Posts by ericajess

I've wondered and worried about this too because I have the same 'problem'. Doctors have essentially told me not to worry about my high resting heart rate. In my case I feel it is linked to anxiety....iI wonder whether this is a possible explanation? Would people with, for instance, generalized anxiety disorder have (ultimately benignly) high resting heart rates?

thanks, but I should have mentioned my elliptical machine is at home! good advice for anyone else in this situation though.

I really like this thread; it's amazing how diverse we 5'4-ers are!

I'm 5'4 and have been maintaining at exactly 121 (I weigh myself  in the morning or midday, with clothes on, shoes and coat off) since early October. I'm 27 years old and had previously lost about 12 pounds between mid-July and early October of 08.

I lost the weight at about 1800 calories per day, and have maintained it at about 2500 calories per day. I'm lightly active and work out 3--4 times a week.

I know it's unusual to maintain this weight at my height with so many calories. It's very possible I'm overestimating my calories; I eat out at restaurants a lot, probably more than I cook at home, and when calculating my calories I consider the ingredients in the dish but usually add a few hundred to account for the oils etc that the restaurants may add.

Ideally I would love to be in a kind of maintenance/loss period, where I lose weight at a rate of 1 pound every two or three weeks and keep it off. It would be fun to be 114 like I was in college...

These  days, by logging my calories, I let myself eat whatever I'm craving but am also forced to think about the quantities (something I absolutely never did when I was ten pounds heavier).

Sounds promising, I'm excited about hunting these down somehow :)

I can relate to this. My college required everyone to purchase the full meal plan and eat all meals together in a huge cafeteria every day, and I just could not handle the anxiety that came along with this....so  I literally stopped eating there except for once a day (at 4:30,  when it was open yet almost empty) because, as hungry as I was, it wasn't worth the discomfort . Yet I wouldn't let  myself go off campus to buy food either because I was too ashamed of not being able to handle the cafeteria experience, and because of the meal plan any food I bought in a cafe or a supermarket was a waste of money. Just writing about it makes me feel horrible. It was a really, really hard time....but I did get through it. And I guess I want you to know that you're not alone. College can be extremely difficult for those of us who experience social anxiety. If you go to a bubble-like campusy college you're expected to be 'on' all the time and this can take its toll. It's hard to describe. I kind of want to give you a big hug....

lilygirl1970, I find your experience really inspiring so thanks for sharing it. If you don't mind my asking, I'm curious which medication you took that helped?

You can combine steam kale and combine with cooked seaweed to make a salad. Garnish with sesame seeds or soy sauce. It's pretty simple but surprisingly filling and not as bland as it sounds.

Was this heart rate reading done at your doctor's office? If so, it is possible that you were just nervous, which apparently isn't uncommon when people see the doctor. Maybe try taking your heart rate when you're just sitting around at home and see if it's still high before panicking. Good luck.

I definitely understand what you mean about getting lazy...same here, but, well, I figure it's too draining to be in 'good dieter' mode all the time, so we do deserve to cut ourselves some slack -- it prevents us from getting frustrated with the whole process (at least, that's what I tell myself..;) 

Eating out has thrown me off course, too. I always try to estimate how many calories I've eaten, but tend to overestimate which makes my calorie count for the day inflated so that the numbers stop meaning anything, if you see what I'm saying.

I think what I need to do is set a more realistic daily calorie goal.

At 5'4 and 'lightly active' (hmm...I'm very sedentary at work and at home, but do cardio about 4 times a week)  the meter thing on this site says I  burn 1830 per day pre-exercise....maybe I shoud aim for that rather than the 2,000-2,500 I usually 'achieve', lol. 1300 calories a day just seems so ridiculously low!

It's a freezing cold Saturday and I'm having a lazy day at home...and here's what I've eaten so far. I've been eating and/or thinking about food all day, basically :(

Breakfast: A big bagel filled with scrambled eggs (2 full eggs plus 2 egg whites, made with olive oil, cheddar cheese, a little mustard and salt and pepper), and with 1 tbsp spicy marinara sauce. Double espresso with cocoa powder and sugar.

Lunch(es): a little leftover curry -- chickpea, chicken -- with rice from last night. Broccoli and stilton cheese soup.

Snacks: a few bites of Ben and Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie ice cream. A green bell pepper.

I'm not exactly proud of what I ate today, but here it is....

Breakfast: espresso with sugar, oatmeal with maple syrup

Lunch: soy caramel macchiato, mushroom cheese panini

Dinner: tomato & mascarpone cheese soup, broccoli and stilton cheese soup, raw broccoli

Dessert: Ben and Jerry's 'half-baked' ice cream

Snack: chocolate mini Weetabix

Thanks so much for your response. Actually, though, it's a little scarier than 1 in 20,000. Without getting into too many details, my mom passed away at 45 from breast cancer which showed all the signs (2 primary occurrences, premenopausal, etc) of being caused by a genetic mutation  -- I don't know whether you've heard of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations? -- though she was never tested. If she was positive I'd have a 50% chance of having the faulty gene too, which for BRCA1 means something like an 80% lifetime risk of BC and a 40% risk of ovarian cancer. I could get tested myself and am considering it, hence all the anxiety...All in all I understand that it's a substantial risk. I go to a family history clinic, have yearly ultrasounds, and basically take advantage of all the resources available to me although at 27, and without being genetically tested, there's not much I can do. I'm just trying to manage my anxiety, I suppose....which is hard for me in the first place, and much harder when I think about this very real risk.

1.  Favorite red vegetable/fruit

Pomegranate seeds

2.  Favorite orange vegetable/fruit

Carrots

3.  Favorite yellow vegetable/fruit

Starfruit

4.  Favorite green vegetable/fruit

Spinach

5.  Favorite blue vegetable/fruit

Blueberries

6.  Favorite purple vegetable/fruit

Figs

7.  Favorite white vegetable/fruit

Cauliflower

8.  Favorite nut

Cashews

9.  Favorite seed

I'm vegetarian. My favorite meat substitute is battered wheat gluten/seitan

11.  Favorite food within that meat type

Sauteed battered wheat gluten with oriental-style sauce

12.  Favorite type of bread

Preferably wholegrain, but as long as it's fresh and doughy...

13.  Favorite type of cereal

Grape nuts

14.  Favorite type of noodle

Italian: pappardelle. Oriental: udon, beanthread

15.  Favorite grain in general

I don't feel passionate about any grains right now

16.  Favorite source of dairy

Rice milk

17.  Favorite type of milk (2%, skim, etc.)

Rice milk

18.  Favorite cheese

Reblechon

19.  Favorite ice cream flavor

Haagen-Dazs coffee

20.  Favorite type of oil

Honestly I can't taste the difference

21.  Favorite fried food

Japanese pumpkin fritters (kabocha koroke)

22.  Favorite condiment

Tomato sauce

23.  Favorite diet drink

Water

24.  Favorite non-diet drink

White chocolate soy mocha

In one post about binging, I remember one poster -- I'm pretty sure it was GI Jane -- said something that really resonated with me. She wrote that one of the reasons for eating too much is 'feeling deprived' and I think this extends to eating a little more than we need to once we get home after a very taxing day (even if it's not excessive enough to qualify as a true binge). If we feel like we're not getting what we need, emotionally, throughout the day -- like we're having to keep our dissatisfaction bottled up or whatever -- this triggers a sort of emotional eating when we get home at the end of the day. The post-work snack feels good at the time but not afterwards. When tempted to sit in front of the TV and have a big snack at the end of a difficult day, I find it helps to just take some deep breaths, think about what I'm feeling, and do something else (take a walk, etc) to make myself feel good.

I hope this helps a bit!

Good question :) As an American living in the UK, there are two things I ALWAYS stock up on and bring back to London when I'm in NJ visiting family:

-Starbucks doubleshots (canned espresso and cream; there's nothing like this in the UK, or at least nothing that tastes nearly as good)

-instant noodle soups (Annie Cha's, Fantastic Foods, Spice Hunter)

And if you have a favorite health food item it's worth bringing because health food options tend to be limited here (although they've gotten drastically better in the last couple of years). Health food overall is generally much more expensive, with a pretty poor selection unless you go to a store like Planet Organic or Fresh and Wild - both of which are pretty expensive.

(And there are a few American drugstore items I always stock up on too, but I guess that'd be TMI)

Good luck with the move!