loubiblu

I feel your pain. I came off my bike at high speed at the beginning of May, immediate surgery and PT is still ongoing weekly since June. Although I've been back cycling since mid August, I'm not nearly at the level I was before my fall.

Bit of background - up to June 2011 I was always around 10b too heavy, but it didn't bother me in the slightest. I ate what I wanted, when I wanted and didn't gain as I exercised for around 2 hours every day (mix of circuits, running and cycling). I broke my ankle in June 2011, didn't change my eating habits, but stopped exercising completely. Fast forward 9 months when I was ready to start training again and I'd put on over 40lb!

Diet had to be the answer as my ankle ligaments are too weak for strenuous running and circuit training (as I found out in Nov 2012 when I broke the same ankle again).

It took almost 18 months to lose 48lb through Slimming World and regular cycling and pilates so when I shattered my shoulder I didn't want to risk another weight gain. I continued with SW and I've bought myself a Nike Fuelband and set myself a daily 'steps' target of 15-20k. So far, weight is stable-ish

I now have watch what I eat , I miss not needing to, but I'm getting too old (and too clumsy) to get away with exercise alone.

Good luck

petitefrancaise

diminishing oestrogen = lower magnesium takeup. Magnesium is essential for producing energy (atp) at a cellular level.

I started taking a magnesium supplement last easter and started sleeping better almost immediately. My energy levels improved, which was why I was out running and fell over in June...

I'm usually a stickler for getting tested for deficiency before taking a supplement but this was a no-brainer. There's plenty of good research on this.

Mrs Danvers

Two things contributed to my weight gain as I see it - I went on the pill and I quit floor nursing. At my year review my boss spoke of the "home health fifteen" meaning that a lot of people who start home health jobs gain an average 15lb.

scrubbedexpat091

I have found it incredibly hard to track using websites and apps. My biggest issue is lack of healthy foods and too much processed stuff, but eating health always doubles or triples our budget since veggies and such never go on sale, don't have coupons and are some of the priciest foods in the store.

I am trying to figure out how to heat healthy still and still maintain what we can afford food wise.

I also have no storage or cooking facilities at work, and work 10 hour days, so I end up eating fast food 3 days a week as I am at a loss what to take to work since there is no micro-wave or fridge, and I can no longer tolerate bread and wheat so rules out sandwiches.

Meat wise only affordable one left is chicken thighs, everything else has gotten too pricey.

BubbleChog

We shop at an "ethnic" supermarket. Snout to tail on a wide range of beasties and hundreds of varieties of vegetables most of which are priced significantly lower than the local US Supermarkets.
We shop at kroger/costco once a month for prepackaged and American stuff and the rest of the time we shop at there. Might be worth scouting round some of the more colourful parts of town for different options.

petitefrancaise

HI Jsmith

I give my kids soup at lunchtimes in a flask so it stays warm. Lentils/beans are a cheap and good source of protein so I use those in soups as much as possible. Homemade quiches are also very cheap and nutritious, they travel well for school lunches too. I tend to use leftover veggies and stick cheese on top although their favourite is quiche lorraine.

Everytime I make a stew/casserole/curry I double the recipe and portion out what's left to put in the freezer for kids' lunches.

I've been preparing lunches for my son for 8 years now since the school in France wouldn't provide a GF lunch for him. I had to abide by their nutrition guidelines and it had to be 3 courses, so I've had plenty of practice at lunches!

Fast food isn't cheap, isn't nutritious and I bet you could do much better yourself if you applied the same amount to your lunchbox. Salad starter, main course and a yoghourt (natural with a teaspoon of jam a la francaise).
Shirley Goode Kitchen
I used this book a lot as a student and I see that she is now back in vogue. You can buy this for 77c + postage at the moment on amazon.

petitefrancaise

That last post got me thinking about how French people eat and how it's different to here or in the UK.
Most of the french people I knew ate their main meal at lunchtime, the kids at school (3 or sometimes 4, courses) and the adults at work in their canteens (often subsidised). Most restaurants did a menu-du-jour at lunchtime and you could eat very well for under €10. Companies that didn't have a subsidised canteen usually gave out "ticket restaurant" which could be used as cash in restaurants and supermarkets.
This kept the food costs down.

Evening meal was almost always soup or a salad or even just a bowl of cereal. No snacking between meals was the norm.

Most french people are slim and very frugal when it comes to everyday food.

When I mixed with my anglo friends in France, we ate more, snacked more and drank more.......I would never take a cake or biscuits to my french friends' houses but that was the norm in the anglo crowd.

We still eat a little bit the way we did in France but the school lunch thing here has meant that we eat our main meal in the evening now but we still don't particularly snack. Apart from teenage son who will hoover up everything in sight when he gets home from school..

WEBlue

I agree! Lentil and bean soups are full of protein & vitamins, and have no fat. AND both can be super-cheap if you use the dried lentils and beans to start with. I can get a pound bag of dried beans for $1.50, or less if I find the generic.

The dried lentils don't require soaking in advance--just bring the green ones to a boil in broth (or plain water with boullion cube dissolved in), then turn down the heat and simmer for around an hour along with whatever chopped frozen, fresh or tinned vegetables you have around.... A bay leaf is good during the simmering, but not essential.

Other dried beans take soaking in cold water overnight first, or else there's a "quick" method to bypass the soaking that's described on most bags of dried beans. Then cook the beans up as above--other beans usually take longer than lentils to cook soft, so give them a couple of hours to simmer. Beans are delicious, and so good for you, a great protein source. Easy to freeze in lunch sized portions too.

Hotscot

Cause the iphone has an accelerometer and barometer built in it seems to more accurately measure when you're going up and down the hills, distance and the equivalent of flights of stairs climbed.

Nutek

Losing weight is a numbers game. Less cals in than you are expending.

That's it. You can dress it up all you like, but that's all it is. Everything else is bollocks.

Ate a bag of Jelly Beans (and who doesn't)? That's fine, now you are done for the day.

(Disclaimer, lost 70+ pounds following this "diet" 2 years ago and kept off 60+ of it since).

That doesn't help with vitamins, of course. But that is why god gave us Gummi Vitamins... Taste like sweets and shaped like Flintstones.

SultanOfSwing

That's summed if up very nicely actually. Weight loss is just mathematics.

Lion in Winter

You lost 70 lbs by living off jelly beans?

Good god man, you are sitting on a gold mine - start selling this diet instantly.

SultanOfSwing

I'll volunteer for clinical trials ...

Lion in Winter

So you can't lose weight just by believing in it then?

Lion in Winter

Always the first to put your hand up for dangerous duty.