Posts by chrisreaves

Hello all...  I'm curious - are any of you trying (or have tried) any specific diet plan - like South Beach, Flat Belly, Perricone, etc.?  If so, how's that working for you? When I first began my diet this time, I thought I'd try something more rigid than I did before, so I ordered the Flat Belly diet book and joined their site. In about 30 minutes I discontinued my subscription.  It was too overwhelming just looking at the menus and grocery list.  I'll admit that my plan isn't the ideal healthiest - yeah, I do Lean Cuisines and I don't buy everything organic - but I think I strike a good balance between healthy and reasonable for my hectic lifestyle and budget.  I'm trying to incorporate the best of all the diet plans I've seen - like lots of salmon, melon and blueberries from the Perricone diet, MUFAs throughout the day like the Flat Belly diet, of course, tons of water like EVERY diet...  I'm interested in what you all think are the best tips from all the various diets you may have researched or tried and what small incremental changes we could make that might make a big impact.  Anyone interested in sharing?

Chris

Hi, Jan. I'm a newbie too, so we're in this together! Unfortunately, I have a LOT more weight to lose than you do... 35 lbs. more!  :(  But I did it four years ago and I'm motivated again, so here we go!

My target (at least for now) is 1200 calories.  Like you, I wanted to see some quick results to jump start me and make me feel like this is possible.  I lost 6 lbs in a week, although this week I've been gaining and losing the same 1 lb over and over...  lol.  That's ok, it's probably that dang water weight!  Even though I aim for 1200, there are certainly days I've gone over - once almost to 1500.  By keeping the target low, I feel that I can justify an occasional splurge when I go out to eat - as long as it's still healthy food like salmon.

All that being said, I do it by eating the same foods over and over again.  I nearly always have All-Bran or Fiber One cereal with skim milk and a cup of fruit for breakfast.  That keeps me pretty full until 10:00 or 10:30 when I spring for a 100-200 calorie snack - fat-free yogurt, an apple or a few almonds.  Lunch is usually a Lean Cuisine - not the healthiest thing on my menu, but it's so much easier to grab it on my way out the door to work than to spend time cleaning and putting together a salad.  Another 100-200 calorie snack about 3:00.  Then at dinner I make sure to eat the rest of my calories for the day.  Tonight, I fixed tacos for my husband.  I measured out my 1/2 cup of meat, tomatoes and peppers and 1/4 cup of cheese before I set it on the table.  I had a whole wheat soft tortilla while he had the hard taco shells.  Add a little salsa and I finished up the day with almost exactly 1200 calories.  I write down everything - and I do mean EVERYTHING - I eat.  Usually I don't feel very hungry between meals. But I'm definitely ready to eat something every 3 - 4 hours.

Anyway, that's my routine. Hope it helps.

Hey everyone! Thanks for the welcome.  Aly, I've wondered about the 1200 calories too, but that's what worked for me last time.  And, I've plugged in the numbers in several different online calculators and they all say 1200 is the ticket. I'm going to stick with my plan for a month and see what happens. Believe me, I'm all for eating more!!! And, although I'm doing cardio 3x a day, I'm only burning about 350 calories through concentrated exercise.  So far, I'm not feeling too drained.

The hardest part for me is the social stuff.  There are a couple of girls I used to go to lunch with at least 2 - 3 times a week.  I've politely told them once a week is my limit now, but it's still soooo tempting to choose a sandwich instead of a salad off the menu, or eat the WHOLE plate of pineapple fried rice instead of just a cup (377 calories in a cup - eek!)  Last night, after church we had a snack night.  I brought fruit, but everyone else brought brownies, fried chicken, crackers and salmon cream cheese (YUM!) and other stuff ridiculously off my diet.  While my husband is gobbling down fried chicken and several brownies and drinking coke, and even the skinny ladies are eating the junk, I'm sticking to 3 little crackers with a tiny dollop of the salmon cream cheese and a cup's worth of fresh fruit. It still put me over my daily calorie intake by almost 200 calories.  (A good reason to plan on 1200 - it gives me a little wiggle room for these kind of events!)  How do you all deal with the depression of seeing others even our age able to eat whatever they want and never gain an ounce, knowing that you will probably NEVER be able to eat another piece of cheesecake in your life?