discouraged and need the benefit of your experience

Hello.  I have been using calorie-count and trying to lose weight for two weeks.  The first week I lost a pound, and the second week half a pound, which is great.  I would have liked a pound a week, but as long as it goes down, it's all good. 

Anyway, what gets me down is just how many mistakes I am making.  I'm glad to learn from them, but getting caught off-guard and having my goals set back by my mistakes sucks! 

For example, I did not know that the burritos from taco bell and del taco had so many calories!  And it seems every time I go out to eat I end up eating something awful I hadn't planned.  Not to mention, I'm hungry, and I steel feel fat! 

Dieting is so stressful, so much effort for such slow reward.  Does anyone have any advice or inspiration?  Thank you!

Yeah, one of the hardest parts for me was realizing that out of easy, satisfying, and calorically decent, you can usually only score two out of three, without major pre-planning. (Now i'm a major pre-planner, and once you get the hang of it it's really not bad, but it's a hard adjustment to make at first).

It might be time to try to find better staples than take-out burritos. You've got to find something yummy AND filling AND lower-cal so that this isn't so hard for you, and before you know it that slow progress will really start to add up. The answer is out there, keep at it!

Thanks.  Yeah, I am ok when I plan everything, but every time I am in a rush and I have to grab something i don;t know what to do.  I think maybe I will stock my car with Luna bars and do a little to research to see if any takeout places have anything decent just in case I am caught without time to prepare food. 

Thanks for the encouragement.  Do you have any food suggestions?

I find it's hard to find healthy food from fast food chains that taste good and are low in calories. I try to find cafes or restaurants that you can call in orders that offer healthy tasty food like grilled chicken sandwiches, baked potatoes with broccolli, turkey burgers. When you are on the run I reccommend sandwiches or salads, but try to find time to eat, because you'll enjoy your food more and eat less! PS places like Chilis and Applebees are great and you can call in orders, some of the menu items even list calories! I haven't eaten at Mcdonalds or Taco Hell in over 5 years, and I don't feel like I am missing anything, because the last time I ate there I got sick, and I used to only eat fast food throughout high school and college. If I can you can!

Here at least, grocery stores sell premade sandwiches and salads. When I'm out (or just really don't feel like cooking...) I find they're a good place to buy "fast food".

Off of the top of my head the things that save my life when I'm in a hurry are Progresso soup, veggie burgers, broccoli, and chicken sausages. I can have broccoli and chicken sausages ready in less than ten minutes and it feels like real dinner. I try not to eat Progresso soup too much because it's really high in sodium, but a couple of times a week won't kill me. Whatever I grab out at a restaurant would be even higher.

During the day I try to have a couple of snacks in my bag, an apple, nuts (I have to count these out in the morning or I tend to go overboard), a few ginger snaps. If I have access to a fridge (at my office I do) I have some cottage cheese on hand.

I can't think of anything else right now, but those ideas might get you started. You could probably search the forums and find a zillion more things to try.

Good luck!

Original Post by javajjive:

....every time I am in a rush and I have to grab something i don;t know what to do.  

I think that's the area to tackle, frankly.  Organisation.   The fewer times you find yourself without the right thing to hand, the easier it'll be to lose weight.  The real trick to weight-loss is ditching the bad habits that make us fat (e.g. being in a rush and getting takeouts) and replacing them with better habits that'll keep us slim.

Things like making your packed lunch and snacks the night before, for example.   Making bigger quantities of healthy meals and freezing the spare portions so that you've got a fast meal another day when you have less time.  Planning your meals ahead so that you've bought the right ingredients from the shops and you're not stuck wondering what to make.  Planning quick-cook meals like stir-fries and simple pasta dishes rather than anything more elaborate or lengthy also works well.  It takes deliberate effort at first but, within a few weeks, you'll find it comes automatically... and then it's really easy

Good luck

This might help. I would try to start with getting organized with just one meal first. For example, here is what I eat for breakfast everyday (I go to the grocery store weekly). If there's a Costco near you, you can get 5 dozen eggs for like $7.

4-6 egg whites only. Boil it, or fry it with non stick pam.

1 cup Fiber One Honey Cluster Cereal

1/2 cup skim milk or soy milk

(if you want, 1/4 cup blueberries)

Total calories for a good breakfast like this is only around 350ish.

Once you have breakfast nailed down, then start to figure how you are going to get organized for lunch. Can you grill chicken the night before and buy a big box of mixed greens (costco has it for $3, it lasts all week). You can just pack it in tupperwear and bring it to work. Is there a subway near you? It sounds like you like to get fast, convenient food. There are 5-7 different sandwhiches at subway that are only 350ish calories, if you get all veggies, no cheese, no mayo, mustard only. Is there somewhere you can get a turkey burger? Turkey burger, no mayo, no cheese, with a small bun (if it's a big bun, just rip off the top portion of the bun) is only around 350ish calories too.

For dinner, maybe buy a lot of soup? Soup only takes 5 minutes to make. Although it's high in sodium (caution), at least it's fast, and you can get brands like progresso light, or healthy choice. Whole cans of soup might only be around 200 calories or so.

These are just a few suggestions, but the idea is to try to get organized first, and try to figure out what foods you can eat on a regular basis without feeling like you're deprived. Good luck!

I had that problem too, along with the fact that there isn't much 'healthy' stuff that I like. Some days I'm somewhere I cannot cook at all.

So I made a list of stuff I wanted to make....then got a list of the ingredients for it. Got all the stuff.

I tend to actually 'cook' a meal on Thurs or Friday nights....so I'll cook 2 or 3 at a time. I'll have chicken going, as well as a casserole, and then make up my tuna salad stuff or whatever else. Then I freeze half of everything, in either containers of 1 or 2 portions (depending on if it's just me, or me and my bf). The other half I do the same, but keep in the fridge.

This way, the days that I'm not eating at home, I can grab a 'home cooked' meal from the fridge and just reheat wherever I'll be, or if I'm in a rush or plain just don't feel like cooking. Then when the ones in the fridge run low, I take the ones in the freezer out. I'm usually set for like a week or maybe more, and then do it all over again the next week.

At work I keep a container of tuna salad and pb/j stuff and then bread to make sandwiches whenever I get hungry...and alot of times I'll have some of the stuff I made and packaged up.

If you REALLY end up having to hit a fast food place (hey, it happens and I do it), try to stick w subs, like the subway ones or something similar...that way you aren't tempted to get the burrito. If you still end up at TB, then go with something more simple, like just tacos. That'll take out a lot of calories. I THINK (haven't double checked numbers) that you can have 2 regular tacos for less calories than any burrito. Or, try switching to the chicken versions, cuz you might as well get some good protein in it! LOL

Fast food goodies:

Burger king tendergrill salad - very yummy.  I use my own dressing, balsamic vinegarette - 5 cals... but they have 100 calorie Italian.

Subway subs - 6" on wheat - turkey or roast beef - good choices.  You can get apples instead of chips - very low cal

McDonald's -  Southwest chicken salad - very good..

also side salad from McD, very good, mix in a pouch of salmon or tuna & wallla - lunch for a buck.