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May challenge complete! Join us in June and we'll keep it going. Lots of people succeeding with myfitnesspal and itrackbites. Join us! (1 Viewer)

bostonfred

Footballguy
Over in the Otis diet thread, we've just finished a group challenge for April that saw people commit to 1000 minutes of exercise for the month - and people crushed it with people breaking 2000 or even 2500 minutes on the month. The consensus was that committing publicly and keeping track in a supportive environment really helped. 

If that interests you, then join us. Or watch and root people on. There's no public weigh in or before and after pictures (although you're welcome to) and this isn't just for fat guys - anyone looking to meet their own health goals or avoid putting on weight during the pandemic can join in. 

This month's goal is to track our food intake.  It doesn't matter how or what your goals are.  We're starting Monday, May 4rd but you can join anytime and all you need to do is choose your goals and follow them.  Some people are using

- myfitnesspal app to track calories

- weight watchers or itrackbites app to track "points"

- intermittent fasting schedules like 5/2 or 16/8

- low carb or keto diets 

Disclaimer - I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice.  Consult a physician before beginning a diet or exercise plan.  

 
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Tracking calories isn't for everyone.  I never did it and then i started and now it's second nature. 

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/

The myfitnesspal app is free and really easy to use - you click on the plus sign to add food, choose if it was breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack, and type in the first few letters. You can type in quesadillas and it will bring up a bunch of different kinds from low calorie 250 cal to cheesecake factory 1200 calorie gut buster. Or pick your ingredients like one mission tortilla, onions and peppers, about 4 oz grilled chicken and some cheese.  Just click the plus sign to add each item one by one.  

Then if you go for a run you just click plus, add exercise, choose cardio,  run 6mph or 7mph or whatever, then type in 35 minutes and it will calculate how many calories you burned and add that back to the number you have left for the day. 

 
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Breakfast today

https://www.reddit.com/r/GifRecipes/comments/gcq7lh/egg_ham_cheese_tortilla_wrap/

Small pat butter (25 cal)

two eggs (120 cal)

one fajita sized mission tortilla (80 cal)

1/5 cup extra sharp cheddar (110 cal)

1/4 cup steamed broccoli (7 cal)

Total 342 calories.  

Whisk eggs in bowl.  Preheat small nonstick frying pan over medium (NOT medium high) heat. Melt small pat butter and spread evenly over surface. Pour in eggs. When they bubble and most liquid is solidifying, you should be able to lift the pan and slide the omelette around. Add the tortilla on top of the egg, then flip. Add cheese and broccoli (or ham, eggs, whatever). Salt and pepper to taste immediately. Fold over one third and press down firmly to crease. Flip the thick part down onto the remaining face up third and press. 

Amazing.  

 
Nice day outside so grilled a bunch of chicken and made my first meal of the.week with it - grilled chicken quesadillas with (crappy store bought) guacamole

3 Mission fajita tortillas 240 calories

3 servings shredded Mexican cheese 330 calories

1 cup peppers and onions grilled in light soy sauce 150 calories

1 chicken breast grilled and diced with light soy sauce 8 oz 220 calories

1 tsp olive oil 35 calories

100 calorie pack wholly guacamole 100 calories

Grilled 

Total 1075 calories for 3 quesadillas with guacamole or 360 each. I had two and I'm stuffed.  

720 calories. 

 
 does 2260 calories sound correct, as a daily intake goal?  that's what MFP says it should be, after i enter my info.
Probably.  It depends on a few things.  

If you're 5'10" and 45 pounds you need about 1895 calories to maintain your weight according to https://www.active.com/fitness/calculators/bmr

To lose 1lb it takes 3500 calories.  So if you want to lose the maximum safe amount of 2 lbs per week, you need to burn 7000 more calories than you take in, or 1000 per day. But 895 calories is not a great goal.  

The good news is that your bmr doesn't include calories you burn through activity during the day.  Just walking around the house you probably get a couple thousand steps in. If you're going to work you might get 7000 or 8000 without much effort.  A lot of people shoot for 10,000 as an arbitrary goal and that would be considered active.

Myfitnesspal cuts through that by asking if you're inactive, moderately active or very active, and it sets your calorie goals accordingly. I'm guessing you put "moderately active" (plus your actual height/weight/age) and maybe that you want to lose 1lb per week, and it told you that you can do that if you eat 2260 calories a day.  And that sounds reasonable. 

But

If you say you're moderately active, you can't also say i went for a walk today i want to count those calories. Because that's already kind of built in to "moderately active". You don't want to double count that exercise.  You would really only want to log a real workout or cardio.  

So what I do is start at "totally inactive", then count any extended exercise, even if it's just going for a 30 minute walk, or a 10k run.  So my calorie goal is probably lower than yours but I count more exercise in my favor.  It all ends up being about the same but it's more work my way, and a little more accurate.  

Tldr 2260 sounds reasonable

 
I need to be in. I made lifetime on weight watchers in December. Since the lockdown, I have gained 3-6 pounds depending on what day it is etc. I feel like I am grazing too much, not even eating too bad. But obviously, I am wrong. 
 

I get 23 points a day and hopefully this will keep me accountable. 
 

FWIW, I did about 1500 minutes of exercise in April. I can’t imagine what I would have weighed if not for that.  

 
I use the myfitness app to track my weight(hit a new low of 155.4, and feeling awesome), but haven't done the food journal recently. I do know that it suggests I eat about 3000 calories a day, but that is because my goal is still back at 157, but I'm usually around 2000-2200, depending on if it's a cheat day.

 
This is cool, BF.  Like a lot of people (I assume), I've gotten pretty damn squishy after six weeks of WFH.  It doesn't help that I had a very mild case of achilles tendonitis that ultimately resulted in two weeks off from running.  I get plenty of exercise over the course of a typical week, but I think I need a tool like this to be more accountable for my caloric intake.  I'm in if this helps cut down on the lazy stress-eating.

 
Keep it simple, just post everything you eat that comes from a cardboard container.

ETA: Or contains ingredients you can't otherwise buy in a grocery store.

 
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So very in.  Thinking I’ll target 1500 calories of food per day.  I really don’t eat much till evening usually, so just need to budget that evening intake and I should be A O K. 
 

Going to go with MFP. 

 
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This is cool, BF.  Like a lot of people (I assume), I've gotten pretty damn squishy after six weeks of WFH.  It doesn't help that I had a very mild case of achilles tendonitis that ultimately resulted in two weeks off from running.  I get plenty of exercise over the course of a typical week, but I think I need a tool like this to be more accountable for my caloric intake.  I'm in if this helps cut down on the lazy stress-eating.
Same here.. I have actually been more active than normal.

But the eating, snacking during the day.  Then the drinking at night.

I'm going backwards here net net.

 
30 minutes running, 30 minutes walking.  About 700 calories burned. 

Ate the last piece of quesadilla and cut up one of the grilled chicken breasts like a Hasselbeck potato except with buffalo sauce.  Maximum saucy goodness.  250 calories.  Big bowl of frozen mixed vegetables for 240 more. 

Total intake

Breakfas6 342

Quesadillas 1075

Dinner 490

Exercise -700 

Total 1207

Lots of vegetables.  Everything tasted awesome.  Plenty of cheesy and buffalo goodness. Room for a couple glasses of wine which i will be having post haste.

I love tracking calories. I feel like i was playing a game and I won today. That's the mindset you want. 

 
Same here.. I have actually been more active than normal.

But the eating, snacking during the day.  Then the drinking at night.

I'm going backwards here net net.
Welcome to the club. I think most of us have struggled at times during the last month and a half.  Even if your goal isn't to lose weight but just maintain - tracking calories or points can help you meet your goals.  

Some of us will walk out of this quarantine with 10 extra pounds and there's nothing wrong with that. This is a stressful time for everyone.  I don't blame anyone for having a bad haircut and a couple extra pounds and a surly disposition right now.  This sucks.  

But I want to be one of the ones who walks out of this better than I started - I want to improve my running, lose a couple pounds, get my body feeling better with some yoga, do well at my job while other people are struggling with the changes and maybe improve my relationships too. This is an unprecedented opportunity to improve your life if you decide to take it and I want to take full advantage. 

We can do this.  

 
bostonfred said:
We aren't doing that here.  If you don't like tracking calories, feel free to start a thread about not liking it but don't come here to dissuade people before they start.  

I resisted tracking calories for a long time and I understand why people think they have to make it a chore. It's not a chore, it's a game and it's fun to play if you approach it with a positive mindset.  

I hope you choose to join us in this but if you don't I'll ask that you enjoy your smoothies and peanut butter and banana without telling other people that it's too hard to start doing things to improve their lives. 
No, you're right. Make a game of it, do whatever it takes for you to make improvements to your lives. 

Just don't go insulting my smoothies!

 
bostonfred said:
30 minutes running, 30 minutes walking.  About 700 calories burned. 

Ate the last piece of quesadilla and cut up one of the grilled chicken breasts like a Hasselbeck potato except with buffalo sauce.  Maximum saucy goodness.  250 calories.  Big bowl of frozen mixed vegetables for 240 more. 

Total intake

Breakfas6 342

Quesadillas 1075

Dinner 490

Exercise -700 

Total 1207

Lots of vegetables.  Everything tasted awesome.  Plenty of cheesy and buffalo goodness. Room for a couple glasses of wine which i will be having post haste.

I love tracking calories. I feel like i was playing a game and I won today. That's the mindset you want. 
I thought we don’t count calories burned from walking?  Isn’t that what you mentioned to DA?  Just want to make sure I understand what I’m allowed to count.

 
I’m in for the month.  I downloaded MyFitnessPal and linked it to Garmin Connect which has my activity, heart rate, and other stats stored.  That will make it easier.

I doubt I’ll post much in the thread because I’m not trying to lose weight.  I’ve wanted to pay more attention to what and how much I eat so I’m certainly curious how things will look. Hopefully it will influence me to make healthier eating choices. We’ll see.

Good luck to everyone! I hope you reach your goals.

 
Day 1 fail -  2454 food, 263 exercise ( i debate this but submit to mfp's calcs) = 2191 versus a goeal of 2090.

The wine.

#### me the wine.

 
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I thought we don’t count calories burned from walking?  Isn’t that what you mentioned to DA?  Just want to make sure I understand what I’m allowed to count.
Myfitnesspal asks you if you're active

If you say yes they give you extra calories each day 

If the only reason you consider yourself active is your daily cardio then b you can either say im active but not count your walls... or do what I do and say you're inactive but count every wail or run as exercise whenever you do it. 

Either is fine but if you say I'm active because you walk a mile every day and then you log a mile of walking every day then the only person you're cheating is you. 

 
Myfitnesspal asks you if you're active

If you say yes they give you extra calories each day 

If the only reason you consider yourself active is your daily cardio then b you can either say im active but not count your walls... or do what I do and say you're inactive but count every wail or run as exercise whenever you do it. 

Either is fine but if you say I'm active because you walk a mile every day and then you log a mile of walking every day then the only person you're cheating is you. 
gotcha thanks

 
This was an unusual day.  Barely ate.  Atkins bar around noon.  Soft pretzel about 4 pm.  Sandwich for dinner around 9:30 pm (3 slices of pastrami, 2 slices of swiss cheese on a roll) and half a brownie.  Has to be under 1500 cal total.  

 
How many max calories is your tracker giving you each day to hit your goal weight (before exercise)?

1500 for me.  <_<

 
How many max calories is your tracker giving you each day to hit your goal weight (before exercise)?

1500 for me.  <_<
That's about right if you chose the least active option and that you want to lose 2 lbs per week. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/1500isplenty/

This is a whole subreddit dedicated to meals for people targeting 1500 calories.  A lot of weird posts tbh but some interesting ones once in a while.  

 
So today's the first day of this challenge.  If you decided to do calorie tracking (as opposed to weight watchers/ itrackbites, intermittent fasting,  keto, etc) and you're new to calorie tracking, a few pieces of advice. 

- get the myfitnesspal app and be diligent about using it every time you eat anything.  I would rather cheat and track it than not track it.  The habit you're trying to break isn't eating too much, it's lying to yourself about it. 

- when you set up your profile, it's easy to pick the most difficult goal of losing 2lbs per week but it can be hard to follow at first. If you're new to this there's nothing wrong with setting it up to lose nothing or lose 1lb per week and just getting used to tracking. 

- get used to the mindset that you have a certain number of calories to "spend" today and saving enough for dinner.  

- figure out what you personally struggle with and plan for it. If you have a zoom happy hour and want to have a couple drinks with old friends then plan for those calories earlier in the day. 

- if you find yourself grazing - like making dinner for your kid and you steal a couple fries - it's a good idea to track that.  It's a minor nuisance at first to track two French fries but it's not about the 24 calories.  The goal is to be mindful about your eating.  

- if you are a habitual eater then figure out which habits are most important. If you need that ice cream at night then just plan for it. If you need sugar in your morning coffee just make sure you track it and you'll see how many calories you're spending to have slightly better tasting coffee. Full disclosure - i switched to no sugar in my coffee until the pandemic and have switched back to drinking liquid candy every morning because I want to. Just track it (and brush your teeth after).

- if you're a stress eater and find that you're good at dieting until your emotions get the better of you then plan to save a few hundred extra calories for night time.  If you need them, have them.  If not, reward yourself at night for maintaining control the whole day. 

- you don't have to track every ingredient or weigh things on scales.  It's ok to guesstimate whether you had 6 or 8 oz of chicken, or to pick "grilled cheese sandwich" from the food database instead of two slices bread one slice cheese one pat butter or whatever.  But if you're eating something like potato chips and it says there's 11 in a serving, it's good mental exercise to count out 11 and no more. Improving your habits is more important than precision.  

- find foods you like that have fewer than 300 calories.  things like yogurt or packaged salads or smoothies are good.

- find the lower calorie versions of things you like.  A slice of cheese pizza can be like 250 to 800 calories depending where you go or if you make it at home.  It's not just the size of the slice, it's the crust and all the cheese and toppings. You can easily have 2 or 3 slices of pizza and stick to your diet if you're good the rest of the day as long as you're eating the right kinds of pizza.

- you don't need to be perfect with fruits and vegetables while you do this or eat cauliflower crust pizza and weird quinoa stuff  If you're new to calorie tracking, just focus on tracking calories. But do try to make sure you have fiber and that you're drinking enough water. And consider a multivitamin if you don't already take something. 

- booze has a lot of calories but it's not hard to save enough for a couple drinks at night if you want.  Just make sure you know how many calories are in that beer or glass of wine before you have 3 and decide you never really liked tracking anyways. 

- you can add buddies on myfitnesspal and share your progress. If you want to add me send me a pm. It creates a crappy Facebook style feed where they post things like bostonfred has logged in 3 days in a row!  Or bostonfred burned 500 calories doing exercise including run 7mph. I don't think it shares your weight but it does share your progress so if you have lost 3 lbs so far it will tell your buddies and they can click like or add a comment to say nice job.  

 
Breakfast i just had two cups of coffee but light and sweet.  200 calories worth of wonderful delightful junk calories.  

Lunch - split a frozen thin crust pizza from wegman's with my kid. Ate half. 480 calories.  

That leaves me a lot of calories for dinner although i really haven't had anything resembling a nutrient yet today so i should probably plan on something better for me than that.  

 
Breakfast two cups of coffee extra light and sweet 200 calories 

Lunch half a frozen thin crust pizza 480 calories

Snack - pure protein bar 200 calories

Exercise 60 minutes walking minus 348 calories

Dinner 1 container wegman's sesame chicken with vegetable lomein plus a huge bowl (4 cups) broccoli florets 660 calories

Booze 3 5 oz. glasses sauvignon blanc 330 calories

Total net calories 1532

I guess I skipped breakfast but my coffee had plenty of calories so i was never hungry.  Lunch was half a pizza - it wasn't huge but i didn't feel like i was dieting by any means.  I had a snack bar because i felt like it. I had a ton of vegetables with my dinner and scratched the Chinese food itch. I walked for an hour but i didn't run or do anything outrageous for exercise.. And i am just starting my third glass of wine while chatting with an old friend online.  

Still about 1500 net calories. 

You don't have to skimp to lose weight.

Note - I am not recommending this diet and this isn't medical advice.  Consult your doctor before beginning any diet and/or exercise plan.  

 
Day 1: 25/23 points

Breakfast-  :sadbanana: - 0 points

Lunch: 1/2 wawa Italian Combo- 5 points, 3 oz chicken breast- 0 points

Dinner- crabcake- 5 points, string beans- 0 points, 2 old bay wings- 8 points, clams- 0 points

Snacks- 17 Good thin crackers- 1 point, 3 oz Ham Steak- 2 points, Peanut Butter Built Bar- 4 points

30 minutes Peloton Fun Run, approx 9 points earned, 10 minutes Peloton Yoga

 
Skipping breakfast makes the day so much easier. Don't be like me and have 680 calories by 10 am...

I linked my fitbit to myfitnesspal and it seems to be working ok. It'll be much easier than manually entering my walking/running. 

 
I didn't see this thread but as the poster child of the April Challenge, I'll gladly come on board with Fred for May. He's been a great leader over there and kept a few of us from jumping out of windows. I lost at least 15 lbs in April and shattered the Cardio Minutes challenge, mostly to shoot a bird at the folks trying to shutter people from things like Golf and Tennis and the public beach closings...I could handle the restaurants and bars being shut but the assault on people who exercise made me ill. 

I stunk on Day 1, ate almost 2,300 calories but the MFP App says I burned about 3,000 today and created a 700 calorie deficit which I shoot for daily but more as a 1800 intake vs 2,500 burn ratio. 

-To everyone and anyone who has been depriving themselves of taking care of themselves, please take a moment before you lash out again at whatever group you are pissed off at on the TV or social media or wherever and just let it go for a little while. Take a step back and focus on yourself. 

-I've lost about 20 lbs since restaurants and bars(DRAFT BEER) closed on 3.20.20 here in Florida and I am not planning on going back into them anytime soon for personal reasons and personal choice, not frowning on anyone who freely wants to pile back into them. I personally though, have found a lot of good at home by cooking and taking control of almost every bite of food I have. 

There's a lot of folks to thank but they are all in the Otis thread over the last month. 

 
Skipping breakfast makes the day so much easier. Don't be like me and have 680 calories by 10 am...

I linked my fitbit to myfitnesspal and it seems to be working ok. It'll be much easier than manually entering my walking/running. 
:no:  IMHO

I eat between 200-400 calories for breakfast and sometimes even more if it's 2 servings of oatmeal which has over 10 grams and fiber, add in some fresh fruit and you might be able to push that up to 15, you add in a few more fresh fruits as snacks during the day and you are building a solid foundation that will pass thru you quickly and keep you regular which will suppress a lot of cravings for more food. 

I usually have 1,000 calories in me by lunch or short after, dinner usually done by 5:00 and after 6:00 I try not to eat at all. Then I'm usually hungry and wanting breakfast in the morning, start the whole process over again which my body seems to respond well to, almost like a routine. 

 
Skipping breakfast makes the day so much easier. Don't be like me and have 680 calories by 10 am...

I linked my fitbit to myfitnesspal and it seems to be working ok. It'll be much easier than manually entering my walking/running. 
I'm going to lose some weight this month but that's not the only reason I'm doing this. 

I want to show people how easy it is to lose weight if you just keep track of what you're eating because I didn't understand it until I seriously tried. 

I'm not in perfect shape. I still have weight to lose.  But now that i understand what I need to do, I know that this is easy. It's just a matter of doing it. 

So my goal is to have days where i do no exercise and still lose weight.  Or drink 3 glasses of wine like tonight and still lose weight.  Or have a huge breakfast like you said and still lose weight.  Or run a 10k and eat like a king and still lose weight.

And I will eat foods i really enjoy and drink more booze than i honestly should and have a ton of sugary coffee for breakfast every day because it makes me happy.

Because losing weight isn't actually hard.  It only seems hard until you really understand it. 

I agree that overeating at breakfast puts you behind the whole day so i rarely do it either. But big breakfasts are awesome so I'll try one tomorrow and go from there. 

Note that my performance may not be typical. I am not a doctor and this is not neutral advice. Consult your doctor before beginning any diet or exercise routine. 

 
Myfitnesspal settings:

Starting weight on 5/1/20: 297.4

Goal weight: 275 pounds

Weekly loss goal: 1.5 lbs/week

Based upon the above, MFP allots me 2280 calories/day.

I'm at 2098 for the day, with 317 exercise calories I have 499 calories remaining for the day. 

Do I have a some ice cream? 🤔  LOL

BTW, I said no to ice cream! 💪🏻  

 
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Yeah, gamifying your caloric intake definitely seems like a good approach to me.  Taking BF's recommendation, I'm using MFP -- it's a little clunky with all the ads, but it gets the job done.  I'm not really overweight, but I've very slowly put on a few pounds over the past two years or so, and then I quickly put on another 5 pounds during the quarantine.  That's alarming to me since I figure to be working from home for most or all of the summer.  I selected a "sedentary" occupation both because that's an accurate description of my job and because I want the positive reinforcement of manually logging my exercise.  My goal is to go from 165 down to 155 -- MFP is giving me 1600 net calories a day to accomplish this.

I went ahead and started tracking on Sunday to get accustomed to the app, ending the day with 1284 net calories (2320 consumed, 1036 burned).  Yesterday was 1213 (2002-789).  There are some blindingly obvious lessons that come through pretty much immediately:

- Tracking my food makes me much more aware of what I'm eating.  As soon as this became a little game that I could win, it was a lot easier to pass on that mid-morning cup of Wheat Thins, the mid-afternoon bowl of Fritos, the evening cookie or two or three.  I know my eating has gotten terrible since being at home, but I don't think I fully realized just how many empty calories I was consuming every time I wandered past the pantry.  

- It's pretty easy to track my breakfast and lunch since those are normally things like protein bars, cereal, sandwiches, and other fairly standardized items.  Suppers are tough and are going to require a lot more good-faith guesstimation because I'm not going to turn this into a science project.  Sunday was red beans and rice with andouille sausage.  I entered that as two servings of "Red Beans and Rice with Sausage, Zataran's, 1 package" for 700 calories, but I don't honestly know whether that was high or low.  Last night was two chicken tacos from the Instant Pot.  I probably could have gotten a more accurate count on that one, but I went with "Chicken Tacos, Chipotle, 3 tacos" for 515 which was probably an over-estimate but not by a lot.  I'll have to live with a little nutritional noise here.

- Alcohol has a ####load of calories.  I probably drink too much on weekdays anyway, but that's especially true now that my weekdays and weekends are basically the same.  Still, it's easy for me to budget some calories for a few glasses of wine and still chalk up a win for the day.  Weekends may be different but we'll see.

- I run five days a week year-round.  As long as I'm stuck at home and the weather's nice, I've resolved to get out for an additional walk or two each day.  I don't really need any extra motivation to make that happen, but entering that activity in MFP and getting those calories credited back to me is a nice side benefit. 

So far so good.

 
Tracking my food makes me much more aware of what I'm eating.  As soon as this became a little game that I could win, it was a lot easier to pass on that mid-morning cup of Wheat Thins, the mid-afternoon bowl of Fritos, the evening cookie or two or three.  I know my eating has gotten terrible since being at home, but I don't think I fully realized just how many empty calories I was consuming every time I wandered past the pantry.  
It's amazing how easy it is to have 500 or even 1000 calories of snacks without really realizing it. Chips, crackers, popcorn, just a little here or there. A candy bowl or the wife made cookies so I'll just have one.  You make lunch and pick at it before serving yourself a full portion. Your kid didn't finish their dinner so you grab those last couple nuggets off their plate. You have a drink and decide you need some carbs to soak up the alcohol.  

You can still do all of that by the way. Just track it. If you like grazing then graze. There's lots of different ways to get healthy. 

 
I agree that overeating at breakfast puts you behind the whole day so i rarely do it either. But big breakfasts are awesome so I'll try one tomorrow and go from there. 
Ok this is kind of a lame big breakfast but i had fresh berries and some chicken cutlets and I promised to eat a big breakfast so

Coffee light and sweet 200 calories

Greek yogurt 130 calories

Granola 270 calories

Strawberries 40 calories

Chicken cutlet 200 calories 

Total 840 calories.  

That's over half my calories for the day.  Now what?  

Option 1 - skip lunch.  Right now that feels like a good idea - I immediately regret actually eating all of that.  I could have just lied about it. 

Option 2 - cut down on dinner.  Not happening.  I hate spending the whole day knowing I dug myself into a hole in the morning and can't look forward to a real dinner. 

Option 3 - no alcohol tonight.  That's actually probably a good idea, I've been drinking like someone who gave up alcohol for lent while a once in a century pandemic forced us all into quarantine and then i was allowed to start again on Easter.  I'm kind of on a 3 week bender. 

Option 4 - do a bunch of exercise. This will be part of my plan for sure. But my mindset isn't about the big breakfast. It's not about working off the food.  It's about earning my dinner. 

That was a really important paradigm shift for me. I am in control, and I can have the things I want if I earn them.  Exercise is the tool I use to get the thing I want, not a punishment for being bad.  

 
Ok this is kind of a lame big breakfast but i had fresh berries and some chicken cutlets and I promised to eat a big breakfast so

Coffee light and sweet 200 calories

Greek yogurt 130 calories

Granola 270 calories

Strawberries 40 calories

Chicken cutlet 200 calories 

Total 840 calories.  

That's over half my calories for the day.  Now what?  

Option 1 - skip lunch.  Right now that feels like a good idea - I immediately regret actually eating all of that.  I could have just lied about it. 

Option 2 - cut down on dinner.  Not happening.  I hate spending the whole day knowing I dug myself into a hole in the morning and can't look forward to a real dinner. 

Option 3 - no alcohol tonight.  That's actually probably a good idea, I've been drinking like someone who gave up alcohol for lent while a once in a century pandemic forced us all into quarantine and then i was allowed to start again on Easter.  I'm kind of on a 3 week bender. 

Option 4 - do a bunch of exercise. This will be part of my plan for sure. But my mindset isn't about the big breakfast. It's not about working off the food.  It's about earning my dinner. 

That was a really important paradigm shift for me. I am in control, and I can have the things I want if I earn them.  Exercise is the tool I use to get the thing I want, not a punishment for being bad.  
I would go w a combo of options 1, 3, and 4.  Light lunch, one drink, and 30-45 minutes of exercise.  

 
Lunch is a slice of a large cheese pizza.  330 calories.  Up to 1170 on the day. If I gave a glass or two of wine that's 110 or 220, so I've got about 2-300 calories to work with for dinner if I don't do any exercise.  Or i could, you know, not drink.  But the purpose of documenting this was to show that it's easy to have a good day where i ate a big breakfast, didn't have to skip a meal, and can still have a drink or two, and i feel like that's still very much on the table. 

 
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Protein bar for breakfast = 200 calories

Soup and crackers for lunch = 350 calories

5 miles walked = (412) calories 

It's about 5:00 and I'm sitting at 138 net calories.  It's time for some wine.

 

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