ideas for controlling food intake during recovery?

scedastic

scedastic

Barefooters
Oct 7, 2011
2,021
4,177
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#1
Got diagnosed with peroneal tendonitis and I'll be in a boot for at least a few weeks.

I'm not supposed to do anything (not even swimming) except upper body weights/weights that do not rotate the ankle. So, workouts will not be what they were before, and I'm sad about being injured, stressed about school and work issues lately, so I tend to eat even more when I'm crabby.
I'm used to just eating whatever, then exercising a lot.
Any behavioral advice for controlling my eating habits better while my calorie output is reduced?
I'm thinking of starting a food diary, as I've heard that helps. Any other tips?
 
#2
I've always been a food diarist, totaly believing in the principle of calories in/calories out, no other magic.
Now that I can't do much of anything physical it's getting old fast!
It does work though.
I fully expect to post a photo of potbelly LB soon.
 
#3
K, so how do you do your food diary? Do you record 1x/day? Do you decide ahead of time what you will eat then record? Do you record portions?
Just wondering how to go about something like this. I'm very new to will power. You might say we haven't even met yet.
 
#4
I'm a will power nerd. I've always weighed stuff, recorded each meal, etc.
It does work though.
I have planned weekdays in advance , but the end result still had nothing in common with the plan.
One guy I heard speak on the subject (for CE credits of course!) said to treat the diary like you should a checkbook.
Go way over, that's expected, but account for it the next day.
Calories don't lie. I've been to parties where I skipped the sweet stuff sipping brew instead, while my wife abstained and stuck with the chocolates. Calorie wise I won.
The catch however is though.......... Keeping trim through diet probably has much less to do with overall health than we tend to think. We may look or feel better, but without the activity we might not be any better off than we would be a few pounds bulkier.
 
#5
I can't see you with a pot belly, Board. You've always been so slim n' tite.
 
#6
I can give all sorts of advice, although I have a hard time following it myself.

I read that studies show people who plan their meals ahead of time taking into count the calories that will be consumed lose 60% more weight than those who don't, so definitely have a meal plan and follow it.

There is a certain amount of calories that are needed in order to lose weight, and there are a certain amount of calories that will allow you to "maintain" your same weight. These numbers are different for men and women, age, and size, so search the Internet for those to know how many calories you should be consuming daily to lose weight.

Stay away from empty calories. They are not zero calories, they are empty, as they do nothing good for your body.

Use smaller plates, bowls, even kids' sized spoons and forks.

Drink a full glass of water five minutes before your meal.

Drink water throughout the day to stay feeling full.

Eat six small meals throughout the day, instead of three usual meals.

Or do like Henry, take a bite of something every hour; he's incredibly fit.

Half way through your meal, get up and walk around; you'll find that you aren't hungry anymore and no need to get back to the plate.

Eat more protein than carbs.

There's so many things I have learned, and have trouble following myself, but like Board says, the key is the number of calories going in and going out.
 
#7
TJ, I've never heard the drink a whole glass of water before I eat. I will have to try that. I have a severe weakness with food and I can't stop eating if I am still hungry. I've always heard to drink lots of water and it will help you feel fuller. This doesn't seem to work for me. It makes me go to the bathroom much more frequently though and makes my stomach gurgle louder. I've tried really hard with the planning ahead, but the problem with that is typically you're planning a week ahead and come that day what you have planned does not sound appealing, this almost always causes me to order pizza or eat something not planned and much more unhealthy. This is one area I really really struggle with. The calories I am told just to maintain my weight (this is 30lbs overweight) leaves me feeling starving after every meal.
 
#8
I hear you. It's hard when you can't get out to burn them off. I know.

Have you heard of Body for Life and Eating For Life by Bill Phillips? Check out his books on Amazon. His recipes and meal choices are typically stuff you already have in the kitchen and are quite tasty, like the Eggscellent Enchiladas and Turkey Goulash. There are a bunch of recipes in the Eating For Life book, and the Body for Life book contains a whole program you can follow with a bunch of before and after pictures. Now, I would always wonder how doctored some of those pictures are, but I can honestly say, I have seen the transformations first hand with folks who went to the same gym I did who took the program.
 
#9
I haven't heard of those TJ, I'll have to check them out. I've always had a hard time with most diets, because they tend to only give me suggestions for the most part for veggies that I do not like. It's hard when there aren't more alternatives so you end up falling back into what you know and like.

I also grew up in a family of eaters, not that this is an excuse but I do think it is a learned behavior. I was always one of the little skinny kids growing up who ate ten times as much as the kids that were three times my size. My closest friends all weighed a good hundred pounds over me and I would out eat them any day of the week. Everybody was always, still are now that I think about it, shocked at how much I eat. Unfortunately, as I've gotten older, that appetite hasn't gone away like I would have hoped it would, not a good thing now that I am not as active as I once was.

Anyhow, I really think I could do the paleo diet with adding a couple veggies (grains or what ever they are considered now a days) not on the matrix, the problem is getting my wife to do it with me. I am the one who cooks dinner and normally would eat and cook pretty close to a paleo diet on my own naturally, but my wife complains incessantly that she wants variety and feels what I like is boring (meat and potatoes so to speak). This makes it hard because a lot of the foods she likes have a lot of processed stuff or have lots of breads or cheeses or pasta, etc....
 
#10
Grains are not paleo, as far as I understand it, neither are veggies. I think they only eat what could be hunted and gathered, not farmed or harvested.

Growing up, I was the youngest of eight kids. We were quite poor and hungry all the time. Maybe I'm just trying to make up for it now.
 
#11
I know "grains" aren't part of it, but some vegies sure are part of it. When I say grains I don't mean like wheat, but more corn. I like corn too much to give up and it is a natural food like potatoes that I am not going to give up. I may limit my intake of these but I can't give them up. :D
 
#12
way to hijack the thread you two.

i counted calories years ago. never again. that sucks. i may make it sound simple but i know it isn't. eat more raw fruits and veggies and less processed foods and you'll be fine. eat more of whats grown and not packaged by man. you will digest it easier and shouldn't gain weight but lose it instead.
 
#13
Thanks for all the responses.
Yeah, it's highly unlikely that I will ever actually count calories. Aside from that it makes me feel even more that I'm obsessing about food, I have no clue how I would estimate calories per meal and the very idea feels like a project.
I already cook from scratch, almost exclusively. I cook meals ahead of time on the weekends, freeze them in the chest freezer and thaw them during the week with a side veg. Mostly vegetable dishes, with meat here and there. Lots of lentils, beans, veg stews. No soft drinks, yes coffee and tea and wine and beer (highly caloric, so a good place to shave calories, I guess). Not a big fan of meat, but I do eat eggs, beans, greek yogurt frequently.
Yes, there is a weakness for sweets, but I generally only eat and share the treats I make, so I can just avoid baking for a few weeks (sorry kids).
The problem is that when I am stressed(lack of exercise), tired (grad student here), or trying to concentrate, food goes in the mouth. Doesn't matter how healthy it is if too much is going in, ya know? I've tried to replace it with chewing gum, or doing sit ups, but there I am at night, working, alone, hours on end, while everyone else is sleeping, and there is the kitchen, calling out my name......................................like right now.............................................................................................................................................................................
 
#14
scedastic said:
Thanks for all the responses.
Yeah, it's highly unlikely that I will ever actually count calories. Aside from that it makes me feel even more that I'm obsessing about food, I have no clue how I would estimate calories per meal and the very idea feels like a project.
I already cook from scratch, almost exclusively. I cook meals ahead of time on the weekends, freeze them in the chest freezer and thaw them during the week with a side veg. Mostly vegetable dishes, with meat here and there. Lots of lentils, beans, veg stews. No soft drinks, yes coffee and tea and wine and beer (highly caloric, so a good place to shave calories, I guess). Not a big fan of meat, but I do eat eggs, beans, greek yogurt frequently.
Yes, there is a weakness for sweets, but I generally only eat and share the treats I make, so I can just avoid baking for a few weeks (sorry kids).
The problem is that when I am stressed(lack of exercise), tired (grad student here), or trying to concentrate, food goes in the mouth. Doesn't matter how healthy it is if too much is going in, ya know? I've tried to replace it with chewing gum, or doing sit ups, but there I am at night, working, alone, hours on end, while everyone else is sleeping, and there is the kitchen, calling out my name......................................like right now.............................................................................................................................................................................
Click to expand...
Funny, but the popcorn with movie theater butter is screaming at me as I type this. I actually know exactly how you feel though. I was counting calories for several months and I was using fitday.com to keep track of everything. It was so tedius and made my wife very angry because evenings are usually family time and it made her upset when I would have to get on the computer to log my meals and try to figure out exact quantities that I ate, not to mention trying to find the exact food I ate on the site... It got way too much for me and I just had to quit doing it. I would spend 45 minutes at least a day trying to log all my meals everyday...
 
#15
Nuts, seeds and berries are your friends. Every time you crave sugar, eat protein and it will kill the craving.
 
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#16
Paul Chek has a book called "How to eat, move, and be happy". Part if the book is a series of questionnaires, one of which is a metabolic typing. I've found it helpful for finding combinations of food that are satisfying with smaller quantities, not to mention the fact that it's a pretty great general fitness book.
 
#18
jldeleon said:
Nuts, seeds and berries are your friends. Every time you crave sugar, eat protein and it will kill the craving.
Click to expand...
Fruits make me feel fuller longer, unfortunately nuts and seeds do only because I can't seem to stop till their gone. Then they just make me sick because I ate too many nuts.

7ships, I will definitely check that book out. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
#19
I used to cut weight consistently for wrestling and I found that for me, chewing gum often did the trick.
Maybe it was something about the chewing motion. It didn't solve my cravings, but it did take the edge off.
 
#20
No problem Nick. Chek was a great resource to me when I was a Personal Trainer. He builds bridges between physical activity, diet, etc with love and spirituality and I like the depth of his approach.

 
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