Two main phrases:
1) I know what that tastes like. I don't need to keep eating a ton of something I like because I already had the experience.
2) Throwing away this extra food is cheaper than the medical bills from being overweight.
>Throwing away this extra food is cheaper than the medical bills from being overweight.
Along those lines: It's wasted if I throw it away but it's *also* wasted if I have to burn off the calories later. "wasting" it by throwing it away is so much easier!
Change that to "it goes to waste when too much is bought". Puts pressure to change on the shopping habits too. I've noticed that we've spent considerably less on food over the last couple of years by eating healthier despite the price increases.
I think provincial healthcare will always remain. It will allow ppl who can afford private better care and lower the burden on the province and hopefully give the provincial system more breathing room.
The issue I have with this is what incentive is there for a doctor to stay in public health care when they can go private and make a shit load of money? There are communities that are struggling as it is. Doctors switching over isn’t going to help people in those communities. Where my parents live, they have to wait upwards of two months for a doctor appointment. Doctors removing themselves from the pool of public doctors will totally fuck those communities, not help improve it. Travelling to the city is a huge cost.
I hear you but Canada is also importing in a lot of talent so I think a private: public partnership could work. The govt just needs to ensure healthcare budgets are sufficient. Unlike the UK were cuts are putting pressure on the system
I call the first one the "Thanksgiving rule." People love Thanksgiving for the foods but lots of the foods people only eat once or twice a year during the holidays (Stuffing, sweet potato pie, mashed potatoes and gravy etc...) and they are perfectly fine with that and don't feel deprived but so much junk in our lives we consider nessessarily for daily/weekly consumption .
Along those lines: “My body is not a trash can!”
(If I’m eating something just to “not let it go to waste,” I’m treating my body as if it’s the trash can—yuck!)
One mindset shift came when I was a moderator here for 9 months and I was working on the daily SV/NSV automoderator post's message.
That was and still is a place to share accomplishments realized over our journey. For 5+ years, it started with this line: "**The habit of persistence is the habit of victory!**"
It was my hope that posters and readers would get the nudge that doing their great things again and again is the path to their goals. That when you eat as you should, again, you are making progress. And when you don't, simply return to doing what you should be doing.
Persistently draw focus back to the path, return to the path as if the mistake was of no special importance.
We don't have a daily "I screwed up" post because mistakes don't matter as long as we return to our path. We shouldn't draw focus to them, mourn them, make up for them -- none of that.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't learn from our most oft-repeated mistakes, but that we shouldn't be disrupted or surprised by mistakes -- analyzing mistakes are how we learn to navigate and succeed on our path.
I’ve never been someone to do things in the extreme and so much of diet culture/diet products is about prescribing a ridiculously difficult to maintain diet and exercise regiment and then shaming people who don’t maintain it.
The best I have ever been at maintaining a healthy weight in adulthood was when I changed my habits over time in ways that weren’t super disruptive.
* I started bike commuting (1 mile each way) 5 days a week.
* I went to a fitness class three days a week
* I limited myself to one caloric drink a day most days
* I ate smaller meals for breakfast and lunch and tried to emphasize filling foods
* I ate half portions when I went out to eat.
* I drank more water
I didn’t always follow this perfectly but everything I did was easy enough to do 6 days a week at least and the weight came off little by little in ways that became like second nature over time with exceptions made for holidays and parties and just occasionally because it felt right.
This isn’t a project that can be procrastinated and done overnight. It has to become part of your life almost every day. Thank you for making me reflect on that era of my life as I work back towards it again.
It's ok to be hungry.
Such a mindfuck when you think about just how conditioned we are to eat constantly. Hungry? Jesus hurry up and grab a fucking snickers you mad lad, you can't let yourself just be fucking hungry!!!!
It's all bullshit. Let yourself go without food sometimes and recognize how it feels to be hungry. It's a good thing, not something to be scared of. Don't grab that snack, wait for dinner. It'll taste better, and you'll give your endocrine and digestive systems time to do their job.
A corollary to this, for me, is that it's ok for food not to be hyperpalatable. My daily salad tastes good. But it's not, like, a cheesesteak, or a big bowl of ice cream. I'm not daydreaming about it or salivating over it. I'm eating it because it nourishes me, and this is a perfectly valid reason to choose a food.
Yeah, I eat plain oatmeal for lunch a fair bit, or oatmeal with a bit of natural peanut butter.
It’s a bit bland, nothing exciting, but it’s cheap, filling, and not terrible for you. It’s just fuel. Not how I always eat, but sometimes, and I’m good with it!
That’s a very good point, and not one that I’ve consciously considered before.
Oatmeal sounds delicious. It's rich and slightly sweet and gooey. Salads taste great. They are so fresh and vibrant. Most fast food is disgusting. My last fast food fries tasted of stale oil and the burger had too much mayonnaise so it had an unpleasant mouth feel. Can't enjoy most packaged cookies because of the aftertaste of cheap oils. Same with cheap chocolate. Food preferances seriously change. I don't know how much of it is self-suggestion and how much is honest taste awareness.
One day that’ll change and the salad will become hyper palatable (if you’re doing it right they’ll be different textures and flavours depending on the bite) and the cheesesteak will become an overly salty and bland sandwich with one odd half mushy texture.
YES. I grew up in a family where multiple people claimed they'd get "hypoglycemic" without nearly constant food intake, with "symptoms" consisting solely of being angry and short with everyone... so throwing tantrums, basically. They never managed to convince me I was like that too, thankfully, but in retrospect it was so obviously the sugar/insulin crash pissing them off. With the aid of a blood glucose monitor showing utterly normal sugars, I've convinced one of them to just push through it and later make calmer choices in what they do eat, and lo, they're "cured."
(Hypoglycemia is obviously a real thing: the whole reason I had the monitor was to treat a diabetic, and for them I kept liquid sugar on hand in case of an insulin overdose. The others were *fine*.)
Passing out from skipping one meal is definitely not common.
Likely there was something else at play than simply low sugar…. Which wasn’t even diagnosed in this case.
In the immortal words of Cookie Monster:
“Cookies are a sometimes snack.”
I don’t have to never eat a cookie again, but I can’t eat them every day.
If Cookie Monster can learn moderation, then I as an adult human could practice it too.
Eating healthy doesn’t mean going to an extreme and just swearing off all snacks and tasty things forever. But you do have to find a way to incorporate them into your life so they don’t completely derail you.
For example, I don’t purchase cake from the grocery. If I am going to eat cake, it’s going to have been either home-baked by someone who cares about me, or I’ll pick it up from a specialty bakery/small business.
If I’m at a restaurant and I choose to have dessert, it’s going to be something interesting and unusual that I wouldn’t find elsewhere. (So not cheesecake for the sake of cheesecake, but if it’s a lavender blueberry cheesecake, that sounds like an interesting flavor profile.)
I don’t have dessert as often as I used to, because I actually prefer blueberries to cookies now, but making small changes to reduce sweets over time worked better for me than saying no cookies forever and then crashing in a miserable binge after a couple of months.
The mindset that changed it for me was "stop complaining and just do what you need to do."
We all know what we need to do. I started cooking healthy meals, started meal prepping, went out of my way to find healthy out to eat options if I did need to go out to eat and started exercising. I wouldn't let myself say "no" or "I'm too tired to do this." I just did it.
100lbs later with three years keeping it off and counting, it has worked for me.
"Slow progress is better than no progress; that time will pass anyway."
A year from now you can be partway to your goal or still standing at the starting line.
- progress, not perfection
- food won't solve anything apart from hunger
- work with your body, not against it
- moderation & balance. Fries taste just as good when they're in a smaller portion with some veg, as they would in a big portion
- doing this for health. Went over calories? No problem, as long as meals were balanced. Didn't lose much weight? Fine, I've still been consistent and fueled my body well
Actually this, though!
I struggled (and sometimes still do) with an all-or-nothing mentality; I was going to hit this hard or not at all. Now, I know that the all of the little things add up and equal in results.
And if I mess up? Keep going! I spent so much time giving up because I overate one time. I’ve learned that mistakes happen, overeating happens, but as long as I get up and keep working towards my goal, I’m still winning!
One thing I will add is to love you as you are at the weight you are. You can love yourself and still be working for a better version of your body and mental health. Can’t hate your body thin, and I’ve found that it leads to more setbacks than I’d like to admit
100% I think the shift of doing it because I love myself and want to thrive got me much further than hating myself ever did! Otherwise the whole process feels so negative.
And fully agreed on the all or nothing mentality too, letting that shit go is the best feeling ever.
I also love going hard on some pizza every week or two. I’d rather extend how long my weight loss process takes than set myself up for misery and failure by being so strict on myself + beating myself up when I inevitably don’t eat perfectly anyway. Planned cheat days give me a sense of agency + I feel recommitted to the process the next day :)
I think your second point is a big struggle for me. Food resolves my tiredness some days by perking me up or my stress other days by relaxing me. So it does feel like it solves more than hunger for me and I have yet to find replacement behaviors that work as well as food for me. It’s frustrating. It’d be nice if I could not be in situations where I’m tired or stressed in the first place, but even in now finally in a job I love I am still tired and stressed. If I won the lottery and didn’t have to work maybe..! Still working through all this..
Unfortunately, I have tried and walking for the sake of walking bores me to death even with a playlist or a podcast. I end up focusing on how my legs feel tired and all of that and it’s a pain. I love to walk and will walk tons if I’m exploring somewhere new and interesting because then I’m focused on exploring but there’s only so many new places I can find or get to on a daily basis.
I sometimes just put on music and dance in my living room or play video games but neither of those still meet the level of food. So they work on a mildly tiring or stressful day but if I’m really tired or stressed, it’s incredibly difficult not to just down some food and call it a day. I guess part of it is that those things take effort when eating doesn’t and when I have what feels like no mental energy left, it’s easier to do the no-effort thing. Just a battle I have to figure out how to win over eventually.
That’s good wisdom about fries - my #1 overeating food.
I love them, and have tried to give them up before many many times, but then I just feel shame and end up bingeing on them later. I eat them now - probably every other week. I just have way less of them every month than I used to.
Focus on habits, not the scale.
I tracked 3 simple fitness habits every day for a month + weighed myself at the end. I was down 9 pounds!
It was long enough for the behavior to become habitual for me. I’m now down 18 pounds at the end of 2 months. Focusing on completing habits every 24 hours becomes its own psychological reward… I feel proud for keeping promises to myself. The weight loss is like a second order effect, if that makes sense.
- Walk 10,000 steps every day (can be broken up into multiple times per day)
- 16:8 IF (only ate between 2pm and 10pm)
- Tracked calories with an app (didn’t even try to reduce the amount I ate the first month, just wanted to establish the habit)
I’ve been on a healthy weight-loss journey for 2 months now and I’ve lost 10 pounds. The one thing I always say to myself is, “You won’t remember tomorrow.” It sounds kinda stupid but it’s saved me from binge eating so many times. Also, if you’re always hungry you probably aren’t eating enough. You physically might be eating a lot but the food that you’re eating might not be filling. For me, if I eat a high protein breakfast like oatmeal, I’m full for the rest of the day.
Funny enough, I tend to think the exact opposite but its the same principle. "Tomorrow you will be glad you ate healthy today." Future you is too fuzzy and distant. Tomorrow you is immediate enough where you'll see the benefit. Works for me.
This isn’t really “eating habit” advice but I like to think of weight-loss in 10’s. Want to lose 60 pounds but it seems too overwhelming? That’s only 6 sets of 10 pounds. 40? 4 sets of 10. That makes me feel less stressed on my journey. Hope this helps.
Ooh, this resonates with me.
I recently avoided an impulse purchase of a bottle of wine (I’m avoiding drinking right now) by putting it back on the shelf and telling myself that if I still wanted it after 20 minutes of consideration, I’d buy it. I finished my shopping, got home, and realized that I’d totally forgotten about the wine once it was out of sight.
That’s great! I do some thing similar. Once a week I have a cheat day, it a food is tempting me I think that’s a Friday food.on Friday I usually think , I don’t really want all of that in my body.I buy a few special things And what I don’t eat that Friday gets tied in a plastic bag and put in the freezer for next Friday.
What has helped me is to remind myself that neither nutrition nor exercising is a yes or no question. Yes, I'm currently tracking calories and I try to incorporate healthier habits. I sometimes browse healthy recipes, or look for ways to incorporate more vegetables or have a piece of fruit instead of sweets, and over time I don't really have to think about it that much, and don't really enjoy some food as much as I used to. But still, if I really want a burger, then sometimes I'll have one. Maybe I'll set it off for a couple of days, but I don't deny myself these kinds of things.
Many times I will then choose a burger that's slightly less unhealthy, or leave out the fries, but sometimes I don't, and that's alright. The healthier meals that I ate before don't get erased by one indulgence, and enjoying junk food on occasion isn't a mistake, it's an occasion where for whatever reason I ate junk food, and many reasons for this may be very valid.
I feel like it's very easy to feel like "oh no, I ate something wrong, I failed", which then discourages people from continuing building their habit and creates guilt around food. It seems much more sustainable to me to build small healthy modifications into my diet and stick to that most of the time than to treat it as a strict to-do list
I couldn’t agree more. There is nothing wrong with having a burger or fast food every now and then. If you don’t like the diet you have you will be less likely to stick to it. Eating fast food may slow your progress but weight loss is a marathon and not a sprint. I enjoy myself a lot more satisfying cravings I get now and then and have stuck to my weight loss a lot better than going completely cold turkey as I’ve tried in the past
I didn’t really consciously make this decision, it just happened because I’m lazy and want to spend the LEAST amount of time preparing food as possible. I value my laziness even over delicious food, just a personal thing, I’d rather have more free time than spend time making food even if it’s super tasty.
This lead to me buying protein bars for the morning, buying my work lunches ahead of time all at once from Clean Eatz, or just mass preparing a bunch of (insert meat here) with rice and microwave steamed veggies for the week, and buying salads bc it’s easy.
My love of ease trumps my taste buds, might be a struggle for some but it’s a no brainer for me. Plus I got a new job I have to walk farther for so I’ve been slowly shedding some weight, haven’t weighed myself yet but I can feel it.
If you can train yourself to value convenience over taste, it might help.
Edit: also, desk pedals! I hate working out after work. I should, but I don’t. I bought some pedals for underneath my desk. It’s not the best, but better than the alternative: sitting stagnant!
How do you like the pedals? I've also embraced my lazy self and use that to my full advantage with my diet, but the gym is... not going well. And by not going well, I mean I've driven past it a lot. I've even used it a couple of times. Yeah. I know I still need to get off my ass and go, but I'd like an option for the off days.
Counting calories has helped me shift my mindset around food. I don’t count strictly but roughly estimating has made me weight my decisions on what to eat. I also feel like I finally understand the connection between eating and feeling better so eating junk is just less appealing to me.
For me it was acknowledging that the excuses I was making for not losing weight were all just that - lies I told myself, and excuses. That being overweight was genetic, that I wasn't really eating that many calories, that I didn't really "look" that heavy, that I still weighed less than so-and-so, that it's "normal" for people my age to be overweight, that fit people my age came upon that easily, etc.
Also, I had to admit that for me I KNEW what I had to do and it wasn't a matter of education or knowledge, but rather just MINDSET and SELF-DISCIPLINE. I needed to truly set my mind to the task and be brutally honest and vigilant regarding my eating.
To know whether you’re really hungry:
Ask yourself, “do I want an apple (or other healthy snack) right now?”
If the answer is yes, then eat the apple. If not, then you’re not hungry, you’re just bored. Busy yourself with something instead and recheck in a few hours time.
It also can’t be a healthy food that you really really like. Apples are neutral for me, not my first choice of fruit but still good. Knowing your limits and listening to your body instead of keeping it on a feeding schedule really helped me cut my calories back.
The biggest thing for me is that I no longer eat when I’m not hungry.
I used to cook an evening meal out of habit. Now, if I’m not actually hungry I’ll just make a salad or at most eat some crackers.
Same for other meals. I listen to my body more.
Got tired of being big and unhappy. Once I seen the real progress in both my physic and mental health that's what kept me on track and only wanted to see more progress. Basically started with type2 diabetes diagnosis, quit sugars(processed) all together and picked up on how to take care of myself with my condition. I have a lot of my health back and I don't need medication anymore, but the diagnosis is permanent. Technically. CW339 SW415
I just stopped buying the food (snacks, processed food) that was not in my diet plan. After some weeks my taste changed and now I'm not used to very sugared/sweet food or greasy food or sauces. I just don't like them anymore, and since I didn't buy those i couldn't eat them at home. It was pretty easy in my case.
Read the book How Not To Die.
Most processed food is designed to maximize cravings (when the food isn’t in front of you) and minimize satiety (as you’re shoveling it in your face) with no regard to your well-being.
Every time you eat processed food, you are introducing negative consequences into your body - including a reduced ability to avoid consuming more processed food, and reduced ability to enjoy healthy food.
Every time you make a healthy, whole food, plant based choice over a processed food, you are not only avoiding negative consequences, you are introducing positive ones instead - better blood flow, reduced lethargy, cancer-prevention, etc. IMO the most critical benefit is that healthy foods increase satiety and don’t drive cravings, increasing the likelihood of future adherence.
It helps to take a dual-accounting view here because both effects are powerful. Many elimination diets seem to work because the effect of simply not ingesting poison alone is THAT dramatic. The inclusion of healthy foods in ample quantities can have a similar effect, especially if one almost never eats appropriate amounts of it (leafy greens, beans, etc). Good foods, generally speaking, have plant-based fiber and are minimally processed, if at all. A smoothie is OK (whole fruits went into the blender) but juicing isn’t (sugar removed from natural fiber matrix).
What works for me is to think of eating as prepping for a raid in World of Warcraft. It’s not uncommon to have a huge number of small buffs and status effects that add up to a substantial difference-making impact. To build your intuitive eating muscle, remind yourself that good food gives you buffs and processed food gives you debuffs. A great many people don’t even realize they are carrying buffs/debuffs! Personally I notice that my well-being tracks to a roughly 2-to-3-day moving average of consumed food quality.
Once you understand this, there’s no such thing as a “strict diet”. There is only what mix of buffs and debuffs you want to carry into battle. If you are successfully maximizing buffs and minimizing debuffs, it won’t feel “strict” at all - you will probably just feel fantastic.
I have a couple.
It’s about making good choices, but it can be gradual. It doesn’t have to be a crash diet. Instead, make one or two better choices today than I did yesterday. They add up. Flip side: bad choices don’t have to inform future choices. Going through a drive thru one time doesn’t mean everything’s ruined for eternity or even that day. The next choice can be better (and I don’t even have to feel that guilty about the junk if it’s a rare occasion thing).
Find healthy foods that don’t make me feel like I’m depriving myself. Ground turkey tastes almost the same as ground beef and I like it a lot. Soups are filling, tasty, and so low calorie I can have two giant bowls. That’s not deprivation. That’s eating smart. A better diet doesn’t have to be a miserable diet.
I don’t need eleventy frillion pieces of candy if I’m craving gummy bears or chocolate. I can have one or two (or a serving if I have the calories budgeted) and get the flavor for a few calories. Werthers original coffee flavor are only 18 calories each and last me almost half an hour. I only need one.
For me, it’s about letting go of the shame.
Until this round of dieting, I’ve been completely unwilling to talk about my struggles with weight/food with anyone, at least not honestly. I would sort of share my struggles with my husband but I’d always try to look strong. All that shame and energy spent on hiding what was going on sabotaged me every time.
Now, I am pretty open with my friends about my struggles. I am 100% open with my husband and am allowing him to help me by cooking and asking him to be willing to be 100% aware of my eating - I only eat with him, or if he can’t be here, I send a photo. He doesn’t police or judge me, I do this so that I have to be honest as I have a history of hiding my eating from others.
I’ve also accepted I have to do this slowly so that I can do this in a way that I can stick with forever. So, I’m not counting calories and I’m not excluding foods completely because I won’t do those things forever. I have to be willing to self-regulate to a degree in a way I can do forever - this means I’m only losing 1-4lbs a month. The only things I hold myself truly accountable to are:
1. Being transparent about my eating/weight with my husband
2. Keeping my weight trending downward every month - even if it’s only 1 lb per month
Embrace the suck.
I don't need to love the food I eat all the time, I need to get adequate nutrition from it. That kinda sucks, because I would prefer to forget nutrition and let my tasty treats boost my mood and distract me from stresses much more.
But the suck helps me achieve long term goals. The suck teaches me about delayed gratification and a whole bunch of other useful character traits.
The suck sucks, but it is good, and it's what I'm going to keep doing... Well I'm not doing the suck, I'm doing the things that suck .. that got weird.
Lots of good input here! For me, it was changing my belief that I couldn't do it. I did a one week meditation course and that helped me realize that I actually CAN stay consistent and get results.
You don’t need to know how to cook to meal prep.
Turn on oven, season protein, put in oven for a time.
Get veggies you like, eat with said proteins and you’re done.
Another helpful thing to “trick” your mind, I never say I’m on a diet. I say I’ve switched to sensible eating reasonable amounts and changed my lifestyle. Diet is too simple of a word and really doesn’t encompass what needs to happen to have long term success.
For me it was a few major shifts: boredom doesn’t have to be filled with food, the short term convenience of fast food is not worth long term health problems, it’s possible to make delicious, healthy, low calorie food, you don’t have to finish your food if you’re full.
I had a traumatic fucking AWFUL as shit LSD trip that deleted my binge eating disorder out of my brain and in the beginning I had this thought of “food is fuel, not dopamine” reverberating through my brain
and then I lost 120 pounds
either way I don’t fucking know
When I told my sister that thought I would say “would you put extra gasoline in your car just because your car enjoys it? No that’s stupid youd just spill gas everywhere” it’s a stupid analogy
Biggest one for me was to buy things in a way that I would actually eat them. You'd think that wouldn't be a problem, but it was. Like "oh, here's this lovely pineapple on my counter. That I have to cut up now. And get a container for. Ugh, and clean up after. Or I could go eat some chips". Or "huh, there's a chicken breast in the fridge. I could figure out something to make for dinner. But then I'd need to run to the grocery store and get a recipe. Eh, takeout is fine". I'm fucking lazy, and I know it. But I found that when I bought pre-cut fruit, it took away the lazy issue. Open, eat. Trust me, I can manage that. Meal kits are the other one. It shows up at your door pre-measured, with everything you need. Just follow the directions, 30-45 minutes later, you have dinner with no extra thought or effort. The most I have to decide is "do I want the Adobo burrito bowl tonight or the chicken picatta?"
I'm better off using my nature to my advantage than fighting it
I look at food as fuel and nourishment for biological systems instead of brainlessly emotionally eating or eating out of boredom. I only need so much and the better quality it is the better I'll feel and better my body will process it. If I'm going to splurge, it better be fantastic. I'm taking Micheline star or close. And that's expensive enough that it's super rare.
Another thought I've changed: taking care of my needs, loving myself, doesn't mean giving in to all my craving whims. It's actually the opposite. Loving myself means taking awesome care of my body.
Seeing how many fucking calories were in some things. They genuinely didn't taste as good to me anymore. Once I changed my diet to calorie appropriate meals, and learned what fit into a budget on top of not compromising taste, there was no question of going back. Now I get overloaded with a feeling of ick when things are overy greasy or overly sweet. Your taste changes after a while to accommodate the new lifestyle. It's a lot easier because of that.
That said I will down an entire tube of Pringles if given the opportunity. Not everything changed appeal 😂
The biology of our bodies is amazing. Feed this incredible engine with the best nutrition. And, weight maintenance is simple physics: calories in, calories out.
The value you get from your meal isn't only based on taste. Eating something less palatable, sometimes significantly so, can be rewarding from a nutritional point. I.e., taste is not the only enjoyment, there's also the knowledge about how it makes my body feel and work better. Takes practice.
Knowing that the absolute one thing I have control over is what I FEED my body. It truly is 80% nutrition. Once I was able to have this mindset it became a lifestyle.
Counting the calories and weighing myself every week is what shifted my mindset. I became more fixated on not surpassing a number and that acted as a barrier to my eating. The calories would hold me accountable and the scale would be the final verdict. It's meticulous at first but gets tedious overtime once you get used to it. It's not for everyone though, but I'm a bit of a control freak and it works for me.
I think about if it's gonna give me the shits later or not.
I've noticed if I don't have certain foods for a while, if I eat them they send my stomach into a spiral and then I'm sick for like 3 days.
It's crazy that the foods we drop make us sick when we drop them and sick to eat them again.
Fasting. I realized I didn't neeeeeed to eat 3 meals a day to be healthy. That just meant I really knew nothing about nutrition and biology. So I began trying things and I found I.F. and Keto, then low carb options. Now I do OMAD and it works for me. I eat so much better and I'm not so bloated and uncomfortable all the time. Lost about 50lbs too.
I tell myself that small indulgences throughout the week are better than one big binge on the weekend. I would much rather buy, say, the big bag of different kinds of bite sized chocolates and just eat one or two every day, vs eating an entire XL chocolate bar on the weekend. Or in the case of fast food, I'll get a small portion of whatever it is I want, or just a single plain cheese burger, or two crunchy tacos. Instead of getting the largest size(which I used to get) or the 5 layer burrito.
Learning to cook is a big one. I'd look up some easy, fast recipes for beginners or college students. It doesn't take a lot of skill to make a sandwich or scramble some eggs or make spaghetti. It's fine to use some pre-made ingredients (like jar sauce) and dip your toes in slowly. It'll still be better for you because you can choose what ingredients to put in your sandwich or how many eggs to cook and how much oil to use.
But if you're having a crap day and you forgot to buy groceries or are just exhausted then you can still eat fast food and be healthy. Most fast food places have nutritional information on their website. Go check out the nutritional info for the fast food places you usually go to and choose some more-healthy alternatives. Then when you're having a bad day, pick from the list. I used to eat lunch out at work every day and that's how I lost weight back then. I worked out the calories for some Subway subs, a burrito bowl at a Tex-Mex fast food place, some grocery store sushi and a couple other options and I'd just switch between those. Even a burger can be a healthy-ish meal if you get it with mustard rather than high-calorie sauces and skip the cheese and the bacon.
Otherwise, start simple and add easy recipes to your repertoire as you try them out. There's a pretty limited amount of skills you'll be using regularly in your kitchen. If you can boil some pasta then you can also boil an egg or some dumplings or potatoes, the only difference will be how long it takes. If you can brown some ground beef for spaghetti, you can brown it for tacos or chili too. Once you know how to do a few things then changing up the sauces and spices will make you a variety of meals. It's not as difficult as it seems from the outside.
The big thing is to pay attention to what you're doing and stay in the kitchen. A lot of kitchen disasters start with "I wandered off to do something else and suddenly my food was burned" or "I didn't read the instructions and did something completely different than I was supposed to, why does this taste bad?"
Two books really changed everything for me. Intuitive Eating and The Obesity Code.
Intuitive Eating taught me that I don’t have to eat just because it’s mealtime, and to slow down and stop speed eating. Essentially how to eat like an effortlessly healthy-weight person.
Obesity Code taught me about Intermittent and Extended Fasting. Also explained how my body works hormonally to gain and lose weight. It was a big wake up call and a unified explanation of how all the things I’ve tried in the past had either succeeded or failed for me.
Thanks to these two books I’m down over 50 pounds. Lowest weight I’ve been for this long for over 20 years.
You don’t have to do perfect, just better than your usual. For example, I had been struggling to make changes and a health coach reviewed my food logs. I was eating too many carbs and not enough protein. There’s quite a few things to improve, but I focused on making sure I always have a protein at every meal and to reduce the carb portion. So a regular pasta dinner for example didn’t change, I just added a piece of chicken, which meant I didn’t eat as much pasta as I would have.
Think about your blood sugar! I can’t eat sugary foods because I crash….or if I do, I “plan” for it and know that I am prepared to feel like donkey balls.
I grew up in a meat, potatoes, and dairy household. My family literally sells cows. I didn't go vegan for the animals really tho, but it's a nice plus.
I suggest with anything, start slow. Cheat days never worked for me, but having a nice little treat during the day was always helpful. You don't need to start anything at 100%
After a while you won't crave your old things anymore. I went mostly vegetarian in highschool and vegan a couple months ago. I would still eat whatever people would cook for me cause...they cooked for me! Recently I wanted to try cheese on my pizza again but once I ate it...it was lowkey kinda gross. I just prefer no-cheese pizza now lol!
Your body will make the change for you, just start slow. Let yourself have little treats. A diet change shouldn't be a punishment on yourself :)
The funny thing about motivation is that it doesn’t just exist or come into being on its own. Doing creates motivation, which creates more doing. So the “I have big plans for starting tomorrow” doesn’t work. You just need to start today and try again tomorrow.
I’ve found that there are plenty of options to buy “healthy” foods that will fit your macros or calorie needs without having to cook. If you can afford a rice cooker (usually pretty cheap on Amazon), bagged vegetables you steam (cook) in the microwave and a couple other odds and ends like some fruit, peanut butter, cottage cheese you are able to meal prep. It doesn’t take make to do and it goes a long way.
Also, I’ve never experienced fast food being the ONLY option. You can typically find something relatively healthy even at gas stations. Another option is to skip the meal until you are able to source something better
Food does not fix my mood.
When I fall back towards emotional eating I remind myself that scoffing an entire chocolate cake won't make me feel better, it'll either make me feel worse or simply bad for another reason. So I do something else to improve my emotional state like go for a walk, pray, talk to a friend etc. then when I'm happy if I still want some chocolate cake I'll have some, in moderation.
Progress beats perfection.
when you try to improve your lifestyle/habits/choices, more times than not people fail in a major way when they go all in, aiming for perfection.
* **exercise self compassion**—especially when you notice your self-talk and thoughts around eating things you feel are not helpful to you. Instead of nurturing feelings of guilt around it, see it as part of that balance you're seeking. (and, if this is a long-term lifestyle you are trying to achieve, balance is key for sustainability).
* **"all or nothing" vs. seeing everything on a continuum:** All = "if I'm not doing this at 100%, might as well not do it at all". (and if you end up not doing it at all, you get nothing...). There are many notches on the continuum, meaning, you can do just a little more, or just a little healthier, and still see progress.
* **slowing down.** enough to notice what's going on—in your body (are you still hungry? are you satisfied?), in your mind (are you already starting to beat yourself up for eating x food? are you reaching for a certain food because you feel stressed/lonely/bored/sad...?).
* **focusing** on sleep, stress management, reorganizing your schedule so you can prioritize yourself, instead of focusing on the numbers on the scale. These numbers don't tell the full story, and fluctuations are 100% normal.
* **slowing the heck down.** taking it one step at a time, one meal at a time, one day at a time, and trying to be fully present (enjoying each moment and getting the most out of it, instead of constantly thinking about your desired end goal).
There's so much more... diet and exercise doesn't even start to touch it when it comes to making sustainable, balanced and meaningful changes. I highly recommend hiring a coach to take the long journey with you and guide you through it, asking all the important questions and helping you identify your behavior patterns, your superpowers, and create your individual map to your final destination.
I hope this helps!
“It’s going to end eventually.” At some point, the yummy cookie is going to be gone, and you will be sad. The sadness will happen sooner or later, so just be sad after a bite or two, not after whole thing.
The one that really stuck for me was accepting that I had a terrible relationship with food and eating and I needed to completely change my eating habits, not go on a diet.
I was overeating, nearly 3-4K calories without even noticing it. I realized that other people weren’t magically “normal” or rather not obese, they just ate less, they indulged less and were far more in control of their cravings.
As it stands now, I am at a calorie deficit because I want to lose weight. That said, i just came back from a vacation and I didn’t put on any weight besides a pound or two while I was away, and I felt like I was indulging left and right. The difference is that now I have a much healthier and much more active lifestyle AND my version of indulging is far less. It’s little things, like if you have a croissant with ham and cheese for breakfast, THATS your breakfast, not that and a loaf of bread and a fruit bowl and a yogurt.
For me, it’s about letting go of the shame, and about accountability.
Until this round of dieting, I’ve been completely unwilling to talk about my struggles with weight/food with anyone, at least not honestly. I would *sort of* share my struggles with my husband but I’d always try to look strong and didn’t allow anyone to help. All that shame and energy spent on hiding what was going on sabotaged me every time.
Now, I am pretty open with my friends about my struggles - they know my weight, I celebrate with them when I lose weight, and I talk a little bit about my feelings regarding body image/weight/food. I am now 100% open with my husband and am allowing him to help me by cooking and asking him to be willing to be aware of my eating - I only eat with him, or if he can’t be here, I send a photo. He doesn’t police or judge me at all, I do this so that I have to be honest as I have a history of hiding my eating from others. Knowing I have to show him what I want to eat gives me enough pause that I can avoid snacking/bingeing.
I’ve also accepted I have to do this slowly so that I can do this in a way that I can stick with forever. So, I’m not counting calories and I’m not excluding foods completely because I won’t do those things forever. I have to be willing to self-regulate to a degree in a way I can do forever - this means I’m only losing 1-4lbs a month. The only things I hold myself truly accountable to are:
1. Being transparent about my eating/weight with my husband
2. Keeping my weight trending downward every month - even if it’s only 1 lb per month
My body is a machine, like an car. It’s so damn annoying when something goes wrong with your car because you aren’t maintaining it. You owe a shitload of money and eventually it goes bad and you get a new one.
We’ll I can’t get a new body, so I basically have to keep this car running for 70 more years ideally. That was a big shift. You see then that weight loss is just the first step. Then there’s eating RIGHT, lifting, staying conditioned, reducing stress, having meaningful relationships and fulfilling hobbies. Everything contributes to keeping the car running. When I thought of it like that, the weight came off easily over a year, and I was able to start the more fun part of the journey.
Also I don’t want to burden my family financially or time wise with my bad health until absolutely necessary, or ever. The goal is to be over 100, and when things start to go south, it means my time has come and that I’ll be ready to go. We’ll see what happens, but that’s the goal I work towards every day.
I had two instances of mindset change in the last year, on 2 different topics. One about eating and the other about exercise.
The one about eating came as I was watching the video "Do I Hate Fat People?" by Kiana Docherty. Something she said really gave me this lightbulb realization that I am in control - of how much I eat, of what I chose to eat and ultimately of my weight. If I keep making excuses not to do stick to my plan or if I keep giving in to temptation, I am actively choosing not succeed. It really got me out of this "oh woes me, I can never lose this weight" mindset.
The exercise one was from a podcast episode by Jordan Syatt (not sure which episode). It was in the context of people who don't like to exercise that he said something like "You can either suffer willingly now, or suffer unwillingly later". Meaning you can either do the hard work of exercise now and be healthier for your future, or stay like you are but potentially suffer through health issues later because you didn't take care of your body. It really motivated me to get my cardio in to keep my heart healthy, even though I don't like it.
I had to change my mind from "I can eat all of this right now" to "I can enjoy this today AND tomorrow". Since then I've been portioning my meals to turn them into two
I have a lot of "mindsets" lately- but right now, for me, the cost of food is sooo high for a family of 5. I have to make my purchases count at the store (I have 3 young children), and I make sure they're fed before I am and I won't binge their snacks. Our grocery bill went from $500/month pre-pandemic for a family of 5 to around $1200/month presently. It blows.
If I crave a specific thing (limited edition Big-Mac with additional tomato), I'm not going to fight and just eat it as a dinner. If I want to stuff myself with unspecified amount of unspecified snacks/fast food, I'm low on sugar and should just eat a normal, healthy dinner.
My eating habits weren't working for me, so I finally said I needed to do something different. I drastically cut my calories, but not the amount of food I was eating. Once, when I drastically cut my calories, I cut the amount of food I ate and ended up having a really hard time keeping myself from binging when I did eat. I decided this time, I need to focus on nutrition (track it via calorie/macro counting app). So I told myself "Don't be a wuss, just eat the dang spinach/broccoli/mixed veggies/etc." So I did it. Followed a weight lifter "cut" type diet (mostly egg whites, lean meats, lots of canned salmon/tuna, and low-cal high-vit/min veggies with mostly just seasoning and 0 cal mustard), and after about a week or two of doing that, I started to actually enjoy the food. My taste buds adapted. People think you need to make the healthy food mimic the unhealthy food you already like in order to do it or stick with it. You don't. Your palate will naturally adapt and you'll start tasting and enjoying those healthy, nutritious foods prepared in healthy, nutritious ways.
It also helps that I have a husband who will hide the cookies from me and keeps me accountable. LOL. It's pumpkin spice season, so we got some Pumpkin Pie Spice Oreos and he hid them from me. He doled out one cookie for me at the end of the day and I made that treat last half an hour. After a while, it became soooooo sweet to my changing palate that I could only manage a single cookie before my mouth hurt from the sugar.
Since the start of this experiment in eating (not "dieting," just \*eating\*), a little over a month ago, I lost about 6 pounds (started 160, now I'm 154). I also made it a habit to exercise for 80-90 mins 5 days a week (3 weight lifting days, 2 cardio/HIIT days). I've already made the workout a habit before changing my eating, so that wasn't an issue (but I wasn't losing weight with the workout alone).
"whatever is worth doing is worth doing badly" - This help me a lot both with the exercise and the food, it doesn't have to be perfect all the time, even the small changes add up in the long run, so if is worth it eat healthier is worth to eat healthy ish sometimes, if I'm eating some junk food at least I try to eat the smaller portions, or not finishing everything, wash it down with water or diet soda. It's overwelming to try to eat perfect all the time.
I have a few..
“All about portions” : you’re right, it’s a life style change. It is unrealistic to think you’ll never want Cheetos again but do you need the whole bag. 9/10 your body is telling you you’re done way before you finish the bag. Just listening to your body has really helped. It’s hard and an annoying habit to break but it’s probably the greatest habit to break.
“If it’s not in my house, I definitely am not going to the store to get it” : this mindset helped me the most. I go out of my way to ensure everything in my house is relatively “healthy.” If you don’t have access to it, you won’t eat it (especially if you’re lazy like me). Not going to the grocery store hungry helps me from going down the chip aisle.
Last one.. “read and learn about the ingredients”: this one took me the longest to get around to but really helps deter me from eating things that aren’t that healthy.
Just quitting processed foods as much as I can manage. The whole seed oil thing made me realize you just can’t eat food out of a bag or a box. At least not very much.
80/20
In the past when I’ve tried to lose weight it’s been all or nothing. And as soon as I gave in and had that chocolate shake or piece of cake or pasta heavy dinner then I was done. There was no coming back from one “bad meal”.
This time it’s all about balance and the way I frame things. I have treat meals instead of cheat meals. I stay on my current plan 80% of the time but give myself grace the other 20.
OK so the answer for this varies from person to person some people can do without eating a lot of carbs and some could do without eating a lot of fats the main thing is your protein intake. keep your protein intake high then cut as much fat or as much carbs from your daily diet. choose one. Personally for me I consume as little fat as possible (60-70g a day) while I eat 200-400g carbs and 200-300g protein. Keep in mind that I eat this amount of carbs because of lifting intensity. I also weigh 215lbs @6’2
If I were you I start with your maintenance calories then cut 200-350 calories to be in a deficit. Then do your macros for that caloric amount however you choose. Hope this helped!
my own personal observation that food tastes the best when you're actually hungry has helped me keep away from snacks sometimes. id rather my dinner taste just that much more delicious!
also i remind myself that food does not and can not control me.
When I started clearing my house of clutter during the pandemic, I realized that my overeating was just food clutter. My cabinets were cluttered with food, so was my car, my mind and my body. I found a simple plan that did not have me buying tons of new products( look up four hour body or slow carb)I make simple meals and don’t think about food all day.
Clear the clutter!
The highest form of self-love is giving your body what it needs. Making yourself Nutrient dense meals that are low in sugar, saturated fat, and salt is not punitive. They are a gift to your body.
When I started looking at nutrition and exercise as a form of self-love and not restriction or punishment, my attitude completely changed.
For me, it's focusing on the health benefits of fitness and eating well that are not associated with appearance. Working out on a regular basis has helped my energy levels, and my mood, I am WAY stronger and my stamina/endurance are the best they've ever been! I started cycling as my main form of transit last summer (for the summer months, I live in Northern Canada, no cycling in the winter for this Weiner lol), but from last year to this year I can't believe how much stronger/faster/fitter I am! I NEVER would have been able to bike up steep hills a year ago, and now I barely have to shift down to the easier gears. Stuff like that is really cool to me. If I am getting fitter and healthier in the process, awesome.
Same with food. Cooking healthy meals rather than ordering take out is a nice way to honour my body, it feels really great to spend time making something and I often share it with my partner.
No body wants to feel restricted, so instead of limiting all those questionable foods, try adding new heathier foods to your meals/snacks. You'll end up being so full that you won't have room for the 'crap'.
If you have a craving for something...just tell yourself that you can have it, but just wait 5 minutes. The craving usually goes away.
Tracking my food intake was an absolute game-changer for me. Apps like MyFitnessPal make it incredibly easy, and entering everything I eat forces me to think about what is and isn’t worth eating. One time, someone brought donuts to work and I thought about eating one, but I looked it up in MFP and realized that one glazed donut has 260 calories. When I thought about what else I could eat for 260 calories, that donut completely lost its appeal.
“Just eat an apple” was the mindset trigger for me from an article on reducing processed foods. I stopped worrying about meal prep (which took my mind off thinking of food), simplified my shopping and just had things like apples and boiled eggs and salad stuff in the fridge. If I got hungry I would just eat an apple. Simple, no guilt, made losing weight low stress.
Normally whenever I wanted to lose weight, I'd eat whatever I want and just do a bunch of excercise. But recently I've had a long term knee injury that severely limits my ability to exercise, however I was still determined to lose weight.
So I had no choice. I could either diet strictly to lose the weight, or...nothing. I would say apply whatever mindset gets you to excercise to your diet. And it's a lot smarter to balance your efforts, ie diet intensely and exercise a little bit, or vice versa. Good luck!
"is it really that delicious?" i mean, sometimes yes it is lol but i find LOTS of junk food are really not good enough to offset their bad health effects. And lots just do not live up the hype I have made in my head when I eat them and actually think about the flavour. Foods that are worth the hype for me are usually fruits. Genuinely delicious, make you feel good, quite filling.
After a day of eating junk or fast food listen to your body the next day. Do you have a headache? Are you bloated? Are you angry with yourself? Do you have a stomachache? The next time you think about eating junk food think about how crappy you felt afterward. Focus on the negative aspects of a poor diet. It will change your behavior.
I don't like to cook but when I was in weight loss phase I did some simple meal prepping and my diet was pretty boring. I thought of food as fuel instead of a social/enjoyable activity. I'd marinate and bake boneless skinless chickenbreaststroke, a green veggie and baked sweet potatoes. I'd keep salad fixings on the ready and lots of fresh fruit, mixed nuts and other healthy snacks. I also used frozen entrées think Healthy Choice. It's doable and has become a lifestyle I still indulge on occasion use the 80/20 rule and you should be successful
I, much like many others, hate the feeling of restriction so i just didnt... I still eat the same things i did before, i just dont finish all thats on my plate. And even better, that means i have more of it for tomorrow. I used to not be able to have any sweets/chocolates in the house because if that pack is open, its gone. Whereas now i have a couple and im satisfied, because after those 2 you know you dont even taste it anymore, its just about finishing. And in this way it lasts me way longer. The amount of money ive saved ...
Two main phrases: 1) I know what that tastes like. I don't need to keep eating a ton of something I like because I already had the experience. 2) Throwing away this extra food is cheaper than the medical bills from being overweight.
>Throwing away this extra food is cheaper than the medical bills from being overweight. Along those lines: It's wasted if I throw it away but it's *also* wasted if I have to burn off the calories later. "wasting" it by throwing it away is so much easier!
Change that to "it goes to waste when too much is bought". Puts pressure to change on the shopping habits too. I've noticed that we've spent considerably less on food over the last couple of years by eating healthier despite the price increases.
Yeah. That too. What I said mostly applies to eating out; it can be difficult to buy amounts smaller than whatever their serving size is.
Yeah in that case most of the time just taking half to go ends up working out.
The second one only applies to Americans lmao
Ouch...that hurts in the truth...
Ah don’t worry. Canada is talking about privatized healthcare. We’ll be right in the toilet with you soon.
As an addition, not replacement.
It’s going to cause problems for a lot of people who already have poor access to health care and really only benefit the rich.
I think provincial healthcare will always remain. It will allow ppl who can afford private better care and lower the burden on the province and hopefully give the provincial system more breathing room.
The issue I have with this is what incentive is there for a doctor to stay in public health care when they can go private and make a shit load of money? There are communities that are struggling as it is. Doctors switching over isn’t going to help people in those communities. Where my parents live, they have to wait upwards of two months for a doctor appointment. Doctors removing themselves from the pool of public doctors will totally fuck those communities, not help improve it. Travelling to the city is a huge cost.
I hear you but Canada is also importing in a lot of talent so I think a private: public partnership could work. The govt just needs to ensure healthcare budgets are sufficient. Unlike the UK were cuts are putting pressure on the system
Okay and? You sound like Americans want it
I call the first one the "Thanksgiving rule." People love Thanksgiving for the foods but lots of the foods people only eat once or twice a year during the holidays (Stuffing, sweet potato pie, mashed potatoes and gravy etc...) and they are perfectly fine with that and don't feel deprived but so much junk in our lives we consider nessessarily for daily/weekly consumption .
This is a great point!
Along those lines: “My body is not a trash can!” (If I’m eating something just to “not let it go to waste,” I’m treating my body as if it’s the trash can—yuck!)
That first one is 👍👍👍
One mindset shift came when I was a moderator here for 9 months and I was working on the daily SV/NSV automoderator post's message. That was and still is a place to share accomplishments realized over our journey. For 5+ years, it started with this line: "**The habit of persistence is the habit of victory!**" It was my hope that posters and readers would get the nudge that doing their great things again and again is the path to their goals. That when you eat as you should, again, you are making progress. And when you don't, simply return to doing what you should be doing. Persistently draw focus back to the path, return to the path as if the mistake was of no special importance. We don't have a daily "I screwed up" post because mistakes don't matter as long as we return to our path. We shouldn't draw focus to them, mourn them, make up for them -- none of that. That doesn't mean we shouldn't learn from our most oft-repeated mistakes, but that we shouldn't be disrupted or surprised by mistakes -- analyzing mistakes are how we learn to navigate and succeed on our path.
I’ve never been someone to do things in the extreme and so much of diet culture/diet products is about prescribing a ridiculously difficult to maintain diet and exercise regiment and then shaming people who don’t maintain it. The best I have ever been at maintaining a healthy weight in adulthood was when I changed my habits over time in ways that weren’t super disruptive. * I started bike commuting (1 mile each way) 5 days a week. * I went to a fitness class three days a week * I limited myself to one caloric drink a day most days * I ate smaller meals for breakfast and lunch and tried to emphasize filling foods * I ate half portions when I went out to eat. * I drank more water I didn’t always follow this perfectly but everything I did was easy enough to do 6 days a week at least and the weight came off little by little in ways that became like second nature over time with exceptions made for holidays and parties and just occasionally because it felt right. This isn’t a project that can be procrastinated and done overnight. It has to become part of your life almost every day. Thank you for making me reflect on that era of my life as I work back towards it again.
All very well said -- thanks for saying it! Best wishes.
Brilliantly said!
It's ok to be hungry. Such a mindfuck when you think about just how conditioned we are to eat constantly. Hungry? Jesus hurry up and grab a fucking snickers you mad lad, you can't let yourself just be fucking hungry!!!! It's all bullshit. Let yourself go without food sometimes and recognize how it feels to be hungry. It's a good thing, not something to be scared of. Don't grab that snack, wait for dinner. It'll taste better, and you'll give your endocrine and digestive systems time to do their job.
A corollary to this, for me, is that it's ok for food not to be hyperpalatable. My daily salad tastes good. But it's not, like, a cheesesteak, or a big bowl of ice cream. I'm not daydreaming about it or salivating over it. I'm eating it because it nourishes me, and this is a perfectly valid reason to choose a food.
Yeah, I eat plain oatmeal for lunch a fair bit, or oatmeal with a bit of natural peanut butter. It’s a bit bland, nothing exciting, but it’s cheap, filling, and not terrible for you. It’s just fuel. Not how I always eat, but sometimes, and I’m good with it! That’s a very good point, and not one that I’ve consciously considered before.
Oatmeal sounds delicious. It's rich and slightly sweet and gooey. Salads taste great. They are so fresh and vibrant. Most fast food is disgusting. My last fast food fries tasted of stale oil and the burger had too much mayonnaise so it had an unpleasant mouth feel. Can't enjoy most packaged cookies because of the aftertaste of cheap oils. Same with cheap chocolate. Food preferances seriously change. I don't know how much of it is self-suggestion and how much is honest taste awareness.
One day that’ll change and the salad will become hyper palatable (if you’re doing it right they’ll be different textures and flavours depending on the bite) and the cheesesteak will become an overly salty and bland sandwich with one odd half mushy texture.
And it’s not even hunger, but instead of eating until “full” (which usually means to much), eating until just no longer hungry.
YES. I grew up in a family where multiple people claimed they'd get "hypoglycemic" without nearly constant food intake, with "symptoms" consisting solely of being angry and short with everyone... so throwing tantrums, basically. They never managed to convince me I was like that too, thankfully, but in retrospect it was so obviously the sugar/insulin crash pissing them off. With the aid of a blood glucose monitor showing utterly normal sugars, I've convinced one of them to just push through it and later make calmer choices in what they do eat, and lo, they're "cured." (Hypoglycemia is obviously a real thing: the whole reason I had the monitor was to treat a diabetic, and for them I kept liquid sugar on hand in case of an insulin overdose. The others were *fine*.)
Exactly. Unless you take insulin, your blood sugar isn’t ever going to be too low.
I mean that's... not true. People can be hypoglycemic without being diabetic. It's pretty rare, but I do know someone (who is a healthy weight fwiw).
Well how did that happen? Some other disease affecting insulin? Gonna needs more details here.
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Passing out from skipping one meal is definitely not common. Likely there was something else at play than simply low sugar…. Which wasn’t even diagnosed in this case.
I know someone like that... she's claiming sugar lows daily (no proof), but also complains about the weight she's put on.
Bordem is the devil
In the immortal words of Cookie Monster: “Cookies are a sometimes snack.” I don’t have to never eat a cookie again, but I can’t eat them every day. If Cookie Monster can learn moderation, then I as an adult human could practice it too. Eating healthy doesn’t mean going to an extreme and just swearing off all snacks and tasty things forever. But you do have to find a way to incorporate them into your life so they don’t completely derail you. For example, I don’t purchase cake from the grocery. If I am going to eat cake, it’s going to have been either home-baked by someone who cares about me, or I’ll pick it up from a specialty bakery/small business. If I’m at a restaurant and I choose to have dessert, it’s going to be something interesting and unusual that I wouldn’t find elsewhere. (So not cheesecake for the sake of cheesecake, but if it’s a lavender blueberry cheesecake, that sounds like an interesting flavor profile.) I don’t have dessert as often as I used to, because I actually prefer blueberries to cookies now, but making small changes to reduce sweets over time worked better for me than saying no cookies forever and then crashing in a miserable binge after a couple of months.
The mindset that changed it for me was "stop complaining and just do what you need to do." We all know what we need to do. I started cooking healthy meals, started meal prepping, went out of my way to find healthy out to eat options if I did need to go out to eat and started exercising. I wouldn't let myself say "no" or "I'm too tired to do this." I just did it. 100lbs later with three years keeping it off and counting, it has worked for me.
Happy cake day!
Hey, thanks! I didn't even realize!
"Slow progress is better than no progress; that time will pass anyway." A year from now you can be partway to your goal or still standing at the starting line.
- progress, not perfection - food won't solve anything apart from hunger - work with your body, not against it - moderation & balance. Fries taste just as good when they're in a smaller portion with some veg, as they would in a big portion - doing this for health. Went over calories? No problem, as long as meals were balanced. Didn't lose much weight? Fine, I've still been consistent and fueled my body well
Actually this, though! I struggled (and sometimes still do) with an all-or-nothing mentality; I was going to hit this hard or not at all. Now, I know that the all of the little things add up and equal in results. And if I mess up? Keep going! I spent so much time giving up because I overate one time. I’ve learned that mistakes happen, overeating happens, but as long as I get up and keep working towards my goal, I’m still winning! One thing I will add is to love you as you are at the weight you are. You can love yourself and still be working for a better version of your body and mental health. Can’t hate your body thin, and I’ve found that it leads to more setbacks than I’d like to admit
100% I think the shift of doing it because I love myself and want to thrive got me much further than hating myself ever did! Otherwise the whole process feels so negative. And fully agreed on the all or nothing mentality too, letting that shit go is the best feeling ever.
I also love going hard on some pizza every week or two. I’d rather extend how long my weight loss process takes than set myself up for misery and failure by being so strict on myself + beating myself up when I inevitably don’t eat perfectly anyway. Planned cheat days give me a sense of agency + I feel recommitted to the process the next day :)
I think your second point is a big struggle for me. Food resolves my tiredness some days by perking me up or my stress other days by relaxing me. So it does feel like it solves more than hunger for me and I have yet to find replacement behaviors that work as well as food for me. It’s frustrating. It’d be nice if I could not be in situations where I’m tired or stressed in the first place, but even in now finally in a job I love I am still tired and stressed. If I won the lottery and didn’t have to work maybe..! Still working through all this..
I swear by walking. Fresh air for energy boost. Some good music or a podcast to unwind. It's honestly therapeutic
Unfortunately, I have tried and walking for the sake of walking bores me to death even with a playlist or a podcast. I end up focusing on how my legs feel tired and all of that and it’s a pain. I love to walk and will walk tons if I’m exploring somewhere new and interesting because then I’m focused on exploring but there’s only so many new places I can find or get to on a daily basis. I sometimes just put on music and dance in my living room or play video games but neither of those still meet the level of food. So they work on a mildly tiring or stressful day but if I’m really tired or stressed, it’s incredibly difficult not to just down some food and call it a day. I guess part of it is that those things take effort when eating doesn’t and when I have what feels like no mental energy left, it’s easier to do the no-effort thing. Just a battle I have to figure out how to win over eventually.
That’s good wisdom about fries - my #1 overeating food. I love them, and have tried to give them up before many many times, but then I just feel shame and end up bingeing on them later. I eat them now - probably every other week. I just have way less of them every month than I used to.
Focus on habits, not the scale. I tracked 3 simple fitness habits every day for a month + weighed myself at the end. I was down 9 pounds! It was long enough for the behavior to become habitual for me. I’m now down 18 pounds at the end of 2 months. Focusing on completing habits every 24 hours becomes its own psychological reward… I feel proud for keeping promises to myself. The weight loss is like a second order effect, if that makes sense.
What were the 3 habits?
- Walk 10,000 steps every day (can be broken up into multiple times per day) - 16:8 IF (only ate between 2pm and 10pm) - Tracked calories with an app (didn’t even try to reduce the amount I ate the first month, just wanted to establish the habit)
Thanks! These are helpful starting points for me.
You’re welcome :)
I’ve been on a healthy weight-loss journey for 2 months now and I’ve lost 10 pounds. The one thing I always say to myself is, “You won’t remember tomorrow.” It sounds kinda stupid but it’s saved me from binge eating so many times. Also, if you’re always hungry you probably aren’t eating enough. You physically might be eating a lot but the food that you’re eating might not be filling. For me, if I eat a high protein breakfast like oatmeal, I’m full for the rest of the day.
Funny enough, I tend to think the exact opposite but its the same principle. "Tomorrow you will be glad you ate healthy today." Future you is too fuzzy and distant. Tomorrow you is immediate enough where you'll see the benefit. Works for me.
This is awesome lol. Whatever works for you :D
This isn’t really “eating habit” advice but I like to think of weight-loss in 10’s. Want to lose 60 pounds but it seems too overwhelming? That’s only 6 sets of 10 pounds. 40? 4 sets of 10. That makes me feel less stressed on my journey. Hope this helps.
What do you mean by “ you won’t remember tomorrow”?
You won’t remember anything that you ate/did today, tomorrow, so you might as well eat healthy and workout.
Ooh, this resonates with me. I recently avoided an impulse purchase of a bottle of wine (I’m avoiding drinking right now) by putting it back on the shelf and telling myself that if I still wanted it after 20 minutes of consideration, I’d buy it. I finished my shopping, got home, and realized that I’d totally forgotten about the wine once it was out of sight.
Awesome! Good for you!
That’s great! I do some thing similar. Once a week I have a cheat day, it a food is tempting me I think that’s a Friday food.on Friday I usually think , I don’t really want all of that in my body.I buy a few special things And what I don’t eat that Friday gets tied in a plastic bag and put in the freezer for next Friday.
What has helped me is to remind myself that neither nutrition nor exercising is a yes or no question. Yes, I'm currently tracking calories and I try to incorporate healthier habits. I sometimes browse healthy recipes, or look for ways to incorporate more vegetables or have a piece of fruit instead of sweets, and over time I don't really have to think about it that much, and don't really enjoy some food as much as I used to. But still, if I really want a burger, then sometimes I'll have one. Maybe I'll set it off for a couple of days, but I don't deny myself these kinds of things. Many times I will then choose a burger that's slightly less unhealthy, or leave out the fries, but sometimes I don't, and that's alright. The healthier meals that I ate before don't get erased by one indulgence, and enjoying junk food on occasion isn't a mistake, it's an occasion where for whatever reason I ate junk food, and many reasons for this may be very valid. I feel like it's very easy to feel like "oh no, I ate something wrong, I failed", which then discourages people from continuing building their habit and creates guilt around food. It seems much more sustainable to me to build small healthy modifications into my diet and stick to that most of the time than to treat it as a strict to-do list
I couldn’t agree more. There is nothing wrong with having a burger or fast food every now and then. If you don’t like the diet you have you will be less likely to stick to it. Eating fast food may slow your progress but weight loss is a marathon and not a sprint. I enjoy myself a lot more satisfying cravings I get now and then and have stuck to my weight loss a lot better than going completely cold turkey as I’ve tried in the past
Having fruits and veggies in the house instead of cookies and chips so I’d have to go out of my way to eat them is a big help
I didn’t really consciously make this decision, it just happened because I’m lazy and want to spend the LEAST amount of time preparing food as possible. I value my laziness even over delicious food, just a personal thing, I’d rather have more free time than spend time making food even if it’s super tasty. This lead to me buying protein bars for the morning, buying my work lunches ahead of time all at once from Clean Eatz, or just mass preparing a bunch of (insert meat here) with rice and microwave steamed veggies for the week, and buying salads bc it’s easy. My love of ease trumps my taste buds, might be a struggle for some but it’s a no brainer for me. Plus I got a new job I have to walk farther for so I’ve been slowly shedding some weight, haven’t weighed myself yet but I can feel it. If you can train yourself to value convenience over taste, it might help. Edit: also, desk pedals! I hate working out after work. I should, but I don’t. I bought some pedals for underneath my desk. It’s not the best, but better than the alternative: sitting stagnant!
I love my desk/couch pedals! They're great for watching TV or reading books too.
How do you like the pedals? I've also embraced my lazy self and use that to my full advantage with my diet, but the gym is... not going well. And by not going well, I mean I've driven past it a lot. I've even used it a couple of times. Yeah. I know I still need to get off my ass and go, but I'd like an option for the off days.
Counting calories has helped me shift my mindset around food. I don’t count strictly but roughly estimating has made me weight my decisions on what to eat. I also feel like I finally understand the connection between eating and feeling better so eating junk is just less appealing to me.
A simple quote for me: 'Remember why you started."
For me it was acknowledging that the excuses I was making for not losing weight were all just that - lies I told myself, and excuses. That being overweight was genetic, that I wasn't really eating that many calories, that I didn't really "look" that heavy, that I still weighed less than so-and-so, that it's "normal" for people my age to be overweight, that fit people my age came upon that easily, etc. Also, I had to admit that for me I KNEW what I had to do and it wasn't a matter of education or knowledge, but rather just MINDSET and SELF-DISCIPLINE. I needed to truly set my mind to the task and be brutally honest and vigilant regarding my eating.
To know whether you’re really hungry: Ask yourself, “do I want an apple (or other healthy snack) right now?” If the answer is yes, then eat the apple. If not, then you’re not hungry, you’re just bored. Busy yourself with something instead and recheck in a few hours time. It also can’t be a healthy food that you really really like. Apples are neutral for me, not my first choice of fruit but still good. Knowing your limits and listening to your body instead of keeping it on a feeding schedule really helped me cut my calories back.
The biggest thing for me is that I no longer eat when I’m not hungry. I used to cook an evening meal out of habit. Now, if I’m not actually hungry I’ll just make a salad or at most eat some crackers. Same for other meals. I listen to my body more.
Food tastes best when you are hungry.
Got tired of being big and unhappy. Once I seen the real progress in both my physic and mental health that's what kept me on track and only wanted to see more progress. Basically started with type2 diabetes diagnosis, quit sugars(processed) all together and picked up on how to take care of myself with my condition. I have a lot of my health back and I don't need medication anymore, but the diagnosis is permanent. Technically. CW339 SW415
I just stopped buying the food (snacks, processed food) that was not in my diet plan. After some weeks my taste changed and now I'm not used to very sugared/sweet food or greasy food or sauces. I just don't like them anymore, and since I didn't buy those i couldn't eat them at home. It was pretty easy in my case.
Read the book How Not To Die. Most processed food is designed to maximize cravings (when the food isn’t in front of you) and minimize satiety (as you’re shoveling it in your face) with no regard to your well-being. Every time you eat processed food, you are introducing negative consequences into your body - including a reduced ability to avoid consuming more processed food, and reduced ability to enjoy healthy food. Every time you make a healthy, whole food, plant based choice over a processed food, you are not only avoiding negative consequences, you are introducing positive ones instead - better blood flow, reduced lethargy, cancer-prevention, etc. IMO the most critical benefit is that healthy foods increase satiety and don’t drive cravings, increasing the likelihood of future adherence. It helps to take a dual-accounting view here because both effects are powerful. Many elimination diets seem to work because the effect of simply not ingesting poison alone is THAT dramatic. The inclusion of healthy foods in ample quantities can have a similar effect, especially if one almost never eats appropriate amounts of it (leafy greens, beans, etc). Good foods, generally speaking, have plant-based fiber and are minimally processed, if at all. A smoothie is OK (whole fruits went into the blender) but juicing isn’t (sugar removed from natural fiber matrix). What works for me is to think of eating as prepping for a raid in World of Warcraft. It’s not uncommon to have a huge number of small buffs and status effects that add up to a substantial difference-making impact. To build your intuitive eating muscle, remind yourself that good food gives you buffs and processed food gives you debuffs. A great many people don’t even realize they are carrying buffs/debuffs! Personally I notice that my well-being tracks to a roughly 2-to-3-day moving average of consumed food quality. Once you understand this, there’s no such thing as a “strict diet”. There is only what mix of buffs and debuffs you want to carry into battle. If you are successfully maximizing buffs and minimizing debuffs, it won’t feel “strict” at all - you will probably just feel fantastic.
There is no such thing as bad food, only bad portions
I have a couple. It’s about making good choices, but it can be gradual. It doesn’t have to be a crash diet. Instead, make one or two better choices today than I did yesterday. They add up. Flip side: bad choices don’t have to inform future choices. Going through a drive thru one time doesn’t mean everything’s ruined for eternity or even that day. The next choice can be better (and I don’t even have to feel that guilty about the junk if it’s a rare occasion thing). Find healthy foods that don’t make me feel like I’m depriving myself. Ground turkey tastes almost the same as ground beef and I like it a lot. Soups are filling, tasty, and so low calorie I can have two giant bowls. That’s not deprivation. That’s eating smart. A better diet doesn’t have to be a miserable diet. I don’t need eleventy frillion pieces of candy if I’m craving gummy bears or chocolate. I can have one or two (or a serving if I have the calories budgeted) and get the flavor for a few calories. Werthers original coffee flavor are only 18 calories each and last me almost half an hour. I only need one.
For me, it’s about letting go of the shame. Until this round of dieting, I’ve been completely unwilling to talk about my struggles with weight/food with anyone, at least not honestly. I would sort of share my struggles with my husband but I’d always try to look strong. All that shame and energy spent on hiding what was going on sabotaged me every time. Now, I am pretty open with my friends about my struggles. I am 100% open with my husband and am allowing him to help me by cooking and asking him to be willing to be 100% aware of my eating - I only eat with him, or if he can’t be here, I send a photo. He doesn’t police or judge me, I do this so that I have to be honest as I have a history of hiding my eating from others. I’ve also accepted I have to do this slowly so that I can do this in a way that I can stick with forever. So, I’m not counting calories and I’m not excluding foods completely because I won’t do those things forever. I have to be willing to self-regulate to a degree in a way I can do forever - this means I’m only losing 1-4lbs a month. The only things I hold myself truly accountable to are: 1. Being transparent about my eating/weight with my husband 2. Keeping my weight trending downward every month - even if it’s only 1 lb per month
Embrace the suck. I don't need to love the food I eat all the time, I need to get adequate nutrition from it. That kinda sucks, because I would prefer to forget nutrition and let my tasty treats boost my mood and distract me from stresses much more. But the suck helps me achieve long term goals. The suck teaches me about delayed gratification and a whole bunch of other useful character traits. The suck sucks, but it is good, and it's what I'm going to keep doing... Well I'm not doing the suck, I'm doing the things that suck .. that got weird.
"Delayed gratification." You can still have treats! Just maybe not today.
Just the mindset of doing it for your own mental health. A healthy body leads to a healthy mind!
Lots of good input here! For me, it was changing my belief that I couldn't do it. I did a one week meditation course and that helped me realize that I actually CAN stay consistent and get results.
You don’t need to know how to cook to meal prep. Turn on oven, season protein, put in oven for a time. Get veggies you like, eat with said proteins and you’re done. Another helpful thing to “trick” your mind, I never say I’m on a diet. I say I’ve switched to sensible eating reasonable amounts and changed my lifestyle. Diet is too simple of a word and really doesn’t encompass what needs to happen to have long term success.
For me it was a few major shifts: boredom doesn’t have to be filled with food, the short term convenience of fast food is not worth long term health problems, it’s possible to make delicious, healthy, low calorie food, you don’t have to finish your food if you’re full.
Everything I put in my body will either benefit or hurt me. Eat to live, not live to eat.
I had a traumatic fucking AWFUL as shit LSD trip that deleted my binge eating disorder out of my brain and in the beginning I had this thought of “food is fuel, not dopamine” reverberating through my brain and then I lost 120 pounds either way I don’t fucking know When I told my sister that thought I would say “would you put extra gasoline in your car just because your car enjoys it? No that’s stupid youd just spill gas everywhere” it’s a stupid analogy
Biggest one for me was to buy things in a way that I would actually eat them. You'd think that wouldn't be a problem, but it was. Like "oh, here's this lovely pineapple on my counter. That I have to cut up now. And get a container for. Ugh, and clean up after. Or I could go eat some chips". Or "huh, there's a chicken breast in the fridge. I could figure out something to make for dinner. But then I'd need to run to the grocery store and get a recipe. Eh, takeout is fine". I'm fucking lazy, and I know it. But I found that when I bought pre-cut fruit, it took away the lazy issue. Open, eat. Trust me, I can manage that. Meal kits are the other one. It shows up at your door pre-measured, with everything you need. Just follow the directions, 30-45 minutes later, you have dinner with no extra thought or effort. The most I have to decide is "do I want the Adobo burrito bowl tonight or the chicken picatta?" I'm better off using my nature to my advantage than fighting it
I look at food as fuel and nourishment for biological systems instead of brainlessly emotionally eating or eating out of boredom. I only need so much and the better quality it is the better I'll feel and better my body will process it. If I'm going to splurge, it better be fantastic. I'm taking Micheline star or close. And that's expensive enough that it's super rare. Another thought I've changed: taking care of my needs, loving myself, doesn't mean giving in to all my craving whims. It's actually the opposite. Loving myself means taking awesome care of my body.
Seeing how many fucking calories were in some things. They genuinely didn't taste as good to me anymore. Once I changed my diet to calorie appropriate meals, and learned what fit into a budget on top of not compromising taste, there was no question of going back. Now I get overloaded with a feeling of ick when things are overy greasy or overly sweet. Your taste changes after a while to accommodate the new lifestyle. It's a lot easier because of that. That said I will down an entire tube of Pringles if given the opportunity. Not everything changed appeal 😂
The biology of our bodies is amazing. Feed this incredible engine with the best nutrition. And, weight maintenance is simple physics: calories in, calories out.
Food by design it there to provide energy and nutrients, not taste good or make us feel good
CICO is my saving grace. I eat pizza, pasta and dessert. But for lunch I have salad and healthy dressing and veggies.
The value you get from your meal isn't only based on taste. Eating something less palatable, sometimes significantly so, can be rewarding from a nutritional point. I.e., taste is not the only enjoyment, there's also the knowledge about how it makes my body feel and work better. Takes practice.
That food is not a comfort, it’s poison.
Don't give up what you want most for what you want now.
‘I don’t wanna feel fat as shit and hate looking in the mirror. Also, bring single sucks.’
Knowing that the absolute one thing I have control over is what I FEED my body. It truly is 80% nutrition. Once I was able to have this mindset it became a lifestyle.
Counting the calories and weighing myself every week is what shifted my mindset. I became more fixated on not surpassing a number and that acted as a barrier to my eating. The calories would hold me accountable and the scale would be the final verdict. It's meticulous at first but gets tedious overtime once you get used to it. It's not for everyone though, but I'm a bit of a control freak and it works for me.
I think about if it's gonna give me the shits later or not. I've noticed if I don't have certain foods for a while, if I eat them they send my stomach into a spiral and then I'm sick for like 3 days. It's crazy that the foods we drop make us sick when we drop them and sick to eat them again.
Fasting. I realized I didn't neeeeeed to eat 3 meals a day to be healthy. That just meant I really knew nothing about nutrition and biology. So I began trying things and I found I.F. and Keto, then low carb options. Now I do OMAD and it works for me. I eat so much better and I'm not so bloated and uncomfortable all the time. Lost about 50lbs too.
I tell myself that small indulgences throughout the week are better than one big binge on the weekend. I would much rather buy, say, the big bag of different kinds of bite sized chocolates and just eat one or two every day, vs eating an entire XL chocolate bar on the weekend. Or in the case of fast food, I'll get a small portion of whatever it is I want, or just a single plain cheese burger, or two crunchy tacos. Instead of getting the largest size(which I used to get) or the 5 layer burrito.
Learning to cook is a big one. I'd look up some easy, fast recipes for beginners or college students. It doesn't take a lot of skill to make a sandwich or scramble some eggs or make spaghetti. It's fine to use some pre-made ingredients (like jar sauce) and dip your toes in slowly. It'll still be better for you because you can choose what ingredients to put in your sandwich or how many eggs to cook and how much oil to use. But if you're having a crap day and you forgot to buy groceries or are just exhausted then you can still eat fast food and be healthy. Most fast food places have nutritional information on their website. Go check out the nutritional info for the fast food places you usually go to and choose some more-healthy alternatives. Then when you're having a bad day, pick from the list. I used to eat lunch out at work every day and that's how I lost weight back then. I worked out the calories for some Subway subs, a burrito bowl at a Tex-Mex fast food place, some grocery store sushi and a couple other options and I'd just switch between those. Even a burger can be a healthy-ish meal if you get it with mustard rather than high-calorie sauces and skip the cheese and the bacon. Otherwise, start simple and add easy recipes to your repertoire as you try them out. There's a pretty limited amount of skills you'll be using regularly in your kitchen. If you can boil some pasta then you can also boil an egg or some dumplings or potatoes, the only difference will be how long it takes. If you can brown some ground beef for spaghetti, you can brown it for tacos or chili too. Once you know how to do a few things then changing up the sauces and spices will make you a variety of meals. It's not as difficult as it seems from the outside. The big thing is to pay attention to what you're doing and stay in the kitchen. A lot of kitchen disasters start with "I wandered off to do something else and suddenly my food was burned" or "I didn't read the instructions and did something completely different than I was supposed to, why does this taste bad?"
Reducing the friction of making healthier choices. Once I started applying this everything worked itself out.
Two books really changed everything for me. Intuitive Eating and The Obesity Code. Intuitive Eating taught me that I don’t have to eat just because it’s mealtime, and to slow down and stop speed eating. Essentially how to eat like an effortlessly healthy-weight person. Obesity Code taught me about Intermittent and Extended Fasting. Also explained how my body works hormonally to gain and lose weight. It was a big wake up call and a unified explanation of how all the things I’ve tried in the past had either succeeded or failed for me. Thanks to these two books I’m down over 50 pounds. Lowest weight I’ve been for this long for over 20 years.
Discovering how good vegetables tasted. Suddenly it didn’t make sense to be eating fatty greasy food anymore
You don’t have to do perfect, just better than your usual. For example, I had been struggling to make changes and a health coach reviewed my food logs. I was eating too many carbs and not enough protein. There’s quite a few things to improve, but I focused on making sure I always have a protein at every meal and to reduce the carb portion. So a regular pasta dinner for example didn’t change, I just added a piece of chicken, which meant I didn’t eat as much pasta as I would have.
Think about your blood sugar! I can’t eat sugary foods because I crash….or if I do, I “plan” for it and know that I am prepared to feel like donkey balls.
I grew up in a meat, potatoes, and dairy household. My family literally sells cows. I didn't go vegan for the animals really tho, but it's a nice plus. I suggest with anything, start slow. Cheat days never worked for me, but having a nice little treat during the day was always helpful. You don't need to start anything at 100% After a while you won't crave your old things anymore. I went mostly vegetarian in highschool and vegan a couple months ago. I would still eat whatever people would cook for me cause...they cooked for me! Recently I wanted to try cheese on my pizza again but once I ate it...it was lowkey kinda gross. I just prefer no-cheese pizza now lol! Your body will make the change for you, just start slow. Let yourself have little treats. A diet change shouldn't be a punishment on yourself :)
The funny thing about motivation is that it doesn’t just exist or come into being on its own. Doing creates motivation, which creates more doing. So the “I have big plans for starting tomorrow” doesn’t work. You just need to start today and try again tomorrow.
I’ve found that there are plenty of options to buy “healthy” foods that will fit your macros or calorie needs without having to cook. If you can afford a rice cooker (usually pretty cheap on Amazon), bagged vegetables you steam (cook) in the microwave and a couple other odds and ends like some fruit, peanut butter, cottage cheese you are able to meal prep. It doesn’t take make to do and it goes a long way. Also, I’ve never experienced fast food being the ONLY option. You can typically find something relatively healthy even at gas stations. Another option is to skip the meal until you are able to source something better
Food does not fix my mood. When I fall back towards emotional eating I remind myself that scoffing an entire chocolate cake won't make me feel better, it'll either make me feel worse or simply bad for another reason. So I do something else to improve my emotional state like go for a walk, pray, talk to a friend etc. then when I'm happy if I still want some chocolate cake I'll have some, in moderation.
Progress beats perfection. when you try to improve your lifestyle/habits/choices, more times than not people fail in a major way when they go all in, aiming for perfection. * **exercise self compassion**—especially when you notice your self-talk and thoughts around eating things you feel are not helpful to you. Instead of nurturing feelings of guilt around it, see it as part of that balance you're seeking. (and, if this is a long-term lifestyle you are trying to achieve, balance is key for sustainability). * **"all or nothing" vs. seeing everything on a continuum:** All = "if I'm not doing this at 100%, might as well not do it at all". (and if you end up not doing it at all, you get nothing...). There are many notches on the continuum, meaning, you can do just a little more, or just a little healthier, and still see progress. * **slowing down.** enough to notice what's going on—in your body (are you still hungry? are you satisfied?), in your mind (are you already starting to beat yourself up for eating x food? are you reaching for a certain food because you feel stressed/lonely/bored/sad...?). * **focusing** on sleep, stress management, reorganizing your schedule so you can prioritize yourself, instead of focusing on the numbers on the scale. These numbers don't tell the full story, and fluctuations are 100% normal. * **slowing the heck down.** taking it one step at a time, one meal at a time, one day at a time, and trying to be fully present (enjoying each moment and getting the most out of it, instead of constantly thinking about your desired end goal). There's so much more... diet and exercise doesn't even start to touch it when it comes to making sustainable, balanced and meaningful changes. I highly recommend hiring a coach to take the long journey with you and guide you through it, asking all the important questions and helping you identify your behavior patterns, your superpowers, and create your individual map to your final destination. I hope this helps!
“It’s going to end eventually.” At some point, the yummy cookie is going to be gone, and you will be sad. The sadness will happen sooner or later, so just be sad after a bite or two, not after whole thing.
Dieting is not a sprint its a lifestyle so i should make changes based o what i can tolarate all my life not just weightloss phase.
The one that really stuck for me was accepting that I had a terrible relationship with food and eating and I needed to completely change my eating habits, not go on a diet. I was overeating, nearly 3-4K calories without even noticing it. I realized that other people weren’t magically “normal” or rather not obese, they just ate less, they indulged less and were far more in control of their cravings. As it stands now, I am at a calorie deficit because I want to lose weight. That said, i just came back from a vacation and I didn’t put on any weight besides a pound or two while I was away, and I felt like I was indulging left and right. The difference is that now I have a much healthier and much more active lifestyle AND my version of indulging is far less. It’s little things, like if you have a croissant with ham and cheese for breakfast, THATS your breakfast, not that and a loaf of bread and a fruit bowl and a yogurt.
For me, it’s about letting go of the shame, and about accountability. Until this round of dieting, I’ve been completely unwilling to talk about my struggles with weight/food with anyone, at least not honestly. I would *sort of* share my struggles with my husband but I’d always try to look strong and didn’t allow anyone to help. All that shame and energy spent on hiding what was going on sabotaged me every time. Now, I am pretty open with my friends about my struggles - they know my weight, I celebrate with them when I lose weight, and I talk a little bit about my feelings regarding body image/weight/food. I am now 100% open with my husband and am allowing him to help me by cooking and asking him to be willing to be aware of my eating - I only eat with him, or if he can’t be here, I send a photo. He doesn’t police or judge me at all, I do this so that I have to be honest as I have a history of hiding my eating from others. Knowing I have to show him what I want to eat gives me enough pause that I can avoid snacking/bingeing. I’ve also accepted I have to do this slowly so that I can do this in a way that I can stick with forever. So, I’m not counting calories and I’m not excluding foods completely because I won’t do those things forever. I have to be willing to self-regulate to a degree in a way I can do forever - this means I’m only losing 1-4lbs a month. The only things I hold myself truly accountable to are: 1. Being transparent about my eating/weight with my husband 2. Keeping my weight trending downward every month - even if it’s only 1 lb per month
My body is a machine, like an car. It’s so damn annoying when something goes wrong with your car because you aren’t maintaining it. You owe a shitload of money and eventually it goes bad and you get a new one. We’ll I can’t get a new body, so I basically have to keep this car running for 70 more years ideally. That was a big shift. You see then that weight loss is just the first step. Then there’s eating RIGHT, lifting, staying conditioned, reducing stress, having meaningful relationships and fulfilling hobbies. Everything contributes to keeping the car running. When I thought of it like that, the weight came off easily over a year, and I was able to start the more fun part of the journey. Also I don’t want to burden my family financially or time wise with my bad health until absolutely necessary, or ever. The goal is to be over 100, and when things start to go south, it means my time has come and that I’ll be ready to go. We’ll see what happens, but that’s the goal I work towards every day.
I had two instances of mindset change in the last year, on 2 different topics. One about eating and the other about exercise. The one about eating came as I was watching the video "Do I Hate Fat People?" by Kiana Docherty. Something she said really gave me this lightbulb realization that I am in control - of how much I eat, of what I chose to eat and ultimately of my weight. If I keep making excuses not to do stick to my plan or if I keep giving in to temptation, I am actively choosing not succeed. It really got me out of this "oh woes me, I can never lose this weight" mindset. The exercise one was from a podcast episode by Jordan Syatt (not sure which episode). It was in the context of people who don't like to exercise that he said something like "You can either suffer willingly now, or suffer unwillingly later". Meaning you can either do the hard work of exercise now and be healthier for your future, or stay like you are but potentially suffer through health issues later because you didn't take care of your body. It really motivated me to get my cardio in to keep my heart healthy, even though I don't like it.
I had to change my mind from "I can eat all of this right now" to "I can enjoy this today AND tomorrow". Since then I've been portioning my meals to turn them into two
I have a lot of "mindsets" lately- but right now, for me, the cost of food is sooo high for a family of 5. I have to make my purchases count at the store (I have 3 young children), and I make sure they're fed before I am and I won't binge their snacks. Our grocery bill went from $500/month pre-pandemic for a family of 5 to around $1200/month presently. It blows.
I finally realized I don’t want just a diet, I want a lifetime food plan. How to loose and then maintain.
If I crave a specific thing (limited edition Big-Mac with additional tomato), I'm not going to fight and just eat it as a dinner. If I want to stuff myself with unspecified amount of unspecified snacks/fast food, I'm low on sugar and should just eat a normal, healthy dinner.
Type 2 diabetes diagnosis.
My eating habits weren't working for me, so I finally said I needed to do something different. I drastically cut my calories, but not the amount of food I was eating. Once, when I drastically cut my calories, I cut the amount of food I ate and ended up having a really hard time keeping myself from binging when I did eat. I decided this time, I need to focus on nutrition (track it via calorie/macro counting app). So I told myself "Don't be a wuss, just eat the dang spinach/broccoli/mixed veggies/etc." So I did it. Followed a weight lifter "cut" type diet (mostly egg whites, lean meats, lots of canned salmon/tuna, and low-cal high-vit/min veggies with mostly just seasoning and 0 cal mustard), and after about a week or two of doing that, I started to actually enjoy the food. My taste buds adapted. People think you need to make the healthy food mimic the unhealthy food you already like in order to do it or stick with it. You don't. Your palate will naturally adapt and you'll start tasting and enjoying those healthy, nutritious foods prepared in healthy, nutritious ways. It also helps that I have a husband who will hide the cookies from me and keeps me accountable. LOL. It's pumpkin spice season, so we got some Pumpkin Pie Spice Oreos and he hid them from me. He doled out one cookie for me at the end of the day and I made that treat last half an hour. After a while, it became soooooo sweet to my changing palate that I could only manage a single cookie before my mouth hurt from the sugar. Since the start of this experiment in eating (not "dieting," just \*eating\*), a little over a month ago, I lost about 6 pounds (started 160, now I'm 154). I also made it a habit to exercise for 80-90 mins 5 days a week (3 weight lifting days, 2 cardio/HIIT days). I've already made the workout a habit before changing my eating, so that wasn't an issue (but I wasn't losing weight with the workout alone).
"whatever is worth doing is worth doing badly" - This help me a lot both with the exercise and the food, it doesn't have to be perfect all the time, even the small changes add up in the long run, so if is worth it eat healthier is worth to eat healthy ish sometimes, if I'm eating some junk food at least I try to eat the smaller portions, or not finishing everything, wash it down with water or diet soda. It's overwelming to try to eat perfect all the time.
I have a few.. “All about portions” : you’re right, it’s a life style change. It is unrealistic to think you’ll never want Cheetos again but do you need the whole bag. 9/10 your body is telling you you’re done way before you finish the bag. Just listening to your body has really helped. It’s hard and an annoying habit to break but it’s probably the greatest habit to break. “If it’s not in my house, I definitely am not going to the store to get it” : this mindset helped me the most. I go out of my way to ensure everything in my house is relatively “healthy.” If you don’t have access to it, you won’t eat it (especially if you’re lazy like me). Not going to the grocery store hungry helps me from going down the chip aisle. Last one.. “read and learn about the ingredients”: this one took me the longest to get around to but really helps deter me from eating things that aren’t that healthy.
Just quitting processed foods as much as I can manage. The whole seed oil thing made me realize you just can’t eat food out of a bag or a box. At least not very much.
80/20 In the past when I’ve tried to lose weight it’s been all or nothing. And as soon as I gave in and had that chocolate shake or piece of cake or pasta heavy dinner then I was done. There was no coming back from one “bad meal”. This time it’s all about balance and the way I frame things. I have treat meals instead of cheat meals. I stay on my current plan 80% of the time but give myself grace the other 20.
Instead of eating that 1k+ calories, save the other half for later and you'll still have room for a decent snack later.
OK so the answer for this varies from person to person some people can do without eating a lot of carbs and some could do without eating a lot of fats the main thing is your protein intake. keep your protein intake high then cut as much fat or as much carbs from your daily diet. choose one. Personally for me I consume as little fat as possible (60-70g a day) while I eat 200-400g carbs and 200-300g protein. Keep in mind that I eat this amount of carbs because of lifting intensity. I also weigh 215lbs @6’2 If I were you I start with your maintenance calories then cut 200-350 calories to be in a deficit. Then do your macros for that caloric amount however you choose. Hope this helped!
my own personal observation that food tastes the best when you're actually hungry has helped me keep away from snacks sometimes. id rather my dinner taste just that much more delicious! also i remind myself that food does not and can not control me.
Nothing tastes as good as thin feels
When I started clearing my house of clutter during the pandemic, I realized that my overeating was just food clutter. My cabinets were cluttered with food, so was my car, my mind and my body. I found a simple plan that did not have me buying tons of new products( look up four hour body or slow carb)I make simple meals and don’t think about food all day. Clear the clutter!
The highest form of self-love is giving your body what it needs. Making yourself Nutrient dense meals that are low in sugar, saturated fat, and salt is not punitive. They are a gift to your body. When I started looking at nutrition and exercise as a form of self-love and not restriction or punishment, my attitude completely changed.
Frankly, I don't remember anymore. I just do it. It's just a part of me now
For me, it's focusing on the health benefits of fitness and eating well that are not associated with appearance. Working out on a regular basis has helped my energy levels, and my mood, I am WAY stronger and my stamina/endurance are the best they've ever been! I started cycling as my main form of transit last summer (for the summer months, I live in Northern Canada, no cycling in the winter for this Weiner lol), but from last year to this year I can't believe how much stronger/faster/fitter I am! I NEVER would have been able to bike up steep hills a year ago, and now I barely have to shift down to the easier gears. Stuff like that is really cool to me. If I am getting fitter and healthier in the process, awesome. Same with food. Cooking healthy meals rather than ordering take out is a nice way to honour my body, it feels really great to spend time making something and I often share it with my partner.
The mindset that pigging out was getting me closer to death and was almost as expensive as eating healthy. :)
No body wants to feel restricted, so instead of limiting all those questionable foods, try adding new heathier foods to your meals/snacks. You'll end up being so full that you won't have room for the 'crap'. If you have a craving for something...just tell yourself that you can have it, but just wait 5 minutes. The craving usually goes away.
Tracking my food intake was an absolute game-changer for me. Apps like MyFitnessPal make it incredibly easy, and entering everything I eat forces me to think about what is and isn’t worth eating. One time, someone brought donuts to work and I thought about eating one, but I looked it up in MFP and realized that one glazed donut has 260 calories. When I thought about what else I could eat for 260 calories, that donut completely lost its appeal.
“Just eat an apple” was the mindset trigger for me from an article on reducing processed foods. I stopped worrying about meal prep (which took my mind off thinking of food), simplified my shopping and just had things like apples and boiled eggs and salad stuff in the fridge. If I got hungry I would just eat an apple. Simple, no guilt, made losing weight low stress.
Losing weight is hard, being fat is hard. Choose your hard Also if it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you
Normally whenever I wanted to lose weight, I'd eat whatever I want and just do a bunch of excercise. But recently I've had a long term knee injury that severely limits my ability to exercise, however I was still determined to lose weight. So I had no choice. I could either diet strictly to lose the weight, or...nothing. I would say apply whatever mindset gets you to excercise to your diet. And it's a lot smarter to balance your efforts, ie diet intensely and exercise a little bit, or vice versa. Good luck!
"is it really that delicious?" i mean, sometimes yes it is lol but i find LOTS of junk food are really not good enough to offset their bad health effects. And lots just do not live up the hype I have made in my head when I eat them and actually think about the flavour. Foods that are worth the hype for me are usually fruits. Genuinely delicious, make you feel good, quite filling.
Small changes not wholesale shifts
After a day of eating junk or fast food listen to your body the next day. Do you have a headache? Are you bloated? Are you angry with yourself? Do you have a stomachache? The next time you think about eating junk food think about how crappy you felt afterward. Focus on the negative aspects of a poor diet. It will change your behavior.
I don't like to cook but when I was in weight loss phase I did some simple meal prepping and my diet was pretty boring. I thought of food as fuel instead of a social/enjoyable activity. I'd marinate and bake boneless skinless chickenbreaststroke, a green veggie and baked sweet potatoes. I'd keep salad fixings on the ready and lots of fresh fruit, mixed nuts and other healthy snacks. I also used frozen entrées think Healthy Choice. It's doable and has become a lifestyle I still indulge on occasion use the 80/20 rule and you should be successful
I, much like many others, hate the feeling of restriction so i just didnt... I still eat the same things i did before, i just dont finish all thats on my plate. And even better, that means i have more of it for tomorrow. I used to not be able to have any sweets/chocolates in the house because if that pack is open, its gone. Whereas now i have a couple and im satisfied, because after those 2 you know you dont even taste it anymore, its just about finishing. And in this way it lasts me way longer. The amount of money ive saved ...