[WNK]

Okay... so here's my story:

I'm 5'8" and all through high school and the first years of college weighed about 120-125 and wore size 7 jeans. I try not to make it a habit to weigh myself, and I think the last time that I did was summer of '07, and I was at about 135-140, still rather comfortable in most size 7 or 9 clothes.

We're currently living in a ridiculously cold climate and have had winter for about the past five months (and there's STILL snow on the ground!), so my normally moderately active lifestyle (taking walks, riding my bike, etc) has dwindled to a point where my size 7 clothes feel way too tight, and I'm having to buy more and more size 9s. I refuse to move up another size, so I figured I'd better figure out a way to tone up/slim down again in spite of the cold weather and snow limiting my outdoor activities.

In addition to the inactivity, I know part of my problem is that I work from home. I don't even have a home office, so I end up doing my work in the dining room, which is far too close to the kitchen, and I end up feeling "snacky" and eating just to eat all too often. Another problem is that I'm a fairly good cook. I LOVE everything that I make, and have been noticing more often lately that I continue eating or give myself seconds not because I'm HUNGRY, but because the food is so good.

Food is expensive here, as are gym memberships, so my plan is going to focus on improving my own health habits, rather than losing lots of weight really quickly. The plan:

• eat ONLY when I'm hungry
• STOP eating when I'm not hungry anymore
• drink more water (I read somewhere that it can cut down on those "snacky" cravings)
• STOP snacking late at night
• go out on walks more often (no more driving to the library that's only 8 blocks away!)
• become more consistent in doing my pilates/yoga workouts at home

??? Any other ideas for helping to keep from snacking during the day or at night?

[jenmommy]

hmmm...I don't know any except for that water trick...except there is a tapping trick I have yet to learn from Paul McKenna.

Well, I know how it feels moving up in dress sizes...I'm quite a bit larger than you but used to be your size...I wish I had taken notice before I got to this point--good for you.

I like yoga and pilates too

[soImarriedAnerd]

Stop buying snack food! If i don't see it i don't eat it.
I think you can snack, but snack healthy. Carrot sticks,...???? ok nevermind i can't think of good tasting healthy snacks LOL. If you can try those instead or drink a glass of water wait 20min if your still hungry then eat.
Also to increase you activity level some we had a thread going of little things to do during the day to help with that:
do lunges/squats/calf raises (one each time) while doing your 2 min brushing your teeth (electric toothbrushes time it so its easier)
do 1 plank position 3 times a day for 1 min or as long as you can hold it.
flex your but the entire time you write an email until its sent LOL...try it its actually a little hard.
If you work at home try once and hour getting up and doing 10 somethings....jumping jacks, push ups, sit ups, lunges, etc.
Good luck!

[WNK]

Hey, thanks for the comments and tips! Greatly appreciated!

Jamesmom - I don't know that the water trick works... I drank 1L yesterday and still felt snacky afterwards
soimarriedanerd - We actually don't have junk food around the house very often... my "snacking" tends to consist of saltines & cheese (like I had yesterday), tuna straight out of the can, pretzels (if we have them), or a bowl of ramen noodles. For some reason my most common craving is salt!


Okay, so here's how I did yesterday (Wednesday):

morning- none
I was going to get some yogurt, but then ended up getting busy with other stuff and the next thing I knew it was nearly lunch. Not good... I know I need to make a habit of eating breakfast.

noon - whole wheat spaghetti with pasta sauce and meatballs
Lunch tends to be our big meal of the day, since DH often ends up staying late at work. I need to remember to fix up some veggies to go with lunch... we don't eat nearly enough veggies

evening - I had a major salt craving and went for the whole wheat crackers with slices of cheese (and a bit of ham) on top
DH got home late, and by that time I wasn't hungry anymore, so I just made him something to eat and didn't have any myself

drinks - I had an orange juice in the morning, milk with lunch, 1L of water in the afternoon, and some raspberry/cherry juice in the evening

EXERCISE - 45 min of pilates... I really pushed myself, and felt sore, but great afterwards


My goals for today:
- eat breakfast
- drink 1L of water again
- do pilates again
- take a 3 5-minute breaks throughout the day to get up from my desk and do some lunges

[jenmommy]

that could be addressing an underlying issue--for example...

I had a bout of wanting parsley on everything I ate...I also like to eat the Nori wraps--without sushi--yes just the seaweed wraps.

craving for salt--could be an electrolyte imbalance, but it may not be sodium, but potassium your body is trying to get you to intake...If you drink too much water, you will crave sodium because of the ionic balance needed in your body.

the need for parsley was me wanting chloryphyll, and the seaweed was iodine..you may be craving iodine for a sluggish thyroid.

I believe in listening to your body--it will tell you what it needs.

[lupti]

There are a bunch of us here that have a tough time with the veggies, you fit right in!

Great job on the pIlates, keep it up!

[soImarriedAnerd]

The water will make you want salt for a couple weeks! This usually means your also maybe chugging it LOL....try drinking it a little slower through the day and no more than 8 oz in a hour (unless you just worked out!).
Veggies ....yeah I don't think one person on this board does those well LOL.
And yes your body does tell you what you need! (try a multivitamin if you not on one already---i am the multivitamin pusher, shannon is our water pusher LOL). I am anemic and I crave potting soil and laundry detergent.....i kid you not! I have actually tried a bite of potting soil because I NEEDED it (yes as an adult! LOL) it a very common craving!

[jenmommy]

hmmm, there you go with the exoticism again...lol...

Potting soil? interesting...

but laundry detergent?? That's just CRAZY...LOL...

you are so funny Angela.

am I bad or what, on days I don't want to take my yucky tasting multivitamin I take my son's chewable one!

ok, I'm going to go see what I can get into...

[soImarriedAnerd]

I took Flinstone Chewable Completes until this last bottle of pills! My Doctor recommended them! They have everything you need. i only ate the red ones though, i could eat an orange on occasionally, but hated the purple ones.....DH ate those!

[WNK]

Wow, you guys are super-helpful! Thanks!!

I'm definitely going to check out more info on potassium deficiencies... from the little searching I did this morning, it seems one of the other symptoms is fatigue... I have been feeling fatigued lately, but I've attributed that to a lack of sunlight/Vitamin D. Looks like more potatoes for me!

And I think that the other day when I had such an intense salt craving it may have been due to water-chugging... I know I finished my 1L in a fairly short amount of time that day.

Oh, and I also HATE purple Flintstone vitamins. I hear they can be used as prenatals, though? I forget how soon before TTC you should start taking them -- is it 3 months? 6 months? Right now I'm taking a women's multivitamin that I picked out basically because it contained iron, folic acid, and vitamin D... I've been thinking of switching and taking each of those supplements separately, though, because I'm not sure how much of the other 10 vitamins/minerals in these vitamins I actually need supplemented (vitamin A, beta carotene, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, vitamin C, vitamin E, calcium, zinc) It just seems a bit excessive, KWIM?


So, here's how I did yesterday (Thursday):

morning - applesauce
... eaten right out of the jar, b/c I'm the only one in our house that eats it

noon - chicken breast pieces cut up on brown rice with some cream of celery mixed in, green beans
... I remembered to make the veggies at the last minute!

evening - a few slices of homemade raisin bread, chicken nuggets, fries
... I probably could have just stuck with the raisin bread, but when DH got home, he was hungry and made himself the nuggets & fries and I indulged myself, though I knew it would qualify as "late night snacking"

drinks - cup of tea with breakfast, glass of milk with lunch, 1L water after my workout, 1 can of Mountain Dew in the afternoon, 3 glasses of cranberry/cherry juice and another cup of tea in the evening


exercise - 45 minutes of pilates... and boy, was I sore! I guess I hadn't realized how MUCH I had pushed myself the day before until I tried to do it again yesterday. Definitely achy, but I made it through!

I did completely forget to take my breaks for lunges, so I'm going to write myself a note on a post-it and stick it to my computer so I remember to do it today... lol. I'm also hoping to take a walk this afternoon if I get enough work done.


Goals for today:
- eat breakfast again
- drink 1L water again
- do pilates again
- remember to take lunge breaks (3x for 5 min apiece)
- take a walk downtown (weather permitting)

[WNK]

Yesterday (Friday):

morning - nothing
d'oh!

noon - Pizza Friday! We had BBQ chicken pizza, and I made myself stop after two pieces because I knew I wasn't really hungry after that

evening - banana for a snack, and then I finished off the rest of the raisin bread and had a few crackers & cheese

drinks - tea in the morning, milk with lunch, 1L water in the afternoon (I tried to spread it out over a longer period of time) and then some cranberry/cherry juice in the evening


exercise - 1 hr 30 minute walk... then later another 1 hr walk
...and by that time I was quite tired, so I skipped my pilates

[jenmommy]

oh , you did so well with all the exercise...I wouldn't worry about skipping the pilates~!

you didn't eat very much either though...

I hope you had a leisurely day and enjoyed yourself food wise today...

[WNK]

Well, Jamesmom, I certainly did have a leisurely day yesterday! Actually, I was really busy with work all day and it was late evening before I realized I hadn't done my pilates. D'oh!

SATURDAY:
morning - banana!

noon - ramen noodles and two twice-baked potatoes... yum

evening - two bowls of Reese's cereal

drinks - 2 glasses of apple juice, 1 cup of tea, 1L water, 1 can of Mountain Dew


exercise - none

[jenmommy]

oh my, well, don't beat yourself up...according to your calories, you didn't need to do them anyways...it was a good day for your body to rest--well except for the work...

dang...I Hope you get a break soon...

[WNK]

Yesterday (Sunday):

morning - nothing
...d'oh! I ran out of time while getting ready for church!

noon - piece of lasagna, serving of shepherd's pie, 2 white bread rolls
...mmmm... potluck

evening - 1 large slice of combo pizza, 2 buffalo wings, 1 garlic bread
... we had a bit of a get-together with friends

drinks - coffee in the AM, glass of water with lunch, Mountain Dew with dinner, and another coffee in the evening, and another glass of water before bed
... not so great on the water consumption today

For giggles and grins I punched it all into a calorie calculator, which gave me a figure of 1434 calories for my consumption today. It seems low (aren't most adults supposed to get about 2000 a day?), but I really was only eating when I was hungry... hmmm... I need to do more research on this.


exercise - none It was a ridiculously busy day with church, meetings, a get-together with friends, and grocery shopping. I don't know when I would have fit in exercise.

[WNK]

Monday's our day off... so I'm basically writing it off as my day to sleep late, be lazy, and eat pizza

Today (Tuesday):

morning - nothing
... not doing so good at this "remembering to eat breakfast" thing.

noon - "KFC"-style mashed potato bowls with popcorn chicken, gravy, and corn
... yum.

evening - 2 slices of pepperoni pizza

drinks - tea, 2 or 3 glasses of cranberry/cherry juice, 1L water, milk with lunch


exercise - 45 minutes of pilates... it felt great, but after my 5-day break from it, I was pretty exhausted by the end!

[soImarriedAnerd]

What helped me with breakfast is my multivitamin. I decided to take it in the morning...well i get nauseous if i don't have something in my tummy so i just started eating SOMETHING to make my tummy feel better. But its a hard thing to learn!

[lupti]

I agree with Angela, taking the vitamins is a great way to remember to eat. If nothing else, some of thos breakfast or granola bars so you can grab something. All trainers/nutritionists/etc strees the importance of eating Something for breakfast..no matter how little to get soemthing into your system

[jenmommy]

oh, yeah, vitamins sans meal...equals nasty tummy.

well, I love coffee, and if I don't eat with coffee...I will get yucky too...

I need better discipline with my vitamins though...I will take them more often if it's the chewable flinstone...but when I read the label I get sad cause they don't have as much as my own vitamin--even if it is nasty!.

yeah, granola bars is the way I go...I grab three on days I have clinicals...I eat one before I go to them, one at 10:00 break, and 1 on the way home from clinicals...

but I eat waffles on days that I can...except today...slacked off on breakfast...

if I get ravenous, I will eat everything in sight.

[soImarriedAnerd]

I need better discipline with my vitamins though...I will take them more often if it's the chewable flinstone...but when I read the label I get sad cause they don't have as much as my own vitamin--even if it is nasty!.[/b]

The Flinstone completes are equal to the adult ones!!!!