Official Weight Loss Club Thread

[Muffie's Mom]

Please make sure you MEASURE food! I wasn't measuring my cereal and milk for breakfast! Guess what? I was charging myself with eating too much of each when I actually was not doing so! Mmmmmmm! Even I just learned a lesson today!

[Muffie's Mom]

Originally Posted by Muffie's Mom

Please make sure you MEASURE food! I wasn't measuring my cereal and milk for breakfast! Guess what? I was charging myself with eating too much of each when I actually was not doing so! Mmmmmmm! Even I just learned a lesson today!

I tried something new this morning for breakfast. The cereal is made by Kellogg's and it's called "All Bran - BRAN BUDS"! It's really good - teeny tiny pieces but so very CRUNCHY! I really do like it. It never lost it's crunch while eating it.

Total fat: 1 g
Sat fat: 0 g
Trans fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 200 mg
Potassium: 300 mg
Carbs: 24 g
FIBER: 13 g (you know what that means! TMI!)
Sugar: 8 g
Protein: 2 g

Serving size is 1/3 cup but I ate 1/2 cup with only 1/4 cup milk and it was still only 131 calories!!! WOW! What a nice find! That's a super good choice!

Being a diabetic and for my weight, I can have 4 carbs for breakfast, 4 for lunch and 5 for supper plus about 2-3 carbs for snacks during a day. Remember if you're figuring carbs, ONE CARB = 15 grams

POINT: ANYONE CAN EAT BY THE DIABETIC DIET AND BE EATING VERY HEALTHY!

My metabolic rate is 1584 calories a day and I never come close to it. I'm always under it.

Good luck everyone!

[KELLYLYNN]

Originally Posted by Muffie's Mom

Why are you adding 10 lbs to it? Because it's old??

We just bought a nice new digital one (with BIG numbers) at Bed, Bath & Beyond for about $30-40. I was shocked it wasn't more expensive.

yes, i got weighed at the doctors and when home and weighed myself, and it was minus 10lbs. i'm going to get a new one payday .... i would love to get a digital one .. i'm going to price them thisn weekend..... (that would of been nice thou loosing 10lbs after the dr.s office )

[Muffie's Mom]

Originally Posted by KELLYLYNN

yes, i got weighed at the doctors and when home and weighed myself, and it was minus 10lbs. i'm going to get a new one payday .... i would love to get a digital one .. i'm going to price them thisn weekend..... (that would of been nice thou loosing 10lbs after the dr.s office )

That happens to me also but it's normally about 3-4 lbs difference.

I luvvvvvvv the digital one with the BIG numbers! I can read it without my glasses! LOL

[KELLYLYNN]

What i've been doing for the last two weeks, but very hard for me is cutting out all that bread & pasta I've been eating, and being Italian it's very hard, I love dipping my bread in sauce, It paid off I lost 2lbs.....
I've been eating alot of Chicken and steak (for the steak i cut off all the fat) and i try to make a little side salad and eat it first with low cal. dressing...
and don't forget tons of water ....

[KELLYLYNN]

Originally Posted by Muffie's Mom

That happens to me also but it's normally about 3-4 lbs difference.

I luvvvvvvv the digital one with the BIG numbers! I can read it without my glasses! LOL

I need one like that I always leave my glasses at work..

[teri88]

Originally Posted by KELLYLYNN

Thank you for the Pat, Pat, getting harder to drink all that water, it's starting to get colder in Pa, yukky weather, that's ok been keeping myself busy at home, scrubbing down walls is great exercise.....

Hey KellyLynn, if you run out of things to do you are welcome to come to my house! I so wish I could be a stay at home mom, and have a clean house. By the time I get home from work I'm so exaughsted and boy does my house look it.

[Muffie's Mom]

Originally Posted by KELLYLYNN

What i've been doing for the last two weeks, but very hard for me is cutting out all that bread & pasta I've been eating, and being Italian it's very hard, I love dipping my bread in sauce, It paid off I lost 2lbs.....
I've been eating alot of Chicken and steak (for the steak i cut off all the fat) and i try to make a little side salad and eat it first with low cal. dressing...
and don't forget tons of water ....

Lynn You may want to cut down on the beef - the red meat is not good for your heart. We eat a good steak filet about every 2-3 weeks grilled.

Try to add more chicken, fish, a little pork & a little veal (breaded and baked like those we do in the oven). Recipe - back up a little through the thread.

Good luck - eat lots of veggies, too. Watch the yellow ones though.

[Muffie's Mom]

We would like to send a personal invitation out to all of you that are interested in eating healthy. We would like for you to come and be a part of our group.

We would like to know if you are reading the thread even if you don't want to join the group.

It would be nice if we could have a list of all the people that are interested and are trying to make Lifestyle Changes. That way, we'll know who we are supporting. I think we’ll have a rather large group.

So, for everyone, please PM your name and email address to Glad (Jaspers Mom) and let her know if you would like to be with our group, or if you're only reading the thread, or if you are already doing the Lifestyle Change.

To some of you this may seem a little drastic in changing the way you eat, but it will get you eating very healthy.

We appreciate exeryones support in this group. We have some serious people here that can help you.

We are ALL supporting each other and that makes it so much easier.

God bless you all.

[Muffie's Mom]

Oh boy! Did I find a neat site for all of you to go check out the fast food restaurants.

Go to: http://www.nutritiondata.com/

On the far right hand side, there is a column titled "Fast Food Facts".

Click on the name of any restaurant list and their menu will appear.

Click on any item on the menu and a nutrition label for that item will appear.

I believe a lot of you are in for a mighty big shock here!

This is enough to make you want to eat healthy.

I can't even tell you the last time my husband and I went to a fast food restaurant!

Go check it out for yourself. It's very interesting to say the least.

[Muffie's Mom]

Why The Scale Lies

We’ve been told over an over again that daily weighing is unnecessary, yet many of us can’t resist peeking at that number every morning. If you just can’t bring yourself to toss the scale in the trash, you should definitely familiarize yourself with the factors that influence it’s readings. From water retention to glycogen storage and changes in lean body mass, daily weight fluctuations are normal. They are not indicators of your success or failure. Once you understand how these mechanisms work, you can free yourself from the daily battle with the bathroom scale.

Water makes up about 60% of total body mass. Normal fluctuations in the body’s water content can send scale-watchers into a tailspin if they don’t understand what’s happening. Two factors influencing water retention are water consumption and salt intake. Strange as it sounds, the less water you drink, the more of it your body retains. If you are even slightly dehydrated your body will hang onto it’s water supplies with a vengeance, possibly causing the number on the scale to inch upward. The solution is to drink plenty of water.

Excess salt (sodium) can also play a big role in water retention. A single teaspoon of salt contains over 2,000 mg of sodium. Generally, we should only eat between 1,000 and 3,000 mg of sodium a day, so it’s easy to go overboard. Sodium is a sneaky substance. You would expect it to be most highly concentrated in salty chips, nuts, and crackers. However, a food doesn’t have to taste salty to be loaded with sodium. A half cup of instant pudding actually contains nearly four times as much sodium as an ounce of salted nuts, 460 mg in the pudding versus 123 mg in the nuts. The more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is to have a high sodium content. That’s why, when it comes to eating, it’s wise to stick mainly to the basics: fruits, vegetables, lean meat, beans, and whole grains. Be sure to read the labels on canned foods, boxed mixes, and frozen dinners.

Women may also retain several pounds of water prior to menstruation. This is very common and the weight will likely disappear as quickly as it arrives. Pre-menstrual water-weight gain can be minimized by drinking plenty of water, maintaining an exercise program, and keeping high-sodium processed foods to a minimum.

Another factor that can influence the scale is glycogen. Think of glycogen as a fuel tank full of stored carbohydrate. Some glycogen is stored in the liver and some is stored the muscles themselves. This energy reserve weighs more than a pound and it’s packaged with 3-4 pounds of water when it’s stored. Your glycogen supply will shrink during the day if you fail to take in enough carbohydrates. As the glycogen supply shrinks you will experience a small imperceptible increase in appetite and your body will restore this fuel reserve along with it’s associated water. It’s normal to experience glycogen and water weight shifts of up to 2 pounds per day even with no changes in your calorie intake or activity level. These fluctuations have nothing to do with fat loss, although they can make for some unnecessarily dramatic weigh-ins if you’re prone to obsessing over the number on the scale.

Otherwise rational people also tend to forget about the actual weight of the food they eat. For this reason, it’s wise to weigh yourself first thing in the morning before you’ve had anything to eat or drink. Swallowing a bunch of food before you step on the scale is no different than putting a bunch of rocks in your pocket. The 5 pounds that you gain right after a huge dinner is not fat. It’s the actual weight of everything you’ve had to eat and drink. The added weight of the meal will be gone several hours later when you’ve finished digesting it.

Exercise physiologists tell us that in order to store one pound of fat, you need to eat 3,500 calories more than your body is able to burn. In other words, to actually store the above dinner as 5 pounds of fat, it would have to contain a whopping 17,500 calories. This is not likely, in fact it’s not humanly possible. So when the scale goes up 3 or 4 pounds overnight, rest easy, it’s likely to be water, glycogen, and the weight of your dinner. Keep in mind that the 3,500 calorie rule works in reverse also. In order to lose one pound of fat you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in. Generally, it’s only possible to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. When you follow a very low calorie diet that causes your weight to drop 10 pounds in 7 days, it’s physically impossible for all of that to be fat. What you’re really losing is water, glycogen, and muscle.

This brings us to the scale’s sneakiest attribute. It doesn’t just weigh fat. It weighs muscle, bone, water, internal organs and all. When you lose "weight," that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve lost fat. In fact, the scale has no way of telling you what you’ve lost (or gained). Losing muscle is nothing to celebrate. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns, even when you’re just sitting around. That’s one reason why a fit, active person is able to eat considerably more food than the dieter who is unwittingly destroying muscle tissue.

Robin Landis, author of "Body Fueling," compares fat and muscles to feathers and gold. One pound of fat is like a big fluffy, lumpy bunch of feathers, and one pound of muscle is small and valuable like a piece of gold. Obviously, you want to lose the dumpy, bulky feathers and keep the sleek beautiful gold. The problem with the scale is that it doesn’t differentiate between the two. It can’t tell you how much of your total body weight is lean tissue and how much is fat. There are several other measuring techniques that can accomplish this, although they vary in convenience, accuracy, and cost. Skin-fold calipers pinch and measure fat folds at various locations on the body, hydrostatic (or underwater) weighing involves exhaling all of the air from your lungs before being lowered into a tank of water, and bioelectrical impedance measures the degree to which your body fat impedes a mild electrical current.

If the thought of being pinched, dunked, or gently zapped just doesn’t appeal to you, don’t worry. The best measurement tool of all turns out to be your very own eyes. How do you look? How do you feel? How do your clothes fit? Are your rings looser? Do your muscles feel firmer? These are the true measurements of success. If you are exercising and eating right, don’t be discouraged by a small gain on the scale. Fluctuations are perfectly normal. Expect them to happen and take them in stride. It’s a matter of mind over scale.

[Muffie's Mom]

Control Those Cravings!

Cravings are more of a psychological addiction than a physical addiction, bearing little relation to you being hungry. But fighting off those cravings for food (usually high in sugar and fats) can be extremely difficult. Despite the fact that we can all struggle to cope with food cravings scientists and researchers still do not completely understand them.

There ARE things you can do to control them — you are in control!

Identify the Times When You Crave Foods

What could be triggering the cravings? Are you bored, lonely, tired, anxious?

Look at ways of dealing with the emotions —

if you are tired: take a nap;

feeling down: take a brisk walk to boost serotonin levels;

lonely: ring a friend, make plans to get together and give yourself
something to look forward to.

Plan to keep yourself busy if you know certain times you struggle with
cravings.

[Muffie's Mom]

Once you have the craving:

If you really crave a food (i.e. chocolate), you have two choices:

Allow yourself a small portion when you feel the craving (i.e. 2 Hershey kisses a day) or find a substitute (i.e. Swiss Miss sugar free hot chocolate or Chai tea).

Try to wait 15 minutes before giving in to a craving.

Try to engage in another activity such as journaling, or taking a walk.

Sometimes even a 5 minute distraction can help ward off the cravings.

If you do give into a craving and eat more than you would have liked, do not beat yourself up. Try to learn from the craving. What could you have done differently to have prevented the craving? Then- Let it go! We are all human.

Guilt will only make things worse and we have to allow ourselves learning curves.

[Muffie's Mom]

Tips to Help Control Food Cravings

Food cravings can be triggered by various things including low blood sugar, stress, and other emotional triggers.

The best way to take control is to understand how to balance your meals and snacks to avoid the traps that trigger food cravings.

Do not skip meals. Eat three meals a day and include snacks when needed.

Try not to let more than 5 hours go between meals and snacks. This will help keep your blood sugar stable and avoid getting to the place where you are extremely hungry. Low blood sugar and extreme hunger can be a dangerous combination and almost always leads to overeating.

Plan ahead and keep healthy snacks around.

Include protein, fat, and carbohydrate at each meal and snack if possible.

Instead of bringing an apple for a snack, try having half an apple with some peanut butter or a slice of cheese. This will help keep your blood sugar more level throughout the day.

Keep food records. Food records are invaluable to help identify your eating patterns. For example, you may experience sugar cravings every afternoon at 3 p.m. This could mean that you need to eat an appropriate snack at this time or it could mean that what you had for lunch may not have been the right choice. It also could indicate a high stress time for you where a quick break might be in order.

Avoid very low calorie diets. Eating less than 1200 calories a day will likely lead to food cravings because it is basically a starvation diet. There are few people who need to be on this low of a calorie level and studies show people who go on very low calorie diets have increased food cravings and can become preoccupied with food.

If you are unsure what calorie level is right for you, contact a Registered Dietitian in your area by going to eatright.org or get a metabolism measurement.

Go to HealtheTech to find out who can run a metabolism measurement for you in your area.

Include whole grain carbohydrate sources with each meal.

The fiber content of these foods helps to keep blood sugar levels stable to avoid any blood sugar drops which can lead to food cravings.

Look for 3 grams fiber or more per serving on the nutrition label.

Clean up your environment! Avoid keeping trigger foods in your house or office if possible.

It will be hard to choose healthy snacks when a bag of chips and a package of cookies linger on your shelf.

The less temptation you have, the better.

Don’t be too rigid! Enjoy your favorite desserts and snacks once in a while.

If you completely eliminate them, you will become focused on these foods and end up eating too much.

Enjoy your favorite treats once in awhile.

[Muffie's Mom]

Q. How can I control food cravings for SWEET THINGS?

Many dieters experience cravings for sweet foods. These cravings are caused by fluctuating high and low blood sugar levels.

How can these highs and lows be prevented?

1. Eat complex carbohydrates regularly - Complex carbohydrates (e.g. whole-wheat or wholemeal bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, millet, oats, rye, beans, wholegrain cereal) produce a slow release of energy because it takes time for them to be digested. This helps to keep blood sugar levels constant.

Eat complex carbohydrates as part of your main meal and also as snacks during the day. Even a single oat cake can be enough between meals to keep eating urges at bay.

For best results eat every 3 hours (if female) or 5 hours (if male). Spacing food at three-hourly intervals in this way is an excellent way to combat food cravings.

2. Avoid refined foods, especially sugar - Simple carbs chocolate, sweets, biscuits, pastries, soft drinks.(with the exception of fruit) are all refined foods and should be avoided.

Although fruit contains fructose (fruit sugar) which is a simple carb, the fibre content of the fruit is a complex carb which slows the digestion rate. So fructose is acceptable when taken in the whole fruit, like an apple.

3. Reduce foods and drinks that are stimulants - Stimulants (e.g. sugar, tobacco, caffeine in tea, coffee, chocolate and caffeinated soft drinks) cause a fast rise in blood sugar followed by a fast drop - a perfect recipe for cravings! Avoid them whenever possible. Instead, drink herbal teas, spring water and diluted pure fruit juices.