About Esya

Esya · ‎03-25-2017

@SunsetRunner I do get your point, however most people do have a (close to) normal metabolism. There will always be exeptions to a rule as we are humans. So advice given to eat around that ballpark (I prefer the calculator as it does take age, height and weight into account) is a good place to start when you have no indication that your metabolism is that different. I get that it is frustrating for you as people here are giving advice you feel is incorrect as that is not how it works with your metabolism. But you are seeing a doctor and in that case you have confirmation and I agree you should listen to that doctor. Please be aware that your anecdotal evidence is however not the norm. And just report posts that contain a personal attack on you.

Esya · ‎03-25-2017

@ebonyk93 Thanks, I just had another look because of that. I can see why people like this app if they are looking for more features like the breathing, music and sleep stories on top of meditation. For now I am going to stay with headspace though as I am only looking for meditation in those apps and the headspace has my preference for that part.

Esya · ‎03-24-2017

@tvan Why are you cutting out fruits? I always thought that people meant cutting out bread and pasta when they say cutting out carbs, not cutting out fruits, so I am curious.

Esya · ‎03-23-2017

You might want to google for food advice. I just had a quick search (in Dutch as that is my first language) and found some more advice than just the salt. Like limiting sugars and increasing the amount of omega 3 in your diet to just name a few. There seems to be quite some info out there for food that might help in your situation.

Esya · ‎03-23-2017

@Ukase Dreaming about things that happened during the day is something I have done too. I can relate to that bismarks story.

Esya · ‎03-23-2017

@fmcii Talking to people I feel it is common not to remember your dreams. So no need to worry. I seem to be rare being able to remember 3 dreams some nights. This week I had an interesting dream. My anxiety decided to kick in and make me worry about something, so I coped to the best of my abilities. I remember dreaming that I was calm/calming myself. It was still not the best night, but by far not the worst I have had due to anxiety. My calming mindset must have carried over into my sleep.

Esya · ‎03-23-2017

@BigPhil I agree that quizing about ingredients is rude and I don't do that either when visiting my parents 🙂 . Same about the no pain, it is nice to see someone who actually respects the boundaries of their body. It will be hard though to gain muscle while losing weight, as it is easier during a bulking phase. But I hope you can get some good advice on supplements.

Esya · ‎03-23-2017

For reference, I am a woman, 59 kg and 5 feet 7 inches and I lose weight at my current activity level if I eat 1600-1800 calories.

Esya · ‎03-23-2017

I also checked your BMR with the information from your post using this calculator, and it looks like you are eating too little. When you eat below your BMR (calories burned while resting), your body tends to hold on to weight as a survival instinct.

Esya · ‎03-23-2017

Seeing you are a bit into your weight loss journey (congratz with the progress so far!), you might have hit a so called dreaded plateau. You are likely burning less calories than when you started, despite doing the same activities. This has two reasons; you lost weight and your body got used to the exercise you are doing so became more efficient at it. Just by losing 37 lbs you are already burning 150 calories a day less while resting. So before looking at supplements you might want to try and increase the intensity of your work outs so your heart rate goes as high again as when you started.

Esya · ‎03-23-2017

@WavyDavey I do that too! Sometimes the call is so long I get an auto detected walk in.

Esya · ‎03-23-2017

I have a very similar experience with the protein journey when I went more plant based with my diet. There are very good plant based proteins out there though. You might find some more tips in this post.

Esya · ‎03-23-2017

If you are eating at a deficit, it is very unlikely that is what is happening. Seeing it is only 2 weeks yet since you started with the weight training, it might be water weight. Your muscles need time to get used to the new routine and also resting days to recover from the weight lifting. A nice website I like for weight tracking is trendweight.com. It shows the trend of your journey so you are less focused on the short term disturbances. You can login with your FitBit account if you track weight there. Give it some more time and the scale should start moving again. The only other thing to watch out for is not to eat too little, below your BMR, which you can calculate here.

Esya · ‎03-23-2017

500-1000 calories is below your BMR (calories burned during the day while resting) and therefore not advised. It will send a signal to your body that there is not enough food available, which might respond to that in different ways. One way is that you might hit a plateau as at some point it is going to hang on to the weight as a survival instinct. You can use this calculator to determine your BMR. While eating at a calories deficit is the way to go for weight loss, eating too little is not and will have counter effects at some point. Why not eat something before going to bed, so you don't have to go to sleep before getting hungry? Also weight loss will slow down the closer you get to your goal weight, so don't get demotivated when that happens.

Esya · ‎03-22-2017

I saw some apps suggested here on the forums today and I feel like trying them out. They are called headspace and calm (already decided calm is not for me as it makes sound even when I have my phone on silent, a thing I personally cannot stand in apps, but it could work for others). This might get me into meditating more often.

Esya · ‎03-22-2017

@joggerjosh @MagsOnTheBeach Ah, there is a coconut and a butter extract. I learn something new every day. And sorry for misunderstanding.

Esya · ‎03-22-2017

I use coconut flakes and I never log those. While coconut is dense in calories, if you use flakes you hardly have any real mass of coconut in your food. It takes a lot to get 10 grams. I can look the nutrinional information up when I am home from the package that I have. I think the same applies for vanilla extract. You could consider changing your breakfast even more up by replacing sugar with honey, as honey also has antiseptic qualities (a teaspoon is 20 calories). Butter is fat and should be in the database, but fat is not (as) bad for you unlike refined sugars. I only limit the amount of fat I eat due to the amount of calories I want to eat in a day. Trans-fats are really bad for you though. Those are created by a process to make liquid fats into solid fats, like for example margarine. When I have butter or yogurt or anything dairy I make sure to have full-fat as that means the food is way less processed. Ofcourse you will eat less of a full-fat product than the skimmed version, but it fills you more too so smaller portions will do.

Esya · ‎03-22-2017

I can't help but think "start eating" (not meaning any offense with that). While it sounds like a luxury to many being allowed/having to eat more, I know how hard it can be. As much as having to eat less it will take time to get used to it. As you are most likely used to eating small amounts, it might be best to eat more often instead of going for big meals at once in your case.

Esya · ‎03-22-2017

@DanielleinDC That is really amazing. So glad you got new clothes that fit 😄 .

Esya · ‎03-22-2017

@SherieB If you burn 1800 I would suggest to eat a little more than you currently are.

Esya · ‎03-22-2017

Congratz on your weight loss so far! There are two things that come to my mind, but the first is that you might be eating too little. I am 59 kilos and eat about 1700 calories a day, at which point I still seem to be losing weight but it allows for "bad days" when I am socialising in order to maintain. How large is your calorie deficit (calories out - calories in)? If it is too large your body might be holding on to the weight as a survival instinct. I know it sounds counter intuitive, but for you it might be worth it to try and increase the calories you eat by 250 if your deficit allows for it. The other things is indeed increasing the intensity of your exercise as you already mentioned.

Esya · ‎03-21-2017

@Rocket2guns It means your body is working hard to heal you. If you are concerned about your headache or your heart rate I advice to see a doctor if you haven't already.

Esya · ‎03-21-2017

On the web version of FitBit you have an option to create a meal. Go to your dashboard and then click the tile for calories or food plan and click the "see more" at the bottom. It takes you to your calories and food plan page. On the right hand side of this screen you can create a meal. You could create a meal there with ingredients from the database and see how many calories it adds up to. It will also show the macro nutrients breakdown.

Esya · ‎03-21-2017

@Sithmaith1 I think the concern with electronics is two-fold. As you point out the blue screens have been proven to have an influence on sleep as we keep producing a certain substance in our brain that keeps us awake. But there are also concerns for the electro-magnetic waves involved with electronics. @cgarcia4039 I am not sure if it is also an option for other phones, but my iPhone has a "night shift" which lowers the amount of blue light and makes the screen look more red. I use it if I want to use my phone shortly before bed.

Esya · ‎03-21-2017

Did you try Google?

Esya · ‎03-21-2017

For losing weight you should not worry too much about carbs, it is about a calories deficit. You can eat as little carbs as you want, if you are still eating more calories than you are burning you are still going to put on weight and vice versa. The reason you might have hit a plateau is because your body got used to the amount of exercise you do and got more efficient at it, therefore burning less for the same exercise compared to a while ago. So try to increase the intensity of your exercise. It could still be hitting 10k steps, but jogging a portion of that instead of walking. See where you have room and opportunity to get your heartbeat back up again. I hardly ever struggle with cravings myself, so I might not be the best to give advice regarding that. But if you know you typically crave something in the evening, than plan a snack for it. Fruits and veggies are great as wel as trail mix, but some people simply need their bit of "bad food" (this is relative). In that case it might be good to have something that comes in a package so you just have a portion. And by planning it you can take it into account for your calories intake during the day.

Esya · ‎03-21-2017

@Nora58 Ah, I see, thanks for explaining 🙂 . Yes, the mall is boring in comparison to fields and nature.

Esya · ‎03-21-2017

@Nora58 You cannot change the past, so no point in beating yourself up over it. Start from the situation you are in now and try your best. You are right to celebrate any progress! And every day that was hard or you feel like beating yourself up over just remember: tomorrow is a new day with new opportunities to make the right decisions.

Esya · ‎03-21-2017

@PeteGG I see the breakdown of the foods without having a premium plan though. If you click the tile for calories or food tracking in the web version, it opens a page and just below the food plan it shows the breakdown of the food I had that day.

Esya · ‎03-21-2017

@cgarcia4039 Do what feels best for you. We are all different and different things work for different people. People are simply sharing tips here to improve sleep for those who are struggling.

Esya · ‎03-20-2017

I experience it when my anxiety acts up (like today).

Esya · ‎03-20-2017

I've never been a person of cardio, always more of a build muscle and diet to lose fat type of regimen. This is typically not easy though, to build muscle while you diet to lose fat. I learned so much from @Dominique about this, but the idea is that to gain muscle you best eat at a surplus. It is very hard for your body to build muscle when it is using all the food you eat as fuel. And by doing so you will also gain some fat as a free side product. So when you are at a good weight, you start eating at a surplus to build muscle (bulking phase) until you hit an upper limit you set for yourself. Then you start dieting to lose fat (cutting phase) until you hit the lower limit. And if you keep alternating those two phases you build muscle over time while oscilating around an average weight. I don't do this myself and am only copieing what I learned from Dominique, so he might be the better one to ask about this or details I skipped.

Esya · ‎03-20-2017

Gaining weight for one week does not really say anything at all as weight can fluctuate due to water weight and for women also due to hormones and some other causes. So relax, breathe and do not panic yet. I use trendweight.com to see how my weight is doing over time. If you have your weight in FitBit you can login with your FitBit account and the data will automatically be synced. It shows the trend of your weight over time, so fluctuations get evened out. You might hit a plateau as your body will get used to the exercise and therefore burn less for the same amount of exercise and also because you weigh less you will burn less calories. But it is too early to tell if you actually hit a plateau or not. For now I advice to keep doing what you were doing as it was working for you. If the situation does not change after a few weeks you might want to increase your exercise and/or look at your diet.

Esya · ‎03-19-2017

Do you have a scale that also shows fat %? Cause then it might be easier to try and focus on that number instead of the weight. When my weight goes up but my fat % goes down, I actually feel like my work is paying off nowadays. And it takes time to change your way of thinking. Just kindly remind yourself what your goal is.

Esya · ‎03-19-2017

Welcome and I hope you have a good time here. In this post you can find a lot of people who are looking for friends and ofcourse you can post yourself there too!

Esya · ‎03-19-2017

I guess I did it in the shower today. I mostly meditate in yoga class when we do it together and otherwise when I feel I need it. It really depends what and how I do it. Outside class I just do it when I feel I need it and when it crosses my mind, like in the shower today. Today was mostly a focus on my breath and physical body as I was/am strugging with tension. When I do a more elaborate meditation I like to try to meditate focusing on my breath to shift focus to my physical body to observe it, back to breath and on to thoughts to mindfully observe those, back to breath and observe my emotions to finally come back to my breath again. Never did a standing or walking meditation, so far sitting and lieing down.

Esya · ‎03-19-2017

Today I cooked roasted quinoa with potatoes and cheese as well as kidney beans flavoured with mushrooms and garlic.

Esya · ‎03-19-2017

Next time make sure to be annoying to the rest by waving your arms around . Luckily it is easy to delete those false logs.

Esya · ‎03-19-2017

@ahndee wrote: I'm pretty sure that my problem is portion sizes when I eat, or if I do eat healthy i don't seem to have the willpower to be able to keep it up for an entire week and will end up eating out rather than eating what I have prepared. To me it sounds like you know what the problem is. Maybe log your calories intake for a few weeks and then see where you can get some quick wins without making too big changes. It helped me a lot understanding what the calorie dense foods are and which foods I can eat as much as I like. And changing habits can be hard. Maybe start with eating healthy 2 days a week and then in some time make it 3 days. After a while again make it 4 days. That might be a lot easier to get into that habit.

Esya · ‎03-18-2017

I am healthier and happier since I quit drinking. This is the first week where I lost count for how long it has been, which I think is a very good sign (around 5 to 6 weeks now). I was ok visiting my parents last week and have them drink while I didn't. Today I am going out with a friend and I already know I actually prefer not to drink. I am happy I was finally ready to make the change.

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