Quote:
Here are some tips to help you at the burrito shop:
1) Ask for your burrito in a bowl. Do you know that most of those big burritos use the extra-large tortillas, weighing in for the tortilla alone at about 180 calories and 25-30 grams of white carbs your body totally does NOT need? You still get your yummy burrito and save almost 200 calories by having them put it in a bowl. I love the burrito part too much not to have the tortilla but I did get the "Jr" meal, which is technically a kid's meal.
2) If it comes with rice, ask for extra lettuce or "double beans" instead of rice. That will save you another 50-100 calories, depending on the amount of rice they would have used. I have never had a burrito place deny me this request. I have been charged an extra 25 cents for it, but what's an extra quarter for a more nutritionally-sound meal? Got the rice.
3) If you have a choice, go with whole beans or black beans and avoid the refried beans. You'll save yourself a number of calories and a number of grams of fat AND bad carbs... white flour is used to thicken commercial refried beans, and if you're trying to save calories and "bad carbs", avoid anything that has white flour, including refried beans.I did have black beans.
4) Chips... if ya gotta have them, read the labels and get the ones with the lowest fat and carbs. Sodium is a diet-killer, too. Remember that even when it comes to baked/low-fat potato chips. There are no labels. They don't come in a package. There's only one kind and they "cook" (fry) them there. Like I said, this is a twice a month meeting, so not terrible.
I also wanted to point out that your dinner contained almost all carbs and no vegetables. Corn isn't a vegetable... it's a grain. It is marketed as a vegetable but is a grain, is a starch, and is not a vegetable. Meals should be 70% protein, 20% veggies, and only 10% carbs ... with the exception of your chicken, your entire meal was made up of "bad" carbs and fat (those are the two things that make us fatter). Not to sound mean, but you did not make up for your lunch indulgence with your fattening dinner. Yeah, I know I have issues with veggies...as in I just don't like them. Most of them make me want to
. I have to REALLY be in the mood for them and even then there are only a couple I like.
I spent the majority of my life morbidly obese, kidding myself into believing the crap I was eating would be healthier when it wasn't. There's a lot of bad misinformation out there.
White carbs are not your friend.
Two rhyming tips for healthier weight reduction:
1) "When a carb is white, it just ain't right." (i.e., get your carbs from WHOLE grains, fruits, and vegetables... white bread is never, ever your friend when trying to get healthier).
2) "Protein and fiber with every meal, makes losing weight no big deal."
Read labels, and learn to calculate fat percentages. If anybody wants to know how, PM me or I can post here if everybody wants to know. It's uber-easy. Reduce your fat and white carbs, increase good fiber and protein, and you'll be fine.
ETA: Not trying to argue with you or anything...just chatting. I have IBS, so unfortunately fruits make me
if I eat them without a carb or something as a buffer. I really like fruit, but can't eat most of it by itself (except bananas, which are easier on the stomach). And I absolutely LOVE white carbs and I believe than everything in moderation is ok. I don't like any diet plan that cuts an entire food group out.
Oh, and when I said I made up for lunch with dinner I meant as in Weight Watchers points.
According to my bariatric doctors, of all the "commercial" weight loss programs out there, NONE of them even comes close to being as good as Weight Watchers, hands down. The points system promotes balanced, healthy eating. No diet plan should ever EVER cut out any of the major food groups (BTW, white carbs digest in your body like sugar, so if you are going to eat white carbs, remember that to your body, 1 tortilla is the same as consuming 2 to 3 teaspoons of processed plain white sugar, 1 slice of bread equals about 2 teaspoons of sugar, etc.).
Also, of all the most commonly-consumed fruits, the highest in sugar are bananas and cherries. If you're trying to cut back on calories and your sugar intake by substituting it with fruits, bananas is not your best choice (although because of the other nutritients available in bananas, sometimes it's ok to just use that as your carb/fruit for the day in order to get potassium, vitamin A, and some of the other wonderful goodies available in bananas). It's all a trade-off, but I told myself "I can't handle a burrito without a tortilla" and "But I only like this kind of fruit" or "I can only eat that kind of fruit" until I was almost 300 pounds at 5'1". I made excuse after excuse after excuse of why I "couldn't" eat healthy. I had digestive problems and all kinds of stuff. And in the end, you know what I discovered? All those tortillas and all that bread and white rice were what was MAKING my digestive tract react poorly to healthy foods. When all your body knows is unhealthy food and you try to feed it something that's good for it, how do you think your digestive system is going to respond? It takes time to get used to a healthier way of eating, and when I first started losing weight (we had to change our eating habits and lose SOME of our weight before we could get the gastric bypass), within the first month, I was eating foods that I hadn't eaten in YEARS because they'd made me sick before. It turns out, it wasn't the good food that was truly upsetting my gut... it was the fact that my gut was full of sticky stuff from eating white carbs for years and years, trying to use carbs to "fill me up" so I'd lose weight. I was the Queen Of White Rice for years. When I gave up all those bad foods that messed up my gut, then the healthy foods didn't upset me anymore.
Just "food for thought".
BTW, I never for a second thought you were being argumentative.
This is a discussion, is it not? Point/counterpoint... that's how we learn from each other. Surely we all learn from one another, yes?
Sometimes, we fat folk use those things as excuses. "This makes me gassy" or "that makes me urpy" are completely understandable, so sometimes it's a little bit of work to find something that is a healthier choice that doesn't upset our digestive systems.
If I can ever say anything to anyone that will help them get to a healthier body mass index without having to take drastic measures like I did, I'm gonna keep talkin' and sharing what I know with people.
Here are some tips to help you at the burrito shop:
1) Ask for your burrito in a bowl. Do you know that most of those big burritos use the extra-large tortillas, weighing in for the tortilla alone at about 180 calories and 25-30 grams of white carbs your body totally does NOT need? You still get your yummy burrito and save almost 200 calories by having them put it in a bowl. I love the burrito part too much not to have the tortilla but I did get the "Jr" meal, which is technically a kid's meal.
2) If it comes with rice, ask for extra lettuce or "double beans" instead of rice. That will save you another 50-100 calories, depending on the amount of rice they would have used. I have never had a burrito place deny me this request. I have been charged an extra 25 cents for it, but what's an extra quarter for a more nutritionally-sound meal? Got the rice.
3) If you have a choice, go with whole beans or black beans and avoid the refried beans. You'll save yourself a number of calories and a number of grams of fat AND bad carbs... white flour is used to thicken commercial refried beans, and if you're trying to save calories and "bad carbs", avoid anything that has white flour, including refried beans.I did have black beans.
4) Chips... if ya gotta have them, read the labels and get the ones with the lowest fat and carbs. Sodium is a diet-killer, too. Remember that even when it comes to baked/low-fat potato chips. There are no labels. They don't come in a package. There's only one kind and they "cook" (fry) them there. Like I said, this is a twice a month meeting, so not terrible.
I also wanted to point out that your dinner contained almost all carbs and no vegetables. Corn isn't a vegetable... it's a grain. It is marketed as a vegetable but is a grain, is a starch, and is not a vegetable. Meals should be 70% protein, 20% veggies, and only 10% carbs ... with the exception of your chicken, your entire meal was made up of "bad" carbs and fat (those are the two things that make us fatter). Not to sound mean, but you did not make up for your lunch indulgence with your fattening dinner. Yeah, I know I have issues with veggies...as in I just don't like them. Most of them make me want to
I spent the majority of my life morbidly obese, kidding myself into believing the crap I was eating would be healthier when it wasn't. There's a lot of bad misinformation out there.
White carbs are not your friend.
Two rhyming tips for healthier weight reduction:
1) "When a carb is white, it just ain't right." (i.e., get your carbs from WHOLE grains, fruits, and vegetables... white bread is never, ever your friend when trying to get healthier).
2) "Protein and fiber with every meal, makes losing weight no big deal."
Read labels, and learn to calculate fat percentages. If anybody wants to know how, PM me or I can post here if everybody wants to know. It's uber-easy. Reduce your fat and white carbs, increase good fiber and protein, and you'll be fine.
ETA: Not trying to argue with you or anything...just chatting. I have IBS, so unfortunately fruits make me
Oh, and when I said I made up for lunch with dinner I meant as in Weight Watchers points.
According to my bariatric doctors, of all the "commercial" weight loss programs out there, NONE of them even comes close to being as good as Weight Watchers, hands down. The points system promotes balanced, healthy eating. No diet plan should ever EVER cut out any of the major food groups (BTW, white carbs digest in your body like sugar, so if you are going to eat white carbs, remember that to your body, 1 tortilla is the same as consuming 2 to 3 teaspoons of processed plain white sugar, 1 slice of bread equals about 2 teaspoons of sugar, etc.).
Also, of all the most commonly-consumed fruits, the highest in sugar are bananas and cherries. If you're trying to cut back on calories and your sugar intake by substituting it with fruits, bananas is not your best choice (although because of the other nutritients available in bananas, sometimes it's ok to just use that as your carb/fruit for the day in order to get potassium, vitamin A, and some of the other wonderful goodies available in bananas). It's all a trade-off, but I told myself "I can't handle a burrito without a tortilla" and "But I only like this kind of fruit" or "I can only eat that kind of fruit" until I was almost 300 pounds at 5'1". I made excuse after excuse after excuse of why I "couldn't" eat healthy. I had digestive problems and all kinds of stuff. And in the end, you know what I discovered? All those tortillas and all that bread and white rice were what was MAKING my digestive tract react poorly to healthy foods. When all your body knows is unhealthy food and you try to feed it something that's good for it, how do you think your digestive system is going to respond? It takes time to get used to a healthier way of eating, and when I first started losing weight (we had to change our eating habits and lose SOME of our weight before we could get the gastric bypass), within the first month, I was eating foods that I hadn't eaten in YEARS because they'd made me sick before. It turns out, it wasn't the good food that was truly upsetting my gut... it was the fact that my gut was full of sticky stuff from eating white carbs for years and years, trying to use carbs to "fill me up" so I'd lose weight. I was the Queen Of White Rice for years. When I gave up all those bad foods that messed up my gut, then the healthy foods didn't upset me anymore.
Just "food for thought".
BTW, I never for a second thought you were being argumentative.
Sometimes, we fat folk use those things as excuses. "This makes me gassy" or "that makes me urpy" are completely understandable, so sometimes it's a little bit of work to find something that is a healthier choice that doesn't upset our digestive systems.
If I can ever say anything to anyone that will help them get to a healthier body mass index without having to take drastic measures like I did, I'm gonna keep talkin' and sharing what I know with people.
