diet starting today

[sonya123]

Whatever your weight will be, bet you are feeling better
Also, just within our family: vegans, vegetarians, GF, junk food junkies, diabetics and us (mostly non-chemical). Makes for interesting family meals. I used to have a sign that's long gone, but still say it: You have two choices, take it or leave it. I am neither their dietitians nor do they get to determine what I fix. That said, I do usually try to have something that fits most categories. I always say they are welcome to bring something to their own liking (I do like and care about them).

My pants are fitting better. They were getting a little tight

When I invite people over to eat I usually ask what they like to eat , but almost nobody ever says what they like , most of the time I hear " whatever you make is fine" I guess our friends are either not picky or they like everything I make LOL
I know my one friend in Florida has a shellfish allergy but I don't eat that anyway ( not allergic just don[t like it) so no problems there . You would not find a shrimp in my house , ever , might as well eat those bugs

 

[Bacpacker]

I would hate not having shrimp

 

[havasu]

Got rid of my spring antique scale and picked up a digital, glass top scale. Darn thing sends my weight and BMI right to my phone. It registers 5 pounds heavier but it is at least accurate. I feel like I just had a 2 pound prime rib and a 2 pound baked potato, with none of the enjoyment. Dad blasted new scale cost me 5 extra pounds to lose!

 

[backlash]

My wife and I usually share meals.
We even have things like hamburgers cut in half.
I have a slight allergy to shrimp.
I still eat it but I sometimes have to take a Benadryl after because I break out in hives.
My doc said I was crazy for still eating shrimp but I'm not giving it up.

 

[havasu]

Well, dumb me. In all the excitement, I weighted myself with all my clothes on. Duh!
I stripped to my birthday suit, and re-measured my fat arse, and this scale is only 1 pound heavier. Strange fact was the simple shedding of my shorts and tee shirt made me change my BMI from obese down to just overweight. Yay me!

 

[Supervisor42]

Well, dumb me. In all the excitement, I weighted myself with all my clothes on. Duh!
I stripped to my birthday suit, and re-measured my fat arse, and this scale is only 1 pound heavier. Strange fact was the simple shedding of my shorts and tee shirt made me change my BMI from obese down to just overweight. Yay me!

At least you have an accurate scale now.
You can test it's accuracy by weighing yourself while holding a known weight, and then without it.
The Dr's office has an old-timey balance-beam scale that gets calibrated yearly.
I weigh myself on our digital scale before every checkup so I don't get surprised.
I love blowing the girl's mind by sliding the weights into the correct position, declaring my weight, and then stepping on the platform.
I am always correct.

 

[havasu]

When I go to the doctor for my annual physical, I slide the weights to what I want them to read, step off and say, yep, that's right. They laugh, I lie, it's all good. Not this year though.

 

[backlash]

The Dr's office has an old-timey balance-beam scale that gets calibrated yearly.

I used to check those scales for accuracy and calibrate them.
Some of them you actually have to remove some of the lead weight inside the scale.
They can be way off in either direction.
If you lean back you can gain or lose 10 pounds.
The digital scales are usually more accurate and they have a self calibration mode.
I know everyone wants to know their true weight but my main concern is repeatability.
I want to know what I weigh compared to the last time I stepped on it.
If it goes down I'm good. Up and I'm not happy.

 

[sonya123]

I would hate not having shrimp

that's ( to me) really weird LOL , I can imagine hating to not have pizza, or cookies, or bread but shrimp??!! No way, especially if you are allergic
I bet you eat mushrooms too! ( do you?)

 

[sonya123]

Day # 6

I woke up HUNGRY at 5.30 am
that doesn't ever happen, not usually hungry first thing in the morning. This is good, it probably means I am losing weight

Will probably have a piece of toast with peanut butter after we take care of the animals, maybe a banana too

lunch today will be Korean food, spicy fried chicken rice, pak choy and wonton soup ( I make the soup but cheat on the wontons, frozen pork dumplings from the Asian store)

evening probably yogurt with fruit and granola

 

[UrbanHunter]

Well, dumb me. In all the excitement, I weighted myself with all my clothes on. Duh!
I stripped to my birthday suit, and re-measured my fat arse, and this scale is only 1 pound heavier. Strange fact was the simple shedding of my shorts and tee shirt made me change my BMI from obese down to just overweight. Yay me!

It's just your clothes that are fat, not you.... That's my story and I'm keeping with it... Ya.. I got heavy clothes.... That's it, honest!

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Day # 6

I woke up HUNGRY at 5.30 am
that doesn't ever happen, not usually hungry first thing in the morning. This is good, it probably means I am losing weight

Will probably have a piece of toast with peanut butter after we take care of the animals, maybe a banana too

lunch today will be Korean food, spicy fried chicken rice, pak choy and wonton soup ( I make the soup but cheat on the wontons, frozen pork dumplings from the Asian store)

evening probably yogurt with fruit and granola

Your diet boggles me. I would turn into the good year blimp, on it. In my whole life during the hardest days working, I would never be able to eat that much. You must have a barn burner metabolism. I envy you. Me, I come from good peasant stock. It would be difficult to starve me to death.

I eat one small meal a day now and may move to every other day since I am struggling to not gain weight. I have never in my life, eaten three meals a day.

 

[Cabin Fever]

Day # 6

I woke up HUNGRY at 5.30 am
that doesn't ever happen, not usually hungry first thing in the morning. This is good, it probably means I am losing weight

Will probably have a piece of toast with peanut butter after we take care of the animals, maybe a banana too

lunch today will be Korean food, spicy fried chicken rice, pak choy and wonton soup ( I make the soup but cheat on the wontons, frozen pork dumplings from the Asian store)

evening probably yogurt with fruit and granola

These were our meals yesterday. We attempt to build a 16-hour fast within our day.

Breakfast (at 9:30AM)
Oatmeal with the following mixed into it: dried cranberries, dried cherries, chopped pecans, sliced banana, one tablespoon each of chia, hemp, and ground flax seed. Sweetened with maple syrup. A bit of almond milk.

Lunch (at 1:30PM)
Very large salad of baby lettuce (spring mix) and spinach leaves, cucumber, raw broccoli, carrot, onion, green pepper, and walnuts. The dressing used is homemade from orange juice, white miso, and red pepper flakes. A slice of 22-grain and seed toast with peanut butter (the ingredients in the peanut butter we use are just peanuts and sea salt)

Dinner (at 5:30PM)
Meatless chili made with 4 kinds of beans (kidney, black, pinto, and butter beans), hominy, and black olives. Chili is topped with raw onion, pickled jalapeno, and broken no-salt tortilla chips. For dessert, a slice of julekaga.

 

[havasu]

My breakfast the last 10 years is 2 cups of coffee and my "must have" is one banana a day, for the potassium. I use to have bad leg cramps at night partially due to my knee replacements, but have never had one cramp since eating my daily banana.

I just stood on my whiz bang digital scale while holding my cell phone, and I heard the chirp and the "zing" as it transferred my weight to my phone, and saw I am down another 1.6 pounds!

 

[elkhound]

These were our meals yesterday. We attempt to build a 16-hour fast within our day.

Breakfast (at 9:30AM)
Oatmeal with the following mixed into it: dried cranberries, dried cherries, chopped pecans, sliced banana, one tablespoon each of chia, hemp, and ground flax seed. Sweetened with maple syrup. A bit of almond milk.

my dad eats about same for breakfast...i tell him he is eating liquidy preacher cookies or liquid granola bars...lol

growing up i would grab a piece of cake and get scolded and told it wasnt breakfast food..i pointed out pan-CAKES were same thing covered in syrup instead of icing...i got a blank stair !!....roflmao

 

[Bacpacker]

that's ( to me) really weird LOL , I can imagine hating to not have pizza, or cookies, or bread but shrimp??!! No way, especially if you are allergic
I bet you eat mushrooms too! ( do you?)

I just love shrimp. Pizza and some cookies are ok. I eat both. Shrooms I can take or leave.
I dont have food allergies so that would make a BIG difference.
One short tale from a vacation years ago. We arrived to a campground on the beach in South Carolina, got set up and messed around the rest of the day. Next day we took a road trip and happened across a seafood market. Got some fish and 4 lbs of shrimp. I had shrimp everyday once or twice a day till we left. Dang it was good

 

[sonya123]

here is what I made for lunch , and my plate. was good and I am totally full

 

[sonya123]

Your diet boggles me. I would turn into the good year blimp, on it. In my whole life during the hardest days working, I would never be able to eat that much. You must have a barn burner metabolism. I envy you. Me, I come from good peasant stock. It would be difficult to starve me to death.

I eat one small meal a day now and may move to every other day since I am struggling to not gain weight. I have never in my life, eaten three meals a day.

I am 5 ft 8 , that helps, plus probably use up 3000 cal a day working on our farm and general chores, plus walking dogs up the mountain etc. Before farming I exercised a LOT at the gym, and running outside

Used one of those calorie estimators online and got 2650 calories a day. This is what I can eat to be a decent weight, so if I am over 25 lbs, I must have been eating like 3000 or something
We will see after the week is up if I lost anything ( or hopefully NOT gained any, now that would be bad)

 

[sonya123]

These were our meals yesterday. We attempt to build a 16-hour fast within our day.

Breakfast (at 9:30AM)
Oatmeal with the following mixed into it: dried cranberries, dried cherries, chopped pecans, sliced banana, one tablespoon each of chia, hemp, and ground flax seed. Sweetened with maple syrup. A bit of almond milk.

Lunch (at 1:30PM)
Very large salad of baby lettuce (spring mix) and spinach leaves, cucumber, raw broccoli, carrot, onion, green pepper, and walnuts. The dressing used is homemade from orange juice, white miso, and red pepper flakes. A slice of 22-grain and seed toast with peanut butter (the ingredients in the peanut butter we use are just peanuts and sea salt)

Dinner (at 5:30PM)
Meatless chili made with 4 kinds of beans (kidney, black, pinto, and butter beans), hominy, and black olives. Chili is topped with raw onion, pickled jalapeno, and broken no-salt tortilla chips. For dessert, a slice of julekaga.

that all sounds very good, except I would probably put some fried chicken breast on that salad, and add some ground goat or lamb to that chili....

 

[sonya123]

last day #7

I had some food yesterday evening around 6, Apple, orange and yogurt with granola

today I am debating on pizza, but I don't want to ruin what I already did the rest of the week so that will maybe wait.
I think I will make goat burgers, cauliflower and potatoes today

 

[sonya123]

So today I made goat burgers, cauliflower with cheese sauce and potatoes
plus rice soup ( rice cooked to mush, an egg , some green onions, butter, salt , pepper)

 

[havasu]

Once a month, an old retired friend and I go out for some great food. Yesterday was my turn to drive, and his turn to select the place. He chose Portillo's Restaurant, which was 40 miles away. Being on a diet, I was concerned. I let him order, I doubled his order, and I paid for the meal.

https://www.portillos.com/all-menus/
It was a foot long Italian beef sandwich with peppers, chilis and onions, and a cup of their special chili on the side. Because of the diet, I only ate half, and had the other half for dinner last night. Yep, portion control is the key!

Darn meal was great, I really indulged, and was worried about that digital scale reading this morning. Well, happy to report that I lost another pound, and now down below 230 pounds (229.6 to be exact). I'm sure that 3 1/2 mile speed walk at 4 MPH yesterday morning helped me not gain weight.

Well, guess what. Time to walk right now....

 

[Haertig]

I need a shock to trigger me to lose weight. I had that shock years ago and I lost 75 lbs over 6 months (that's way too fast, but that's what I did). My trigger? We were out at a restaurant with friends and I saw their kid had a carton of Oreo's in his coat. No, I don't carry Oreo's around with me, but that was still a mental shock that caused me to seriously lose weight. I got down to 140 (from 215). A much healthier weight, although I did look like a concentration camp survivor for a while (a bit gaunt). I lost my weight from pretty much diet alone, with only minimal extra exercise. I now realize that increasing exercise (and hydration) will help you look better after weight lose. And I found out it is indeed possible to go from a size XL shirt to a size small (I'm 5'8"). Unfortunately, finding men's size small clothes can be challenging.

I need another shock now to re-lose the weight that I eventually gained back. It took about 7 years to start slipping upwards again, and then it went gang-busters and now I am where I am now, in need of losing weight again (that's quite the understatement!)

Well, I got my shock yesterday. Bloodwork for my yearly physical. My A1C has been in the 4.9 to 5.4 range forever. But this time I just busted past that with a reading of 6.0. Yikes! They call this "prediabetes". What a horrible thing for them to do IMHO. They are minimizing it. It's like they want people to think, "Oh, I only have prediabetes, I'm OK. No need to worry. Pass the Oreo's." Either you are diabetic or you aren't. What they are calling prediabetes is nothing more than plain old diabetes, but one that can hopefully (and typically) be controlled by diet. Them sticking "pre" in front of things is like them saying, "Oh, you're just pre morbidly obese", or "You have pre high blood pressure".

So now I will make some dietary changes. I've been "triggered". Knowing what I've been eating lately, I could probably bring myself back into sugar compliance just by cutting out the ice cream, cookies, and little chocolate covered almonds and crap like that from Costco. But I want to go farther than that, since I just experienced my trigger. This would be a bangup time for me to work on losing weight as well as lowering my A1C. It's not like I don't know what I should or should not be eating. That is well known, and I think probably obvious to most people. So I just need to implement what I know. Bringing your A1C down and bringing your weight down go hand in hand - when you are doing one, you are probably doing the other too, without any additional effort.

I don't eat much rice, but I guess now I should replace my Jasmine and Basmati with Brown. I don't really care for Brown rice, but I eat it when forced. Does anyone know ways to make it a bit more enjoyable to eat? And my brand new bread maker? The white breads will be replaced with whole wheat breads. Which I prefer anyway, so no big deal. I just did the first few loaves with white to learn the machine, since all the basic recipes call for all-purpose or bread flour (both being white).

So I am going to keep an eye on this diet thread and other recipe related threads for additional ideas.

 

[backlash]

I am struggling to stay on my diet.
Went to lunch yesterday and had Pho.
I thought I was going to have to go to Olive Garden, which I hate, but when my wife saw the Pho place was open for inside dining she was all for it.
The first time they have had inside dining since Covid started.
I will keep plugging along and I will get there eventually.
Portion control is key for me.
I weigh or measure everything to keep myself honest.
I find I underestimate what something actually weighs.
4 oz. of meat is about the size of a can of sardines as an example.
I test myself. I'll put a serving on something on my plate then weigh it to see if I was close.
In the beginning I was always way off and had to remove some to get the portion size correct.
I am better now.

 

[Cabin Fever]

Yesterday, we had a smoothie for breakfast made with kale, carrot, beet, banana, blueberries, 1T each of chia, hemp, and flax, and plant milk.

For lunch. peanut butter on 22-grain toast and apple slices.

For dinner, homemade roasted butternut squash soup topped with pepitas.

 

[havasu]

This is tonight's meal. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

 

[havasu]

^ I just realized I'm making "chicken sheet" for dinner tonight!

 

[Haertig]

I don't really care for Brown rice, but I eat it when forced. Does anyone know ways to make it a bit more enjoyable to eat?

My daughter just gave me a tip on this: Chop up some onion and saute that with a little oil in a frying pan. Add some chopped garlic and saute a little longer. Then add the brown rice and saute still a little longer to give the rice a little edge and get some oil coating it (you're not trying to cook the rice). Then dump the entire mess, with the proper amount of water, into your rice cooker and cook as normal. She says the onion and garlic add flavor, and the oil keeps the brown rice from drying out and becoming sticky (the oil adds flavor too).

I haven't tried this yet, but it sounds like a good plan to improve brown rice!

 

[Pearl]

^ I just realized I'm making "chicken sheet" for dinner tonight!

My Dad called it sheeting chicken!

 

[Pearl]

My daughter just gave me a tip on this: Chop up some onion and saute that with a little oil in a frying pan. Add some chopped garlic and saute a little longer. Then add the brown rice and saute still a little longer to give the rice a little edge and get some oil coating it (you're not trying to cook the rice). Then dump the entire mess, with the proper amount of water, into your rice cooker and cook as normal. She says the onion and garlic add flavor, and the oil keeps the brown rice from drying out and becoming sticky (the oil adds flavor too).

I haven't tried this yet, but it sounds like a good plan to improve brown rice!

I'm a brown rice fan, updates please!! Sounds good!!