Do you have any tricks you play on yourself to help you meet your goals?

efsrous

Sometimes we have to work with or around our own weird psychology or issues with food. What mind games do you play with yourself to help you loose weight?

I have my calories set at 1200 even though I comfortable eating around 1500. I do this because sometimes at the end of the day I would see that I have 100-200 calories left so I would have a snack instead of just taking the extra deficit...and then that snack would turn into more snacking, because night time snacking is my weakness. With them set at 1200, I will often see that I'm already at 900 or 1000 by dinner time, but I'll still go ahead and have a 400-500 calorie dinner, because I need to eat. However, I won't have a snack afterwards because I don't want to see those red numbers get any bigger.

sylviak555

I share your night time snacking habit.. So this might work for me too. Thanks for sharing.

nyponbell

That's an interesting approach. I do play tricks on myself in a way, by testing out different ways of keeping track of my CICO, outside of MFP and Fitbit (though using the numbers I get from them). When I'm having a good day it works to encourage me, but when I don't then it doesn't faze me to go into the red (and by a lot). I'm experimenting with different ways of using it as an even better motivational tool, and hopefully soon I can be an expert on it!

ki4eld

The biggest mind game I play with myself is IF. I eat only 12-7p and I feel like I eat a ton of food. I don't, but I'm eating pretty much constantly for 7 hours, so I feel like I'm eating even more than I am.

Maxematics

The only "trick" I have is that if I want more food, I usually make myself work for it unless I have a bigger deficit than I need for a week? You want that extra 200 calories? Okay, but you're going to go for a walk in the park after you're done. Sometimes I sit there and think about if I really need or want something and if it's worth the cost to my calories. I usually don't have a problem making my goals, even with the little wiggle room I have, but I find the whole "bargaining with myself" thing works for me.

LynneHolloman

If I can eat well for 21 days straight, it'll become a habit. Same goes for exercise.

Verdenal

LynneHolloman wrote: »

If I can eat well for 21 days straight, it'll become a habit. Same goes for exercise.

I don't know who comes up with these numbers. A habit takes as long as it takes to form. For many, it is longer than 21 days. There are, however, plenty of apps and websites to help with habit formation.

zdyb23456

I tell myself I have to get at least a 30 min run in before doing anything else. So three mornings a week I run at 5:30am. The other 2 mornings I hit the gym right after dropping my kid off at school. Saturday we workout together as a family. This mindset really motivates me because deep down I really want to be a couch potato - I tell myself, yes, can be a couch potato, but only if you get your workout in first!

Altagracia220

Every day I crave a bottle of wine with cheeses or DQ ice cream blizzards. I tell myself if I eat well and exercise well today I can have that stuff tomorrow. Everyday I do this lol

Francl27

My trick is to keep a bigger deficit than I should. I don't sweat it if I'm really hungry and go over, but most days I KNOW that if I decreased my deficit I would just think that I can have extra treats 'because I have the calories for it'... and I'd just end up eating more treats... Seeing a smaller amount left for dinner helps me make better choices overall.

Artemiris

2Poufs wrote: »

The biggest mind game I play with myself is IF. I eat only 12-7p and I feel like I eat a ton of food. I don't, but I'm eating pretty much constantly for 7 hours, so I feel like I'm eating even more than I am.

Exactly the same for me.

tracoleman99

jazmin220 wrote: »

Every day I crave a bottle of wine with cheeses or DQ ice cream blizzards. I tell myself if I eat well and exercise well today I can have that stuff tomorrow. Everyday I do this lol

I LOVE it!!! I would love nothing more than to get a hot fudge sundae. Every day. I don't tell myself I can have one tomorrow, but it is most definitely what I crave.

As far as playing mind games. I stick to my calories. It's better to go over than under. When you are under your calories, you slow your metabolism down. MFP has its default settings very LOW and after a prolonged time, your metabolism will slow down. Pay attention to your activity level.

As far as how I meet my goals... I needed to lose over 75 lbs., which took me nearly 18 months. If I looked at it like that, I never would have met my goals. So I set a bunch of fitness goals. I wanted to do a 5K obstacle course, then I wanted to do push-ups, then I wanted to do a 100 mile bike ride. I've accomplished all these goals, so the trick is keeping my motivation. The weight became secondary as I saw results, albeit slowly. My body composition changed drastically when my body fat % started to decrease. That's why exercise is so important, it helps your metabolism and your physique. You need to watch your nutrition to lose the weight - exercise alone won't do that. But if you want a beach body, you have to do both.

So, my suggestion is to set fitness goals and work towards those while being very careful with your nutrition.

[edited by MFP Mods]

MarcyKirkton

I set small goals, too. Helps me alot.

melonaulait

The red numbers on MFP really mess with my mind, so my new trick is... if I absolutely must have one more snack before the day is over, I add it on to the next day's calories. That way I've already "over-snacked" the next day and will have to be more mindful about it.

kshama2001

My trick is exercise - I was craving chocolate cake Thursday, got out of the house and exercised and the craving was gone by the time I got back.

Making sure I get plenty of protein in relationship to carbs helps as well.

joinn68

jazmin220 wrote: »

Every day I crave a bottle of wine with cheeses or DQ ice cream blizzards. I tell myself if I eat well and exercise well today I can have that stuff tomorrow. Everyday I do this lol

Very funny

I set tons of mini-goals, to be reached like every couple of weeks and I tell myself "OK, you'll have this if you meet your goal that day". If I've met the goal I tell myself "Think about your next goal... won't you hate it if you miss it by just a fraction of a lb?" And the cycle starts again

ElleMarieRose

My trick is to check in with various weight loss communities. When I feel like I'm part of a community that has been successful with losing weight, I tend to stay on track more. I try to check in 3 times a day:morning, noon, and evening. Also pre-planning my calories.

MarcyKirkton

Oh, another "trick" I use is that when I'm really hungry, I'll go ahead and think I'm going to eat a mountain, but I start by eating veggies. It's amazing how just starting to eat veggies will allow me to rethink that second enchilada I thought I absolutely had to have.

oolou

I use that old favourite of a smaller plate/dish to eat from. When I weighed out the recommended portion of breakfast cereal a few weeks ago, I laughed because it barely covered the bottom of the dish I was using. Now I eat the 40g of all bran from a teeny weeny dish and it doesn't even register in my head that I'm having half the amount of cereal I used to eat.

missblondi2u

I also stress about getting in the red on any given day, but my habit is to eat under my goal during the week and a little over on weekends. To avoid the stress I feel when I go over on weekends, I "trick" myself by borrowing any calories I've saved during the week and use them to supplement my weekends.

I do this by going back to my under days and logging a food I've named "Piggybank" for 100 calories or so and then log a negative serving (can only do this on the web) of "Piggybank" on Saturday and Sunday. My weekly total remains the same but I don't have to stress about red numbers.

Jruzer

Verdenal wrote: »

LynneHolloman wrote: »

If I can eat well for 21 days straight, it'll become a habit. Same goes for exercise.

I don't know who comes up with these numbers. A habit takes as long as it takes to form. For many, it is longer than 21 days. There are, however, plenty of apps and websites to help with habit formation.

This "21 days to form a habit" trope is a blatant misunderstanding of some interesting work. There was a decent discussion on these boards recently about this topic, but I'm not going to take the time to find the thread now.

The upshot was that the 21 day number applies toward some very small task that you can add to your day: remembering to floss, or to drink more water, or what not. Larger habits, such as adding routine exercise or eating more healthfully, took considerably more effort and time - years in many cases.

Many people want to believe that they can change their entire lifestyle and decades of habits in just a few weeks, and it ain't so.

Jruzer

I will add my "mental trick" that I play on myself:

I prelog all the food I know that I want to eat each day, including ~1000 kcal for evening snacks. I also estimate 800 kcal for dinner, even though dinner is rarely that large. That way I'm motivated to do enough exercise during the day to earn my evening snacks plus usually a bit more.

SpecialKH

I have some go-to snacks if I'm hungry - single portion unsweetened applesauce or a 70 calorie string cheese stick which I stretch by peeling super thin strings off. If i want chocolate I go with sugar free nestle quick in skim milk or sugar free fat free pudding. I count everything out or measure everything and put into a dish and close the box, that helps a lot. Also for a sweet fix I might make whole wheat cinnamon toast or measure out a sweet cereal and munch dry. Krave is good for a chocolate fix, too - the original with chocolate filling. And if I'm still hungry I drink a glass of water or water with crystal light or hot vanilla chai.