If you could offer ONE piece of advice you've learned the hard way to someone, what would it be?
So most of us have made mistakes doing this whole Weight Loss thing. We've tried a bad diet, tried diet pills, maybe we put ourselves in Starvation Mode. Whatever.
If you could offer ONE piece of advice, something you'd learned yourself to avoid, to the people on this site, would it be?
My piece of advice...
Log your calories, semi-regularly. It's just way too easy to lose track of what you're ACTUALLY eating when you don't log your calories. Logging keeps you honest and helps you keep control of what goes into your mouth.
Reason: 4/21/08: Stickied. 5/1/08: Unstickied
and to listen to the advice of not those who'v seceeded but who'v fallen first and then succeeded.
Original Post by hkellick:
Original Post by santonacci:
Original Post by soliwit:
To santonacci: 42
"Workers of the earth! I bring... good tidings of peanuts! And beer! "
Meh, the movie wasn't all that.
yeah but the books are amazing! they crammed like 5 books to into one to make that movie, which is crap, but whatever. i do love mos def...
Original Post by cellophane_star:
Stay motivated! Don't give up! It gets easier with time.
It took you a number of years to gain weight... it's not going to come off overnight. Keep your eyes on the prize.
Be informed and don't fall for/rely on "diet" food. Eat real food (in proper portions).
Exercise! Get active!
The number on the scale shouldn't determine how you feel about yourself and your progress.
It's ok to say NO to food and it's ok to NOT clean your plate.
AMEN to the last one!!!
It's crazy how some people (ie. me in the past) think they will die if they don't clean their plate. Parents should stop teaching kids this.
Original Post by jennpz89:
Original Post by cellophane_star:
Stay motivated! Don't give up! It gets easier with time.
It took you a number of years to gain weight... it's not going to come off overnight. Keep your eyes on the prize.
Be informed and don't fall for/rely on "diet" food. Eat real food (in proper portions).
Exercise! Get active!
The number on the scale shouldn't determine how you feel about yourself and your progress.
It's ok to say NO to food and it's ok to NOT clean your plate.AMEN to the last one!!!
It's crazy how some people (ie. me in the past) think they will die if they don't clean their plate. Parents should stop teaching kids this.
Well, it IS wasting food...and the food you wasted could be used to feed one starving kid in Africa. Just pointing out that it's not a good habit to be wasting resources that could have been allocated elsewhere.
Great thread! The most effective advice I've found is to invest in a heart rate monitor. Knowing what you really burn in a workout keeps you in control and on track with calories. For me, the difference was literally hundreds of calories between what gym machines and cc estimated as calories burned. I was burning much less than I believed, and I was eating based on the wrong the burn rate. The HRM helped me know my body and I began to lose the weight I wanted.
"Log your calories, semi-regularly. It's just way too easy to lose track of what you're ACTUALLY eating when you don't log your calories. Logging keeps you honest and helps you keep control of what goes into your mouth."
This is also my advice. If I didn't keep track (even if it's in my mind), I would fall back into my original habit of ignoring "a little bite of this, a handful of that". I wouldn't consider these calories and that's where it added up for me. Mindless eating. Even now, I have to get back into focus because when I hit maintenance, I couldn't handle it. Back to losing and making each day a new day...it's a lifestyle!
P.S. Ya'll have given great tips, even for a regular calorie counter like me!
Do what works for you, wether that's low carb, low fat, vegan, carnivore, logging everything, whatever. Find a diet you can stick to comfortably, and follow it, even if it's not the current trend.
And never drink a calorie.
Original Post by white_sakura:
Original Post by jennpz89:
Original Post by cellophane_star:
Stay motivated! Don't give up! It gets easier with time.
It took you a number of years to gain weight... it's not going to come off overnight. Keep your eyes on the prize.
Be informed and don't fall for/rely on "diet" food. Eat real food (in proper portions).
Exercise! Get active!
The number on the scale shouldn't determine how you feel about yourself and your progress.
It's ok to say NO to food and it's ok to NOT clean your plate.AMEN to the last one!!!
It's crazy how some people (ie. me in the past) think they will die if they don't clean their plate. Parents should stop teaching kids this.
Well, it IS wasting food...and the food you wasted could be used to feed one starving kid in Africa. Just pointing out that it's not a good habit to be wasting resources that could have been allocated elsewhere.
Well, unless you're going to get a refridgerated courrier to in fact send that food to Africa, that food is already wasted. So the big question is is the excess food going down the disposal or on your butt?
My advice- eat when you're hungry. there's no since "saving" calories if you're going to binge later. It's better to eat reasonably all day and if you happen to run out calories... run around the block to make up for it. :)
Well, it IS wasting food...and the food you wasted could be used to feed one starving kid in Africa. Just pointing out that it's not a good habit to be wasting resources that could have been allocated elsewhere.
Than the issue is learning to prepare meals with just enough food to eat what we need. This is especially tricky considering sometimes kids will eat everything put in front of them and others they'll eat two bites and be finished. I have to agree that even though it can be wasteful not to eat everything on your plate.. to teach good eating habits later in life, it may be necessary. And perhaps by teaching kids to stop when they are full.. they will waste less as adults because they will already be wired to make less in the first place.
Yeah, I suppose it's wasting - wasting money. But I don't know about the "starving kids" part. It's not like all the food we save is automatically sent to Africa to feed starving kids or given away to the homeless. You know what I mean? It could be used to feed starving kids, but it isn't. So to me, it's not so much about starving kids, but more about the money, and in some cases, wasting it is the wiser choice.
"Well, it IS wasting food...and the food you wasted could be used to feed one starving kid in Africa. Just pointing out that it's not a good habit to be wasting resources that could have been allocated elsewhere."Never let anyone "guilt" you into overeating. There are many reasons why we end up with a lot of food on our plates. Restaurants are a prime example of overportioning. No matter what the reason may be for you to have extra food on your plate, you are the only one responsible for what goes into your mouth, and the only one who has to live with the consequences, good or bad, afterwards.
Learning to take control over our own eating habits will often result in food being thrown away, but the operative words here are "our own eating habits".
Guilt is a big part of what got us here in the first place, don't let someone else's guilt trip keep you here.
I'm just making the point that by wasting food, it is taking for granted our good fortune in having so much food. So when you don't encourage your kids to eat everything on their plate, you could be promoting ignorance. When I don't eat everything, I save things as leftovers, at the least, instead of throwing things away. But that is just my opinion =P
The answer is to educate our children, obviously, but forcing food down their throats when they are not hungry to teach them a lesson about starvation, or even appreciation of abundance, is absurd.
Good post!!
I read a post on cc when i first started that said something like; when a craving comes along, think to yourself, i have eaten it before, i know what it tastes like, i will have it again, but not right now. I try to do this when i have a craving and then i work out my calories and factor it in for the weekend. often the craving has passed by then (or new craving comes along LOL!!)
2. Water is your best friend
3. Exercise is just another daily task like brushing your teeth or taking a shower... motivation is not a factor!
P.S. All three of the above will reduce and sometimes eliminate constant headaches better than any pain reliever.
Whether it's people telling my I don't need to lose any more weight or people telling my I have chunky arms and should tone more, only I get to decide whether those things are actually true for me. It is my body and I am a grown woman.
2. Know thyself.
Yes, if I eat nothing but carrots and jog for an hour at 5 am before I go to work, I will lose weight. But I won't actually do those things. I am lazy and I love to eat. So I need to work chocolate and wine and cheese into my diet in healthy portions and exercise in ways that make sense for me -- walking instead of driving to the store, dancing and yoga instead of running and push-ups. This doesn't make me weak.
3. My body is awesome.
My body is amazing no matter what I weigh. It houses my mind and spirit and lets me do things that bring me joy. So I need to be kind to myself, even when I slip and eat more than I should.
shandykat, I know that, but if one allows their children to haphazardly throw food away, it'll send them the other direction. And yes, I do believe that education is the solution, being that you actually make them clean their plates that the parent reasonably fills. Especially since kids magically become hungry again when dessert time comes around xD
I think it would be more helpful to take them to a farm so they can see where their food comes from, let them take part in the cooking so they can see the work that goes into preparing it, and volunteer at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen to meet people who don't have enough.
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