Avoid for Maintenance
robingmurphy
Posts: 349 Member
There have been some great threads on what habits people do to maintain their weight. But what things do you avoid at all costs? What behaviors or thoughts will definitely sabotage your attempt to maintain your weight?
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I noticed that I must avoid processed foods. I like veggie chips but I over do it on them. So items that I know i'll go overboard on, I don't bring into the house. If I only have healthy items in my house, that's all i'll eat.6
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Shopping when I am hungry. I buy stupid things and start eating them early.13
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Avoid complacency.14
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I avoid junk food/highly processed and refined foods/empty calories. chips, candy, donuts, all that stuff. Forget about it. It no longer exists in my life. If I eat these things they vastly increase my appetite which leads to gaining weight and having to lose it back off. So they are best completely avoided.9
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KareninLux wrote: »Shopping when I am hungry. I buy stupid things and start eating them early.
Nice! I do this and actually will open something I plan to buy and start eating it! It is a real No No for me!
I do not avoid one single thing. Its not necessary. I stopped frozen processed stuff years ago, so this is not at play for me!0 -
Right now I'm making sure to continue to log (so, I'm avoiding not logging). A few weeks ago I stopped logging for about two weeks and gained about 2-3 pounds in short order. Took about that much time to take the weight back off, but it reminded me that I need to log if I want to stay where I am.2
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Eating until I'm satisfied and eating what I want in the amounts I want. That's half of what got me morbidly obese (other half is not moving).4
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After spending the weekend at my son's for my grandson's graduation and my granddaughter's birthday with 2 days of travel thrown in for good measure, I have learned I need to reassess how I will handle those situations in the future. I was one pound from goal weight, now I'm three. It was nonstop grazing and meals and libations. I couldn't say no to any of it. Moving forward, I need to regain my self control I was so proud of maintaining for almost 5 months. I know I will always have to log everything to hold myself accountable. I can do this.6
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I need to avoid afternoon snacking. Right now it's a bad habit I've fallen back into because of stuff life's thrown at me, so I also need to avoid emotional eating. I know I need to, not currently successful though. Back to logging.5
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Eating something just because it looks good when I'm not really hungry. And as soon as I put it in my mouth I know I don't want it - it was habit. I know it's gonna make me feel crummy. If no one is around, I just spit. It's dumb to eat something you know you don't want just because you were silly enough to pick it up.
Also - standing at the door of the pantry when I'm hungry watching my husband cook and snacking on the nuts and crackers. No no no no! I swear that's how I put on the last 10 pounds before I lost weight.6 -
I avoid laziness by making a conscious effort to take stairs whenever I can, make local journeys "human powered" as much as possible etc. Those little bits and pieces of movement and avoidance of being static/sedentary add up and build healthy habits.
I don't avoid any food or drink that I like, I just avoid an excess of them.
The mental side of thinking "I'm done" needs to be avoided, I'm a natural goal setter so I use that to set new targets and challenges for myself.6 -
I don't 'avoid' foods but I certainly plan for them. I don't eat takeaway as often and if I'm having a calorie dense meal out or a drinking session then I will try and get a good calorie burn during the day to compensate and/or be a little more strict with myself during the rest of the day. But if you go over one day here and there it's not going to suddenly ruin your progress and that's something I have to remind myself sometimes. OCD? Me? Naaaa....2
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I avoid buying large/"share" sized bags of anything - crisps (UK), chocolate, bread, biscuits etc as I still struggle with willpower and find myself eating everything in the bag, whatever size it is.2
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Still avoid keeping trigger foods out of the house such as cookies and potato chips- hard to eat just one serving.4
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I've just started maintenance and I know what the reality is--most people who lose weight gain it all back, and then some. I don't want to be one of those people cause I have been there many times before.
First off, when I started MFP, I accepted the fact that I will always have to log my food, every single day forever. Second, I am going to figure out what it feels like to eat the calories MFP has given me, a generous 2,050. I plan to sit still with this amount and see what happens. I am going to try not eating my exercise calories at first, i.e. not exercising just so I can eat MORE (not that this is a bad motivation). I am going to stop weighing every week, try to let go of that number on the scale.3 -
I don't accept samples of sweet foods. I don't go to the grocery store unless I have the intention to buy something specific. I don't linger around snack food shelves. I don't stand and sniff food smells from shops/cafes. I don't buy edible goods that aren't intended for specific meals. I don't browse recipes for cakes/sweets.4
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I avoid junk food/highly processed and refined foods/empty calories. chips, candy, donuts, all that stuff. Forget about it. It no longer exists in my life. If I eat these things they vastly increase my appetite which leads to gaining weight and having to lose it back off. So they are best completely avoided.
Yup. Pretty much this. I stopped eating these things 14-15 years ago and have been maintaining since. They are no longer appealing at all, which makes it easier.2 -
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I try to avoid a negative mind set. One of the things that always derailed me in the past was being too down on myself. If I had a big day of over eating, I would convince myself that I couldn't do it and just give up. These days, I remind myself, that one day or even two does not make a bad diet, as long as it balances out over all.4
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I need to weigh frequently to monitor my weight. If I do not weigh to keep track of my weight I WILL gain weight! In the past I would avoid the scale because I knew I had gained weight. If I did not see the weight then I did not have to do anything about it.6
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Nicely stated - the whole "food as a reward" thing is a bit dysfunctional - using food to reward or withholding it to punish yourself is a bad practice. Food is primarily fuel, balance nutrition and taste.
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I don't completely avoid it, but I find that the less I eat out at restaurants, the easier it is to keep my calorie goals for the day.3
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Gluttony.
And in the other direction, over-restriction and stress fasting.
So I try to maintain moderation in eating, and avoid overeating or undereating.0 -
Mindless eating. It's the worst for slipping over cals without even realising!6
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I have been avoiding most pre-packaged foods and such that when I DO consume something of that ilk, I get bloating and surprisingly a feeling of anxiety, sort of a feeling that my skin is not quite mine. It is hard to describe. I was at a party the other day and my friend said the cupcakes were homemade so I decided to try one (I don't shy away from baked goods as long as they are actually homemade, organic ingredients all the better). After finishing half the cupcake, I started getting that anxious feeling so I threw away the rest of it. In the garbage can was an empty cake mix box! My friend "doctored" the mix to make it more homemade. It was just not good!
I used to love flaming hot cheetos and munchos chips ... nope, I just cannot do it anymore. jello? nope ... I could go on. I cook about 90% of my meals and I do a LOT of baking with organic eggs, flour and real fats like butter, olive oil and coconut oil. It is weird that the longer you eat more whole foods without added preservatives and other things, the less your body will be able to tolerate it.3 -
Bry_Lander wrote: »
Nicely stated - the whole "food as a reward" thing is a bit dysfunctional - using food to reward or withholding it to punish yourself is a bad practice. Food is primarily fuel, balance nutrition and taste.
This is perfect - I need to have it tattooed on my brain. Food is primarily fuel, and within that main goal, balance nutrition and taste. That's it in a nutshell.
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Bry_Lander wrote: »
Nicely stated - the whole "food as a reward" thing is a bit dysfunctional - using food to reward or withholding it to punish yourself is a bad practice. Food is primarily fuel, balance nutrition and taste.
Exactly! Eat to live and NOT live to eat.4
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