Yeah... Posting AGAIN. I don't know what is up with me and the insane amount of posting I'm doing. You'd think between being so busy and so tired, I would hardly be posting. But oh, that is not the case! I am a posting maniac! I'm stalking the blogs! LOL I don't know what is up with me. I just have been feeling the need to write a lot the last couple of days so here I've been. Granted, most of the time it is taking me an entire day to do a post, but yeah... I write when I can, save as I go, then Publish when I am done. It's just easier to do it that way even though sometimes I lose my train of thought.
I have been making some tweaks to my diet this AM. After doing my food log last night to 'check up' on myself, I realized that there wasn't enough protein in my AM meal and that my carbs were a bit high. Calorie wise, I was where I wanted to be, but I need to make sure to get more veggies in. I didn't get much in yesterday because at the last minute I ate the leftover spaghetti instead of my meat and veg like normal. But, with the economy like it is, we try not to waste anything. So, I ate the spaghetti. Which means I should've had a salad or something earlier in the day since I usually can't eat the pasta AND a salad. One small serving of spaghetti with chunky sauce and meat and I am FULL. However, I am now thinking that I am going to start making my own spaghetti sauce. The one I use to love is getting very hard to find, and it was REALLY watery this time. I had to cook it down on a medium heat for a good 10 to 15mins. If I'm going to do that, I might as well make my own. I should go to the Farmer's market and load up on the uglies... they sell those DIRT CHEAP. I don't think that my little plants will put out enough for me to make sauce. It can take a LOT. If we can get the backyard started this Fall, we are hoping to have some beds for planting next year. We hope to grow cucumbers, bell peppers, and of course more tomatoes. I hope to put out some greens here soon -- they grow best in Fall. I just want to be sure to grow the things that we eat and can be canned. I wish I had the space to grow green beans, but they take more effort than the others and honestly, I don't think I have the time! They can get out of control really quick and at some point need to be staked. I'd rather just stick with the simple stuff and buy the green beans. LOL Maybe I can find some this year....
See? Totally off track! LOL ANYWAYS, I realize that I need to make sure that each meal is thought out and that I am making good choices. So, I changed up breakfast this AM. I'm pretty happy with it. I feel full and satisfied. I just hope that it lasts as long as the pita normally does. Already thinking on what to do for lunch. I am thinking that I have some berries and greens about to go bad, so I should probably do a shake and not waste them. That or freeze them. I am thinking freezing only because a salad sounds SO good! Either way, I need to make sure to get in enough veggies and fruits during the day. I am thinking that to really be on target, I should have them at every meal. Breakfast is the hardest time for me because I don't love breakfast other than coffee. And usually, after the eggs and toast, I am full. Many times I don't finish that. So, no real fruit or veg there. I guess I could go to one piece of toast and add a couple of berries to my plate. Maybe even some onion and something to my eggs...
Another thing I changed this AM is that I watered down my creamer with almond milk. I realized that I was taking in 50cals for every Tbsp. of creamer! And considering how much coffee I drink, well, that isn't acceptable! So, I mixed in half of the almond milk bringing it down to around 26cals. per Tbsp. and still pretty low in carbs! :D I may do this for a bit and then water it down a bit more. We'll see how it goes. So far, not sure if I like the flavor. I love almond milk, but it seems to be more pronounced in coffee. May have to mix it with milk. Then it would basically be half-n-half. LOL
Those are the two things I noticed the most. Overall, I feel like I'm doing ok, but I'm not sure if it will reflect on the scale. I did a mid-day weigh yesterday and it said 203. That leads me to believe that there will be another Sunday of no loss, or even possibly a gain. Which considering the way the weekend was and the start of this week wouldn't really surprise me. I just hope that eventually I see some loss. I still have a long ways to go, but after 7mos., I think I am just burned out and need something basic right now. Simple. And the 400 cals or less per meal and 200 for snacks just feels easy right now. I just hope that it works. Cause it didn't in the past. But the truth is, that was years ago and I have no way to really look back and see WHY it didn't work. Was I eating more than I thought? Was it the PCOS? Was it because I didn't have enough knowledge back then to really KNOW what I was doing? I don't have a LOT of knowledge now, but I know I don't want fads. I know I don't want to just do this short term, lose a ton, go back to old habits and then be back at square one. I want to do this right. I'm just confused about what right is right now. *sigh* I guess all I can do is give this a go for a few weeks and see what happens. I must be doing ok since I've not gained a ton, but now I want to pay a bit more attention and do the 400 like I said. I think I can do it.
One thing that has been confusing, though, is to find that 'sweet spot' for cals. I know they say you need to cut 3500 cals to equal one pound, but the thing is, how do you know where to go? I used 5 different calculators last night trying to figure out what my current cal needs are and they varied widely. So, how do I know when I've cut the right amount without going too far? See, that's one reason why low carbing alone was so easy. But even with that, my weight stalled. And I'm wondering if the reason was because after doing it off and on for so long that my body adjusted and just stopped due to the fact that many low carb foods are higher cal. Especially the 'fats' category. I think I was eating too much of a good thing, if you know what I mean! Which is why I decided to try calorie counting for now but focused on low carb and whole foods. Mostly, I've noticed it's my fat that has been cut down like cream, cheese, etc. I think maybe before I was eating too much of that! Making my overall cals higher even though my carbs were low. I think I may be confusing myself with all of this.... My biggest thing, though, was figuring out the cals I needed to shoot for per day. At around 200, sites varied from 1900 to 3100 to maintain per day! I think the 3100 was a mistake or meant for men. Is 1600 a good amount to shoot for? Should I go higher? Lower? 1600 just felt like a good round number. 400 for each meal (3 meals X 400 = 1200) and 400 for snacks (400 / 2 snacks = 200 cals per snack) with all equaling 1600 for the day. Is this right? Or should I cut more? I don't really want to do lower than 1600. :( Any advice would be appreciated since I haven't done anything with cals in a Looooonnnnng time. Oh, here's my food for the day!
Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 slices LC whole wheat bread with Smart balance and RS strawberry jelly; coffee
Lunch: tuna casserole, strawberries; water
Snack: 2 medium carrots, 2tbsp. ranch; water
Dinner: 1 1/2 bowls 'garbage' soup, toasted cheese sandwich; water
calorie cycling spiked my metabolism last night, I had eaten about four days worth of around 2000 calories, and felt STARVED. It has been really easy to keep myself to the 1600 calories for the last month, It got hard. I got my calories yesterday at around 1700 along with 2 hours of exercise, and frankly lost 3 pounds in water weight and had a huge amount of energy this morning.
ReplyDeleteIf you are big on exercise raise your calorie count to around a sedinentary BMR for your average weight height and age and rely on your exercise to drop your calorie count.
If you aren't a big exercisor then fluctuate up and down to where your 7 to 10 day average is around 300-400 calories from your BMR. Weight watchers call this the Wendi Plan where you eat a fluctuation of points each day. WARNING it makes your appetite stronger!
I researched this approach for a few hours and your PCOS is alot like my Thyroid in the fact that in a general way our hormones adjust quickly to the amount of calories we eat and want to store fat. So if we aren't eating enough to make more fat, then it will just cling for dear life to our fat that we have.
You have been on a stall for awhile and your PCOS is most likely to blame. stick with it, and play with it until you are happy!
Hugs!
Hey, here's an idea for your breakfasts- cut down to one slice of toast and slice a tomato to go with your eggs. I LOVE a fresh tomato with a piece of whole wheat toast and eggs in the morning. Normally I either have tomato or I'll eat leftover steamed vegetables from the night before. I choose to eat fruit for my snacks, otherwise I find that I don't get in enough vegetables. If you have veggies leftover it is easy to toss them into the pan and then scramble (or not, either way is good) the eggs and add whatever seasonings you like.
ReplyDeleteI stalled for a good month once, at least. I don't remember exactly how long it was, but it sure frustrated me. Just keep at it and the weight does start coming off again.