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Shaping up - Diet and exercise


Couch Tomato

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Good going, couchie. You have to be careful with the tracking sites because sometimes people put bogus info in there, or else if it's something you made yourself, the ingredients could be entirely different. Does fitday allow you to enter your own recipes or meals? If I make something and I am going to need to track it I usually create either a recipe or a meal on the site and enter all the ingredients I used, and then figure out how many portions it splits into. That way if I make it again it's already there for me to use.

I really like the recipe sites or cookbooks that give you all the nutritional breakdown up front, so you can just enter it into the site as a new item and store it in their database for future use.

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Argh. I'm trying to eat more healthy. I'm cooking my own food, I rarely buy or eat anything commercially prepared. I'm reading healthy cookbooks (mainly vegetarian) and I'm scouring healthy eating blogs and websites for ideas. More often than not, most of these recipes, while containing wonderfully healthy ingredients, are still quite high in fat. Ok, so it's heart healthy fat, olive oil for the most part, or nuts, etc, but that doesn't help the waist line. Calories still add up whether it's healthy fat or not. It's frustrating.

For example, I made this great stir fried asparagus and brocolli salad recipe the other night. Called for shallots, radishes, lemon juice and zest, pine nuts, and of course, the ever present olive oil. Some in the pan for the quick stir fry, the rest in the dressing with the lemon juice, shallots & pine nuts. Thinly sliced radishes and lemon zest on top. Delicious and nutricious! But when I tracked it on thedailyplate.com......whoa. Holy fat content, Batman! :o Might as well have had a hamburger. :P

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ok slipped a bit the last couple of days on my diet cuz I'm stressing out over a project - and we had those damn frozen cookie dough in the freezer -- you know the crap you have to buy cuz your relatives are selling it as a fund raiser?

But I have done more exercise and I have been very faithful taking my medicine. I went in for my blood pressure check today and it was 120/80 which for me is good. And it will get better. I'm so on it!

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Hee, if I had frozen cookie dough in the freezer, I'd eat it too. :cryingwlaughter: It took a while until all the crap was out of the house. Now the only way it gets in is if one of the kids brings it in. And then as long as it's crap that I don't like, it's ok. :P

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Was gonna put this rant on main but decided to put it here instead. Spare the innocent and all that.

My mom showed up two days early for my son's graduation. Two days is a long time when her big thing is cleaning but not cooking. Unfortunately, cleaning is not high on my list of things to do. However, I love to cook healthy foods, but have to listen to the mantra of "don't you know you can buy that in a mix?" or "why don't you just get the frozen kind?" every time I use a fresh ingredient, like, oh, spices, or fresh veggies. Argh. So here I am at 6 am, prepping veggies and chicken for dinner, as we have a busy evening tonight, and I'd like there to be something fresh and healthy to eat. :P

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I should be joining you here. I've been doing the Daily Plate for three days now. Whoopee! Thanks to this new job and fixing up our other house, I haven't had much time to eat so that is making it easier.

I love the summer with fresh fruit and veggies, even raw the veggies are better than frozen. I can have watermelon for desert which although not very nutricious, is better than ice cream- my downfall in the winter.

We are taking dinner over to our neighbor's home tonight. Flank steak, a salad and some good bread. Bad news is my husband made a key lime pie last night and squeezed all the little key limes to get the juice. :cryingwlaughter: Sorry to say we were so busy we didn't notice that our neighbor was back in the hospital last week with another hip infection. Oy! They don't cook much any more and are both getting thin so hopefully we can encourage them to eat a little more than usual.

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Congrats everyone trying to eat healthier. I lost now 52 pounds and now I am stuck. The last two weeks I have not gained buy the scale has not moved. I was hoping to drop the next 10# slowly and add a few more calories to my diet, but I do not think it will happen unless I go back to under 1000 calories a day. Today was bad since I went out for breakfast with a friend. We decided that our last chance to go out before her ten year old gets out of school tomorrow for the summer. I am going to have to get back on the bandwagon tomorrow. I am biking in a five day tour starting Wed. next week. I hope doing about 50 miles a day will help. They feed us well so I will have to behave somewhat. This ride is the first of three bike tour I am doing this summer. I know that last Saturday we rode 53 miles and I felt really good when we got home. Taking off those extra pounds did help. Before I started on Jan. 1 my blood pressure was up to 140/90 and when I took it at work two weeks ago it was 117/65. I decided I needed to lose the weight because I did not want to go on meds. I hoping it continues to stay down.

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Woo hoo, great to see more activity in this thread. Way to go Fear, starting tracking is hard, keeping up wtih it is even harder. I go through periods where I don't track but by and large I've been tracking for over 2 years now. gbmifan, 1000 calories is really low! I have a hard time going below 1400 but I know to seriously start losing again I need to stay between 1200 - 1400 a day (after I subtract my exercise calories). I've basically been maintaining my weight for over a year now. I still should lose probably 25 more pounds but I am much healthier and happier now than I was 40 pounds ago.

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I have been on 1000 calories since Jan. but I increased two weeks ago to 1200-1400 and I think for me that is probably maintainance. I have a chart that says for my height (That is only 5 ft.) to maintain I should be able to eat 1700 calories a day. I am afraid to go that high. If I would still be losing to get to my goal with what I am taking in I would be happy but I am at a standstill. I know when I ride next week I will have to up my carb intake. If I do not I will bonk half way through a ride. Carbs do fuel energy when you are exercising heavily. All I want is to be able to ride, eat reasonably, and not gain. I am happy in the size 6 that I am presently wearing but wanted a buffer zone for those occassions when we were going to something special. I hate it when I am always thinking what I am putting in my mouth. Sometimes I just want to enjoy the evening without looking at the calories that are there.

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At 4' 10' I can say that the 1700 calories a day figure sure seems inflated to me.

I read somewhere that when you hit a plateau, try eating whatever you want one day a week and stick to your limits the rest. I have no idea if that actually works, but it might be worth a try for awhile to see.

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I am 5' 1" so it's all relative, I think. There is a calculator at www.thedailyplate.com that asks you to input your height, weight, sex, activity level, etc and then how much per week you want to lose, and it spits out your recommended calorie intake. Mine is 1422 to lose a pound a week.

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I went on the site and placed that I wanted to lose 2# a week, because that was my first goal when I started in Jan. I sent myself at 1000cal per day based on what a dieticain from work recomended. When I put my info in it said I should eat 1082 cal a day to lose. I guess I was pretty close. I think I will wait till I get back from my bike tour this week and try again. Maybe a week with watching but not calculating everything and biking everyday will stimulate my body. I hope so, I really wanted to hit my goal. It just may be slower.

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Wheeeeeeee! I stepped on the scale for the first time in a few weeks and got a nice surprise this morning......about 6 pounds off. :dancingpickle: I guess all this eating local, fruits & veggies, home cooking is really working. :) :) :)

I've been plateauing for about 2 years so this is really something to dance about for me. :04:

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Good going, luckiest! :whoo:

I have GOT to get back on track yet again. Long work hours, sitting too much, stress and eating out are NOT a good combination... :(

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Hey, Luckiest that is great. I would love that surprise. I got on the scale after my bike trip last week and I was the exact weight I was before I left. I really tried to watch the useless calories that can be consumed when you are done riding. I went to dinner every night and tried not to eat over what I thought was necessary and I did not have any desserts the whole trip. They did look good every night! Sometimes when I weigh in after a trip it is higher probably due to muscle build more than anything. My legs should of gained some muscle, those hills were huge and long.

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I think sometimes it just comes down to doing something different. I have been doing basically the same thing for 2 years, and the first 6 months, I lost 40 pounds, after that, I just maintained. But recently I have stopped buying pretty much anything ready made, and started cooking everything from scratch. I haven't been as diligent with tracking my foods, or as diligent about eating low fat. And I lose 6 pounds. Go figure.

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I've been dropping- about seven pounds in the last two weeks. The Daily Plate has me at 1600 calories to lose 2 lbs a week. I'm aiming for another 6 to 10 lbs more which would put me at my lowest in the last twenty years or so. Right now I'm happy because my clothes fit better. I go the the gym four or five times a week and plan on starting heavier weights. I can get a trainer for three sessions and one free one for $99. I've had one session and he is good at setting up a long range plan.

Today I'm doing a Hip Hop on the ball session which is more streuous than it sounds. We hop up and down on a ball for half an hour putting one or both legs out in time to the music or hopping in a circle then we do a half hour of exercises on the ball. We laugh a lot as the teacher is crazy wild, which is another exercise.

Good luck to all.

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I know I need some upper body strenghtening but am limited yet because of the tendonitis in my right arm. I go to the Ortho surgeon next week. I think we are going to try one more injection before we consider any surgery. It still is very sore and limits some activity. I get like spasms in the tendon at times. Besides biking I walk 3 or more miles a night on my non work days. On the days I work it is a 14 hour day with travel time and I am not interested in exercise when I get home. One of our nurses put a pediameter on to see what we walk in a 12 hour period. She walked 4 miles that night. That was a night shift so I am sure during the day we cover more. I also think since I started full time hours that makes me work more days it has interferred with all my other activities. Right now with my hubby not working I can not join a gym but will have to just come up with my own upper body activitiy. I have enough equipment here, just need to sit down and think about it. I do not like the arm flab that I see since I lost the 50 #'s.

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I haven't been to the gym in months. Eeep. I just walk the dog morning and evening, and walk with my iPod at lunch. I never did get into doing any weights or anything other than the treadmill at the gym. You guys make me feel lazy! LOL My bike hasn't left the shed in over a year. The one thing I want to do is start using the pool, and maybe doing aquafit. First I need to find a bathing suit.

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Still haven't used the pool, but I did try a bathing suit on. Heh.

My scale seems to be on drugs. I have been having some digestive troubles that have caused me to stop eating certain foods. At the beginning of all this I dropped 6 pounds pretty quickly (and not in a fun way). Then it said I gained them all back once I started feeling better (which I expected). Now it says I am down 8 again. WTF. I mean I'll take it but it's whacked. I haven't even been all that good this week....last night I pigged out on chocolate chips straight from the bag. :cryingwlaughter:

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Bumping this up cuz then more people can find it, and also cuz I just had a hilarious conversation with my clueless (when it comes to food) mother:

Me: I'm having some digestive troubles

Mom: You need more roughage in your diet, like maybe a hamburger.

:cryingwlaughter::cryingwlaughter::cryingwlaughter:

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I actually hav kept off the 50#'s. My weight goes up and down 1-2#'s. I am hoping after my last bike trip in a week that I can concentrate on losing the last 10. People keep telling me I do not need to but it will put me back to what I was before menapause set in. I know I should be happy that I wear an 4 or 6, but I think for my own moral I need the last off. I am still biking alot. We are doing an 80 miler tomorrow, and next week I have an 340 mile bike tour. I try to walk 3-4 miles a night when I am not biking or when I work. Ski season is around the corner, which makes me sad. Because I love to ski, but biking is my first love.

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I have never been, nor will I ever be, a size 4, but good for you for sticking to your goals. I hope you make it! I hate the thought of winter but in preparation for the bad weather setting in (which means I cannot walk outside anymore) I have retained my gym membership, even though it sucks to keep paying $26 a month for something I only use 4 or 5 months out of the year.

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I have not had a gym membership for the last 3 years. I did use it in the winter, but I had a hard time to paying the months I did not go. This year I got to force myself to use all the equipment that is sitting in my basement. We have one gym here that I have gone to try out, but can't afford it. Initiation fee was $400 and monthly fee is $100. Some of the classes like bike spiining you have to pay extra, and I think that is stupid. You are paying big bucks to begin with and I think they should include this. One gym will give me a break on spinning classes only and I may go that route. I think each class is about $4 and you pay ahead but only charge off your account when you actually attend. The discount comes from belonging to the local bike club.

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