Worried...

Well, I'm a little paranoid right now, so I'm posting to make myself feel a bit better.

I'm not losing much weight on 1500.  It's been four weeks and my hope was that I'd lose a pound a week, but that's not so.  So I dropped to 1200 today.  *sigh*  I'm starting to experience that frustration with food and eating enough to feel satisfied and still keep under the 1200 limit.  It's the same frustration I felt before, when I decided it was too hard and gave up.  See, the issue right now is that our money is so tight we needed to get some grocery donations from our church just to get by for a few weeks.  Things'll be better by then, but for now this is what I have to work with.  I am so thankful for their generosity and I was so excited, but naturally they're not buying low-cal for us because they -aren't- us.  They have no idea what I eat like.  So, I'm getting a little frustrated with myself and feeling pretty hopeless.  The food we have is high-cal.  But I just...  I've fought this mind battle over food for so long and I'm finally getting a handle on it.  If I don't keep going and lose this weight, what's to say I'll ever get past this?  *sigh*  Ok, that's my rant.  I think everything will be ok.  I've got a whole bunch of food in front of me that's about 350 cals all together.  I shall enjoy it.  *sigh*

Everything will be okay. I'm sorry money is tight (it's an epidemic, I swear!); that is very frustrating. Please don't be hard on yourself!

And hey, define "much weight"! You are losing, just not as quickly as you wanted to? Can you rev up your metabolism a little with exercise? Taking a walk, walking up steps, jumping rope, that sort of thing? (Mowing my lawn, perhaps? Please? :-D It's miserable to mow, but man, does it burn calories!!) Some exercise will help you deal with the higher cal foods and still let you eat enough to feel satisfied.

Hahaha!  Man, believe me, I would love to mow your lawn.  I could use the extra money!  I believe you when you say it's an epidemic.

I should exercise more...  I'm horrible.  I'm doing better than I used to, that's for sure.  But I've slacked off.  I need to make it more a part of my life, definitely. 

So, can you really eat a little over, and then burn it off?  And say that you consumed 1200?

Edit:  As far as what I meant by "much weight" goes, I don't have a scale.  :(  So I don't see any changes, the inches aren't lessening, so I'm getting discouraged.

I know how you feel.  For the past two weeks I watched my intake, counted fat grams, carbs and calories and exercised I only lost one pound.  Normally in the past, I would have lost atleast 5 after all that.  I'm a little worried too because I'm at a really high weight.  My body isnt taking it well, am getting swollen ankles and all.  At any rate, I know that whatever is going wrong, eating well and exercising will help make it right.  so, I'm making like the hobbits in mount doom and climbing up this steep mountain despite how hard it is right now...... it's got to pay off eventually, I know it. 

 I've started journalling too, I have a hunch it's going to help.....

I know being tight on cash doesn't help, stress never does, my hat goes off to you for staying the course during a bit of a rough spot.  I send you my best wishes.

You could be retaining water, sounds like it.  Be patient, when your body is ready it will let it go and va voom! you'll feel the difference. :D

Thanks so much m00n!!  People really have no idea how inspirational those little hobbits can be...  I think that shall be the image I think of everytime I feel near to giving up!  :-D  Retaining water eh?  I never even considered that!  I sure hope my body does let go...  Ya'll are so helpful!  Thnx so much!

You are very welcome, good luck :D

I've posted a lot of really great information and tips in this thread:

http://www.calorie-count.com/forums/post/8532 .html

Woh!  That's terrific!  Thnx!!

Hey,

I know the feeling. When my child was a baby I was living on a $10/week grocery budget.

Some things I did to get by and still eat healthy:

Oatmeal.  It was $1.00 (generic kind) for a box.  I split a serving between me and my baby.

Potatoes:  Cook 1 potato for 2 people.

Broccoli & cheese sauce:  It's filling and goes a long way.  Give the kids the flowery part, and you eat the stems.  (The sacrifices we make).

Beans & Rice:  Filling & healthy & cheap.

If you keep your eye on where you want to go in life you can improve your life.  I did.  Good luck, and hang in there.  I will pray for you!

Have you been drinking enough water? If not, increasing your intake of water may help. If you have been having too much sodium in your diet, that will increase retention, too. 

When I was first starting out in the world, I was trying to save money. I lived off from 10 lb sacks of potatoes for months. I would just bake up enough to last a couple of days and put a little italian salad dressing on them. I think I had potatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner... my grocery bill was about $20.00 a month.

Have you thought about starting a garden? I provide enough fresh veggies for myself to last through the summer and into the fall, then I do some homecanning for the winter, for just the cost of seeds, which is about $40.00 in total.

I have spinach, kale, lettuce, peas, corn, carrots, turnips, spinach, radishes, tomotoes, pumpkin, squash, green beans, cabbage, potatoes, cucumbers, artichokes, cantelope, watercress, argula, onions, beets, kale, rutabaga.... some other stuff. I had strawberries last week. Raspberries and blueberries this week. Apples in the fall. Wild grapes... A garden goes a long ways.

Wow, you all have been through financial issues that were far worse than what I am going through.  I'm really humbled by your incredible ingenuity.  It makes me even feel better because I know that if you all survived on potatoes and groceries worth ten dollars, then there's really nothing that can't be accomplished and overcome.  Thanks for that.  :-)

I'm slowly learning that when you're limited on food, and you're hungry, your instinct is to eat to survive not survive to eat.  The taste of the food doesn't become as important.  In fact, most anything tastes good when you're limited on variety.  It can seem like a miserable state to be in, at least that's how I always envisioned it, but it's actually more satisfying and rewarding this way around. 

I've been thinking about my water intake and I just DON'T drink enough!!!  One or two glasses a day, not counting maybe tea and coffee.  That's TERRIBLE!  Especially if you live in the desert like I do!  You guys have made me very aware of this.  I'm going to work on that immediately.

I do hope I don't have too much sodium in my diet.  I try my best to eat lots of fruits and vegetables, meat, maybe cheese or milk, and maybe whole grain carbohydrates.  I had pickles today (just two) but that was because I was famished from a day out of the house with just a banana and a hotdog in my stomach (the hotdog isn't a regular thing, just an occasional "bad" treat).  And I needed 10 more calories to round off my total so far, so I ate two 5 calorie pickles.