slow beginner!

so i just started working out and dieting and i am freaking out about calories  i am not relaxed...i feel like im not intaking enough calories...i have been trying to work out really hard at least an hour a day but when it comes to food i cut out the usual soda, juice besides orange juice for breakfast, NO FAST FOOD!!! how do i know im eating healthy i'm so afraid to cook any meal because i think it might have too many calories so i just stick to cereals and fruit but that not healthy because i need more calories than that since i'm active...HELP!!!!!!! PS: IM TRYING TO LOSE 50POUNDS BY JUNE 2010

Relax - the fact that you're taking the time to be on this website is a great start :-).

Use the calorie counter provided at this website.  It's awesome and easy to use.  Buy yourself a good scale.  You can get a cheap one for $5 or less that will do just fine. 

Now, I'm going to sound like a drill sargeant, but you asked, so here we go (I mean it with the warmest thoughts, I promise :-)

Sounds like you're doing mostly carbs (cereal and fruit), which do you no good and will make it even harder to lose weight, PLUS having no energy.  Not good!  Yes, you may be getting fiber, but at the expense of too much sugar.  You can get your fiber from veggies, nuts and seeds.  So keep the fruit to a minimum - oh, and cut out the juice altogether.  You may as well drink a Coke, for the amount of sugar your getting.  You're starting your day with a sure spike and drop in blood sugar, which sets you up for dietetic failure.  A better breakfast would be an egg with a serving of oatmeal (or non-sweetened high fiber cereal), sweetened with Splenda.

Next, do a little homework:  read the section under "Experts" where they talk about portions, and how to tell what they are when you are eating out.  It is very helpful to go by all the time.

Then, when you serve yourself food, divide your plate into 3 parts:  1/2 of the plate should be low-carb veggies (green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, turnips, spinach, for example).  Now divide the other half of the plate into two 1/4 plate sections.  One of these 1/4 plate sections is for your starches (whole grains, corn, rice, potatoes, carrots, squash, peas, etc.).  The other 1/4 plate is for your lean protein (chicken, fish, lean beef, eggs, etc.).  Along with these, you can have 1 tablespoon of healthy fat (nuts/seeds nut/seed oil, avocado, olive oil, etc.).

Good luck!

It sounds to me as if you are trying to change everything about your lifestyle at the same time.  This is really hard to do, and I believe sets us up for failure in the long run.

Take a deep breath.  Relax.  Think about how you want to live for the rest of your life.  What are your goals?  You want to be slim.  You want to be fit.  You want to be healthy.  You want to be attractive.  At least that is what most of us want.

What was it in your former lifestyle that kept you from meeting  your goals?  Try to decide on the number one problem.  Did you get enough movement?  Did you eat good, nutritious foods?  Did you eat appropriate portions?  Did you make mostly good decisions about what to eat?  It might help to use the tools on CC to log the food and exercise you used to do for a few days or weeks.  Use the analysis tool to see what your food grade is.  Use the burn meter to see how many calories you burn per day.  Use the eat meter to see how many calories you were taking in a day.

Now, pick the biggest problem, and make a plan to solve it.  Work on that one thing until you feel confident that you now have a new, good habit to replace the old, bad habit.

Repeat until you have mostly good habits that you feel you can live with happily for the rest of your life.  You will get healthy quickly, and you will gradually get to a healthier weight, as well.

And, ditch the 50 pounds by June 2010 part of your goal.  What is the hurry?  You have the rest of your life to practice these new skills.  Believe me, once you are living a healthy life, you will feel so much better, you will glow with pride, and you'll be 90% of the way to achieving the "look better" part of your goal, even before you lose weight.

I am on day 25 of a 30 day juice fast program and I have never felt better in my life. It takes a lot of discipline and willpower but I recommend that everyone should do it once in their lifetime. The best part is that mentally, I no longer crave junk food, fatty, fried foods.

I drink all fruit and vegetables juices. My green juice is the best. I combine brocolli, celery, lettuce, cabbage, beets, carrots, kale...and the list goes on. If you do it properly, your body is not deprived of any nutrients. Most important, read and learn about all the effects of various fruits and vegetables to get a happy balance.

That is 25 days of nothing artificial in my body. No additives, contaminents, caffeine, etc...and you wouldn't believe what is still coming out of my body. I'm 47 years old and that's all of those years of ugly, yucky stuff coming out of me. A complete detox.

My skin and hair is soooo soft and healthy. I have more energy than I ever had and sleep well. I have also incorporated an exercise routine. My butt, tummy and thighs have reduced by many inches.

For those who knock juice fasting...try it before you post your negative comments. There are doctors that recommend juice fasting for healing all kinds of diseases as opposed to stuffing us with pills and diets.

Adsunshine, what do you do for protein?  I'd love to get the benefits from the juice detox, but I have to have a balance of protein with my carbs, otherwise my blood sugar levels get out of whack (I'm insulin-resistant - many overweight people are...)

I agree with dkenworthy (who always gives awesome advice, by the way).  You are making a life change.  Baby steps, or you will get frustrated and discouraged and quit.  Every thing you do must be sustainable.

Another comment I'd like to make...Diet's DON'T WORK!!! People get so consumed and stress themselves out with counting calories and dieting. When eating the right foods in appropriate amounts with a regular exercise program, there is no need to count calories.

Original Post by adsunshine:

Another comment I'd like to make...Diet's DON'T WORK!!! People get so consumed and stress themselves out with counting calories and dieting. When eating the right foods in appropriate amounts with a regular exercise program, there is no need to count calories.

 Just wondering - if you believe this, why are you on a calorie-counting website?

Original Post by adsunshine:

Another important factor that must be done...take daily enema's for colon cleansing.

You do what works for you, but I'm going to stay far away from any program that advises or requires me to take a daily enema.  Ew. *shudder*  I think I'll just stick to eating real food that keeps my colon running properly.

I've been a member of this website for years. I used to go into spurts of wanting to lose weight so I would start counting calories but it got very tiresome so I would stop. I'd try again and stop. I've tried diet after diet.

Don't get me wrong, I love this website. It is full of usefull information and is fabulous.

This time, I came on here to see if there were any great juice recipes and noticed the comments so I thought I would share my experience.

Do you realize what our colons are packed with after years and years of processed, fatty foods. There is absolutely nothing to the enema's. Takes no time at all and completely painless. Leaves me feeling light and very clean. I used to shudder at the thought but...experience is the best information and as mentioned, I'm on day 25.

Because I want to do things right, I'm constantly reading and learning. I've educated myself so much on my body and how important the vegetables and fruits are that I feel so good about my decision. It is a lifestyle change that will stay with me. I feel totally in charge of my life. It is very, very, very hard. Especially smelling food but nobody will take care of me but ME!

I can't wait to try out all the recipes that I've found. Like substituting pasta with spaghetti squash.

This one is my favourite passed on to me by a health nut.

What I did was throw about 1 tbsp of virgin coconut oil in a skillet and started heating it.  Then I sliced up an apple and diced the apple into cubes and threw it into the coconut oil to soften up in the skillet.

Then I just added some cinnamon to the mix and threw in a handful of chopped pecans and some organic raisins and tossed the mixture around in the pan for about a minute to let everything soften up.

After that, I cracked open 1 whole egg and dropped the egg into the mix and quickly scrambled it around to mix into the apple, nuts, and raisins.  I really only added the egg because I wanted to get a little extra protein and healthy fats, but it turned out to be a great addition to this recipe!

After about 30 more seconds of scrambling the mix around, the egg had cooked a bit, and the apples and raisins were soft, and it was ready.

Original Post by adsunshine:

Another comment I'd like to make...Diet's DON'T WORK!!! People get so consumed and stress themselves out with counting calories and dieting. When eating the right foods in appropriate amounts with a regular exercise program, there is no need to count calories.

We all have a "diet", whether we are on day 25 of a juice fast or whether we count calories or whether we eat at McDonalds each and every day.  Some  diets are better for us as well as more sustainable, some are fads,  some are simply bad habits reinforced by corporate greed, and some are simply a really bad idea.  Juice fasting and enemas fall into the latter category as far as I am concerned.

I am striving for a healthy diet as part of a healthy lifestyle that will keep me as healthy as possible for as long as possible.  Calorie counting has helped me to change a lot of bad habits and lose my first 65 pounds.  I fully expect it to continue to help me lose the last 65 pounds that will get me to a healthy weight, and then I expect it to help me maintain that weight for the rest of my life. 

Are you planning to be on a juice fast with enemas for the rest of your life?

Original Post by dkenworthy:

Now, pick the biggest problem, and make a plan to solve it.

That's what I did this time, and it has been way more successful than any other time I tried dieting. I just picked problems and started dealing with them slowly. First, I drank more water. For about a week I drank 6 glasses of water everyday, and by the end of the week, I was a pound lighter! Second, I started to walk on the treadmill. I started really slow, and I felt useless. Now, I love to walk, and I can't wait to be able to run! So my third goal, that I'm just now working on is to make healthy food choices. I've lost 4.5 pounds so far, and like I said I'm just now changing what I eat. You have to take it slow to make it last.

Original Post by adsunshine:

Do you realize what our colons are packed with after years and years of processed, fatty foods. There is absolutely nothing to the enema's. Takes no time at all and completely painless. Leaves me feeling light and very clean. I used to shudder at the thought but...experience is the best information and as mentioned, I'm on day 25.

Because I want to do things right, I'm constantly reading and learning. I've educated myself so much on my body and how important the vegetables and fruits are that I feel so good about my decision. It is a lifestyle change that will stay with me. I feel totally in charge of my life. It is very, very, very hard. Especially smelling food but nobody will take care of me but ME!

I can't wait to try out all the recipes that I've found. Like substituting pasta with spaghetti squash.

Unless there's a problem, our colons are generally very good about cleaning themselves out.  Contrary to what the "cleansing" proponents tout, our colons are not coated in decades worth of sludge.  Enemas are for relieving bad constipation, not for every day.  I sincerely hope you're not doing any damage to your intestinal flora.  And if you're having issues with your intestinal regularity, it is generally recommended to add fiber to your diet, not to eliminate it. 

Fruits and vegetables are wonderful for you.  I just don't understand why you feel the need to extract all the fiber from them before consuming them for a whole month.

I think you're missing what the definition of lifestyle change actually is.  A lifestyle change is something that you plan on doing for the rest of your life.  This juice fast is something you're only planning on doing for the next 5 days.  It has not taught you how to eat.  It has taught you how to not eat.  It's great that you're looking forward to healthy cooking and healthy eating.  I just don't understand why you feel that you have to suffer (you said it's really really hard to smell food and not eat it) before taking on that healthy lifestyle.

I'm also not clear on why you decided to respond to this particular thread.  The OP was freaking out about all the healthy changes she's made to her life and whether what she was doing was enough, and you responded by essentially advising her to scrap the changes she made to go on a 30 day juice fast instead.

when it comes to losing weight, the simple things are the better things.

we think that we have to do this big change of life to lose weight, but reality is that small things in our eating habits take us to be unhealthy and all we have to understand is that small changes here and there can also take you to your goal.

first of all, in my opinion, calorie count works,  because it makes you realize how much energy your body needs and how much energy you put in it, it makes you learn to control what you put in your body.

once you control energy in, energy out (calories) you can play with your options making them healthy, you can add whole grains to your diet in the form of quinoa, whole grains, brown rice, and take into account serving sizes and how many calories you are allowed to have at every point during the day.

it is all a mathematical count, you have so, so calories, so you adapt your food intake to that limit, you put healthy things here and there, three meals a day, two snaks, and you will see that even including one or two junior hamburguers, no mayo, no cheese, just to take the edge out can be allowed, every once in a while.

personally, I don't eat at any fast food chain, just because it angers me how they do not give a crap about the stuff they put in their meals, especially kids ones, so, I could but I just don't, I just make my own meals at home, but ocasionally I take my son to eat some chicken nuggets, I don't want to deprive him so much that he ends up craving the stuff.

so, use the calorie count here, I have tried many but I like the way both charts work, food intake and calorie expediture, and relax, losing weight is about learning, learning to read labels, portions sizes and self discpline, and most importantly to love yourself and what you put in your body.

every fruit, every vitamin, every whole grain and protein counts and your body uses them in amazing ways.

carbs are not bad, npt all fats are bad, sugar is not bad, it is the way and the amount of them what counts and what makes some unproductive for our bodies.

arm yourself with:

measuring spoons, measuring cups, a way to check the grams in your food, and start figuring out good healthy menus and incorporating them into your daily calorie allowance.

good luck.

My My...what a shame! It's always nice to share positive experiences and that is all I wanted to do. Write one tiny little blog. I like hearing other ways that others have been successful and I wanted to share my success. It's learning from others and opening up our minds that allows us to grow.

This is my last comment on this site because it's too discouraging to read the negativity.