Health & Fitness • Page 126

People who have determinedly lost weight, what do you eat regularly or a lot of? I gained about 20 lbs since 2020 that I'd like to lose, but I eat like a fat teenager by default and that doesn't work so well at 37, so I need some practical wisdom

 

Nexium (esomeprazole) went generic a few years ago, costs about $6 a month and it has been nipping my acid reflux/GERD/heartburn in the bud daily for 20 years without side effects

In case ginger ever doesn't work for you, Nexium is a great medication

 

I lost a bunch of weight in 2019 and have been ballooning back up this year so far. Ugh. My trick was only subtracting foods if I made sure I was substituting. Instead of pretzels I had cucumbers with hummus. Instead of chocolate I had blueberries. Apples and peanut butter. Also had at least one salad a day.

 

Whole ingredients, no refined sugar, and I cut back on most other simple carbs. Water and coffee only for liquids. What helped a ton was really getting into cooking, especially meat. I typically eat a meat + veg for every meal and not much more.

 

I noticed it reminds me of my soda cravings I'd get. For me soda cravings lead to drinking soda which reminds me of the food I enjoy with soda like pizza and French fries so then I crave those things too. I know some people have issues with artificial sweetners and aspartame and stuff, but my issue is mostly psychological. The diet soda started off as a special treat but it's turning into daily. I rly should focus on water tho

Honestly counting calories has helped me a lot. It's been a lot less overwhelming to me than just cutting things out. I eat all the things I did before, just smaller portions or not every day. For some people that's too hard and they need to do all or nothing, but for me it was so reassuring to know i could still eat French fries and cake and taco bell and lose weight, but I shouldn't have them daily like I was before, and I don't need huge portions. I have a problem where I feel like if I don't satisfy the cravings I'll have fear of missing out. If I'm at a restaurant and get salad instead of fries, I legit believe I'll regret it and it'll negatively impact my life. But it's been so reassuring to know that I can eat the foods I want in moderation so I don't have the fear of missing out. The fear of missing out subsides quickly and I forget about it in minutes. I just tell myself that today I'm too close to my calorie limit so i wont get the fries, but next time I'll get them when I've planned for it. Now that I know I'll survive if I do that, it's easier to be a habit.

I notice it also goes hand in hand with exercising. If I worked my butt off to burn X amount of calories at the gym, I don't want to waste my precious calories I worked hard for haha. I love pie. But if I'm gonna eat it, I want it to be great delicious pie, not just any old wal mart bakery pie someone throws in the break room at work. That helps with my cravings too, knowing I can still eat the thing, but I am gonna save it for the best version of that thing so it's worth it.

In terms of what I eat a lot of, I do a lot of the Premier protein drinks, eggs, and the light and fit greek yogurt individual cups. I love grab and go snacks. Anything I can portion out. I'm a vegetarian so I try to focus on the calories to protein ratio of things

 

Drinking “more” water doesn’t do shit for me probably because I end up peeing 145 times a day when I do. I’ve literally done a gallon+ of water a day for weeks and I didn’t notice any change in my hunger levels and I assume it was because I was peeing it all out constantly lol

Separately:

I recently got a promotion to a newly created promotion and even though we’re still working from home I no longer have free time to snack constantly like I used to so that should help drop a few pounds over time. I barely have time to eat lunch (fry some chicken tenders and cut up some broccoli and cauliflower so like… 10 minutes tops) most days and that won’t change but I’m kind of happy to not have that down time because man was I snacking a lot since WFH started in early 2020 lol

 

Congrats on the promotion!

 

thank you!

 

Hit 450 on deadlift and gave myself a bloody nose. Meet prep is going well.

 

Fruit every day for lunch (apples, peaches, grapes, bananas)
Grilled chicken 2x a week
Salmon 2x a week

Cut out: bread, processed meats, pop, fast food, candy, junk food, etc.

 

I just turned 40 and I'm down about 35lbs since June of 2020 (210 -> 175) and happy to share what has worked for me (which may not be what you hear from others or works for everyone).

First, I do not count calories or prohibit myself from having any particular ingredients or food groups. I just knew those things would not work for me. But I have consciously tried to consume more fiber and protein.

Mainly what I've tried to do is eat less of the things I want to eat, cut out unnecessary things that I was eating just because, and find "healthier" substitutions where I can.

Some examples:

• I love cereal for breakfast and would always just "eyeball" my serving size, which was probably way more than what it should be. So even though it was "healthy" cereal (whole grains, low sugar, high protein, high fiber) it was still too much. So I started measuring it out and found that most days I was fine with that amount. I've since switched to protein bars most days, just because it's easier with trying to get 3 kids ready for school and me ready for work.
• For lunch I usually have either leftovers from dinner (which I'm usually good at making something healthy) or a sandwich I make at home. I load the sandwiches up with veggies (spinach or lettuce, sliced tomato, sometimes avocado) and use whole grain bread. I used to always put cheese on my sandwich, but I found I didn't usually get anything out of it being there and didn't really miss it, so I cut that out.
• If I need something else with lunch, instead of something like chips I will have some more veggies (carrots, celery, cucumbers, or a pickle) or popcorn. A serving of chips is 15-20 and has like 150+ calories. A serving of popcorn is 4-5 cups(!!!) and has about the same, but I don't know that I could eat 4-5 cups of anything.
• I also love to have something sweet after a meal, so instead of candy, ice cream, other desserts, etc. I go for fruit or something like dark chocolate, sometimes both. But if I really want some gummy bears or something I'll get those.
• I plan out my snacks. I would find that sometimes if I skipped a snack but couldn't make it to the next meal I would end up gorging on something (or many things). So I have a set routine and times for snacks and usually go for stuff like fruit, nuts, and yogurt.
• Stopped snacking on the kids leftovers. I used to be really bad at this, especially stuff like pizza or chicken nuggets. Now the only leftovers of theirs I will snack on is fruit or veggies.
• Limit alcohol intake. I love beer. I got in the habit early in the pandemic of 2 beers a night - usually one with co-workers for a virtual happy hour or just grabbing one right after work, and then another with dinner. It was super easy because it was always in the fridge. So I changed to having some kind of substitute - Spindrift, Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher, Hoplark HopTea, or a non-alcoholic beer - to reduce those calories. I still have a beer with dinner most nights though.
• I don't do intermittent fasting, but I did take one aspect of it and cut myself off from consuming any calories after a certain time. It usually ends up being 8:30, but sometimes it's 9. For some reason that was easier for me to curb late-night snacking.

 

Nice pull! 450 is no joke

 

I think I've technically been intermittent fasting for 15+ years? It wasn't something I did on purpose, really. I'm done eating by 8:00pm (9:00 at the very, very latest) and don't eat again until 12:00pm the following day. Was never into breakfast nor hungry at that time. Seems to work for me. I luckily don't snack...mostly pound La Croix. If I do snack, it's popcorn...maybe once a week. Popcorn salt only and no butter. For the two meals i do eat, I eat whatever I want within reason...usually it's difficult for me to finish a meal. Workout every day but I'm off Saturday and Sunday.

I do drink like a twelve pack of beer most weekends so I'm sure that will catch up to me soon

 

Thanks for the great answer! I think I can learn from a few of these suggestions

 

Hope you find something that works, or at least some inspiration for whatever your own habits/situation are.

The other thing I did was that I got in the habit of going for 2 one-mile walks every day. I was already working out every day, but I added in one in the morning after my workout to cool down and decompress before getting ready for the day and another in the afternoon between lunch and quitting time (which I now use to walk to school and pick up my kids).

 

Thanks. Feeling pretty confident about this meet. I still have almost three months for prep which is plenty of time to add to my lifts and get my diet on point.

 

@Elder Lightning your comments on cereal and serving size had me chuckling because I’m the exact same way. I’d pour a bowl and didn’t think much of it and then for awhile I was super diligent in measuring everything out and seeing that most cereals are a cup or even just half a cup and seeing what that looks like in a bowl when I first started was… well, a lot of unkind words were said lol

 

I just eat cereal in small bowls so I feel like I'm eating more lol

 

yeah this is kind of where I am with soda. Which is annoying because I hadn’t had soda in years pre pandemic. But it started with a diet or zero here and then to weekly and I def feel like that ~~unlocks~~ other cravings like you said. Been tryna just chug water the last few weeks to curb it

 

Yeah, I didn't really realize how much I was overeating my cereal until I looked at the serving size on one, measured it out, and then it hit me. Plus I would do that thing where I would have too much milk left at the end so I'd add more cereal, but then need more milk, and on and on.

 

In other news, I got some dumbbells for my birthday and have started doing some (light) weightlifting for the first time after like 7 years of all my strength training being bodyweight exercises. I forgot how much I like it, but I'm definitely sore.

 

Excited to try out this new Peloton game mode.

 

I have a rule for myself regarding soda - Don't have it unless there's liquor in it.

I also have another rule - Drink beer instead of liquor

Last rule is try to only drink beer on Fridays and Saturdays.

 

Yeah, we never have pop around so I don't drink it outside of occasionally getting one with fast food on a road trip.

When it was free and readily accessible in my office I was able to control myself most days. I would mostly only have it with certain foods for lunch. Like if I brought in leftover pizza I'd probably have a cherry vanilla Coke Zero with it, or a diet root beer.