The first meal of the week was pretty healthy — it went downhill from there.
Monday (1,890 calories)
6AM: Blueberry oatmeal w/ banana = 260
12PM: Chicken wrap = 680
6PM: Zaxby’s boneless wings and fries = 950
Tuesday (1,950 calories)
6AM: 1 1/2 cups of Apple Jacks = 310
12PM: Outback chicken pasta (Sunday leftovers) = 850 est.
6PM: Homemade chicken pot pie = 790 calories
Wednesday (1,860 calories)
6AM: 1 1/2 cups of Apples Jacks and granola bar = 400
12PM: Cheeseburger and fries = 850
5PM: Several crackers = 60
6PM: 2 cups of spaghetti w/ toast = 550
Thursday (2,100 calories)
6AM: 1 1/2 cups of Apples Jacks and banana = 420
12PM: Egg salad sandwich w/ french fries = 760 est.
6PM: 3 slices of Domino’s supreme pizza (medium) = 920 calories
Friday (2,190 calories)
6AM: 1 1/2 cups of Apples Jacks and granola bar = 400
12PM: TGI Friday’s Sizzlin Chicken and Shrimp = 300
3PM: Oh Yeah! Protein bar (chocolate w/ almonds) = 170
6PM: Longhorn’s salad and rocky top chicken w/ fries = 1,320
My diet consists of kiddie cereals, little fruits or vegetables, and fried food. I guess I’m trying to prove you can lose weight eating junk food.
I’ll give the whole “balanced meal” thing a try again next week. It’s not that I lack discipline (well, maybe) to eat balanced meals, it’s more of a lack of motivation — I still see the weight drop every week eating this “‘crap” food.
For better or worse (I’m sure it’s worse), that’s the way I feel right now. Can anybody out there talk some sense into me?
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, Dude… every day this week you’ve been over 1500. In the past you’ve managed to keep at least most days below 1500. Are you slipping? You can do better. Stop backsliding.
This post is intended to be support. You can do it, dude, you rock.
Let me add: I totally agree, you CAN loose weight eating anything, as long as the calorie count stays low. You can see it every day when skinny people order a Big Mac at McDonalds. What you don’t see is that they don’t eat much else that day. That’s how they manage to stay skinny.
Maybe it would be motivating to think of things from a patience standpoint. Sure you are losing weight, but if you cut your calories it will only happen faster.
Also if you trade kid cereals for high protein ones, up your fruits and vegetables, you will feel fuller on fewer calories.
I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing that you haven’t launched headlong into a restrictive diet. It’s better to make changes that you know you can stick to, but if you want to successfully maintain your weight without requiring such intense workouts you’ll need to find a way to keep your calories a little lower.
Good luck! I love following your blog. You have such a motivational tone and spirit.
Tyler, you would eat so much better if you cooked for yourself more. My guess is that you don’t really know how! Pick up the book Food Matters by Mark Bittman. It is a guide to eating healthily & environmentally friendly while still being able to treat yourself, and it includes a bunch of easy, quick recipes.
Here’s my suggestion for a full day’s worth of meals:
Breakfast:
1 slice whole grain toast with 1/3 tablespoon butter
1-2 eggs, scrambled, fried, or hard boiled (if you are scrambling or frying, don’t use more than 1/2 tablespoon of butter to cook them!)
Piece of fruit (banana, pink grapefruit)
Lunch:
Turkey sandwich: 2 slices whole grain bread, 1-2 slices swiss cheese, 2-3 oz sliced low salt turkey breast, mustard
1 cup of baby carrots with 2 tablespoons low-fat ranch dressing
Piece of fruit (apple, banana, orange, berries)
Dinner:
Chicken salad: 1/2 bag baby spinach leaves, 4-6 oz grilled diced chicken breast, 1 plum tomato (diced), 1/4 cup shredded part skim mozzerella, 1/2 avocado sliced or mashed together with a little salt and some lime juice. Squeeze lime juice all over the salad.
And I have to ask–how can you eat spaghetti with toast??
Keep rockin’ on with your bad self!
Eating Apple Jacks is the nutritional equivalent of just eating a bowl of raw sugar with milk and taking a vitamin pill. Probably not great.
If you’re struggling for a timely breakfast, I’d suggest making breakfast burritos ahead of time. You can use eggs, (or egg-beaters if you wanted), black beans, toss in some veggies and use whole-wheat tortillas, freeze enough for a week, and just nuke one every morning. Even if you’re super busy, it takes 20 minutes to do and gives you seven days of meals.
Much healthier than Apple Jacks.
Eep clicked post too fast! Otherwise wanted to say keep up the good work. I’ve lost nearly 100 pounds myself since October (200 to go), and it can be hard. But it’s all worth it.
Tyler,
Part of the reason you’ve been able to lose while eating crap is because you had so much to lose. As you get closer to goal, you’re going to have to clean up your diet in order to hit goal and then maintain.
You’ve been working out for a long time now. You’ve really conquered that piece! I’ve found that the more I work out, the better I eat because it makes my workouts both more productive and enjoyable.
Maybe you can focus on how you feel at the gym when you eat better vs. crap and the difference will convince you to limit the crap. Sometimes adding a goal like a road race can help you to focus on your best performance, which helps. Working out motivates me to treat my body better and like it better. I am less tempted to feed it crap when I see the amazing things it can do!
Wasn’t improving your health one of your big motivations to lose weight? What you eat makes a difference in your health. It’s not exclusively a matter of weight.
It may also help to break down why the crap food is so important to you. Is it simply habit? Are you and Mrs. Tyler just so exhausted that eating out is the only break you’re getting in adjusting to life with a newborn? Are these your favorite foods from good times growing up? If we know what keeps you reaching for unhealthy foods, maybe we can help you to change your thinking about them.
I’ve noticed that when you go out to chain dinner restaurants, you order the “healthy” option often – the “salad” main course. Last week you had a shrimp and salad meal that was nearly a thousand calories. It breaks my heart because if you’d made that at home with a few substitutions you would’ve halved the calories! I know cooking is time consuming and un-fun but healthy salads are easy and can be incredibly satisfying.
Do you have a bbq? God, think how much better all the meat you eat out would taste grilled by you, with good, fresh ingredients. A well prepared lean cut of steak, a skewer of nicely marinaded shrimps, a sandwich on whole wheat made with a grilled chicken breast. And it would be healthier for you, portioned far more appropriately. You’d have more variety – leaner cuts like bison instead of steak. Cooking meat is not hard, but it’s something everyone should learn how to do. It’s fun!
I’m like you, when I’m working it’s soooooo easy to eat light because I’m distracted and the options are easier. Dinner is my biggest meal of the day and it is for you by far more; you’re gettting a third of your calories there some days. If you can get away from the french fries and into a really good, savory salad or a rice side dish it will knock your fat content way back and lower your caloric intake immensely.
You must find the veggies and sides that satisfy you as much as a side that is 500 calories. They are there. for me it’s grilled asparagus, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions. For you it might be something else. But calories are negligible, so go ahead, throw some oil or butter on them, and eat as much as you like. You have to find the foods you love to eat that are still good for you. Or this is not a sustainable lifestyle.
Because face it, people like us are going to have to watch what we eat for the rest of our lives. The closer we get to our goal weights, the less we can eat, the more we have to cut in order to maintain. If I have even one weekend of crazy weekend, I can put 2-3 pounds. Weight sticks to us like pancake batter. So you have to find stuff that’s going to make you happy without making you fat.
Eventually you will HAVE to cut some of the fat out of your diet. The diet you are eating isn’t good for your heart or your cholesterol – you say it is important to you to be healthy for your child. It doesn’t matter how skinny you are, if you put that kind of fatty, fried food in your body constantly, you risk serious disease. If you eat more cleanly, you will be healthier, have more energy to be with your child. Now, especially that you are sleep deprived, it is important you are healthy. And thin is not the same as healthy. You are not trying to lose weight alone – you are trying to lose fat, and this diet will not get you there.
I find the books Eat This Not That to be really helpful. I can make trades that I’m willing to make, like trading French Fries for Tater Tots, which I never would have thought of. Tater Tots satisify my hot potatoes and ketchup cravings at less than half the calories. And I was eating a granola that I liked but found out it had more sugar and fat than Capn Crunch, which I love. Since my diet is fine on fiber already, I can now indulge in Capn Crunch since the only thing my other choice did better was add fiber. And reduced fat peanut butter adds bad fats to take out some of the good ones — better to eat regular peanut butter and give up cheese on my burgers if I need to reduce fat (honestly, I don’t miss it now). These books help me make substitutions that are serving me well.
The fact that you were able to give up soda leads me to believe that you will have no problem giving up junk food/restaurant food once you put your mind to it. The exact same reasoning applies to both cases.
Believe me, with a little distance, you will lose your taste for junk food entirely. Eating bad food is such a waste!
I agree with the posters recommending healthy cookbooks. I’d also suggest watching some cooking shows on tv – lots of good tips there.
Good luck!
@rose – great point!
Cooking shows (the right ones) will also help get you excited about cooking… something I suspect you have an aversion to, or no time for. Find the ones that excite you, Alton Brown’s good eats… Iron Chef, Top Chef, even Kitchen Nightmares! It’s fun and infectious to watch people get excited about well cooked food… and the gourmet stuff is often portioned far more appropriately than what you get at TGIF.
Hey Tyler –
Cutting out bad foods is not impossible, just don’t try to do it all at once. If you wean yourself off fries, you will very soon find your craving for them goes away. Same with chips and other junky food. You may never lose your taste for them, but it will be much easier to pass them up when you feel you ought to.
Slowly add ing healthier foods like fruit, for example adding banana to some raisin bran in the morning, and will adjust your palate. You may never “crave” fruits and veggies entirely, but you can break the urge for diet-busting foods that sabotage your progress.
Good luck!
Hi, ok first – i’m a total fan, not particularly overweight but very unfit and you’ve completely inspired me to get in to the gym!
On the healthy food thing, like people said it’s easy to switch. I’ve been trying to eat more healthily and found i feel better, my sugar levels are more consistent which stops me getting moody and shakey when i’m hungry . My skin is better i look healthier. It’s all good. Plus junk food isn’t all that good. Sure it tastes nice but there’s always things that taste better, that are better for you and make you feel full for longer so sort of help cut out snacking (not that you seem to do a lot of that!). And you’re missing out on a world of more interesting dishes! :) And as much as i am trying to eat well i give myself a little treat everyday (like a mini chocy bar or something equally “naughty”) and on Fridays i get junk food as a relax in to the weekend but only once a week, and if i can’t i don’t force it in to my weeks meals to make up for my missed treat. I also found if i don’t do these treats then i’ll go binge on junk and it ruins all my good work!
Keep up the good work, maybe start the transition slow? No cheese on the burger? Or chicken burger instead and start sneaking some veggies in there. 5 a day is the general aim here in the uk and it’s pretty easy (a handful counts as a portion) so a glass of OJ, an apple, salad with lunch then 2 veggies with your main meal; and tada! Painless :) Oh apparently fruit juice only counts as one regardless how much you drink a day!
Thou if you’re really struggling i know people who grate veggies in to chillies etc so it’s hidden from taste but still there doing good!
I think you’re doing wonderful in just limiting your so called “crap”. What’s interesting and what shows in your blog is that, as you’ve progressed, you’ve been adding in other healthy changes that you didn’t really speak about before i.e. cutting out some of the processed items and adding more fruit and vegetables. It seems like maybe it’s a fairly natural progression….once you start making healthy decisions, more healthy decisions follow. Not that you necessarily are, but sometimes it seems like maybe you get a little down on yourself for what you choose to eat, I think the fact that you’re sticking to your caloric, exercise and water goals is what is going to see you continue to succeed and I think you’ll intuitively tweak what you need to as you go. Maybe, just like with how you started this, pick one thing in your diet that you think might need to go and either eliminate it or replace it with a healthier version…just one thing at a time and soon you’re diet will be as enviable, health wise, as your weight loss. Your blog really is interesting, inspiring and funny. A year and a half ago my husband lost 112 lbs and I lost 67 lbs, then I promptly got pregnant (had a beautiful little girl) and we’re both struggling again, he’s only up about 25lbs but I’m back at the start. I enjoy reading your blog and it is helping me stay focused. Thank you. One place we’ve had some luck, recipe wise, is EatingWell.com they have some really great options, I’m also including a recipe for homemade chicken pot pie that is a bit on the healthier side and it’s quick.
1 cup Reduced Fat Bisquick
* 1/2 cup skim milk
* 1/4 cup egg substitute (or 3 egg whites)
* 2 cups frozen mixed veggies, thawed
* 2 cups cooked, chopped white chicken meat ( we usually use a rotisserie chicken from Costco)
* 2 cans fat-free Cream of Mushroom soup
Directions
Preheat oven to 400. Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray. Mix together veggies, chicken, and soup. Pour into casserole dish. In another bowl, mix Bisquick, milk, and egg. Pour over the top of the chicken mixture. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the crust is golden.