Day 1

I'm at my desk and drinking my first bottle of water for the day.   For breakfast I had:   1 banana   1 mini flat out bread   4 oz 2% cottage cheese   4 oz carb control yogurt I am satisfied and feel better than when I have my morning fast food breakfast.  I had twinges of wanting to pull in McDonalds (I'll start Monday--not Friday) or Burger King, but I managed to have my first (of many) healthy breakfasts.  I am going to make it to the gym after work today.  I will walk on the treadmill and use the eliptical trainer.  May even treat myself to the massage bed for a day well done.  See ya all later.......have a GREAT day.

Yes!  Good kick off, Dee! I have pretty much the same breakfast every day:  unflavored soy powder (from GNC) + 1-2 teas. psyllium husk + 1/2 c orange juice. couple hours later, 1/2 of a premium protein bar or hi protein low cal cappacino drink. And so on.  It does help keep my mind off food, I rarely feel real hungry to the point where i eat stuff I know is not going to help me be sucessful. I'm leaning on bariatric foods pretty hard for my work days, trying to eat something every couple hours. I do bring yogurts/cottage cheese/string cheese/sprouted bread/soy chips for fillers. My basic idea:  keep food all day long more about function and basic nutrition.  It works okay for me; my hunger picks up steam as the day goes on.  I almost never wake up starving.  If I do, I make an egg beater omelet and spinach or chard or something. My evening meal is real food, I watch my portions hard. DH and I eat whatever.  Last night, we made a beautiful scallop & veg thai curry over brown rice. But it can degrade to Hamburger Helper once in a while.  We're good about our vegetables, so i always feel like we work toward balance! I work in an office too, so there can be variables:  asked out to lunch, potlucks, etc. The bariatric foods fit in - portable, available, for all the last minute meetings or small "fires" that take me out of my routine.

Eww!!  You guys eat yucky breakfast! Someone must've crossed your wires up there! lol  Nahh,  good job and congrats on your success!  I can't seem to bring myself to eat that type of breakfast. This morning I had a peanut butter and chocolate rice cake on the way to work and then when I got to work (1 hour later) I had a bowl of bananas and cream oatmeal. (Ok, large bowl cuz i was hungry.) About 260 cals plus the 60 cals from the rice cake. Not too bad but normally I wouldn't eat the rice cake. Been having problems with  hunger in the morning lately though.  For lunch I'm having Terriyaki Yellowfin Tuna, corn and maybe a 100-cal bag of doritos cool ranch chips.  For my snacks I have some apple & berry granola bars.  If I eat the chips for lunch it'll be 330 calories, 230 without them. By the time I go home I've consumed about 870 calories and that leaves me PLENTY of room for dinner. I usually try to eat a very small lunch because I have a bad habit of grazing at home. So to stop that I make sure I'm hungry when it comes to dinner and I eat a larger dinner before 7pm. Last night I had a whole BBQ chicken breast with baked beans and a sugar-free ice cream sandwich for desert. Kept me full all night long so I didn't graze. It probably sent me over my 1500 calorie limit but not by much. Here I am talking about myself again! lol

HAAAAha, Chris!  Well at least you eat a bit better these days than the 7-11 crap you posted about earlier on!  NOT that I don't eat my fair share of pure crap once in a while.  All foods can fit if a person plans. You should be able to lose eating 1700-1800 calories, at least for a while.  You're a young guy with the metabolism that goes along with it.  You may need to tighten down to 1500 one of these days as you get closer to goal, but don't starve too much - that is hard to moderate. I know, I can hardly believe it's me eating soy powder and oj. I used to buy a bag of oreos AND a jar of frosting, put more frosting on the oreos, chug about a half gallon of milk - all this after supper.  That night grazing thing is extremely hard to break. I did it for years.  CAVEAT: Of course, cutting down on the weed did help me not feel the munchies so bad.

Heya,       Sounds like an excellent game plan!      And isn't it amazing how much we realize that we truly do feel really crappy after eating a bunch of junk food/fast food when we're not used to having it?  The last time I binged on chocolate was in February when I was packing the kids' Valentines, and not even through the first bag of chocolate, I started feeling nauseous, light-headed, weak, and tachycardic (my pulse normally runs about 55-60 and it was pounding at about 115).      Massage table...here you come!!!!  ;-)

Yeah, I gave up the taquitos. I thought because I was eating less it meant I was eating more healthy. After seeing what you guys eat I started changing my mind and started making healthier choices. I'm not on soy and oj yet thank god! (Mmmm  man this granola bar is to die for!)  Monday I had a sausage egg and cheese biscuit from Hardees for breakfast. That's the worst thing I've eaten in quite some time.  And honestly, it wasn't even good.  Perhaps McDonalds might've been better? :)  Anyways, I forgave myself and moved on. Every day this week I've eaten oatmeal or granola for breakfast.  I have some of that kashi cereal with the fruit in it but I ran out of milk and have been procrastinating on going to get some.  Looked at other cereals and they're all basically pretty low in calories so perhaps next time I'll get something a little more tasty. I love unsweetened cereal but the strawberries in the Kashi are very tart. Probably from the dehydration process. I've been able to avoid the night grazing by keeping myself busy until the wife gets home and then she keeps me accountable after that.  Usually she makes me go get some of my snacks for her to eat and tells me I can't have them! EVIL WOMAN I tell ya!  makes me laff though and it works. It's teaching me to be around it without eating it. The grazing is getting less and less, now if I can get my nephew to stop. Julie I was thinking about what you said about feeling crappy after eating the chocolate or other unhealthy stuff.  When I ate that sausage biscuit I did kinda feel 'yucky'.  I haven't binged on anything unhealthy in quite some time so I'm not sure what it would do to me. I have a feeling I'm going to have some issues while on vacation. I'm a big grazer/binge eater when I'm traveling. Something about sitting in the car for periods exceeding 1 hour that make me just hit the convenience store and grab a butterfinger (or 4), chips, and all the other junk food my head desires. I usually do feel really crappy after I eat all that but I felt that way when I wasn't eating better too, lol!   Why or how does the chocolate make your pulse go up so high?

Heya Chris,      Yeah, when I eat poorly now it's like the exact opposite of how I feel after exercising.  Poor food choices = feeling tired, bloated, crampy, weak, sleepy, and depressed...a regular slug.        And car travel's a bad trigger for me too.  I HAVE to pay for my gas at the pump or the mini mart inside will do me in.  :-(  Oh well, at least the strategy works.      Not sure on the pulse other than maybe I was hyperventilating just a bit since I felt so weak and light-headed.  Thousands of calories of sugar all at once when you haven't had any at all in quite some time is a real shocker to the old physiology!  LOL  

i'm so proud of you for forfeiting those taquitos!!!

Congrats to you for starting today instead of Monday.  I know that right there would have been my pitfall.  I'd easily treat myself to a weekend of indulgence rather than start right away.  You're a strong lady!!

sounds great! and BIG kudos to you for not doing the "i'll start monday" thing. its a lifestyle, not a diet. you would never say, "i'm going to start life on monday" your breakfast looks good if that's what you enjoy - would make me feel too much like i was dieting. i love the Flatout - if you can find the "light" flatout they are only 90 cals with a bunch of fiber. and they have a variety of flavors. i remember looking at the mini ones and deciding i'd rather go bigger but light.

my new obsession: sun dried tomato light flatout filled with scrabbled white cheddar egg whites. YUM! and very filling. i never used to buy the fake eggs with stuff in them until i accidently bought this kind and they are SOOOOOO good!