Leah's Lifting Log

[GinnyLou]

Your pictures look awesome! You are looking soooo good!

[LWilson212]

Originally Posted by GinnyLou

Your pictures look awesome! You are looking soooo good!

Thanks Ginger! I still have a bit to go, but I'm getting there.

Well yesterday was the first day since starting with Leigh that I feel like I totally messed up. Shawn's mom had us over for dinner and I ate too much. I knew I had 500 calories when we got there, which should have been okay. She set out some chips and dip and I carefully looked at the package while she was in the bathroom and got myself a portion, but then I just kept eating them after my portion was gone. I don't think trying to have a single serving of munchies is ever going to work for me and I should have realized that. She had also made a delicious salad, baked chicken with some kind of breading, a smashed potato salad with bacon, cheddar, leeks, and roasted tomatoes. And if that wasn't enough, she had bought him the most delicious, moist, incredible miniature chocolate cake, which I had a few bites of. I am trying not to beat myself up and just go on, but I also wanted to think a bit about what the problem was.

I think the main thing for the whole weekend was that I didn't know what we were doing and I didn't have a plan. If I was just trying to maintain, fine, but to lose, I need to have everything planned out. Even if I would have had to change things up a bit, I would have probably done better if I went there saying I will have 4 oz of meat, 1/2 cup of starch and 1 portion of veggies, or something along those lines.

So, I have today planned out and we went to the store and I have a fridge full of food, so I'm going to get the rest of the week planned out today.

Today: 155.4

Food plan: 1500 cal day

Breakfast: 1/2 cup oats w/strawberries & brown sugar

Morning snack: 1/2 cup cottage cheese w/1 cup frozen wild blueberries

Lunch: 1 1/4 cups chili, 74g broccoli, 100g cauliflower

Afternoon snack: 1 can tuna w/1 tsp miracle whip

Dinner: warm pasta salad w/spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, white beans, and tuna

Tonight I'll do some cardio, either martial arts class or I'll go for a walk.

[Bytsi]

She set out some chips and dip and I carefully looked at the package while she was in the bathroom and got myself a portion, but then I just kept eating them after my portion was gone. I don't think trying to have a single serving of munchies is ever going to work for me and I should have realized that.

Ah Leah... I'm right there with you. I have ONE, and then the next thing you know, I have had a double (triple) serving...

You're right in just dusting yourself and moving on. 100% compliance is TOUGH, and planning ahead is definitely your best move... hard to do when you don't know what's going to be available though...

You're doing so well - and you learned from it, so it was still a valuable experience, right?

[realcdn]

Originally Posted by LWilson212

I knew I had 500 calories when we got there, which should have been okay. She set out some chips and dip and I carefully looked at the package while she was in the bathroom and got myself a portion, but then I just kept eating them after my portion was gone.

Hey, I'm still the same way, maybe always will be. I really can't trust myself to just take a little bit of something freely available. I've been at a couple of parties over the last few months and I end up under eating, which isn't much better. I've been lucky since they were both larger parties with buffets so it wasn't obvious that I hadn't eaten much. I'm dreading a sit-down invitation. It's probably a good thing that most of my friends don't cook and are more likely to give in to my invitations to come here, or suggest a restaurant where I can order what I want.

So the day is over, you've learned some lessons for next time. Now it's back to your usual planning.

[missjane]

Leah, just great pics!! You are SO lean!!

[foodfromafar]

Originally Posted by Bytsi

I love it!

[stingo]

Hi Leah, looks like you're doing well. A small suggestion: instead of listing 1/2 cups etc, try listing the weight in grams as that will give you a more exact idea of what you're taking in.

[nutbar]

Congrats on finishing the challenge strong!! You've lost weight and inches, and your finish pic looks great!

[LWilson212]

Originally Posted by Bytsi

Ah Leah... I'm right there with you. I have ONE, and then the next thing you know, I have had a double (triple) serving...

You're right in just dusting yourself and moving on. 100% compliance is TOUGH, and planning ahead is definitely your best move... hard to do when you don't know what's going to be available though...

You're doing so well - and you learned from it, so it was still a valuable experience, right?

Hey Bytsi - You are right that it was a valuable experience because I have to decide how much do I want this. Its not going to be easy. I feel a lot more committed today.

Originally Posted by realcdn

Hey, I'm still the same way, maybe always will be. I really can't trust myself to just take a little bit of something freely available. I've been at a couple of parties over the last few months and I end up under eating, which isn't much better. I've been lucky since they were both larger parties with buffets so it wasn't obvious that I hadn't eaten much. I'm dreading a sit-down invitation. It's probably a good thing that most of my friends don't cook and are more likely to give in to my invitations to come here, or suggest a restaurant where I can order what I want.

So the day is over, you've learned some lessons for next time. Now it's back to your usual planning.

Hey Anne-
I always like it better when people are coming over to my house too - call me a control freak.

Originally Posted by missjane

Leah, just great pics!! You are SO lean!!

Thanks Jane!

Originally Posted by foodfromafar

I love it!

Those are so cute!

Originally Posted by stingo

Hi Leah, looks like you're doing well. A small suggestion: instead of listing 1/2 cups etc, try listing the weight in grams as that will give you a more exact idea of what you're taking in.

Hey Tom-

I've been thinking about this and was hoping you had some ideas. I use fitday, I guess because it was the first tracker I became aware of. Since it doesn't have most of the stuff in grams, here's what I do. I would pick a cup of broccoli which says 25 calories, then go to calorieking and look it up, okay that's 74 grams broccoli, then weigh it out. Or I would weigh the broccoli or whatever item as I'm packing my lunch, write it down, then run upstairs to the computer and figure out how many calories and then make it match the fitday stuff by entering, for example, 1.23 cups of broccoli. This seems incredibly stupid, like there has to be a better way. I should probably just try a different tracker.

The other thing, if my dream tracker existed, would be that it would spit out a report that showed you what you were eating for the week in meal format. Something along the lines of the chart your mom put on the fridge that said we are having meatloaf monday, taco tuesday, etc. I print out each day from fitday and have it in the kitchen, but sometimes I forget that this teaspoon of butter was supposed to go with this baked potato or how much oil I was intending to use to roast the veggies.

[missjane]

Leah, what I did was make custom foods in grams of the stuff I eat a lot of (like broccoli) in grams. Takes some time at the beginning, but it's worth it!

[stingo]

The daily plate allows you to group foods into meals (adding it to your tracking as one food, rather than a collection of foods), and it allows you to designate which meal you had which foods.

[realcdn]

Originally Posted by LWilson212

I've been thinking about this and was hoping you had some ideas. I use fitday, I guess because it was the first tracker I became aware of. Since it doesn't have most of the stuff in grams, here's what I do. I would pick a cup of broccoli which says 25 calories, then go to calorieking and look it up, okay that's 74 grams broccoli, then weigh it out. Or I would weigh the broccoli or whatever item as I'm packing my lunch, write it down, then run upstairs to the computer and figure out how many calories and then make it match the fitday stuff by entering, for example, 1.23 cups of broccoli. This seems incredibly stupid, like there has to be a better way. I should probably just try a different tracker.

That's the big difference between the online version and the PC version of FitDay. I just looked, and mine does grams/oz/cups for things like broccoli and such. I just checked and it does liquids as well that way. I think it's a little better on the custom foods as well. I can drag and drop ingredients into a new recipe. I tend to do that to start with for a single serving (especially when I'm not sure how many servings I'm going to make). When I'm done I can copy and paste the information into a new heading which will have the number of servings I've decided on and then I delete the original. It's great for things like baked goods - I weigh the finished item and then work out servings based on weight.

It's easier to work with and has better reporting. The one big negative is that when I switched over from online to computer I couldn't port over my custom foods. The reporting is better, but it's historical. You can identify meals that you've eaten the item with, but it doesn't show when you print the list of the day's food. However, you can copy and paste to reorder things, or eat the same meal as you did another day.

I just thought of something else, which I might need later on. You could create a custom with no calories to act as a header. Here's what I mean.



I'm not sure this would do you any good with the online version since (if I remember correctly) you couldn't rearrange the order of things once they are entered. I tend to start planning my day with dinners so I might start doing this myself. It might help me with my copying/pasting that I do once I'm done.

[marthand99]

Leah, just wanted to stop by and say how amazing your pictures look. You've made such great progress!

I'm totally with you on your frustrations with fitday. I don't like anything else that I've tried, though. Maybe I should just give in and upgrade to the PC version.

[SpacecityPaula]

I have started using SparkPeople's tracker. It allows you to group things by meal. It also allows you to import foods from other users and then customize those imports so if someone has the calorie counts right for 4 oz of the brand of extra lean Ground Beef you use and you weigh everything in grams, you can edit it so that it also includes the gram weights as well.

If you want to see what it looks like
SPACECITYPAULA's Shared Food & Fitness Tracker - Monday, July 07, 2008

[stingo]

Do you include the number of grams on the title, or is that the computer's doing? e.g., Red Potato, 200 grams.