Struggling to change my lifestyle

Options
swheeler0602
swheeler0602 Posts: 110 Member
in Motivation and Support
The last 2 1/2 months I've started to change my life. I've been working out 3-4 times a week and trying to eat healthier, using MFP to control my calorie intake, etc. But I'm 28 years old and I've had this same lifestyle for 28 years and it's hard to change. I enjoy eating healthy but I love my unhealthy food! It's starting to seem easier to just not worry about being healthy but I know I can't do that. I also have PCOS and I know it can be harder to lose weight with this so I know I'm not going to see the results that I wish I could; it's going to take a little longer. I'm so scared I'm going to start going backwards in this journey and I don't want to!

Have you been in this situation? What did you do? Any suggestions?

Replies

  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    Options
    Here's how I changed my lifestyle:

    I started from my old lifestyle and made small changes so that my new lifestyle basically is my old lifestyle with a few tweaks.

    I only eat foods that I like and I don't eat foods that I don't like. I use a food scale to measure portion sizes so that I can eat any food that I really want to have. No food is off limits. Each day I eat about 80% of my calories in nutrient-dense foods and 20% in treat foods. That way, I don't feel deprived.

    I have physical issues and I've never been a fan of exercise overall so I don't plan that into my overall lifestyle. I work in some exercise when I can but it's never been a part of my lifestyle so I'm not forcing myself to try to change that.

    I'm only making sustainable changes to my lifestyle. Since I only make small changes, I barely feel like I'm in weight loss mode. Once I reach my goal, maintenance will be what I'm doing now with a few more calories.
  • AmazonMayan
    AmazonMayan Posts: 1,168 Member
    Options
    I don't know what your unhealthy foods are, but many things can be made lower calorie or at least a lower calorie option that tastes similar enough. Skinnytaste.com has great tasty recipes for all kinds of things. It's great for finding new options/versions of many restaurant type dishes

    Otherwise, fit a small amount of the higher calorie items in sometimes. You may not be able to have everything every day, but you can have a little of one or two or more things each day if you plan ahead.
  • RoseTheWarrior
    RoseTheWarrior Posts: 2,035 Member
    Options
    swheeler0602 wrote: »
    The last 2 1/2 months I've started to change my life. I've been working out 3-4 times a week and trying to eat healthier, using MFP to control my calorie intake, etc. But I'm 28 years old and I've had this same lifestyle for 28 years and it's hard to change. I enjoy eating healthy but I love my unhealthy food! It's starting to seem easier to just not worry about being healthy but I know I can't do that. I also have PCOS and I know it can be harder to lose weight with this so I know I'm not going to see the results that I wish I could; it's going to take a little longer. I'm so scared I'm going to start going backwards in this journey and I don't want to!

    Have you been in this situation? What did you do? Any suggestions?

    Take things one step at a time. No one goes from overweight to fit and trim in short order. If you are making a lifestyle change, it should be more about changing those habits that got you here in the first place. Then, remembering why you want/need to lose weight. Yes, it IS hard to change, but you can do it. You can have whatever food you want as long as you stay under your calorie goal, so try to eat healthy, but don't say you "can't" have something you want. You just need to make it fit.

    And most of all, be kind to yourself. You're already fearing failure. But you only fail when you give up. There will be bumps on the road, and that's ok. Look at the long term. Make changes that you can stick with for life. Good luck! You've got this. You will do it :smiley:
  • dubird
    dubird Posts: 1,849 Member
    Options
    I started small. I've done the 'change everything and add exercise and all' route, and burned out quickly. With MFP, I decided to start slow. I spent a couple weeks just logging to see where the problem areas were. Then, I made one change: swap out soda when eating out to unsweet tea with Equal. With just one change, I knocked 200-300 calories out of my day. When I got used to that, I made other changes.

    Starting small and building takes a lot more time, but for me, it was much more doable and I'm much more confident of being able to stay in my weight range now that I've hit it. So it was worth it to me. ^_^

Categories