One persons weight loss doing Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition

I have lost another .4 pounds today. Only .4 to be 149. Wow, I no longer will have those weights added to the scales when i visit the Dr. Best yet, i have no reason to visit a Dr. Calorie Restriction has reduced my cholesterol and made my blood pressure to normal and has helped me lose almost 80 pounds.
Here is my cron O meter for today, I am a bit ashamed of it, don’t know why I am posting it except to make me look at it and stop eating too dang many berries.
I don’t add sugar to anything and won’t buy anything for myself with sugar in it, I get plenty of sugar from fruit. I put stevia in my tea and sometimes on the berries. I have searched for data on its health risks and can’t find any so I will continue to enjoy it. If I added any other sweetener to my tea I would have sugar overload for sure. I am now drinking up to 6 cups of tea a day.
Here are my food choices for today. I am pretty happy that I kept the carbs as low as they are even though I pigged on berries.

I need to teach myself about carbs. I have no clue how much I need in a day. This learning how to eat properly isn’t easy, but I am learning.
I made a tasty Greek stew for dinner. I plan on writing up a recipe for it. The Greek said it was great. Guess he should know. I love it when he opens the door and says, ” Yum, smells Greeked up in here”.
Cute huh?

Yea, I get to change my graph again today. I am in the 150’s. Yes, it is 150.8, just barely there, I am happy anyway. Since finding all the great dieters on youTube I have gotten back on track to finish up my weight loss. I didn’t stop eating CR, I did stop using the cronOmeter for several months.
Now that I have been using it again I have lost 8 pounds in about a month. Back to my .2 a day. So, maybe that was a plateau I was in for what seemed like months.
Whatever it was I am glad it is behind me now. Only 23 more pounds to lose. I had a great surprise at the clothing store yesterday. I am in a size 8, yippee. I am so darn thrilled. Wonder what size I will be wearing when I get to 127? I really don’t care, a size 8 is such a huge surprise and I am loving it for now.
Oh am I going to love, love finally seeing the 140’s in a few days.

Online Calorie Calculators

Free Dieting
For me 1500 calories to maintain, 1261 to lose weight.

Mayo Clinic
For me 1600 calories a day.

Calorie Needs Calculator

Scientific Psychic

These are just a few of the online calorie calculators that are available. You can see they vary.

Not everybody needs to eat 1500 calories a day. I can not eat that many and lose weight. 1500 Calories is my maintenance amount. As you can see not all the calculators are the same, they are close though.

I can eat as little as 1000 a day with no problems because my 1000 calories are what my body needs to be healthy. 

When I enter my information into the calculator I always use sedentary for my activity level.
 I am a not a person that enjoys exercising and know it is useless for me to force myself to do it. I know I won’t stick with it.  

The single most important thing when counting calories is food choice. You can eat anything you want but, since your not eating a huge amount of calories a day you will need to make sure the calories you do eat are the ones your body needs. Your body needs protein, about 60 grams a day for me. 

You can find a protein calculator or use the cronOmeter to enter your food, it will calculate the protein.
Your other nutrients need to be at 100% a day too. Using the cronOmeter will let you know if you need to take supplements. I found that I need to take calcium and vitamin d.

My eating has changed again. I think I have finally gotten control of the fruit craze. I had to add more protein to my diet. Glad I did, I am feeling better than ever. Thinner too. I have lost another pound and bought a size 8 pants today. YIPPEE

When I eat a protein for breakfast it will carry me until lunch time. I am now eating 2 eggs for breakfast. I used to have a banana and flax with the 2 eggs. This was making me very tired around noon. So tired that all I did was sleep. I stopped using the Flax about 3 weeks ago and my energy level is back and I am feeling better than ever. I can’t prove it was the flax and I don’t want to take it again to test it.
Cron O Meter
What I had today. I know the calories are low but I was gone most of the day. I didn’t want to eat just anything and I wasn’t hungry so I didn’t eat. I did get all my protein in for the day, so I am happy about that.
BTW, the CronOMeter is a free download. I love it.

For lunch I have either a cup of beans or 1/2 cottage cheese. If I have some left over fish I have that. Prawns would make a great lunch. 

Dinner is a protein, always weighed. No more than 4 oz. and is fish, free range beef, or organic chicken. I also have pork chops but not often. 

The meal is always served with a steamed vegetable. 

After dinner I enjoy a cup or two of berries, I buy them frozen and eat them like ice cream. 
Berries are low in carbs so they make a good diet choice.

Apples and bananas are not a good choice, they are way to high in carbs.
Remember, carbs turn to fat. 

I don’t eat cheese, milk, bread, cereals, sugars, sodas, candy, cookies, anything that comes in a box, pasta, or potatoes.
I used to, I don’t miss them. It has been over a year without them. I hope they are in my past. I have never tried to lose this much weight before. I did Jenny C. to lose 30 pounds, but gained it back and then some. I went to WW meetings, found it impossible to do. I didn’t like the concept and the food. 

The only thing that works for me is exactly what I am doing right now. I am counting my calories and eating the foods that my body needs to stay healthy. Nothing else. 

Here are some links to calorie calculators. They help you figure out how many calories  you need in a day to maintain and how many you should cut to lose weight. Not everybody should eat 1500 calories a day to lose weight. I am one of them. You need to know this so you can make a smart decision on how many calories to eat for your level of activity, age, sex, and height.

In the past year I have tried many foods to figure out what does best for me and give me the protein and nutrients I need. Right now I am doing great, I am not losing weight as fast as I did this time last year. Of course that is because I need less calories to support by body, now that I have lost almost 80 pounds.

I have calculated how many calories I will need to maintain my weight at 125. It is only 1445 calories per day and they dam well better be packed with protein and the nutrients I need to survive or I will be in a pile of hurt. 

There is another thing that I have noticed about my body now that i don’t put artificial foods, sugars, high fructose corn syrup, milk or wheat products, my body is leaner, thinner.
 My hands are not swollen and  painful like they used to be. In fact I am now wearing a ring the Greek had make for me over 15 years ago. It had always been tight, it fits perfect right now. 
I found I can wear clothes that I would never have thought of before. 

When I was 80 pounds heavier I felt invisible. I don’t know if it is me but I am actually talked to now and I am not the one starting the conversation.
I have entered a whole new world.
Count those calories.

I have been feeling more energetic lately and more willing to get back to a better Calorie Restriction life. I have been slacking for several months, not keeping track of my nutrients with the CronOMeter. I have decided to use the CronOMeter first thing in the mornings, entering what I plan to eat for the day. My hope is that I will print this out and check off as I go though the day.I don’t normally eat 3 bananas for breakfast. They were tiny and getting over ripe. What an excuse.

Protein and goals

I know I have been eating far to much fruit and the carbs are off the chart from all the fruit I have everyday. It is great to see just how many carbs I get if I stick with the CronOMeter. I need to know how much protein and vitamins I actually get in a routine day. When I first started counting calories a year ago I used it faithfully then got lazy and started eating less protein. I did not gain but my weight loss slowed to a trickle. I have lost only 6 pounds since June. I want to lose another 25 to 30 pounds so I better get myself ready. I have been enjoying my new lighter weight long enough, time to push for the final goal.

When I worked with the CoM today I had to find high protein foods that I like and usually eat. I added some eggs and pinto beans, both of these fill me up so I am hoping I don’t want any of those darn apples. I had been eating up to 4 apples in a day plus Strawberries and other fruits. I don’t have any problems with wanting pasta, potatoes or breads, just fruit.

I have been reading other CR peoples blogs. It seems most of them stay close to CR but also sway as I have. They have been doing it for several years and very experienced with how to do it and they are very thin and very healthy. The very healthy is also a goal of mine, more prevention than anything else. I read that eating less can inhibit Alzheimer’s. This is very important to me. This terrible illness is on both sides of my family. My mother had it in her middle 40’s and passed away from it in her middle 50’s. Very scary stuff. We should all be aware of it and do anything we can to try to ward it off.

This is also a very good article on Acetyl-l-Carnitine and how good it is for the brain. I have been taking it for about a month. It is hard to tell if it is working for me but I am convinced so I will continue taking it. I also take Alpa-Lipoic Acid for energy and to increase the metabolism, I can honestly feel this one does work. I think everybody that wants to lose weight should give it a try.

I am still at 154 but my body is lean. Much leaner than it has ever been. The chemicals in modern food has to keep everybody puffy. It took about a month or more for all the puffy to go away. I started feeling lean and loving it in a very short time eating the Calorie Restriction way. Food cravings disappeared too. I can be around people eating junk now and don’t even care. I see them as unhealthy and ignorant of their health. I really blame the big food companies, the ones that I refuse to buy. All the premade, frozen and packaged foods. Junk, pure junk. Even so called healthy stores have this junk for sale. The box and freezer sections are huge in these stores. I need only two isles. One for produce and one for meat. I do buy frozen fruit and veggies. I do this because I don’t always get to them before they lose they nutrients.

Keep informed with Goggle Alerts
If your not using Goggle Alerts to keep track of what you like to read everyday you should give it a try. I get alerts on several subjects that interest me. One is Calorie Restriction, when anybody writes an article or makes a post in their blog I get an email. I love it. I have been able to find more interesting reads this way. Better than doing a Goggle search. What a great way to keep informed.

I am still trying to figure out how to spend less on my weekly grocery shopping while buying Calorie Restriction quality foods. Today I did fair. I shop at two grocery stores. One for frozen organic vegetables, organic apples, and a few other items that are less expensive than at the major chain. I am a big time label reader, if the label doesn’t tell me where the food is from I don’t buy it. That seems to be a common practice at Trader Joe’s. I won’t purposely buy food from China or India and Mexico. If I buy it and not know it, of course there is nothing I can do about it. I try to buy California fruit and veggies.

For the freezer
Today I spent $45.71 at Trader Joe’s. I didn’t need fish this week, I have plenty in the freezer. I bought very little actually. The pizza dough, sauce and goat cheese is for two pizzas. That will last 2 weeks. I still like to have pizza on Friday nights. The tortillas are for fish tacos made with the Mahi Mahi I already have. The rest of the food was apples and frozen organic green beans.

Beef
My next stop is Raley’s. I spent $62.49. They are more expensive and also a better quality. I used to buy all my beef here. It is range fed and very good. Last week I bought enough beef and chicken for 4 months. I bought it from the butcher so I got a better deal. $250.00 for 4 months is a good deal to me. If I can make it last 4 months I will have saved us some money.

Spending Money
I have never been so concerned about spending money. I have also never been out of work. We have given us only $1200 a month for grocery, gas, and spending money. I do have a stash hidden from the Greek. He keeps my wallet empty, I know this so I empty it before he can. I see no way of getting more money for spending so we better get used to this. We are in the first month of my retirement. I am in love with not working, not so much with no place to go and no money to blow.

I usually spend about $160.00 a week on groceries. If I got enough to last until next Thursday I did great this week. I might even be able to hide more $$ from the Greek. Update: I didn’t hide anything from the Greek this week. In fact I ended up borrowing from my stash. Darn.

Menu for this week:

• Fish tacos
• Pizza
• Steak with Green Beans
• Roasted Chicken with Broccoli
• Joe’s Special with spinach
• Salmon with Broccoli
• Split pea soup

Bread Outlet
I bought the canned soup for the Greek, he doesn’t seem to mind it. I can’t get past the smell. He buys his own bread now. I was spending about $10. a week on it. There is a day of bread outlet close to his work so he goes there. Sure helps me out. He buys two loaves and freezes it. The cottage cheese is for him too. I don’t eat dairy products, just the small amount of goat cheese I put on the pizza.

My day

My breakfast is a banana, breakfast tea with Stevia and flax with 1/2 cup orange juice. Lunch is an apple or a melon. I have a snack before dinner, around 2pm, it is always an apple. I fix dinner around 4pm. I try to eat 1200 to 1500 calories a day. If I am trying a new recipe I try to weigh everything before I cook it. I haven’t tried anything new for months. I just never get tired of my food choices.

Is Fruit bad?
I am going to try and eat less fruit. The added calories might be the reason I am not losing the final 15 pounds. I have lost 5 pounds this month making me happy. I will miss the fruit. I know I have to much. Usually 1 banana, 3 apples, and about a cup of mixed berries a day. Sometimes more. I don’t snack on salty high fat foods, that is a good thing. I think I discovered the worst natural food for me. It is raisins, I love the California Golden raisins. I make a big pig of myself with them. Eating the entire bag in two days. Wow, the calories in that! So, I refuse to buy them anymore. They are so darn good on a broccoli salad if I ever get them in there. I will pass up the salad for the cup of raisins. I find it easy to not buy things I abuse.