NYBTC Food & Diet Chatter Week #3 & #4

[Lea13]

Welcome to the New Years Body Transformation Challenge Food & Diet Chatter.

Feel free to keep track of your eating/diet, share tips and provide support here.

This weeks article is on Changing Our Eating Behaviour


This weeks MINI CHALLENGES are

- plan your menu for a week & buy food with a list

- cut down on alcohol or coffee or soft drink (and cigarettes if you smoke)


Link to old thread found HERE

So how did everyone go with the challenges last week? Anyone fall off the wagon Is everyone still as motivated as last week?

[Tyige]

Well this weeks challanges are sort of easyt.. I've already planned all my meals. I've stopped drinking coffee(used to drink about 3-4 cups a day with bickies) I have never really drunk soft drink The only thing I need to do is cut out the alcohol and ciggies.

Does anyone know a good site to tell me approx how many calories a day I should be eating to lose weight? I'm a little worried that I might be going too far with vutting back the calories and I don't want to become too addictive IYGWIM

[Emma1979]

hey go to calorie king, its great... you answer questions about your age, weight, height, level of activity etc, and it tells you how many calories you need to maintain your weight, and how many to lose weight (obviously less)... it also tells you how many calories in the food you eat etc... its great...

ive been trying to be good, but haven't really been very strict, so if i wasn't using calorie king, id be thinking 'hey why aren't i losing weight, im eating better foods', but in actual fact because im recording what i eat, i can see that im eating WAY too many calories still, because i keep allowing myself big treats.

in answer to your q lea, im still motivated but struggling with following thru 100% with not eating bad foods... i guess its a process... ive cut out soft drink (on most days) and am eating more fibre and not snacking, and ive been to the gym, and am trying to run, so i guess they are all improvements, even though im not 100% in 'the zone' with my mission of trying to lose weight.

[Lucy]

I am up for those challenges!

Planning & being organised is the main way I stay on track and stay motivated.

Tomorrow I am planning on the grocery and veggie shopping (with 3 kids, I must be bloody mad!) so I am just about to sit down and plan our weeks grub.

Although I must say, being on Kate Morgan is good for me as it takes away the tempting choices and I notice we are not churning through anywhere like as much bread and cheese, but all of us are eating a lot more fruit and veg........which has got to be a good thing!

Gotta get myself a shaker to have at work. And I am also gonna take a nice bowl to work for fruit. And get myself a stash of water bottles for work too.

[*mitch*]

Challenges sound good...

Menu planning is not my fortay (sp?)

I quit smkin 5 months ago, have already cut down my coffee & alcohol.... LOL... this weeks challenge almost completed hehehe... will try & do last weeks instead though... forgot about push ups & sit ups LOL...

[Tyige]

Emma: Thanks for that. I have already been looking at calorie king to count my calories but didn't know the had that other section... Shall go for a look now.

Ellie

[*mitch*]

23/1/08

Water
5x 750ml bottle water

Drinks
2 coffee - milk

Breakfast
4 small plums

Snacks
4 small cookies
cherries
small banana
cherry plums

Lunch
chicken/spinich stew with potato & feta

Dinner
1/2 pack 2 min noodles with mixed veges
Fruit

Exercise
Aquafit class

[Emma1979]

also something ive found cool on calorie king, is under the 'club' menu at the top in blue, there is a section called 'charts and reports'... very interesting!! it charts your progress and you can see on average where you have stuck to your goal and where you haven't, and also a breakdown of nutrition in your diet etc. so cool.

[Kazbah]

Ummmm well I was sorta on the wagon last week, but as I posted previously, I'm waiting until I get a bit more fit to work on the diet - it's just the way my body works.

today:
2L water (and almost finished the next L)

b/fast:
Ooops

MTea:
Ooops

Lunch:
Wholemeal sanga with chicken/cheese/mayo
fizzy fruit drink

A/tea:
Slice home-made banana & walnut cake. (no icing)

tea:
leftover chinese.

Exercise:
16,000 steps


So my challenge from above, Lea, is to cut out coffee. To lose my 3-cups a day habit (I've been good today so far!)

[Emma1979]

im eating healthily but just finding it impossible to stick to 1100 calories a day... not one day has gone by where i haven't allowed myself a treat, be it a can of coke, or a piece of cake, or at the momemt im eating weight watchers choc chip cookies.... i just don't seem to have any willpower whatsoever.... every single day i have eaten at least one piece of high calorie food which then makes all the other hard work i have done pointless. im not eating anywhere near the amount i was eating, so maybe thats a start??

hmmmmm im feeling like im never going to be able to eat the right amount to lose any weight... i probably need to exercise for 3 hours a day to work off all the extra calories i am consuming.

[Lucy]

im not eating anywhere near the amount i was eating, so maybe thats a start??

That is what you need to focus on. Promise.

maybe type up a list of a "normal days food" PRE healthy eating plan? ie write down all the stuff that you used to eat in a normal day. And compare. You will be amazed at the changes you have already made.

[~Kim~]

Lol Lucy I did that - got myself some nice stuff to eat from at work - makes it much more enjoyable.

Emma, I had a look at the calorie king thing to compare that to WW. Man If I stuck to the amount of calories that they say I'm supposed to eat - I'd be starving!!!!

I am a diet coke addict - but having no oher vices I never thought this too bad - however - becasue I want to be committed to this i am trying to cut back. Meal planning isn't very exciting when there's only one of you though - but much easier I guess than when DH gets home. At least I don't have to please anyone else.

[Emma1979]

im a coke addict, ive actually been 'trying to like' diet coke and coke zero, but who am i fooling, i just don't like it...... dam!! barely any calories in either of them. so ive decided to buy the mini coke cans from kmart, and just have a little can of coke when the mood strikes me, which is a huge improvement on the amount i used to drink daily.

lucy you are dead right. ive improved leaps and bounds from what i used to eat, plus im actually thinking about food, and getting educated on kilojoules and calories and what it all means, so i guess its baby steps.

kim funny u say that about calorie king, i just dont get how people stick to this!! i mean if i was really disciplined i could probably stick to it and not go starving, but for me its just so hard not to eat a bloody potatoe and then BAM, there go the calories.... if i could be satisfied on the foods that are low calorie i wouldn't have a problem, but i just feel i NEED a good tasty yummy meal now and then that isnt salad or veg.

i nearly died when i made tacos last night and then put it on calorie king and my calories literally sky rocketed.... id pretty much consumed my total daily allowance in three tacos!!

i miss cheese.

[~Kaz~]

Emma - I'm not sure that 1100 calories per day is achievable for anyone. Is that what they recommended in your profile thingy? I thought I read somewhere that no one should really go under 1200 per day and my recommendation from that site was close to 1300 (and I admitted I am pretty much sedentary ). If you're too low you will constantly feel deprived and then blow your budget........

btw - I agree with Lucy that you are doing heaps already, even if you don't feel like you are. so challenge that negative thinking that says you will never get anywhere A smaller "serving size" of coke (or whatever you feel like) is a really great idea. I have been trying to limit serving sizes too - it's hard though!

[~shazz~]

i used to be a iced coffee freak i work at a shop one day a week but i used to venture in there everyday anyway to buy my iced coffee and we have notice a huge drop in iced coffee sales we used to buy in 3 crates a week that is 28 600ml iced coffee per crate ( 3x 28 = 84 ) after i gave them up cold turkey on the 1st of jan 2008 we now only buy in 1 crate a week so yep what i'm saying is that i used to drink 33.6 litres of iced coffee a week so i'm coffeee free now and it motivates me to put this out there i still can't believe what a piggy i was and i'm a tad bit richer it was costing me $165 a week that makes it even sadder

and on a brighter note i joined calorie king and i'm only up to 1030 calories for today and i'm not hungry I CAN DO THIS ....

[~Kaz~]

Shazz - that is so excellent! Good on you for giving them up and then working out how much you were drinking and spending! Its kind of a moment. I am sure we could all find something like that from our old 2007 habits to cringe about. For me, I wonder about the total number of cigarettes I have smoked in my lifetime (gave them up few months back - for good this time )......let alone the money I have spent over 15 YEARS of smoking on and off and more on in the recent 10 yrs than off......

Also the number of jelly beans I have consumed doesn't bear thinking about......

[~shazz~]

well done on the ciggies woohoo i gave a 3 weeks before i fell pg with ryan it is a great feeling of acomplishment isn't it

[~Kaz~]

It is great not to feel a slave to something like that. I am really proud too because yesterday I was standing around outside at work with a bunch of colleagues talking sh@t and they were all smoking and I didn't even try to inhale their smoke (like I have in the past ).