The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[DogMa]

Nothing to report. Down 0.2 from yesterday, but I've been up for a few days for various reasons. Yesterday I did the Shape workout for cardio, then the Walk and Kick tape at work, and then some lifting at home (decided to get my muscles used to it before I head back to the gym; most of what I do there can be done at home right now, anyway).

Today I did the Shape workout and we're doing Tae Bo Abs at work. No gym tonight because my new garage-door opener is already having some problems and I need to meet the guy here after work. I'll probably do abs and butt later on, though.

Food plan is going OK. I'm at about 1450 today if I eat everything I'm supposed to. Ratios are close, although not perfect.

[bikipatra]

Your discipline is so impressive! One of my goals once I get to maintenance and don't have to worry so much about my body thinking it's starving, is to really work out. You are setting such a great example. I'm going online to look at sooperdeedooper sports bras right now!

[Lauren]

Morning, Robin (and Lizabette, the other inquiring mind!) -

I hate to break the news to you both, but I don't really count calories. I am aware in a vague way of what I am taking it at each meal/snack, but I don't count them. I do, however, eat nearly the same thing or type of thing every day, and have figured out this eating regimen as what works in conjunction with my activity to generally maintain my weight. Does that make sense? So I did a lot of experimenting initially, which led to continued weight loss (and stressing my mom out, saying please stop losing!), and finally found the balance. Here's what I eat, generally speaking, with adjustments made periodically if I am out with friends/clients for a meal or on like weekend nights when I go out socially and my dinner could be totally different...oh, I eat all day, which you will see... :-)

Morning Pre-Run Food (5:45 am): 1 Apple and 1 MF Oatmeal, 24 oz water

Post-Run: sometimes another small apple or a handful of veggies

9:00 am: baby carrots dipped in 5 oz of my Fage 0% Non-fat Greek Yogurt (yogurt is 80 calories, and I eat quite a few baby carrots)

10:30ish: 1 MF Oatmeal

1:30ish: Lunch - big salad, lots of lettuce, cucumbers, broccoli, tomatoes, mushrooms, egg whites, salmon (probably about 5 oz total of protein, often less), 1 packet Walden Farms dressing, 2 tbsp of olive oil; 1 apple or pear;

3:30: some veggies like celery or cucumbers or asparagus or whatever

4:30: 1 MF oatmeal or pudding (once in a while a bar)

7:30ish: steamed tofu and shrimp and mixed veggies (Bok choy, spinach, broccoli, string beans) - lots of protein and lots of veggies; no sauce, totally clean, totally yummy!

10:00: Frozen pudding, with a couple teaspoons of walden farms choco syrup or rasberry jam on top

-------------------
Okay, that's the typical day. When I am feeling I need more oil in my diet, I also will sometimes have grilled veggies with more olive oil.

Now, you wanted to know about my exercise. I run about 5x a week (body permitting): 4 of those days I tend to run between 4.5 and 5.5 miles, at, currently, about 8 1/2 to 9 minutes per mile, and then 1x a week I've been pushing the "long run," which this past Saturday was 6.5 miles, and I am striving for 7 miles this coming weekend. I lift weights about 3x a week, and I do the elliptical on days that I am not running, and when I do the elliptical, I do upper body arm exercises the whole time to keep my arms and core engaged as well. If any part of my body is injured or hurting from the run, I'll swap out the run for the lower impact elliptical - I do not believe in running through the pain, it will create future problems. After my long run days I've had to add to my post run eat, to include a couple egg beaters and more veggies. I also walk to and from work, take the stairs whenever possible, and walk everywhere I go (since I live in Manhattan). I pretty much never go anywhere with veggies in my purse, just in case, still drink a ridiculous amount of water (well over 100oz a day), and still drink a copious amount of diet soda too! :-)

Robin, I am sure you'll be able to plug my foods into your fit day (I've never been interested in doing that), and feel free to let me know how many calories I am consuming. I am not concerned because I found the balance that works with the calories I am burning while I am working out and with the increased metabolism that has come from exercise and lean muscle mass.

So, ladies, there you have it. The Lauren Dissertation on Food and Fuel. :-)

Hope I didn't put you to sleep!

Lauren

[DogMa]

Not at all. But you say I don't get enough calories?? I can tell without FitDay that you're eating far less than I am. It looks to me like about 1200-1300, max. Which isn't much at all, with all the exercise you do (again, more than I do).

So maybe I need fewer calories instead of more. Although I won't go below 1200 and I'm not sure I'm even willing to go below 1300. I've already damaged my metabolism enough over the years, from other diets AND from this one.

Oh, and to Biki: Check out the ones from Enell. When you first try to put it on, you'll think it's clearly the wrong size because it's so darn tight, but it works better than anything I've ever tried before. I can run with no bounce at all.

[Lauren]

Ha, no, Robin, I am telling you, I eat veggies allllll day long, and my lunch meal is HUGE (people at my office laugh), and the amount of shrimp (9 large jumbo) and tofu (huge chunks) in my dinner with tons of veggies, are two very large meals. So those two meals alone may be 600-800 calories, plus each fruit is at least 100 calories, each MF oatmeal is 110 calories, the pudding is 100 or 110, I don't remember, the olive oil in my salad and sometimes on my grilled veggies, the yogurt, the baby carrots (higher in carbs and calories), and the endless veggies all day...I assure you I am eating way more than 1400 calories. You know how I know? Because I eat at least 2-2.5x more than I ever did when on MF, and I was generally eating about 900 calories on MF.

Anyway, I guess this is why I don't count calories, it makes for more frustrating analysis than anything I find useful. But I do understand why you've needed to analyze more, as I totally get your sluggish metabolism and how hard you had to fight to lose the weight, so I certainly don't mean to pass judgement on your process. We each pick and choose our process, huh?

Oh, and I wear the ENELL sports bra as well, and I was going to recommend it to Biks too! :-) Biks, once you get it on (no easy feat), those tatas ain't goin' anywhere! ha!

Cheers!

Lauren

[Lauren]

Wait, I don't eat 2-2.5x as much as I did on MF, that's totally wrong math, my apologies. I eat an extra Lean & Green (biggie, too!), plus a couple extra supps/fruit/snacks, and way more veggies. But I space it out so that I feel like I am eating all the time. So while I definitely am eating more than 1400 cals a day, I can't actually figure out how much more in total calories I am eating.

Oh well! As long as I stay below my goal (which I do, just like Jo, and no, it's not a new goal, just a "happy safe zone") I am happy!

Lauren

[DogMa]

Hey, whatever works for you. But veggies have so few calories (even carrots) that you can eat mountains of 'em and still not be getting much.

But yeah, I have to be a lot more careful to get things working for me. My body isn't nearly so forgiving.

OTOH, I do seem to be seeing some improvement in my body, even though the scale isn't changing right now. Which is really my goal, anyway. I don't care WHAT I weigh, as long as I get my body fat down. I really do believe that Medifast changed me from a fat fat person to a skinny fat person, because my body fat didn't drop nearly as low as it should have. But I noticed that one of the tops I bought on Memorial Day weekends is now kind of big and droopy on me, and I could swear it looked great when I tried it on at the store. Sigh.

Anyway, speaking of such things, gotta go eat now. And hopefully our system's back up at work and I can actually get something done.

[Lauren]

Mazel tov on the body changes, that REALLY is what it's all about, not the numbers which are totally arbitrary!

Have fun!

lauren

[DogMa]

BTW, you're also a lot bigger than I am, in addition to being more active, so you'd need more calories than I do. I'm also older, I believe. (Plus scale numbers may be arbitrary, but body fat percentage - which is what I'm trying to focus on - is definitely not.)

In any case, I'm down another 0.2 today (bf down a bit, too, although that fluctuates some) with continuing sandbox issues despite having a ton of fiber every day (so maybe a bit more?). I'm going to hold off on the cycling and maybe just do that one or two days a week. One, if I can get away with it. Or do what they used to do on my old boards, which was stay at the lower carb level till weight loss stalled and THEN cycle up for a couple of days.

Did ab and butt stuff last night, in addition to my morning workout and a tape and a half at work (our pagination system was down all morning, so we had time on our hands). This morning I did my regular treadmill workout, this afternoon I'll do a tape at work, and tonight I'll do more abs work. Tomorrow is going to be gym day after work (still with the morning workout and the 3-mile tape at work in the afternoon).

[bikipatra]

I'm down another 0.2 today (bf down a bit, too, although that fluctuates some) with continuing sandbox issues despite having a ton of fiber every day (so maybe a bit more?)).

This is a subject that is considered TMI for a lot of people but something I suffer from and a few of my medications are known to cause it which only complicates the problem.. . I have tried Konsyl, milk of magnesia, teas, senekot, Dulcalax-then I told my pharmacist that NOTHING worked. He refered me to a product called Miralax. It isn't perfect but works better than anything I have tried. It is Polyethelene Glycol with no additives. It is flavorless and can be mized in any beverage. It works by drawing water into the colon. I tried to call them to find out the carb content but none was mentioned on the label and it has no inactive ingredients. I will get back with you on any carbs.

[bikipatra]

I just got off the phone-no calories, no carbs in Miralax.

[DogMa]

Hmm, I may have to try it. Although it's not like I'm straining or anything (I know, TMI; stop reading here if you want), I just don't go that often. Never have, even when I was a kid. Only time I did was when I was eating Activia yogurt every day. (As an aside, at the time everyone - well, a couple of people - said it was all a marketing ploy and any yogurt with active cultures would do the same. Except I eat yogurt every day now, and it definitely doesn't have the same effect.)

Aaaaaaanyway, the problem - if it was one - is resolved as of an hour or so ago. So maybe the scale will have an even better number for me tomorrow morning. Even though I'm not focusing on that (and I'm going to keep telling myself that until it's true).

[DogMa]

Down another 0.2 AND my body fat showed a drop on Tanita. I know those scales aren't terribly accurate, but I really don't fluctuate much at all on it (when I test at the same time every day), so I see it as a good sign. A very good sign, actually.

Did my Shape workout this morning. Today's the 45-minute workout at work, and tonight I'm determined to stop at the gym, even if I don't stay long. My calories are up a wee bit today to account for the extra effort (although this is also somewhat of a test to see whether my calories need to go up or down on normal days).

[bikipatra]

Congrats on the losses and good luck on your experiment!

[DogMa]

Argh. I can't find my padlock for the gym locker AND I left my workout plan at home. But I'm going anyway. I'll leave my stuff in my trunk (but lock it there when I leave work, so no one will see me do it at the gym and I already pieced together something that resembles the workout plan and wrote it down. But argh.