Diet discussion thread

[Deleted]

Cauliflower is a big favorite in our house.  The other day we roasted a whole one coated with a mixture of yogurt and tandoori spices and the result was amazing.  DH makes a cream of cauliflower soup that cool too.  In this heat, one of our favorite side dishes is spiralized yellow squash tossed with Italian dressing.

[oped]

Meals should always have color!  

[chiver78]

I miss my spiralizer. I'm not sure if I even have the box it is packed in, with me at the rental or not. a few more weeks, that sucker is coming back out for use! I love making zoodles, and doing a twist on zoodles marinara. basically just throw in the zoodles at the last minute to warm them up. otherwise, you get mush - which is why I never liked zucchini marinara as a kid growing up in an Italian kitchen. 

[Deleted]

Aug 3, 2020 23:19:38 GMT -5 countrygirl2 said:

I will read along.

We eat a lot of green beans, romaine lettuce, celery, cabbage, about it on greens. Sometimes spinach but not often, no reason. Then tomatoes, onions, garlic, various spices, potatoes, baked and fried, sometimes eggplant. Cucumbers, I like beets, no one else here does. Also corn, baked beans, cauliflower, carrots. I like turnips raw at times too and sweet potatoes, no one else will eat them. Broccoli, DD likes broccoli, hubs likes cauliflower. Squash or zucchini at times. In summer peaches and apples for pies.

DH always sneaks a couple bites of the raw turnips when I'm preparing them to cook.  We both like beets and eggplant too.  I like to stew diced eggplant with tomatoes; stewed okra with tomatoes and onions a favorite too.  Actually, I need to get some okra soon-we haven't had it lately.  

[Deleted]

Aug 4, 2020 10:56:21 GMT -5 oped said:

Meals should always have color!  

All that looks amazing - I'm drooling on my keyboard.  

[bobosensei]

Gbombs started with Dr. Fuhrman, actually he started by calling them gombbs (greens, onions, mushrooms, beans, and berries).  Dr. Fuhrman promotes the eat to live and super immunity books/diets.  I read the eat to live book when I had a friend that followed the diet.  I tried it for a couple of weeks but found it too strict to keep up.  With eat to live you don't eat salt, sugar, fat, alcohol, meat or dairy, and you try to eat a pound of raw greens a day, a pound of cooked greens a day, and at least a cup a beans and berries and making sure you get mushrooms and onions each day.  I think he does say you can no more than 10% of your daily calories in the stuff he says to restrict.

The hardest thing for me was cutting salt.  I found it really hard to make a good soup without salt.  I was able to work around not eating oils by blending nuts and seeds for salad dressings.  Dr. Fuhrman stresses to start your meals with a big salad.

The few weeks I did the diet I felt amazing.  Better than I did when I did the Atkins diet in college which I also could only do a few weeks.  But what I found hard was the extreme that you take it to because if you go out to eat or have a potluck it is hard to keep to his standard.  What I took away from it was to try to mainly eat vegetables.  This is where I decided to try to fill half my plate with veggies and where I decided to try to eat salads for lunch.

My friend who followed this diet finally got healthy enough to become pregnant as she'd never used birth control in her 10+ year marriage (she got married at 19) and only got pregnant after she lost about 70 pounds on the diet.  She was thinner when she first got married so I know it wasn't just a weight thing, but I think she ate unhealthy foods and went through binge cycles to keep weight off.

I'm about to make a giant cucumber noodle salad and top it with thai peanut sauce.  I'm trying not to let any of my garden veggies go to waste.

[oped]

OMG that sounds horrible bobosensei...  and long term your body needs salt, especially nutrient rich salt. 

I agree on the veggies though. Don't make it every meal, but its the goal to shoot for... 

Lunch sounds amazing. 

[bobosensei]

I signed up for a free trial of noom.  I have 2 weeks to decide if I want to cancel and if I don't by August 18th I'll pay 179 dollars for 8 months which is what they estimate I need to get to my goal weight.  The do try to get you to do a bunch of add ons, and they break stuff into a low monthly fee but charge you all at once.  They do offer you 20% off if you forego the 2 week trial period.

Since I didn't pay for meal or workout plans I think the only thing that this covers is a coach for the first few weeks to help set goals then a support group that will match me with.

[Artemis Windsong]

As a young woman I had no idea what was going on. I weighed 119 pounds and was pregnant. My stupid doctor said I was too fat. At that time, I smoked and drank a lot of unsweetened iced tea that kept me from eating.

Later, I lived on the grapefruit and egg diet. When I went to work, I seemed hungry all the time and didn't know how to manage that. Then, I had a fiance who just walked away with zero closure. I put on a lot of weight. I could hear people whisper, is she pg? I had a bowel blockage.

I went back to the swimming pool when I could afford the cost. I started xc skiing. I met my now H. He started me downhill skiing. I made better meals at night and the weight came off.

I managed by body weight well. I had a gym in the basement and would walk the dog 45 minutes a day. I ate decently small portions.

I quit smoking and my body weight did go up.

About 4 y.a. I tried the Keto diet. That was a mistake. I was injured twice since 2017 so I could not keep it up. I am paying for it now.

I fell over 70 years old. My metabolism dropped.

I had a lot of negative feedback from frenemies. One that did me in was, I invited you over for a good roast and potatoes dinner and I expect you to eat it. Crash went my restraint. Fueling that was 3 deaths in the family in 4 months. A load of grief.

My thought was to heck with it. I am eating what I want when I want.

A control attempt. I managed to cut out eating those little candy bars and other candy. No reduction.

I remind myself of the 300 calories for breakfast, 400 each for lunch and supper. I did myfitnesspal last winter then the site quit for some reason. I restarted that site then stopped again. My downfall right now is potato chips. I am doing the 300/400/400 except for the chips. And desserts. (I'm so tired of cooking that I'm making 9 x 13 dessert to feed the H. and I eat too much of them.)

My weight just stays the same. My activities are tennis for 2 hours 3 days a week. Weight training in the gym 2 to 3 times a week.

What I need to do is cut 200 to 400 calories a day and increase exercise 200 or more a day. And portion control to be within the 300/400/400 calories.

[Deleted]

Back in March I started bringing home cookies and candies as comfort food b/c of the virus stress. Too much comforting caught up with us in the next two months so we're back to strict accountability for everything we eat.  DH actually admits that he "forgot" to record things when he was on WW before-things like a handful of chips, a couple of crackers, a cookie, butter, mayo, jelly and so on.  Each item by itself was okay, but the cumulative total was devastating.  

[Tiny]

Aug 4, 2020 12:59:31 GMT -5 @donethat said:

Back in March I started bringing home cookies and candies as comfort food b/c of the virus stress. Too much comforting caught up with us in the next two months so we're back to strict accountability for everything we eat.  DH actually admits that he "forgot" to record things when he was on WW before-things like a handful of chips, a couple of crackers, a cookie, butter, mayo, jelly and so on.  Each item by itself was okay, but the cumulative total was devastating.  

When I was "stocking up" and suspected that maybe I'd be working from home or wouldn't want to go to the grocery every week - I added some cookies and graham crackers and some other add on sweet stuff to the cart. Well, I ate all that and kept buying more! so, yeah, now I've been working from home and NOT walking 2 miles per day M-F AND eating more and more and more "not actually food" things...

If I was left to eat only what I wanted to eat - it would be all dessert kinds of stuff. and not necessarily store bought bakery/sweets/junk food. I'm more than willing and happy to bake, freeze, mix up stuff that has little protein, vitamins, or fiber and then eat it. All. really fast. I need to get back to eating actual food again.

[Deleted]

Aug 4, 2020 10:37:36 GMT -5 @donethat said:

Aug 4, 2020 9:56:45 GMT -5 @shastasnewlife said:

That's a very impressive story of your journey and powerful testimony to a plan balancing nutrition and exercise.  

Thanks. 

I did a lot of dysfunctional and unhealthy dieting in middle school and high school.

What I discovered is without a fairly large amount of physical exercise I really can't lose weight or ever feel really good. 

Just hiking this morning for an hour made me feel completely different. That makes me do it more than anything. No one really loves to pant and sweat... Well, maybe weird people.  lol 

[Deleted]

My father followed some crunchy granola guy who was popular back in the 1970s back-to-the-land movement. I can't think of his name...

Then the guy died at a young age. So much for having the answer to health.  lol 

[crazycat]

Aug 4, 2020 11:56:45 GMT -5 bobosensei said:

I signed up for a free trial of noom.  I have 2 weeks to decide if I want to cancel and if I don't by August 18th I'll pay 179 dollars for 8 months which is what they estimate I need to get to my goal weight.  The do try to get you to do a bunch of add ons, and they break stuff into a low monthly fee but charge you all at once.  They do offer you 20% off if you forego the 2 week trial period.

Since I didn't pay for meal or workout plans I think the only thing that this covers is a coach for the first few weeks to help set goals then a support group that will match me with.

I tried Noom last month . I cancelled before my 2 weeks were up . I liked it okay but didn’t think it would be worth the $180 i was going to pay . Like you , I didn’t do the meal or workout plans . 

Ive tried an app called MyNetDiary and it seemed to be very similar to Noom . I have gone back to using it instead of Noom . It will let you track meals , calories , weight loss , exercise, etc . 

And its free . 

Good luck to you 😀

[Happy prose]

I never did good with set diets. I just try to eat real food; food that only has one ingredient. I do cheat on occasions. My weight has been the same for years, but I'd like to lose about 3-5 lbs. i stay active too. It's just math- calories in -calories burned. For health's sake, I try to keep my calories healthy ones, but you could eat 1200 calories of doritos if you wanted, and just burn them off. 

[mamasita99]

First off, I am so impressed by the veggies many of you get in, puts my eating habits to shame! And countrygirl2, I am astounded by how many of those veggies are grown and prepared yourself. Believe it or not I will actually be too tired to even drive myself to the store to BUY my veggies, never mind grow and prepare them. I get tired just reading about it.

[weltschmerz]

Aug 4, 2020 15:38:40 GMT -5 mamasita99 said:

First off, I am so impressed by the veggies many of you get in, puts my eating habits to shame! And countrygirl2, I am astounded by how many of those veggies are grown and prepared yourself. Believe it or not I will actually be too tired to even drive myself to the store to BUY my veggies, never mind grow and prepare them. I get tired just reading about it.

I made a huge batch of home-made creamed corn last night, and today I'm roasting a cauliflower.  I'm also making a salad with avocado, black beans, tomato, coriander, corn kernels, sweet Vidalia onions, diced cucumber, red peppers, and more.

Love veggies! 

[mamasita99]

Aug 4, 2020 16:19:28 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Aug 4, 2020 15:38:40 GMT -5 mamasita99 said:

First off, I am so impressed by the veggies many of you get in, puts my eating habits to shame! And countrygirl2, I am astounded by how many of those veggies are grown and prepared yourself. Believe it or not I will actually be too tired to even drive myself to the store to BUY my veggies, never mind grow and prepare them. I get tired just reading about it.

I made a huge batch of home-made creamed corn last night, and today I'm roasting a cauliflower.  I'm also making a salad with avocado, black beans, tomato, coriander, corn kernels, sweet Vidalia onions, diced cucumber, red peppers, and more.

Love veggies! 

I love to eat veggies but I can be incredibly lazy Fortunately my partner is a vegetarian and very comfortable in the kitchen!

[weltschmerz]

I love veggies, but high fiber doesn't love me. I eat them anyway.

Oh, well...it keeps my weight down.

[Deleted]

Beside our farm share box, the other thing that's increased our veggie engagement over the last few years was my volunteer involvement that led to many, many lunches and dinners with our Asian community members.  There have been a number of occasions when I had no clue what I was eating until someone told me so I fell in love with lotus root, tree ear mushrooms, black and white fungi and numerous other vegetables before I even knew what they were. 

[Happy prose]

Aug 4, 2020 16:29:33 GMT -5 mamasita99 said:

Aug 4, 2020 16:19:28 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

I made a huge batch of home-made creamed corn last night, and today I'm roasting a cauliflower.  I'm also making a salad with avocado, black beans, tomato, coriander, corn kernels, sweet Vidalia onions, diced cucumber, red peppers, and more.

Love veggies! 

I love to eat veggies but I can be incredibly lazy [img src="https://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff155/JiminiChristmas/ymamsmiles/think.gif" class="smile" src="//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/undecided.png" alt=""] Fortunately my partner is a vegetarian and very comfortable in the kitchen!

Buy those frozen steamer bags. Just pop in the microwave. They make some good combos now. 

[Artemis Windsong]

Another diet fad I followed was the Zone Diet. I felt like I was hungry all the time. Supposedly Olympic athletes eat 4 blocks each of protein, carbohydrates and fat. I was at 3 blocks. Then I went to 4. Same feeling.

H. did this when he was doing CrossFit. He sure was crabby until he got into the "zone".

[jerseygirl]

Aug 4, 2020 13:45:23 GMT -5 @shastasnewlife said:

Aug 4, 2020 10:37:36 GMT -5 @donethat said:

Thanks. 

I did a lot of dysfunctional and unhealthy dieting in middle school and high school.

What I discovered is without a fairly large amount of physical exercise I really can't lose weight or ever feel really good. 

Just hiking this morning for an hour made me feel completely different. That makes me do it more than anything. No one really loves to pant and sweat... Well, maybe weird people.  lol 

When I was teaching in college had a fair number of girls that were ‘vegetarian ‘. These kids ate lots of French fries and thought they had a good diet cause French fries are vegetarian

[Deleted]

Aug 3, 2020 20:48:21 GMT -5 Tiny said:

My experience with Weight Watchers over the years... is that maintaining one's weight (and losing weight) is all about portion sizes - and then finding foods (in a portion size) that make you feel full long enough to get you to your next meal (without feeling like you should chew on your desk or eat your own hand. )       

When I first started the program and started looking a "portions" I was appalled at how "small" portions of actual food that would make up an actual meal were for a person of an appropriate weight should be eating.    

It's not eating as much "healthy for you food as want to eat" ... cause you won't loose weight or "feel better"  - it's eating the appropriate amount of the healthy for you foods that make you loose/maintain weight and feel better.      

I solved many of my "OMG!  it's so little! response" by buying and using smaller dinner plates, cereal bowls, drinking glasses, etc...  I also use a food scale and measuring cups.   If/When I stick to the program - I loose weight/maintain it.  When I don't - even though I'm still eating the same foods - I gain the weight back.    It's really all about portions and eating "healthy" foods the majority of the time.  

I apparently started WW long before you did.  The original program limited food (pork once a week, anyone? three--or maybe it was five--servings of fish?), but the meat portions were huge.  You got 3 ounces for lunch, and 6 ounces for dinner.  Oh, and don't forget your once-a-week liver requirement.  (I just chose not to eat any meat for that meal . . . LOL). But it worked.

And then they started reducing portions and adding more stuff that you could eat.  They came out with the point system and the frozen foods, etc.

I am a Lifetime member, which you wouldn't know looking at me. 

[Lizard Queen]

I lost 30-some pounds about 4-5 years ago with calorie counting and exercise. The calorie counting helped me find the combination and quantity of food I could eat and still lose weight without starving myself on 1200 net call/day. Now, looking at the belly I've acquired, I'm starting that up again. I used to use MyFitnessPal, but I can't seem to get back into my old account. I more recently used loseit, and am pleasantly surprised by the fact my weight is slightly lower than where I left off with that one. Plus, all my old standby meals are still saved in there. I'm good for today with my calories. That cuts me back to one drink, which is probably more reasonable. I think all the alcohol was turning straight into belly fat.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

I've been doing the Optavia program since Thanksgiving. I lost 30 pounds. 
Since March, I've not been as diligent. I stopped losing weight but have been within five pounds of the lowest weight. 
The base structure is about 1000 calories and about 100 carbs within their "fuelings" plus three servings of vegetables and one serving of a lean protein. 

[Deleted]

I lost 40 pounds several years ago by eating low-fat yogurt for breakfast, Progresso chicken noodle soup for lunch, and a basic meal for dinner.  It was pretty much the same thing every day for a year.

I can't get back in that mindset, but it really is about calories.

[CCL]

Aug 4, 2020 18:19:55 GMT -5 Happy prose said:

Aug 4, 2020 16:29:33 GMT -5 mamasita99 said:

I love to eat veggies but I can be incredibly lazy [img src="https://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff155/JiminiChristmas/ymamsmiles/think.gif" class="smile" src="//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/undecided.png" alt=""] Fortunately my partner is a vegetarian and very comfortable in the kitchen!

Buy those frozen steamer bags. Just pop in the microwave. They make some good combos now. 

The Birds-Eye protein ones are even better.

[sesfw]

When DH had his heart attack in 2012, the week he was in hospital I spent on the internet researching about diets and sodium.  The Dr gave him a choice of pills or lifestyle change.  I chose the lifestyle change and got rid of all sodium in the house.  I am now an avid label reader.

We limit ourselves to about 1500 mg of sodium per day and both of us lost about 50 lbs each and have kept it off.  Natural protein (eggs, meats, milk, etc) has about 75 mg of sodium per serving (size of deck of cards), fresh fruits and veggies have zero.

The only cereal that has zero sodium is either oatmeal or shredded wheat.  We like Kashi.  Breakfast is cereal, bananas, grapefruit, milk.  Lunch is unsalted nuts, fruit.  Dinner is an animal protein and veggies to go with it.

We don't really deprive ourselves of anything but we also know when to stop.  Snacks through out the day can be anything we want, usually something hard so it takes time to eat.  Haven't had chips in the house in years.

BTW ............ dark chocolate has ZERO sodium.

Good luck .......... it isn't a diet, it's a lifestyle change.

[countrygirl2]

I did lose 40 pounds over 15 years ago, took me a year and a half. I reduced the amount of food, was walking up and down 13 flights of stairs at work on my break twice a day. Then bicycling like 12 miles a day. I thought I would never lose it. It sure took me a few months to get up those 13 flights, but finally I could do it on each of my breaks.

I have gained 20 back. If only I can lose 30 I would be good. 160 pounds for my height is ok. It's only just under overweight but that's ok.  I would be thrilled. Maybe I can get serious about it and buckle down again.