cjohnson728

I agree with the above posters. Even though I may not choose to eat a lot of processed foods, it's not up to me to tell other people what works for them. Granted, there is nothing wrong with sharing your knowledge, and then people can choose to take or leave it.

I am on the same end of that with carbs. It seems like practically everyone is on the low carb bandwagon, but if I ate like that I would be suicidal or homicidal. It obviously hasn't hurt me, since I have reached my goal weight and have excellent numbers from my bloodwork. I'm just careful to eat a variety of all foods and eat healthy carbs...but my days of 60% calories from carbs would make some people gasp in horror.

It's also about making small changes over time. I started off trying things like artificial sweeteners, Lean Cuisines, etc., and then it evolved over time; I found myself keeping things that worked, getting rid of things that didn't. Same goes for the advice you get here.

01gt4.6

I'm not saying that it's not okay to eat some processed foods. I guess you would have had to have read her blog to understand. She listed her diet food's the she ate over the last 2 days and it was nothing but snacks and TV dinners. I'm not one to say to you that you should be eating raw foods or become vegan. But to think that if your diet mainly consists of TV dinners, pringles, ice cream, egg rolls etc is going to help someone lose weight is just crazy. That could be the eating habits that gets most people OVER WEIGHT!

Maybe I missed the part that she's actually losing weight on this, elderwanda. It was my understanding that this is the beginning of her trying to lose weight, did she say other wise?

I think it's great when anyone really want to lose weight and is successful at it. I've been nothing but supportive to countless people but I will not blow smoke up someone's you know what when they are trying something that you know makes no sense?

If I logged on today and said "hey I'm going to lose weight, I'm going to eat low cal twinkies, fat free pop corn, drink a gallon of DIET coke, low cal girl scout cookies everyday" could I honestly expect anyone to support what I was doing as a good move? IMO true support is to not only being there to lift people up but to give good advice as well.

I think we all need to be real here. Maybe it's because I was fat that I have thick skin and I'm not so sensative and can take constructive criticism, who knows? I can tell you when I first started this I was clueless, and along the way have learned a lot. I've never claimed to know it all, nor ever will.

How about this??? I don't have to know how to cut hair to recognize a bad hair cut, just as I don't need to be a dietitian to know when someone is eating the wrong things.

If you disagree with me, great I invite you to let me know. You won't hurt my feelings and if you do all I'll need to do is look at some old pictures of me, then walk over to the mirror and I'll reassure myself that even though I may not know it all, I've learned enough. Maybe you can teach me a new trick, unlike some I'm always open to suggestions.


Lastly, (this isn't directed towards anyone) we can all agree that the failure rate with weight loss is really high. The main reason why I succeeded was because I knew that I was the one that needed to make a change. No excuses, I was the problem. I changed jobs going from an active job to a desk job and didn't change my eating habits. When I looked in the mirror I saw the problem looking back at me. I think until ANYONE is willing, ready and able to make a change, nothing will happen. I quite making excuses and got busy!
Mike

killerwasp

Did she say that this is what she's eating all the time? I didn't see the original post.

The truth is that weight loss and a nutritious diet aren't necessarily connected. Of course one should eat good food, but it's not absolutely necessary to do so in order to lose weight. Is it wise to go on a diet consisting largely of junk food? No. Could eating convenience and snack foods a few days in a row completely sabotage weight loss efforts? Doubtful.

killerwasp

Same here!

Exactly. I'm still changing my eating habits and I've been at this for a while. I think many people fail because they change their eating habits too drastically. Incremental changes are less painful and less likely to make you fall off the bandwagon.

cjohnson728

I hear you. I don't want to be on a never-ending "diet"; I want a lifestyle change that fits my lifestyle!

I have a friend who lost a ton of weight on Weight Watchers. But she will tell you that she never eats pizza anymore or hasn't had Chinese in 6 years. Apparently that works for her but it would never work for me. What works for me is knowing that I can have a couple slices of pizza, working around my food the day before and after, and compensating with exercise. Or picking a Chinese entree that will be less damaging than some other dishes and compensating in the same way with food and exercise.

I guess I'm just someone who hates to be told what I can and can't do...some people really welcome the structure.

Hey, I'm a psychologist...maybe I can develop some sort of personality-type matching diet (a la eHarmony) and retire off of it!

01gt4.6

she had just started her diet and posted that it was what her diet consisted of. Her reasoning (or excuse depending on how you look at it) for it was because it was quick and she was single and didn't want to cook big meals b/c she hated left overs. That why I suggested that if she cooks big meals that would give her the perfect opportunity to prepackage her meals for future use. If that doesn't save time, what does? Hell I have 4 kids and still find the time to cook food for me and prepackage it.

Shell250

Nobody was 'negative' or trying to tell the Nutritionist what to do. Everybody was just voicing their own opinion, being honest, and I think everyone was friendly and wished her well. At least that is how I interpreted it. Weight loss is a sensitive issue, yes indeed.

I felt compelled to post because of my own experience with processed food; laying off the processed food has really done wonders for my health and I wanted to share. I still each processed foods, and I like them, I like them alot - but in moderation. We are all in pretty much the same boat here, and people are just trying to find their own way and help eachother. Why else would we come to a public forum?

Bravo Mike. My journey is similar to yours. Time to be real, quit making excuses and quit looking for quick fixes. Tried all kinds of weight loss programs with amazing short term results! Time to face the facts. It is a lifestyle change.

killerwasp, I agree with what you say, small changes are more effective.

(Just my opinion, have a good day!)

01gt4.6

congrats to you as well, keep focused and I'm sure you'll hit your goal by June. You are right in it being a lifestyle change.

Built

Well--this is a loaded topic! One of the reasons I am attracted to this forum is that everyone seems to respect each other's right to choose their own way. There are some plans that some people follow that just wouldn't work for me or I don't necessarily agree with, but unless they ask for suggestions or are obviously hurting, I try to keep my opinions to myself.

Since I didn't follow this member's journey, I can only assume that she was very honest about what she was eating and that some of her choices were not the healthiest as defined by "the experts". When someone posts a public "journey" usually they do it to be accountable and hopefully inspiring, but not necessarily perfect. If she was just being honest and feeling discouraged, then she needed encouragement rather than judgment. BUT if she was presenting herself as a dietician and was posting suggested eating habits that by today's standards border on the unhealthy (we all know white flour, saturated fats and sugar is not recommended), then I see nothing wrong with respectfully voicing disagreement. After all, we all want to see each other succeed and be healthy, fit and live a long active life.

Shell250

Thanks Mike, I am not losing as fast as I had anticipated; but will be happy to even be close to goal. I will not gain weight anymore - the numbers on the scale are going down slowly, but they are going down and with lifestyle changes, a big part of which was changing my eating habits, I actually feel good!

Built, Yes, a loaded topic, it is very personal.