Help! (poor diet)

[missjaded]

I've been a vegetarian for about two months now and my diet is very poor. I just eat junk and I need some advice. For those here on a diet, what have you done that's helped you to improve your diet and lose weight? I'm clueless.

:help:

[hollywoodveg]

Cut out refined sugars and fried foods, try and eat lots of fruits and vegetables, especially dark green/orange veggies. For protein try beans, legumes, soy products, nuts, nut butters, and make sure to work out.

[lunawinds]

I've been a vegetarian for about two months now and my diet is very poor. I just eat junk and I need some advice. For those here on a diet, what have you done that's helped you to improve your diet and lose weight? I'm clueless.

:help:


I want to lose weight from having my 3rd baby so I started counting calories and basically cooking all my meals from scratch so I know exactly what is in them. I try to walk an hour everyday and yoga at least 2x a week though yoga really is a daily practice but I've got 3 kids one still in diapers and a terminally ill family member so I've not much time to exercise.
I've cut out pasta and refined carbs, refined sugars..basically empty calories like soda. I don't consume sugar substitutes.
I eat lots of vegetables, leafy greens and roots and all in between I love veggies.
I eat fruits, grains, and whole grain bread. Most of what I eat is organic.
I love chocolate but I try to make my own desserts not often but if I want a cookie I have to make them....so I don't eat them much...lol.

Peace,
Jen

[DieselAmy]

When I went veg a couple of months ago, I used fitday.com to track what I ate. Mostly I used it to make sure I was getting the right balance (protein vs carbs vs fat) and to see what calories would be like. It was unintentionally helpful in making me eat better because my eat-all-the-cookies-I-want habit suddenly had to be recorded, and I didn't want to record all 10-15 cookies, so pretty soon I was only eating 3. Everything I ate I was forced to think about so I could enter it in fitday. Any exercising I did was rewarding because I got to enter that too.

Sometimes just paying more attention to what you're eating makes you make the changes you didn't realize you needed. Not enough protein in my diet by lunch? By checking the stats for the day I knew to focus on that for dinner. After about six weeks I had the hang of it and now I am eating on my own.

[barrylove]

hi missjaded...
Check #14 post here
http://www.veggieboards.com/boards/showthread.php?p=1400843#post1400843

This is a list of foods I aet on a daily basis. This may help you in picking your foods. I obvioulsy eat LOTS of food :)......You just eat less, but lots of good foods.

Good luck and go Veg!

[DelicGrape]

I grew up eating a lot of meat. It was for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So when I switched to vegetarianism I was hardly eating. I didn't know how! Like hollywoodveg said, start eating lots of fruits and vegetables. Try granola bars, check out different kinds, some are much better for you than others. I love oatmeal, trail mix, and cereal. These things are simple and cheap, but still good for you. Sometimes I'll eat soy meats, like veggie burgers and add tons of veggies on top. Try to avoid chips, candy, pop, white breads/rice, hight fructose corn syrup, and a lot of sugar.

[tinydancer]

I'm freaking out.

Today I was really determined to eat, so I was at Taco Time with some friends (i never eat fast food, they were the ones to picked the place). I got a veggie wrap without any guacamole, cheese, or ranch dressing. I ordered extra vegetables on it, but its a huge wrap and I actually ate all of it. At first, I was proud of myself, but I feel so obese right now.

I know I that after ordering it without so many of the things like cheese and ranch and stuff that it couldn't be more than about 400 calories and I didn't eat breakfast today, but I still am freaking out. I know I need to eat dinner tonight, but i feel like I need to restrict and make up for earlier today.

[Keelin]

You definitely didn't overeat! One of the things that you have to be really careful about is that veg*n foods have a LOT more fiber in them than meat or cheese do. Because of this, you often feel extremely full after consuming only a normal or limited number of calories.

You do not need to restrict tonight to "make up" for eating earlier today. You need to eat to take care of your body.

Have a nice dinner! Make yourself something you like! If that's all you've eaten today, you especially need to make yourself a good supper. You can eat! You have permission!

Take care of yourself!