watching our weight while waiting at home...

[EmilyGF]

Hi all,

I lost 30 lbs two years ago using Weight Watchers and going to meetings. I really liked my group, I didn't mind tracking, and I found it really freeing to no longer feel guilty eating sweets. I told myself things like, "I can eat anything I want, just not everything at one time." After about 9 months, I had built really strong habits and found I could maintain my weight without that much overhead, though I continued fairly regular meeting attendance for another 6 months.

My habits are all going out the window now. I usually made multiple trips to the produce store each week, now that's out. I used to walk for transportation; now I don't go anywhere because the streets are too busy. 

My COVID restrictions are more than most peoples' because I don't have a car currently and my MIL is dying and we want to be 100% sure we don't give it to her / my husband. We're only having groceries delivered. No store for me. 

We have a lot of beans at home, which was a pillar of my weight loss. But I was eating 9-12 veggies/fruits per day with Weight Watchers and that isn't happening now. 

Any suggestions on how to handle this, or to build appropriate habits for quarantine, or for a new way of framing healthy eating habits?

Thanks for the help.

Emily

[maize]

I'm doing intermittent fasting/limited eating window. It works for me because I don't have to track or limit foods, just eat only during my non-fasting hours. I use an app on my phone to track fasting hours.

[EmilyGF]

23 minutes ago, maize said:

I'm doing intermittent fasting/limited eating window. It works for me because I don't have to track or limit foods, just eat only during my non-fasting hours. I use an app on my phone to track fasting hours.

What app do you use?

[Sherry in OH]

Why can't you have produce delivered?   Other than berries, most produce will keep a week or more.    Would frozen vegetables be an option?  I know they are in short supply in some areas, but they are readily available in other regions.

[maize]

36 minutes ago, EmilyGF said:

What app do you use?

It's called Fasting Tracker; I just have the free version with adds.

Nothing fancy, I just decide what fasting interval I want and push the button for that one; it lets me know when I am done. You can track weight on the app as well.

[EmilyGF]

2 hours ago, Heartwood said:

Intermittent fasting helps me from eating all day long like I know I would. If you can't go out to workout, how about some online videos?

Yes, I just need to make myself do that! Argh. I prefer walking outside, but I may just need to make myself do that.

[wintermom]

I prefer outdoor walking, too, and it's a priority for my mental and physical health that I do every single day. I time my walks to avoid the peak/busy times; so morning, when it's cloudy/rainy/cold, and I find less congested areas to walk. 

I've found a sweet spot of the amount of food and timing of food that seems to be just right for weight maintenance. I have a breakfast of 2 eggs and oatmeal w/berries, then lunch of plant protein/fat along with veggies, an early dinner of animal protein and veggies, and then I avoid the kitchen for the evening, and only have herbal tea and water. It's been working well for me. I can have some sweet treats during the day, but I do better if I ration them out into baggies. 😉

[Liz CA]

Friends who are not working right now have been saying they are baking more and therefore eating more. Not unusual as some of us tend to eat when we are anxious or tense. For one of my friends it's also boredom. She said she has to occupy herself with something and this seems a good and tasty way to do it.  :)

I still walk in the evening after work and try to stick to my stretches / yoga. I also try to eat more veggies since they are not sold out yet.

Edited April 4, 2020 by Liz CA

[Slache]

Intermittent fasting and HIIT.

[EmilyGF]

2 hours ago, Liz CA said:

Friends who are not working right now have been saying they are baking more and therefore eating more. Not unusual as some of us tend to eat when we are anxious or tense. For one of my friends it's also boredom. She said she has to occupy herself with something and this seems a good and tasty way to do it.  🙂

I still walk in the evening after work and try to stick to my stretches / yoga. I also try to eat more veggies since they are not sold out yet.

I resemble that comment. 😂

[PeterPan]

1 minute ago, EmilyGF said:

I resemble that comment. 😂

Yeah, I hate to say it, but I really had to get tough with myself and STOP THE STRESS EATING. And you said part of your success had been fresh fruits/veges. That's what I had to do, get to the store, stock up. If you're having groceries delivered why aren't you getting fresh fruit/veges??? Our Walmart is doing GREAT on produce right now. Shelves are more spotty, dairy nonexistent. But I went in and got 3 boxes of fresh blueberries on the cheap and 4 boxes of strawberries, no problem! The blueberries were so so good, super cheap, just the thing. 

Do you think your MIL, who is dying, wants everyone's health to suffer because of her? Maybe find some balance? Or just another place to buy groceries that will get you some produce? Or call a friend and ask them to hit Walmart or whatever and just bring you two bags of whatever is fresh, kwim? Surely a friend would do that for you. I'd do it if I were close. 

[PeterPan]

Just your other tip of the day, but FIBER is helpful. Fiber cereal, fiber/inulin gummies, whatever. Apples are high in pectin fiber. Oatmeal has inulin fiber. Get that fiber up so you're filling up. 

Also, this is just me, but I (ahem) went to a doctor and got some help for my anxiety and found that it also curbed my stress eating. So I'm not one to be like oh pro medications, but this was a time in my life where it was really time. And that was one of the nice side effects, that my stress eating stopped, bam. 

[Terabith]

Well, since my oldest just asked, "Is quarantine Italian for cake?  We've never had so much cake in our lives," clearly I'm not doing very well at this....

[alisoncooks]

9 minutes ago, Terabith said:

Well, since my oldest just asked, "Is quarantine Italian for cake?  We've never had so much cake in our lives," clearly I'm not doing very well at this....

Well, I want to come quarantine at your house! I love cake! (The only sweet we've had is sugar-free pudding...because I overbought when DD had her wisdom teeth out last week. So...tired...of...pudding...)

[Slache]

24 minutes ago, Terabith said:

Well, since my oldest just asked, "Is quarantine Italian for cake?  We've never had so much cake in our lives," clearly I'm not doing very well at this....

It's Italian for the amount of weight we're all going to gain.

[Terabith]

23 minutes ago, alisoncooks said:

Well, I want to come quarantine at your house! I love cake! (The only sweet we've had is sugar-free pudding...because I overbought when DD had her wisdom teeth out last week. So...tired...of...pudding...)

We have had chocolate cake, and honey lavender cake, and lots of banana bread, and pumpkin chocolate chip "muffins," and I just made a spice cake, and next up is fig preserves cake.  I'm trying to decide between lemon or lemon blueberry cake.  And I got ingredients for orange marmalade cake from the Mitford books, but my husband pointed out that a cake that literally caused the main character to develop diabetes might not be the best plan while we're quarantined.  And at some point I need to make (actually rather healthy) chocolate oatmeal cake for oldest, who doesn't really like cake.  

[alisoncooks]

2 minutes ago, Terabith said:

We have had chocolate cake, and honey lavender cake, and lots of banana bread, and pumpkin chocolate chip "muffins," and I just made a spice cake, and next up is fig preserves cake.  I'm trying to decide between lemon or lemon blueberry cake.  And I got ingredients for orange marmalade cake from the Mitford books, but my husband pointed out that a cake that literally caused the main character to develop diabetes might not be the best plan while we're quarantined.  And at some point I need to make (actually rather healthy) chocolate oatmeal cake for oldest, who doesn't really like cake.  

😱😱

My goodness! I'm totally making cake this week -- consider me inspired!

[Terabith]

I'm making up for years of cake deprivation.  We normally spend a huge amount of time at my in-laws' house, and my mother in law tells us over and over again that "nobody likes cake except chocolate oatmeal cake."  I haven't even been allowed to have a birthday cake for years because of her feelings about cake.  Younger child, my husband, and I all like cake, but we don't really count.  She makes pie all the time.  I don't like pie.  Plus, baking feels productive.  

[alisoncooks]

Well, I mean, I wouldn't turn down pie either... which probably explains why, to quote Tommy Boy:

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/7499f649-60ed-41ee-aef0-093727eb696a

Edited April 4, 2020 by alisoncooks

[Terabith]

10 minutes ago, alisoncooks said:

Well, I mean, I wouldn't turn down pie either... which probably explains why, to quote Tommy Boy:

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/7499f649-60ed-41ee-aef0-093727eb696a

Younger child said, "We're such a great team!  You stress bake, and I stress eat!"

[appyonthebeach]

I hear you on needing to eat a lot of produce.  I get mine delivered through misfits market. Maybe they deliver to your area.  Even with my deliveries, I find I still run a little low lately.  So I try to have a lot of frozen fruits and veggies also.

[Arcadia]

9 hours ago, EmilyGF said:

. But I was eating 9-12 veggies/fruits per day with Weight Watchers and that isn't happening now. 

I bought a new blender to make smoothies out of frozen fruits, frozen vegetables and yoghurt for my teens.  They don’t like the texture of most frozen fruits. I would have to do a grocery run every week for fresh fruits so the easiest way to reduce grocery trips was to get more frozen.

I am thinking of getting a dehydrator too.

[Liz CA]

5 hours ago, EmilyGF said:

I resemble that comment. 😂

 

Guess what? Today, I finally have a day off and what am I doing. So far, I made no-bake granola bars and lemon squares....

[Kassia]

I'd love to bake, but I have absolutely no willpower and would end up eating it all in one day so I don't.  I've been really trying not to stress eat and have only caved a couple of times so far, but it's hard knowing this is the way life is going to be for a long time and things will just get worse before they get better.  

[Liz CA]

7 minutes ago, Kassia said:

I'd love to bake, but I have absolutely no willpower and would end up eating it all in one day so I don't.  I've been really trying not to stress eat and have only caved a couple of times so far, but it's hard knowing this is the way life is going to be for a long time and things will just get worse before they get better.  

 

I cannot resist anything with lemon in it...and I just harvested.

 

 

[regentrude]

I am baking a lot more now since I am working from home. So we usually have a baked thing in the afternoon. But we simply compensate by not having dinner (lunch is our main meal)

Edited April 5, 2020 by regentrude

[J-rap]

I live in an apartment building, and I've noticed tons of people getting boxes from Imperfect Foods.

https://www.imperfectfoods.com/join?utm_source=adwords&gclid=CjwKCAjw4KD0BRBUEiwA7MFNTRDKdOhFSCXpsDnjhpmoD6eZE8I8S1jDHV95UHeMvlXm72EVXq-erxoCzqEQAvD_BwE

Also, I make a thick smoothie every day at lunch which fills me up, full of veggies and a tiny bit of fruit to sweeten, oatmeal, and water.  

[Selkie]

4 hours ago, happyonthebeach said:

I hear you on needing to eat a lot of produce.  I get mine delivered through misfits market. Maybe they deliver to your area.  Even with my deliveries, I find I still run a little low lately.  So I try to have a lot of frozen fruits and veggies also.

I love Misfits Market. We've been getting one of their large boxes every week, but just upped it to two since I'm not going to the grocery store very much.

https://www.misfitsmarket.com

[appyonthebeach]

7 hours ago, Selkie said:

I love Misfits Market. We've been getting one of their large boxes every week, but just upped it to two since I'm not going to the grocery store very much.

https://www.misfitsmarket.com

That's a great idea.  I'm pretty well stocked on things like grains and beans, but I don't want to have to run to the store to pick up fruits and veggies these days.