Not wanting to track ''bad food''

Ohwhynot

I am nowhere near perfect, but I log it and try to plan for it. I love love love crap food but you need to make a decision - do I want to be healthier, or do I want to eat this crap? Some days, you say, "Dammit, I want to be healthier!" Others... well, it's fried pickles and a couple pints of beer.

callsitlikeiseeit

but if you dont log it, youre only lying to yourself. shoot, i logged my 600 calorie slice of birthday cake last night. i spent all day making my cake, damn right im going to log it! LOLOL we go through stages where we eat a lot of fast food (or similar). What I do, is on those days, its usually my ONLY meal. Now, not always, but I try to make that work (and since i dont eat a TON anyways, its usually easy).

if you tell yourself you 'CANT' have something.... youre only going ot want it more. just make sure your good days outnumber the bad, and when you DO enjoy the garbage food (hey i love it too LOL) .... try to make up for it elsewhere

xmrsdurhamx

I also find pre-logging my meals (especially dinner) helps me to not eat bad foods and stay within my calorie intake. I usually "eat out" once a week, mostly on weekends when I'm out running errands. One bad meal won't stop you in your tracks. That's why we have cheat meals. If you could figure out a way to eat something bad only once a week, or possibly look into the nutritional facts somewhere you know you're going to eat at and choose something lower in calories/fat before you even arrive, you'll feel much better. Good options are grilled chicken sandwiches without cheese, mayo, or any kinda special sauces (like big mac sauce). Pile it up with veggies. Some places offer whole grain buns as well. Just the sandwich.... no need to splurge on the fries. Try some apple slices instead. If you MUST have a burger (we all have those cravings), choose a smaller burger. If you're at BK, don't go all out and get that double whopper with cheese. Just a simple bacon cheeseburger is only 290 calories and only 13 grams of fat vs. the double whopper at a whopping 900 calories and 56 grams of fat (that doesn't even include cheese)! Do your research You can have your cake and eat it too long as you stay within reason.

prattiger65

This is mind numbing......there are no bad foods. There are no bad meals. You are not "cheating", you are just eating. I believe that trying to "cut out" pretty much anything is a recipe for failure. What will more than likely happen organically, is you will start making those choices subconsciously if you don't label them as bad and make yourself feel like you did something wrong if you go "there" or eat "that". I still eat fast food, but not as much because I prefer to spend my calories on other things now, but I don't feel "bad" or like I "cheated" when I do. I cannot imagine how miserable it must be to feel that way. No wonder the success rate for ALL diets are less than 10%.

0somuchbetter0

A lot of people on the thread are talking about willpower. That's kind of what I meant when I used the term "white knuckle." When I think of willpower I imagine having an internal argument with myself, where the willpower is the little angel on my shoulder saying saying "NO, don't eat that!" and the little devil is on the other shoulder saying "YES, you know you want it!" In my case, sometimes the angel wins, but more often it loses.

CBT/mindfulness teaches you to approach your relationship to food without judgment, and to take your time and really think about what you're eating and why. Your internal dialogue is more like "You really want to eat this X, but do you know why you want it? You're not really that hungry...you just had lunch an hour ago. You've been counting your calories all day and you know that X will put you over your limit. If you get it, you'll feel bad about yourself. Maybe you just want it because you're frustrated about what happened at work today. Maybe if you skip X this time and have the healthy dinner you planned instead, you'll feel better about yourself at the end of the day. If you really want X, maybe you can plan ahead and have a small serving of it tomorrow."

I don't know if this sounds totally hokey and ridiculous. If it does, feel free to shut me up. It does work for me most of the time, though.

NoelFigart1

michellemybelll wrote: »

forget willpower. that's fleeting. it's creating a habit. self discipline. woman up.

Willpower is nothing in the face of habit, that's true!

marinabreeze

I agree with those who say that you need to decide what you want more - the weight loss or the food. But...that approach is easier said than done for those who struggle with certain compulsions. Scientifically there is no chemical dependency to food, but there are compulsions towards certain behaviors, and it's more to it mentally than just "you lack willpower."

Part of the mental shift is really giving some thought to why you choose to eat these foods in an uncontrolled fashion. Why is it that even though you want to lose weight, you're willing to sabotage your weight loss with uncontrolled eating of certain foods? I did this myself, and I had to take a really good look at myself and the "why" of my actions to make a real change.

In the short term, though, my thought is to log the fast food anyway and log it. Then see what you are eating and then decide ways to work around it. Slow change is easier to sustain and build upon than trying to cut everything out right away. For example, if I want McDonalds down the street from my house, I need to figure out what I'm really wanting most from that establishment - is it the fries, or the burger, or the chicken sandwich? Then instead of getting the whole meal, I get exactly what it is I want or I cut down on the portion - such as just getting a burger, or adding in a small fry instead of a medium or large, then work my calories for the day around it. That way I don't feel deprived, but I haven't screwed myself over on my calorie counts. Then as you require fewer calories, you can work on substituting for other foods, or even eating healthier alternatives at home. I hope this helps.

lemurcat12

0somuchbetter0 wrote: »

A lot of people on the thread are talking about willpower. That's kind of what I meant when I used the term "white knuckle." When I think of willpower I imagine having an internal argument with myself, where the willpower is the little angel on my shoulder saying saying "NO, don't eat that!" and the little devil is on the other shoulder saying "YES, you know you want it!" In my case, sometimes the angel wins, but more often it loses.

CBT/mindfulness teaches you to approach your relationship to food without judgment, and to take your time and really think about what you're eating and why. Your internal dialogue is more like "You really want to eat this X, but do you know why you want it? You're not really that hungry...you just had lunch an hour ago. You've been counting your calories all day and you know that X will put you over your limit. If you get it, you'll feel bad about yourself. Maybe you just want it because you're frustrated about what happened at work today. Maybe if you skip X this time and have the healthy dinner you planned instead, you'll feel better about yourself at the end of the day. If you really want X, maybe you can plan ahead and have a small serving of it tomorrow."

I don't know if this sounds totally hokey and ridiculous. If it does, feel free to shut me up. It does work for me most of the time, though.

IMO, nice and sensible post that could help some people.

Mindfulness is one of the keys for me.

I think the issue for lots of people is that the rewards are so immediate and the benefits of not eating whatever are harder to see (or perceive), because they exist only in the long-term. Once you start seeing the payoff, it gets easier, although can still be challenging at times. So it's important to put the real pros and cons in perspective.

BWBTrish

Your not addicted.

An addiction results in withdrawals, like sweating and even worse
A bad addiction will make you even wanting to steal to get what you want.

Its willpower that will keep you away from those places.

I like junk food too. But just dont eat it. Its that simple
And when i want to eat it...and i will and do sometimes, than i control my portions. It must fit in my calorie allowance for that day.

So when i go out for dinner, like i know coming Sunday, i pre-plan my day so the dinner out will fit into my calorie allowance.

There is no good or bad food. There is only the lack of control that makes us go "off the road"


I told myself "grow up" and say no when needed.
Works perfect for me.

tomatoey

Log everything and also log your weight weekly. It's the only way to know what your body is doing with x number of calories. And it's the best way to get an idea of your TDEE. Once you know that, you can cut calories in a smart way (i.e. while eating as much as you can

Based on the numbers I put in, and the effects on the scale, I am learning that my TDEE (or "maintenance" calories for my weight and height) is way higher than online calculators would suggest. That means I can eat more than I would have if I used the calculators, and still lose

So even if you're cringing as you input "4 servings of red wine, 4 oz", stick it in there. It's just information to use.

laurelobrien

Food addiction is a real thing. Junk food is palatable, your body craves it once it tastes it because it recognizes it as a rich source of calories (which the hypothalamus and other survival-related systems thinks is a good thing). Every time you eat it, especially to excess, you are reinforcing this habit neurologically. If you really think it's an addiction (which are a neurological problem) and not just weak willpower, I'd recommend seeing a therapist or reading Brain over Binge. That book is targeted specifically at bulimics and those with binge eating disorder, but you might be on your way there anyways.

The tl;dr of the book is that your hind brain has become dysfunctionally obsessed with seeking high-calorie foods to keep you alive. By recognizing that the hind brain creates urges, but does NOT control your body, you can hopefully recognize those urges as faulty signals that have no control over your conscious actions, and ignore them. It gets easier with time as the neural pathways you've been reinforcing every time you eat garbage get weaker. This is how I got over my binge eating disorder.

Good luck