Big guys unite!

[Jim Nilsen]

I have a cousin that took the advice I heard on the radio one day and it was to eliminate 1 thing out of your diet and change nothing else and they claimed you would lose weight.

2 yrs later at a reunion she told me "every time she sees a Sausage Egg Mc Muffin she thinks of me" I asked how that came about and she said she simply eliminated her daily routine of eating them and she lost 20lbs. in 2 months and has not ever gained it back.

A long long time ago I was taught to eat when your hungry and only when your hungry and you will always have your weight under control. I get people asking me at times " Aren't you going to eat?" and I just tell them I am not hungry. I usually never eat breakfast and never really have. It works for me and I eat whatever I want when I am hungry. This does go against some of the nutritionalist that say you shouldn't let yourself get hungry but goes with the ones that say you should fast once in awhile.

I wish all of you the best of luck and hope you all reach your goals.

It's the phosphates in the pop that break down the calcium in your bones.

[68Formula]

Gave up soda pop a week ago. Down 3lbs so far. But man do I miss my Coke a Cola.

[harshman]

i droped coke, the cola, 2 weeks ago. I was out today and got thirsty and picked one up - tasted like i just swallowed a mouthfull of sugar. I've never gave up caffeine so i have iced tea as my drug of choice. whatever works - eh?

[trapin]

Thursday will be one week for me on my lifestyle change (not diet). Oddly enough I do have a Weight Watchers book that I keep with me that tells all the points for all the food. I concur...it is a great system but I just can't bring myself to go hang out with a bunch of 50 something women and grandmothers once a week for a half hour. LOL!!! Not that I have anything against 50+ year old women and grandmothers mind you.

Here's what I've been doing basically...

Breakfast - Oatmeal
Snack 1 - Lowfat yogurt
Lunch - Tunafish Sandwich (lite bread, lite mayo), apple or orange
Snack 2 - Fresh veggies (brocolli, carrots, red peppers, cauliflower)
Dinner - Garden salad made with Romaine lettuce and low fat dressing and either chicken breast or pork tenderloin on the Foreman grill. 2 days this week I had Subway but got the "6 grams and under" sandwiches. No chips or soda with it either.
Final snack - Small bowl of fruit (cantalope, pineapple, bananna)

In addition to all that I have a cup of tea in the morning with lemon (no sugar), drink 60 ounces of fresh water, soymilk with my oatmeal in the morning and a glass of red wine with dinner.

We'll see what happens. I face the scale on Thursday and I'll report back in here. If I'm successful then I'm going to reward myself Friday night when I go out to dinner with the wifey. I'd like to see everyone else chime in with what they're doing too.

[Aceshigh]

No chips or soda with it either.

THAT is the kicker that is Americas habit that is horrible.
French fries, and potato chips and soda's. Good job.

Your diet looks awesome. Stick to it but keep different foods
in there so you don't get bored and deviate and you'll shed lbs.

Oddly enough I do have a Weight Watchers book that I keep with me that tells all the points for all the food. I concur...it is a great system but I just can't bring myself to go hang out with a bunch of 50 something women and grandmothers once a week for a half hour. LOL!!!

You don't need to.

That is just the weigh in and support group part of it.
They sit and babble and swap recipes for good healthy food.
You don't need to do that. They pay for it for emotional support
and the guilt trip it gives them when they screw up.

All you NEED to make Weight Watchers work for you is buy the food calculator and Scale and know how many "Points" you need daily to eat healthy and drop weight. They sell them at just about EVERY weight watchers location. Scale is $50 and calculator is.....$10 IIRC.

Keep the calculator in your briefcase, get used to using it.
Once you use it long enough you'll no longer need it to know how
to calculate points.

Also, Smart One's microwave meals are sponsored by Weight Watchers. http://www.eatyourbest.com/
They already list the "Points" for each meal on the box.
these are excellent for mid day supplemental small meals while on the go.

FYI, my woman NEVER went to the meetings for years until AFTER
her pregnancy (now) and she's dropping .5 - 1lb a week. That was
without exercise....now she's at the gym 3 days a week. Should shed off quickly now.

It's the phosphates in the pop that break down the calcium in your bones.

ruh roh......have to look into the diet pop effects more then.

[trapin]

I don't think diet is much better for ya.

[JMarsa]

Well....I'm not quite overweight, but I thought I'd chime in on what I've learned.


Potatoes - steer clear as much as possible. Especially chips or fried.
DO NOT EVER microwave them either. It increases the Acrylamide in them.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2...5-03-07-05.asp

You should be a little more thorough. According to the article you posted baking and frying both had the same affect and it applied to both potatoes and cereals which are foods people should eat as part of a healthy lifestyle.

Additionally, potatoes are a healthily food when eaten the way mother nature prepared them, not Wendy's. They are also medium on the glycemic index, see this article for positive attributes of potatoes.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=48

--JMarsa

[JMarsa]

2yellow69 (Jill),

Would you mind posting some of the before and after changes to your shopping list? What items did you buy and what items have you replaced them with?

--JMarsa

[jilge71]

im in with you guys... i have a hard time finding healthy things on the road as i work all the time. im up early and out late and im single so if i cook its always to much.i have tried to eat smart ones for lunch and chicken and rice for dinner and saw results but how do you stay with it?i can hang for a week or two but one crappy day and it all goes down hill. anyone else have this problem. im 5'9" and 250. i broke my leg last year and gained 50 pounds and cant get it off.

[2yellow69]

Jill here. I just want to say again that we aren't on a "diet", we've just simply changed some of the ingredients going into our bodies but it has absolutely helped in the weight department.
Here's a quick list of some of the things that we've changed/replaced on our grocery list. I am willing to provide more details in a private message to anyone who's interested.
-I make my own side dishes now (rice, potatoes, veggies, etc.) instead of buying the pre-made box stuff
-Buy a lot of Back to Nature brand products instead of more popular brands (Nabisco, Keebler, etc.)
-We do buy some frozen pizza but still have to check the ingredients (some of the Red Baron & DiGiorno's Ultimate pizzas are okay)
-Only buy plain chips, tortilla chips or pretzels - no more Doritos, Cheetos, etc.
-Buy organic condiments instead of regular brands (ketchup, salad dressings, bbq sauce, peanut butter, etc.)
-Real mayo (Best Foods or Hellman's) instead of Miracle Whip
-I haven't bought any microwave meals in a long time. Most of them have hydrogenated oils in them.
The easiest thing when shopping is to look for the all natural or organic section in the all aisles. Most groceries stores are starting to carry more of these products which helps out a lot. Again, a lot of organic/all natural products can have a "different" taste when you first try it but by the second or third one it tastes better than what you ate before. A good example of this is the following: Matt loved Chips Ahoy cookies (they were his favorite). I bought these Back to Nature brand chocolate chip cookies & the first couple he ate weren't bad but did taste different. After a while he had a Chips Ahoy again & spit it out because it tasted horrible!

[68Formula]

I don't think diet is much better for ya.

It's really not. I replaced my regular stuff with water and unsweetened ice tea when I want flavor.

[WayneE]

im in with you guys... i have a hard time finding healthy things on the road as i work all the time. im up early and out late and im single so if i cook its always to much.i have tried to eat smart ones for lunch and chicken and rice for dinner and saw results but how do you stay with it?i can hang for a week or two but one crappy day and it all goes down hill. anyone else have this problem. im 5'9" and 250. i broke my leg last year and gained 50 pounds and cant get it off.

You need to take time to cook for yourself. It will take some trial and error, but you can do it.

When I had an office job that required me to leave the house early and get home late, I prepared my day's meals before I left the house in the morning. I would grill up some chicken, cook rice or sweet potatoes and veggies in 25-35 minutes. Pack that in for lunch, then throw in some canned chicken or tuna along with 2% cottage cheese and sunflower seeds for snacks. Add in a couple pieces of fruit and I could be gone all day without worrying about eating right.

I go to Costco and buy the 6 packs of 1 gallon jugs of water and carry those with me every day. No worries about not drinking enough water and I can track my water intake all day.

As a general rule, if you want to lose weight, you need to take in less calories than you're burning.

Use sites like calorieking.com and mypyramidtracker.gov to track your food intake if you're not sure how many calories you're eating each day.

Much like your daily spending, it helps to log your daily food intake. I always tell my clients to log a week or two for me, before making any changes to their diets. This gives a good idea on what they're eating and it's really easy to grab on to the low hanging fruit to make some changes that will get quick results to keep them on track to make real lifestyle changes.

For people that are overwhelmed at the prospect of exercise and diet, hiring a nutritionist and personal trainer can have excellent results.

Good luck!

[Tony_SS]

Can someone remind me why Diet soda is bad? I'm having a hard time kicking the soda habit.

One thing I have found as a replacement is Kool-Aid. I use sugar but its better than the syrup and junk found in soda... No caffiene though..

[ProdigyCustoms]

I drink flavored seltzer waters, no calories, no carb, and different from plain water. Still get the carbonation

[harshman]

I’m not trying to be the devil’s advocate here, but hear me out.

I used to own a grocery store and I know the business well enough. I’d try to sell produce cheaper than anyone else. Example: I would advertise oranges @ 4 for $1 and I would double my money. Now compared to a very large store’s add for 3 for $1 my price was good but they were too big. I hope you can see that the big guys are making some massive profit on produce. So, I also hope you can see how much profit the organic fad is making for them. There is little control on switching the tag on a bunch of bananas from regular $1 to organic @$5 – big profit. As far as taste, it is impossible to tell the difference unless your mind’s eye wants it to be there.

I guess my point is that organics can be very easily fraudulent without the purchaser knowing. Furthermore, they don’t help in any way to shave lbs. off your gut. Cooking real foods and staying away from the center of the store does more than anything else. Watch the food network and learn to love to cook using unprocessed vegetables, fruits, dairy, fish and chicken. I’m learning too as my Father-in-law was diagnosed a diabetic and we cook for him. We have a nutritionists “diet” that we must follow and he has lost 10 lbs in 2 weeks.

BTW, the whole acidic diet is intellectually absent. My Mother-in-law died from cancer last year. All the best doctors and nutritionists never mentioned this diet. Do they expect us to believe that cancer, the thing that grows inside many of us from mutated cells, will not survive a person with constant heartburn? Think about it. Why is Kemo so effective? It kills the cancerous cells while also destroying the good ones too.

My $.02

[zero g]

I replaced diet soda with Lipton Diet Green Tea. It tastes pretty good and claims to have the benefits of green tea. I have to have something with some flavor. I can't get into water. Maybe i should try some of that flavored h2o.......

[trapin]

I'm not going to bother with flavored ANYTHING. I drink my water with a few splashes of fresh lemon juice, that's it. I bring a lemon with me to work, roll it on the table a few times to break up the juices, slice it in half and squeeze one half into my 32 ounce cup of ice water. I use the other half for my other 32 ounce cup of ice water I have in the afternoon. I just don't want to be dependent on my beverages having to have sweetness to them. I think it's best to just get the fresh water in your system and not ingest all those chemicals that are in the flavored waters. Just my $.02.

Jill....I do have a couple questions for you. In that article about Hydrogenated Oil, there was a part in there that spoke about using vegetable oil to deep fry…the quote goes;

“…..but subjecting the unsaturated fatty acids contained in a vegetable oil to the high heat of a deep frying vat is deadly, the result would be the same kind of trans fats that you get in the hydrogenation process!”

This only speaks to deep-frying…right? I can’t imagine that sprinkling a couple of tablespoons into a pot to begin frying up some onions for a sauce or a soup is a bad thing. The author kind of makes it sound like the minute you heat up unsaturated oil like vegetable oil or olive oil that you make it bad for you. Then what other purpose would the oil serve? Or is this only applied to deep frying?

Also the article makes mention of how Wheat is bad for you. This is the first I’m hearing of this. I know it speaks about the gluten in wheat but not sure if his diagnosis is strictly for people who are gluten sensitive or if he’s saying everyone should stay away from it.

Any clarification you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[HOOLIGAN]

I'm with all of you in regards to the "lifestyle change". I'm not overweight but I've recently been diagnosed with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and triglycerides. I'm now on BP medication, exercising and changing my diet. It's not easy and I wish everyone the best of luck.

[trapin]

I need to have the whole "take in less calories than you burn" concept explained to me. I did some research online and found out that my daily caloric intake requirement to lose weight is 2300 calories. I also found out that if I spent my 30 minutes a day walking, it will only burn 150 of that 2300. I don't get it....are you saying I'd have to burn 2301 calories a day to see any results? That's crazy...I'd be spending 10 hours a day in a gym.

I'm sure I'm way off base on this. Someone smack me upside the head and set me straight. Thanks.

[Rubes]

Just standing, sitting, breathing...anything you do normally that uses any muscles at all still burns calories...dont it? so if your normal activities dont provide the burn...you need to suplement with added excersize. But I have no business in this thread anyway cause I'm so not knowing about any of this stuff you guys are talking about.