vegetarian or vegan eaters, because people get confused and think that we'll eat things we won't. I'm sure you'll be able to explain your preferences to limit animal products, although you might have a harder time getting people to respect it. It's definitely a choice you can make healthfully, and you'll find lots of support here in the vegetarian forum. But if you use the title "laid back" vegetarian instead of just using a proper statement, like, you limit consumption of animal products but are not vegetarian. You'd have to ask advice about specific vegetarian meals. Otherwise, obviously, you'll be offending many vegetarians and vegans, and get more advice on your terminology than on food. You're selecting a diet option, but it's not a vegetarian one, and like another poster said, being vegetarian is a lifestyle for many, not just a diet.

A friend once followed a similar plan as yours. She explained it fairly easily and found it convenient. She became a pesce-pollotarian for a while. She talked about wanting to get a vegetarian meal because she preferred it. She was careful with terms, and when she started out, and said she wanted to be a sort of vegetarian, she understood when I told her that did not exist and made things harder for vegetarians.

Quote from someone other than the OP: "One of the things I hate most about other vegetarians is the judgemental attitude I run into with so many of them, and I think that this "you can't call yourself a vegetarian" attitude is a perfect example of it. I think it is total BS for people to have to classify themselves as pescetarian, flexitarian, lacto-ovo vegetarian, ovo vegetarian, lacto vegetarian, vegan and on and on for fear of pissing someone off.  I think it is no different than listening to vegetarians get on their high horses and lecture others on how disgusting, cruel, poluting, unhealthy, etc, etc it is to eat meat."

How are these the same? How is it judgmental to use a dictionary to define a term? If you want to make a particular food choice, go ahead. I'm not lecturing anyone about the nature of eating meat. It's not for me to tell you what to do. I discuss it with people who ask and want to discuss it, or who make completely false statements that meat is the only healthy thing to eat.  It would be preaching to lecture and preach that being vegetarian is the only right choice. Being firm in the definition, however, is a matter of fact. But the terms mean something specific. The end. If you aren't a vegetarian, you aren't a vegetarian, and using it any other way only serves to create confusion. Telling someone "I'm a vegetarian" and being offered fish, or saying "I'm vegan" and fed carrots only to find out they're honey-glazed is extremely aggravating. People are confused enough about what these terms mean. Words that have definitions should be used properly. It's not exactly difficult to just say the truth--"I eat very little meat" or "I only eat chicken and fish".

I just count my alcohol into my calories for the day. If I'm going out and I'm going to drink a lot, I won't eat much until dinner. Of course that isn't very healthy, but I can't get on board with clean eating. Life is short. Clean eating might add years to your life, and the mentality that food is just fuel might make it easier to eat the right ammount of calories and have maximum health, but to me it's not worth it. Life is to be enjoyed. Life is short. I don't actively go seeking to make it shorter, or take major risks; I don't smoke, I don't binge drink, I don't drink every day, I don't live on fast food, and I try to balance my diet. But having a drink, having delicious foods, never saying that some particular food is entirely off limits, matters to me--and I think it matters a lot to people, even to people who profess that it no longer does. Living life to the fullest means allowing yourself the things you like, within reason, without undue risk. So raise your glass of wine or vodka or even something obnoxiously sweet like Smirnoff Ice, and skip the peanut butter and jelly at lunch to make up for you. Take an extra walk or session on the eliptical. Once in a while isn't going to kill you.

I've found that ginger, candied or powdered, really helps. I dump powdered ginger on dry toast, then add some sugar to help with how much it burns.

"When she tells you her concerns about her body, she probably just wants reassurance that she's beautiful and has a great body. When I'm insecure, I complain about whatever's bothering me to my parents. I pretend like I think I'm really fat, or ugly, or whatever is bothering me at the moment, but I really just want them to affirm that I'm not fat or ugly. I want them to tell me that I'm beautiful. If my parents agreed with me, I would be very hurt. Your parents are supposed to always think you're beautiful, no matter what you look like (or at least that's how I was raised)."

This. It's important to show her how to eat healthfully and get exercise. Setting a good example with your diet is a good thing. Letting her worry about her body and weight loss is not.

Letting a 10 year old child hear about weight loss and dieting is taking it too far. When I was 12 and 13, my mother went on an exercise, strength training, and dieting kick. She berated me for not doing it, too, and made fun of my appearance. I ended up with an eating disorder by 15. I can't blame that on my mother, but she certainly encouraged it. That's not what you're doing, but there is a similarity.

Children should not be obsessed by dieting and weight loss, and they should not hear about it from their parents. They aren't old enough to fully deal with these ideas. Health and exercise, they can learn and form as a healthful habit, and it's great that you are encouraging her. Letting her be upset about jiggly thighs, and asking how she can fix that, is not! She's young and should be encouraged to be healthy, not thin, and you should tell her she's beautiful and that there's nothing wrong with her, and that she shouldn't compare herself to other girls. Sure, she won't believe you, but it's the right thing to tell her and it gives her the right method. She's a child. She needs to build self-esteem, not become obsessed by diet and exercise. She shouldn't be exposed to your discussion of weight loss, and she shouldn't watch Biggest Loser.

Since January, that's not a lot. I've gained 8 pounds since the end of August just from stress snacking and not having time to exercise thanks to homework. I don't feel any different, even though I can see the difference and I'm working to correct it.

Basically, even a little extra does add up over a year, and 8 pounds in a year is easy not to notice. Don't worry about it too much. But if you want to head off weight gain or lose weight, take another look at your exercising and meal plans.

21, Connecticut, USA.

5'6"

SW - 163

CW - 144

GW - 130

I have broad shoulders, bib ribs, and narrow hips, but I have my bust and butt to hide some weight in. The rest goes right to my belly! Eating more healthfully and exercising more (simple things like biking and DDR) have been helpful. I hope to do some strength training once I get back to school. I've done some cheating the past few days and I've been stressing, but I'm confident that I can get back on track if I can just keep motivated!

I'm amazed they have vegan at all. I flew CT to CA and asked for vegan. They gave me a hamburger.

Coke Zero does taste more like regular. I prefer Diet Coke, but I'm used to diet, and got used to it long before Coke Zero existed. To keep your flavors the way you already know you like it, Zero isn't exactly like regular (the adverts say it is, but that just isn't true) but it is a less distinct difference than diet. It's not as artificially sweet.

I've found that as soon as I drink even in super moderation, I have a much harder time maintaining my weight, even if I drink very hard liquor with no mixers to cut out the non-alcohol extraneous calories things like alcopops and juice/soda mixed drinks have. The calories of the alcohol itself put me right over moderation unless I'm counting every bite and sacrifice a meal or snack. Cutting out the extra sugar in regular soda is a big help, though--I don't believe the hype that diet is worse for you when they're both inherently as unhealthy as they are delicious.

I wish they did. Honestly I think it should be mandatory. People who eat unhealthfuly because they don't know or care can just ignore it.

Here, restaurants may have them, but outside tests then find that it's actually inaccurate. I'd rather have to guess than have lies mollifying me. People should be given the chance to make informed, good decisions, or informed, bad decisions, not be in the dark. Going to relax at a restaurant with a high calorie meal is fine, but if you can't do that while knowing just how high calorie it is, maybe it'd be better to relax with ice cream at home and forget to read the box.

Right now, you can't just look things up online--plenty of places make the information difficult or impossible to find--like Red Robin--or make it largely inaccurate. Until I can get accurate information at a restaurant, I'll stay home, always. I eat out only extremely rarely, then order only meals that I am very familiar with and can guess the contents of in advance, like steamed or fried tofu.

If you want to gain, then 2.5 ounces of chocolate is practically nothing.

Yeah, coffee is no more than 10 calories. I log cream/milk but not coffee; I trust myself to allow that kind of unlogged treat when I log everything else, and I think that it's alright for most people to do that. Few diets are affected by skipping logging coffee.

Nope, too much potassium can cause constipation.

I definitely think some of the problem can be not eating enough food in general. I get plenty of fiber and water, since I'm a fan of rice and beans and use Metamucil as a supplement when I come up short. But since I restrict to 1200-1400 calories and get very little fat in my diet, I experience issues with constipation. So lack of food to be passing and restrictions on fat are very possibly the problem for many posters. But many other posters may not get enough fiber if they are restricting calories/food and the foods they choose aren't high enough in fiber. It can be hard to get enough fiber on a lean and portion restricted diet of fish, meat, or poultry, even if it includes whole grains.

Skim in coffee has an aftertaste. I drink skim milk as a snack and it's fine, and I put it in tea, but in coffee it's a big no.

Whole milk in moderation (just in your coffee) won't kill you, but it doesn't have the same taste. Fat free half and half does the trick for me; I use a serving and a half with Splenda to get my coffee just right. At 20 calories for 3 tablespoons, 30 calories the way I like my coffee, I don't feel guilty about it. It tastes much better than any sugar free or powdered stuff I've ever tried, and in that small amount, it's not unhealthy if your diet is otherwise balanced.

A half cup of milk (1% preferably because skim is too thin) with a small banana and a tablespoon of natural style peanut butter makes a nice simple breakfast smoothie, if you've got room in your calorie budget for the peanut butter. I've done it with skim and it's not too bad that way. I've also done this and thrown in a teaspoon of sugar-free orange flavored Wal-mucil (Walgreens version of Metamucil) to make up for a lack of fiber in my diet, and it was really surprisingly good, a great option if you're worried about fiber. I only do this on days where I've had a lot of my calories from low-fiber food like peanut butter and milk.