Topic: trying to eat healthy
DragonFlyTat's photo
Fri 02/20/09 09:32 AM
My two daughters are trying to eat healthy. So I got them both a membership to the YMCA and went grocery shopping for the right foods. Are you kidding me. How expensive. I told them to eat light. I just couldn't believe how expensive stuff was. I am a very light eater, but eat several small meals a day. I told them to try and adopt this type of eating style. What do you think? One needs to loose about 50 lbs. and the other 100lbs or more.

Mon1957's photo
Fri 02/20/09 09:37 AM
Having followed the LA Weight Loss Program you need to eat a little but often. My daily menu was:

Breakfast : yogurt with fruit (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries)

Snack : a fruit

Lunch: a salad with light dressing ( 2tbsps)with a bit of chicken

Snack : a fruit

Dinner : 2 cups of veggies (brocoli, cauliflower, waxed beans), 6 oz of any meat or fish not cooked in butter, 1 small potato

Snack: 1 cup of pretzels or 1 cup of popcorn (no butter) or a fruit again.

Good Luck!

DragonFlyTat's photo
Fri 02/20/09 09:40 AM
My only problem is the daugter that has over 100 lbs. to loose eats a school lunch. However I packed her lunch today. She is in the 10th grade and the girls at her table are always in her business like are you on a diet. I told her to tell them to mind their own damn business.

mmmike's photo
Fri 02/20/09 09:43 AM
I have to watch my sodum I use my steamer a lot and I eat good louse weight too.

no photo
Fri 02/20/09 09:49 AM
I will tell you from my own experience, this is an incredibly difficult age (as I'm sure you know). And I also know from experience how easy it is to try to take the "easy" way out (i.e. crash diets, etc.). I lost 60 pounds at that age in about 2 1/2 months. How, you ask? I almost literally starved myself (btw, that was with my mother's absolute encouragement). I had one snickers and one mountain dew a day (out of the machines at school). That was it. The weight literally fell off. However, I did a lot, and I mean a LOT, of damage to both my body and my self-worth. I had no one to teach me how to eat properly or exercise. What I did get was a barrage of insults, snide remarks, etc. Please, don't do that to your daughters (I don't think you will, though). It took me years to get over it (and in a lot of ways, I'm still working on that).

What can you do? Talk to them, simple as that. Encourage small but meaningful changes, too much too soon will only be a path to failure in the long run. Fruit for snacks, more water less soda, walking around the block, etc. Teach them to reward themselves for their success (not with food) but with things like a new book, a movie, a manicure, etc.

Sounds like you're a good mom, in wanting to learn how to help them the right way instead of the wrong way. Just remember, only they can actually do it. Love them unconditionally. If they know that, they're more likely to do this for themselves and not just to try to please others and THAT is the best thing they can do.

Good luck flowerforyou

7z3r05's photo
Fri 02/20/09 09:50 AM
go vegetarian. either that or cut all fats and cut caloric intake by 75%

no photo
Fri 02/20/09 09:57 AM

go vegetarian. either that or cut all fats and cut caloric intake by 75%


You can be a vegetarian and still eat enough to become or remain fat. As for cutting caloric intake by 75%, I really hope that is a bad joke. Unless they're eating 6000 calories a day, that would be starvation. It will do far more harm to them physically than being overweight ever will.

The goal here is a healthy lifestyle of good nutrition and exercise. The weight will take care of itself over time.

7z3r05's photo
Fri 02/20/09 10:12 AM
nope not kidding one bit. u want results? this will do it. i am a testament to that.

no photo
Fri 02/20/09 10:14 AM
Yes, it'll get results but at what cost? Sorry, I think we're gonna need to agree to disagree here. flowerforyou

DragonFlyTat's photo
Fri 02/20/09 10:38 AM
I know a lot about nutrition I used to weight 302 lbs. I couldn't loose the weight until I made up my own mind. I had gastric bypass surgery though and lost a ton of weight...going in June to have tummy tuck. You can see from my pics that I am not overweight. I have been to every weight loss program available to man kind. It takes the person making up their mind to make the decision to loose the weight. It doesn't help that they both have had to deal with our house and their belongings burning to the ground in April and loosing their dad in July. They both have a ton of emotional baggage in which I have them in therapy. We go as a family and one on one. I give them all of the support they need and will do anything for them. They are my world.

no photo
Fri 02/20/09 10:48 AM
Dragon, you're doing everything possible. Don't worry, things will work out. Your girls know you love them and would do anything to help them and that knowledge is the best thing you can ever give them. flowerforyou

Want2B5ft's photo
Sat 02/21/09 12:02 AM

I know a lot about nutrition I used to weight 302 lbs. I couldn't loose the weight until I made up my own mind. I had gastric bypass surgery though and lost a ton of weight...going in June to have tummy tuck. You can see from my pics that I am not overweight. I have been to every weight loss program available to man kind. It takes the person making up their mind to make the decision to loose the weight. It doesn't help that they both have had to deal with our house and their belongings burning to the ground in April and loosing their dad in July. They both have a ton of emotional baggage in which I have them in therapy. We go as a family and one on one. I give them all of the support they need and will do anything for them. They are my world.


flowerforyou

talldub's photo
Sat 02/21/09 06:43 AM
The techniques i use for weight loss are as follows. Set goals, realistic ones and write them down, also write down the emotional reasons of why you want to reduce your body fat, you'd be suprised. The goals should contain goal for the year, 3 months and weekly goals. Rewrite them every few days to reinforce them and put them up where you'll see them every day. Eat only when hungry, not for any other reason, ignore the tradition of set meal times, this is not how we evolved. Eat enough to satisfy the hunger, no need to clear the plate. Eat food as natural as possible, the more processed it is, the worse it is. Exercise, obvious enough, it can be anything that gets you moving, i find i don't feel good these days if i haven't worked up a sweat during the day! Be here now, don't think of the long journey ahead, think 'all i have is the next 30 minutes, this meal, this workout' and use this knowledge to make the right choices, stops me falling off the wagon! I find visualization very powerful and effective too. Two very good books i've read are 'burn the fat, feed the muscle' and 'mindless eating'. Good luck to you and your daughters!

SacramentAl's photo
Sat 02/28/09 10:14 AM
I just took a nutrition class last semester and it's really not about what you eat, it's about how much you're eating and how often. And by 'how much', I mean calorie-wise. If you want to do something like a 2000 calorie diet, try a 400 cal breakfast, 200 cal snack, 400 cal lunch, 200 cal snack, 400 cal dinner, and 200 cal snack. Or with a 1500 cal diet, like I'm trying, just replace the 400 with 300. There's lots of things you can do to easily make those numbers work and they're not that expensive. Rice and beans, for instance. Mix 1/4 cup of both together, maybe with a small slice of lunchmeat turkey and you've got a complete meal there. I know it'll be hard at first and you'll be hungry constantly but once their stomachs start to shrink, like after a week, they'll feel fine and get used to it.

talldub's photo
Sun 03/01/09 08:53 AM

I just took a nutrition class last semester and it's really not about what you eat, it's about how much you're eating and how often. And by 'how much', I mean calorie-wise. If you want to do something like a 2000 calorie diet, try a 400 cal breakfast, 200 cal snack, 400 cal lunch, 200 cal snack, 400 cal dinner, and 200 cal snack. Or with a 1500 cal diet, like I'm trying, just replace the 400 with 300. There's lots of things you can do to easily make those numbers work and they're not that expensive. Rice and beans, for instance. Mix 1/4 cup of both together, maybe with a small slice of lunchmeat turkey and you've got a complete meal there. I know it'll be hard at first and you'll be hungry constantly but once their stomachs start to shrink, like after a week, they'll feel fine and get used to it.

But it really is about what you eat too. What you take in should be varied to make sure you're getting all the essential nutrients. Going with the above alone you could eat McDonalds, and nothing but McDonalds and stay within the calorie range but it sure won't be healthy for you. And there's no reason to be hungry, just LISTEN to your body and eat when hungry, not by the clock, and STOP eating once your body stops telling you it's hungry!

SacramentAl's photo
Tue 03/03/09 09:25 AM
Well getting enough essential vitamins and minerals is as simple as taking a vitamin/mineral supplement in the morning, which I recommend for everyone. Unless you're rich you're not likely to be getting the daily recommendations for all of those nutrients in what you eat. You can still eat crap occasionally as long as you limit what it is. But be particularly careful about fats because fats have more than double the amount of calories per gram than proteins and carbohydrates.