Weight-Loss Need help with my diet

Weight-Loss
Takana

Takana

New member
*warning, long post, crying for help!*

Hi, I need help changing my diet. I'm 24, female, 5ft 7, and about 245 pounds. I go to the gym, well, I try to go every monday, but it doesn't always happen. But the gym won't make a difference all the time I keep stuffing my face. My main problem is portion size, always has been.

I work in a cafe kitchen serving and cooking food all day. It's hot, busy and tiring, so get hungry quickly in there. I rarely 'snack' on the food and I drink lots of water throughout the day.

So here's my typical day when I'm working 7:30am - 4:30pm:

breakfast - 6am
2x white toast with marmite, 1 can of diet coke. Sometimes a Muller light yogurt if I'm really hungry.

break - 10am
This is a bad time for me. Buy this time I'm really hungry. And our staff restaurant has all sorts of cooked breakfast items to choose from. Sometimes I have scrambled egg on brown toast or 2 sauages in a small baguette. I have a carton of apple juice too.

lunch - 12.30
Luckily work has now started having salads, so I'll have one of them. Depending on what they have, hard boiled egg, cheese, ham, fish (not keen) or quiche are the usual ones. Then we help ourselves to lettuce, potato salad and other items like pasta and coleslaw. It varies daily and who got in before me lol I realise these salads aren't necessarily healthy. I'll also have a diet coke.

break - 3am
Just a glass of water. Some days I really crave chocolate though.

dinner 6pm
Here is my downfall... Usually a large plate of pasta with mince, onions and dolmio sauce. Topped with cheese. Dinner time is a nightmare, I binge. But it's also hard when I have to cook for my bf too. I don't mean to blame him, it's not his fault but he's fussy and I don't want to cook 2 meals. It's worse when it's just me as I seem to cook myself even bigger portions, like I forget it's just me eating.

I'll probably have a snack bar in the evening or something too.

How can I sort my diet out? I know my body, I need to eat often, otherwise I crash and feel horrible. Can someone point me in the right direction please and advise me on what I should be eating?

Thanks, Claire
 
you should really read the stickied threads - you'll get a lot of good info out of them...

What you shoudl also consider doing - is preplaninng your meals.. you seem to be doign a l ot of flying by the seat of your pants and overeating because you don't plan one meal to the next.

Start in the morning and decide what you're going to eat - and do it -

Get an account at or one of the 100s of free sits on the web that are on line food diaries and learn what a portion size is... weigh measure and record whatever you put in your mouth...

Nothing your eating is bad by itself - I'm not a believer in all diet all the time -you live in the real world and have to eat real foods -if you enjoy whatr youre eating a- lifestyle change is easy to stick with.. y ou just need to get a handle on calories... If you want chocolate -have it -just allocate for it..
 
As usual, Mal has good advice. Planning will help you immensely. You must work 12 hour shifts??

Also, you don't have to cook two completely separate meals for yourself and BF to keep your calories in check. I will frequently make pasta and marinara sauce for both of us....BF gets polish sausage and breadstix with his...I get sauteed zucchini with mine. I love my veggies too, so BF will get a small helping of veggies along side his lean cut of meat. I get a big helping of veggies. To balance it all out, BF gets one or two of those biscuits or rolls that are pre-baked and you just throw them into the oven for 10 minutes. They taste fresh baked, he's happy and I'm satisfied. :)

It's a little extra work, but not a lot.
 
Takana said:
2x white toast with marmite,
Click to expand...

Only in the UK is that stuff considered "food"... :p

My main problem is portion control as well. But once you really start to practice it, it's easy to follow. You become satisfied with smaller meals once you are accustomed to them.

In the beginning, I had to purposely separate myself from large quantities of food. If I ate out, I would ask for a to-go box as soon as the order came and box up half of the food. Or if I cooked at home, I would put just one (measured) serving on my plate and put the rest away. Now I don't have to do this anymore because I realize that I'm full and don't over-eat. But in the beginning it was really important.

And meal plans are really the way to go!
 
Hi, thanks for the replies :) I have read through some of the stickies, I shall go back and read the rest. Thanks for the tip about planning meals, that should really help and will 'tell' me what I'm going to have one night instead of just cooking anything and going over the top with it. I like the idea of ready meals as they are set portions but its a shame they are not that healthy.

Also, any snack ideas I could have while on my morning break? I know I shouldn't really be having 2 breakfasts' in the morning!!

Thanks, Claire
 
I like the idea of ready meals as they are set portions but its a shame they are not that healthy.
Click to expand...
Make your own ready meals -ziplock bags, tin foil, plastic containers all can help you out iwth that .. Pick one day a week where you have an hour free time and cook up some chicken breasts or somehting else that you like and store it i the fridge... you can do all sorts of preplanning if you want to
 
^ Yup. I generally make dinner following a recipe for 6 people. My fiance and I eat two servings and then we put the other 4 servings in separate containers for future lunches and dinners.
 
Also, any snack ideas I could have while on my morning break?
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this could be anything.. fruit - I keep baggies of cereal in my desk (perfectly portioned_ baggies of nuts (again perfectly portioned so I don't worry about overindulging) if you've got fridge access - yogurt, cheese and crackers, cottage cheese -

really whatever you like can be a snack -just watch the portion size..
 
If I were you I'd bring in food to snack on and not eat anything from work. Bananas and nuts (almonds mostly) are what I go for.
 
Hi,

Some snack ideas for you include: Clif Z-bar, Fage Fat Free Yogurt (or any fat free yogurt), almond breeze (if you don't mind drinking a snack), dried fruit, fresh fruit, carrots or other vegetables. I think you'll find the most success if you find a set of foods and a routine that works for you (and makes sense from a diet perspective) that you can eat/follow every single day.

Good luck.
Elizabeth
 
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Yes, definitely bring your own HEALTHY snacks to work, and stay out of sight of the tempting foods. Also drink lots and lots of water, i noticed that if i drink about 2-3 8oz glasses of water 15 min or so before each meal, it keeps me from overeating and i get full quicker. I dont think this is for everyone, but i noticed that coffee, plain, seems to suppress my appetite.
 
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