Thank you so much to those of you who made suggestions.
After checking out The Daily Plate site, I found that I really do prefer what I've been using:
Fit Day. It's also an online food/calorie/exercise/etc. tracker like the one you all suggested. One difference I like so much about it is that you can enter custom nutrition information without having to pay for a subscription or membership. Example: I entered in the nutrition label from the Rich Chocolate
Royale Slim-Fast shake. If I don't quite finish the entire 11 oz. can I can input that I drank 10 oz. and the site will calculate the adjustment for me and put it in my food diary for that day. It also has a huge database of foods in general, including
condiments and even herbs and spices.
Yes, I am walking. I try to make it to the gym at least three times a week to do the treadmill thing. I usually average 3.4 mph inclined at "6" (whatever that means). When inclined at "2" or level I average 3.8 - 4 mph. I prefer to raise the platform because I hear it really targets the rump roast, which is what I would like to stop growing wider. Ha! Ha! I'm not doing any strength training, except the occasional bout on the ab machine, because I tend to gain muscle mass rapidly, which makes my weight go up. I'm going to lose the excess by
cardio on the treadmill first, then I might do some body sculpting of my arms and legs.
The things I'm doing and choices I've been making have helped me lose 4 lbs. already in the last couple of weeks. Of course, I've also been sick with a wicked bad cold bug, which may have something to do with my two-pound per week average thus far. I'm sure it will slow down if this cold bug will ever take a hike.
FYI for you Texans . . . If you have a
Randalls grocery store around you . . . They have their brand of diet food, such as crackers, ready-made salads in the produce department, TV dinners, snack bars, etc., called Eating Right. It's a branch of the
Lucerne brand, which you know is
Randalls' dairy products. Anyway, the TV dinners are quite high in things you really need, like
protein and stuff, and they taste way better than Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice and all that. There's microwave pizzas that actually come out of the microwave with a crispy thin crust. Crispy! From the microwave! My favorite is the garlic chicken pizza. Eating Right makes their own type of these new vitamin water beverages, and my favorite is the
dragon fruit flavor. My husband likes the whole grain raspberry fruit bars, which are like Fig Newtons only with raspberries and whole grain cookie crust. Okay, enough of my endorsement for Eating Right diet food.
Another thing I like is the 100 calorie snack packs. When I want something sweet after dinner I grab a 100 calorie pack of cookies. Ben & Jerry's makes a
lowfat frozen yogurt version of their Cherry Garcia and Chocolate Fudge Brownie Chunk ice creams. But a serving is just a half cup, so you should be able to eat four times from one single pint. It's all about self-discipline.
What it all comes down to is that I have choices. I can choose to eat healthier. Last night we went out for dinner at a local seafood restaurant. Instead of my usual fried shrimp, I chose the
Cajun grilled shrimp. Instead of fries, I chose the sauteed vegetable medley. Instead of sitting there eating a ton of cornbread before our food arrived, I drank a ton of my iced tea to fill my belly. And you know what I discovered? The
Cajun grilled shrimp tasted better than the fried ever did, and the vegetables had more flavor than some greasy fries. The cornbread wasn't even missed. So it's all about choices. I chose differently and wasn't disappointed.
I don't want you all to think I'm going to the extreme on this. I'm not counting my calories on weekends. Not to say I'm eating whatever the hell I want not matter how many grams of fat are in it, but I'm just not putting the
lowfat pressure on myself two days a week. I still made healthy choices last night at dinner, but I allowed myself a
coffee shop frozen mocha treat over the weekend as well. I'm allowing myself one
coffee shop treat with whipped cream on top once a week. I don't even want to know how many calories are in a frozen mocha
frapp drink -- probably like a thousand!
So that's my update. I know this post is kinda long. Oh well. Maybe I've inspired one of you with some of my doings. I know you all gave me some ideas in your comments on last post. Thanks!
Hope everyone has a super-great week!