Are there any foods that are banned in your head?

tbullucks2006

Even though I know I can have what I want in moderation, I have just banned some foods in my head all together. It's so weird because I seriously don't deprive myself of anything. However there are some foods that I heard along the way that were really bad so I don't touch them. For instance - pasta. I love love love pasta. With dieting though, I feel like i have committed a sin eating it. Even when I am not dieting I avoid Alfredo sauce because somewhere I've heard it's one of the worst things in life you can eat. I also no longer eat bagels for breakfast because I heard they are just empty calories for breakfast. The weird thing is that I eat all other kinds of crap foods just fine. Does anyone else do this or am I just crazy? Well I know I'm crazy but does anyone else do this????

singingflutelady

I have no banned foods except ones that trigger my illness

healthygreek

My only banned foods are foods I don't like.
Portion control is the key to losing.

Whitezombiegirl

No banned ones but definitely ones that are not enough bang for thier buck, calorie wise. Some things are so high in calories that i have a few options if i want them
1. Go over cals and accept it
2. Go over cals and make up through cutting back over the week or adding exercise. (or bit of both)
3. Stay within cals but cut way back on other food that day
4. Stay within cals and have a very tiny amount.

I havent had a good old cheese and onion pasty ( cheese, onion, mashed potato in flakey pastry case) in 18 months. Its about 800 cals for one! Not worth it imo.

oolou

No food has been banned in my head. I am actively abstaining from particular food that is both calorie dense and which I have trouble moderating, but if offered it outside my home, I would likely accept. For example, doughnuts. So, no doughnuts in my cupboard, but ... not banned per se.

vespiquenn

Nope, no banned foods here. I like eating too much to think of banning anything.

smiles4jo

I started this diet on January 6 and haven’t had fast food in all of 2016. So far, I’m down 50 lbs.

I know I could easily work my calories to include fast food. And I know it’s not great food health-wise, but I’ve certainly eaten worse since starting on this diet, so it’s not like I have the perfect diet. And I certainly don’t think any food is evil, by itself.

My issue is just that fast food is a slippery slope that has tripped me up in the past. It starts off with ordering the happy meal which fits perfectly in my calories and, before I know it, I’m at the Big Mac with large fries.

So, I’ve just chosen not to have fast food. There may come a time when I will have it again, but for now, I'm okay with this choice.

brilliantwords

I allow myself moderation of whatever I want as well, at least, this is the logic I follow so that I can maintain my loss so far, and HAVE so far for 7 years. This will allow a realistic approach for life. (IIFYM/If It Fits Your Macros).

However, my subconscious/guilt about pizza is something that still happens regardless. I have no idea why, I wish it didn't happen. It also happens with things like Kraft Dinner (prepackaged, crappy macros), even if it does in fact fit into my daily goal. Yet I'm totally fine logging some other crappy things.

Like I said, I logically know the difference from my personal experience with my own weight loss, so not sure why.

leejoyce31

oolou wrote: »

No food has been banned in my head. I am actively abstaining from particular food that is both calorie dense and which I have trouble moderating, but if offered it outside my home, I would likely accept. For example, doughnuts. So, no doughnuts in my cupboard, but ... not banned per se.

I am an abstainer because I am a horrible moderator. I haven't had a snickers bar in years because I would eat 6 at a time... Yes, 6 regular sized snicker bars. But I don't miss them at all. Once I decide to abstain, I move on. I can list several "treats" that are on my abstinence list but I won't bore anyone with the list.

AlabasterVerve

Turkey as a replacement for beef (ground, hamburgers, hotdogs, bacon etc.), brown rice, whole wheat whatever, quinoa, flax seeds, low fat, low sugar... the list goes on. Any "healthy" food or food products like that I shy away from. I fell for all of that healthy-this-healthy-that nonsense hook, line and sinker and feel foolish now eating any of that stuff.

Mentali

Sometimes I do struggle with those perceptions you're talking about - feeling guilty over eating something that seems unhealthy, even if you know it's not. It's not rational or rooted in facts, because I do eat unhealthier things but some things stick in my head, like burgers. Burgers are not bad! I know they're not bad! But every once in a while I have to remind myself that a burger is a fine meal because somewhere along the line my brain associated burgers with unhealthy. Logic usually prevails though

ashliedelgado

I don't buy any junk food at all, but that's because I have teenagers who have inhaled it before I can get it out of the car lol. Seriously, they will crumble oreos up in a bowl and eat them like cereal.

MiamiSeoul

I also eat what I want but I also find certain foods, like gateway drugs for some, a slope I choose not to scale. I didn't have a slice of pizza last night at my son's program because I'm not sure I could have stopped at one - although I had lots of room in my calorie allowance. Same holds true for cigarettes - can't have just one, so I don't indulge.

oolou

In addition, I don't think you're crazy. I think we are given so much information about food and diets and what is considered healthy by some and then opposite advice by others that at some point we take on opinions about food which may not necessarily be true, but which have been repeated and reinforced so often by others who have particular angles to work, that it's there in our heads.

Lazz5k

i dont think you're crazy. i have banned foods in my head too but they really make no sense. I.E. Baked potatoes, too many carbs! ; but then i'll order french fries with my steak. Like i said, it makes no sense! it's just in my head.

jeebieheebies

Store-bought muffins, and chocolate shell sauce, and battered deep-fried stuff! I don't love anything with that deep-fried batter so it isn't worth it to just munch on onion rings or whatever because they're there. Muffins because again, don't LOVE them, and also because I can make them at home and have em be way healthier and a smaller size, and they're like 600 calories at the store. And chocolate shell because my aunt used to talk about how junky it was and it just stuck with me and now I have a "health aversion" to it, all the time, not just when being health-conscious!


And not sure why @AlabasterVerve you think quinoa or flax seeds are unhealthy/gimmicky, or why you regret eating them. They are both very nutritious, and flax seeds aren't any higher in calorie than any other seed or nut. They're also both tasty and really versatile. You can look up the nutrition of them specifically if you want to be educated instead of just blindly following fads like you say you used to. No need to feel foolish!

richardgavel

Close to banned because it usually isn't worth the calories are fast food and pizza (though I make my own burgers and fries and pizza with better ingredients cooking and portions).

chunky_pinup

Only what I'm allergic to.

malibu927

Nope. If I ban something, that'll only make me want to binge eat it at some point. Now there are things I have cut out (fries from most fast food places, regular soda) to save calories, but I'm not missing them at all.

kgirlhart

The only banned foods for me are foods that I don't like. I don't care how "good for you" something is, if I don't like it I won't eat it. And even though I used to think that I could never eat certain foods in moderation, I have learned that I can eat them in moderation, so I do.

aloranger7708

I don't ban any foods, HOWEVER, there are some foods with such a high calorie amount that I can't justify eating it. Not worth it IMO

RAinWA

My brain has trouble with full-sized candy bars. Last week I really wanted a candy bar and had plenty of calories to make it work. But I just could not buy a regular sized candy bar. So I bought a bag of fun sized and (as you can probably guess) promptly ate just as many calories in fun-sized candy as I would have if I'd just bought one full-sized bar. No idea why my brain rebelled at buying the blasted candy bar.

kommodevaran

You aren't crazy, but you should really be critical to stuff you hear. I also think you should stop thinking you are sinful for eating. If you love something, fit it in. Bagels are not empty calories. Is there a special time something stops being empty calories? Why would Alfredo sauce be bad?

I don't do this, I don't ban anything, but I avoid foods that don't satisfy and trigger overeating, foods I don't like, and the few foods I'm allergic to (especially kiwis).

dragon_girl26

I don't abstain, but there are foods I choose to purchase in restaurants, buy individual servings of, or eat from other places rather bringing them in the house. I learned that Nutella, for instance, is hard to keep in the house. I don't miss it if it isn't there, but if it is there I eat a lot of it all at once.

JeromeBarry1

Have I banned any foods? It's fair to say that I've banned gratuitous leftover cakes and pastries at the workplace, as I've declined to partake on days when I had room in my calorie budget. I chose to wait for my variety of food groups dinner at home.

lemurcat12

No, I don't. There are lots of foods I usually don't want and don't eat (like traditional fast food, which I only ever think about eating on a road trip) and other foods that typically don't fit into my calories/eating plan so I have them rarely, but it's actually important to be that nothing be banned. Even if I pretty much never eat it, that I could if I wanted to is part of my understanding.

It's interesting that you put pasta in that category, as I think of pasta as a base for quite healthy and fast meals with a reasonable number of calories -- basically mixed with a topping of lean meat, veg, and olive oil, with the pasta kept to a sensible serving.

Alfredo sauce is high cal, but I bet there are homemade ones that you could play with to make a more reasonable number of calories -- the trick is logging it yourself and figuring out the calories and (sometimes) how to cut them, not just assuming something must be too high. That's what I found valuable about MFP -- it's easy for me to estimate calories now, and to play around with something to decrease them, if I want. (Sometimes it's not worth it and better just to have it rarely and fit in the calorie hit.)

87sid

I don't know that I would particularly say banned, but I don't know if I trust my self to have a pint of Talenti in my freezer. I haven't checked the nutrition facts but I assume they arent great and it isn't worth it to me. I also somewhat avoid going out to eat at restaurants because figuring out all the info to make it fit into my allowance is too much of a headache.

hmltwin

Some things, I outright won't eat because I don't like them. I don't care how many people tell me that Greek yogurt is delicious and full of protein. It smells... really horrible to me. Y'all can have mine (I'm not sure how you eat it, to be honest). Other things, I avoid because I know they contain migraine triggers. No matter how much I love them, I can't have them near me or I will eat enough to end up with a migraine (cordial cherries, nacho cheese chips, marachino cherries... anything with Red 40). I'll eat some of them out, because I can limit them (i.e. - a single cherry on my sundae is safe, 1 nacho chip is safe... my sister eats the rest of the little bag.)

However, there are other things where I have to tell myself, "I can eat this. It fits in my calorie limit today." Fast food is one of them. I'm going to an outside concert tonight directly after work and the plan is to get some fast food for dinner. I'm just a little worried because in my brain, all fast food is "BAD." I know that it doesn't have to be. I can make good choices and some of the things I have no trouble eating are far worse (ice cream sundae?), but... yeah, my brain keeps saying, "Fast food is bad when you're on a diet."

KetoLady86

Baskin Robbins banana split...im going

laur357

I don't ban any foods, but there are definitely foods I don't keep around my house regularly. (Looking at you, chips.)

kermax39

I find just having a bite or a tiny portion is harder than banning it, so some of my banned foods are anything deep fried and battered, butter, pastry, double cream in sauces, proper quiche, peanut butter. I still eat chocolate, crisps, mcdonalds, chinese takeaway, just try to choose the best calorie wise.