Getting fed up with clean eating?
dave_in_ni
Posts: 533 Member
I started my weigh loss journey in December 2015. Since then I've ate clean 90% of the time and been rewarded with a 60 lb weight loss.
I don't know if others are like this but I can eat pretty much anything whether I like it or not and well most of what I eat I'm not exactly fussed on and the novelty has really started to wear off. I eat chicken breast and brown rice and veg 4/5 nights per week because it's cheap and easily cooked after a days work, this past few days now I've either skipped dinner and ate chocolate as sick of eating it or I've ate the kids
leftovers, yesterday's dinner was a 3 musketeers bar for example.
As I say I've ate the same things daily for almost a year, chicken, rice, veg, eggs, turkey, sweet potatoes and am really sick of looking at them all.
Anyone experienced this or any advice?
I don't know if others are like this but I can eat pretty much anything whether I like it or not and well most of what I eat I'm not exactly fussed on and the novelty has really started to wear off. I eat chicken breast and brown rice and veg 4/5 nights per week because it's cheap and easily cooked after a days work, this past few days now I've either skipped dinner and ate chocolate as sick of eating it or I've ate the kids
leftovers, yesterday's dinner was a 3 musketeers bar for example.
As I say I've ate the same things daily for almost a year, chicken, rice, veg, eggs, turkey, sweet potatoes and am really sick of looking at them all.
Anyone experienced this or any advice?
4
Replies
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I eat everything, nothing gets boring for me. Expand your horizon, no food is bad unless it's spoiled or you are allergic to it.17
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So, eat something different? You can lose weight and eat something else than chicken, rice, veg, eggs, turkey and sweet potatoes. As long as you track your calories there is nothing keeping you from eating beef, pork, pasta, even the occational chocolate or sweets.10
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Yes. And I kicked it in the soft parts and kept running.
Began eating whatever I wanted within macros/calories and rewarded with 7% body fat.
You've reached the point of the spring springing back and running into the wall of unsustainability. And that's ok. Many of us have been there.15 -
You don't have to eat such a limited diet to lose weight or be healthy. You could even stick to the idea of "whole food" and have a lot more variety in your diet. Get some frozen shrimp or fish fillets. Try some barley or quinoa instead of rice. Make a big pot of soup on the weekends, refrigerate it in one serving containers so you just have to dump it into a pot and heat it up. Make an omelet. And then give yourself more wiggle room off that 90%, it seems you've seen it's not realistic. Pork, pasta, potatoes, an occasional pizza or frozen something-or-other, different sauces for your staple items, just practice moderation and enjoy your food a little :drinker:10
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I just eat whatever makes me happy within my calorie limit.
Some days that's seafood and veg, some days it's pizza, plus most days I leave room for chocolate and alcohol.
I lost 80 lbs in 12 months, hit my goal, and have maintained it for 8 months this way.12 -
If you really still want to eat "clean" or "healthy" do some research. There is so much variety out there why are you limiting yourself to just a few items. Just off the top of my head there's fish, nuts, seeds, beans, pulses, pasta, tofu, fruit, hummus, porridge etc. There's also so many different healthy snacks you can buy or make too. Also search "clean eating recipes" on YouTube or google, you'll find hundreds.3
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The same old story there
We can do a lot of unpleasant things as long as we are motivated enough, and if it's just slightly unpleasant, we can do it for quite a while, and then we can't figure out why we suddenly can't do it anymore, because it did work, for quite a while?
We need taste, we need good nutrition, we need variety, we need to make out own choices.5 -
This was one of the reasons I did not opt to go for the clean eating thing.
Instead, I made the decision when I got here that I would eat only foods I like. So I spent a few days exploring grocery stores and markets finding foods that would fit within my calorie limit and yet would be foods I really like. In doing that, I expanded the variety of what I ate. We've gone from eating the same 5 meals week after week, to eating something different every night of the week for several weeks ... unless we want to repeat something we particularly enjoy.
Fortunately, I like rice, chicken and steamed veggies ... so I have that most lunches. But sometimes I get tired of that so I'll have something else. Dinners usually include steamed veggies because I like them and they are filling, but for example, tonight I had lasagna and yesterday I had cannelloni.
On weekends we'll have pizza or roast dinner or Subway or something because we'll have exercised enough to do that.
I eat a lot of different snacks ... today I had a vanilla yogurt to which I added hot chocolate mix to make something like a yogurt chocolate pudding. Yum!
Oh, and I'll be having a piece of fudge later.
I have lost 25 kg/55 lbs this way ... and have maintained it for a year.5 -
More variety is needed for sure - I wouldn't have lasted as long as you on such a basic 'diet'.
I eat all foods but some I obviously limit i.e chocolate but I still enjoy some daily. My meals are never boring.
Research some new and exciting recipes and knock the food boredom on the head 1 -
I'm still on my first 5 kgs lost, but being a huge foodie I'd be lying if I said these thoughts didn't enter my mind. The challenge for me has been to make the food adequately tasty to be able to pass my critical taste buds as delicious.
What I've really gotten into are these one pot wonders. Just chuck mince into a frying pan with salt pepper and add as much ginger as you're comfortable with. I love it so I had like a solid mans thumbs worth. Then just top it off with frozen veggies (and more broccoli because holy damn I love broccoli). Pour generous amounts of soy sauce and concentrated stock (we have ecological chicken and beef stock here so I've used that), a touch more salt and pepper and let it sit with a lid. The ice around the frozen veggies will be liquid enough for a sauce and the soy and stock makes it delicious! Works well with rice and potatoes, and it's light on the calories!1 -
As others have said why would you carry on eating 'clean' if you dont like it? You dont need it to keep losing weight and a bit of variety in your diet is good surely? I certainly couldnt stick to a way of eating it if involved such a restrictive boring list of foods I was allowed. To me if youre going to do that you may as well do a herbalife/slimfast/shakeology type diet!!3
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You don't have to eat clean or healthy to lose weight, just be in a caloric deficit. I like to eat mostly healthy to support my body with proper nutrition, but I make room in my calories for treats too so I don't get bored or feel deprived. I enjoy a chocolate protein bar every single day, as well as one or two yummy things like: ice cream, cheese, peanut butter, macaroni and cheese, sour cream, sushi, chocolate cereal, fruit smoothies, etc. If you eat mostly healthy and can fit it in your calories, go ahead and eat a bit of candy or whatever you're craving.
Also maybe you're just not properly seasoning your regular food? Personally I LOVE brown rice and chicken and veggies and sweet potatoes and eggs and all of that stuff... Do you use sea salt and fresh ground pepper and things like lemon juice, garlic, vinegars, oils, butter, soy sauce, BBQ sauce, honey, salsa, and/or herbs & spices when you cook?? It really makes a big difference to add proper seasonings to things. I used to think I had to cook my chicken by boiling it because I was on a diet- then I realized I could use some spray oil and pan sauté it and season it with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I marinate shrimp before I cook them with lemon juice, garlic, dried basil, and chili flakes. I often add soy sauce and a little vinegar & honey when sautéing vegetables to give them an Asian type flavor. I often will squeeze a little lemon juice on my sweet potato or sprinkle some garlic powder on it. Or sometimes instead of just having it mashed I will instead cut them into large wedges and bake them for a different type of texture & they get even sweeter from browning & caramelizing.
You've got to get a little creative sometimes to keep things interesting, but it doesn't take much.2 -
Despite the issues with the terminology: "Clean Eating" - it is not clean eating that is your issue. Your issue is the repetitive nature of your diet (and the aggressive deficit - you are not eating enough for an active adult male).
Do some batch prep and freezing so that you have a variety of meals available. each morning you can decide what you want to dinner and then take a meal out of the freezer for reheating that evening.
Meals that I have found work well in this way (edit or delete depending upon your version of "healthy" or "Clean":- Chilli
- Pretty much any steamed and mashed carb heavy veg - Potato, parsnip, Carrot, Sweet potato, Butternut squash
- Steamed spinach
- Chicken curry or stew
- Slow cooked pulled pork or beef
- Lentil based casseroles or curry dishes
- Fishcakes
- Shepard's/Cottage pie
- Lasagna (I make mine with sweet potato slices because I don't often eat pasta)
- Sausage and beans
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That's it I 'm comin over to stealth healths place.. I am salivating at your suggestions !2
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dave_in_ni wrote: »I don't know if others are like this but I can eat pretty much anything whether I like it or not and well most of what I eat I'm not exactly fussed on and the novelty has really started to wear off. I eat chicken breast and brown rice and veg 4/5 nights per week because it's cheap and easily cooked after a days work, this past few days now I've either skipped dinner and ate chocolate as sick of eating it or I've ate the kids
leftovers, yesterday's dinner was a 3 musketeers bar for example.
I just love that line break... it made me chuckle.
I eat everything, I just fit it into my calories. Chocolate, chicken, fish and chips, ham rolls, casseroles, roast dinners... everything.
ETA: my diary is open if you want to have a browse for some ideas.9 -
My suggestion is to get a cookbook or visit a few recipe sites. Learn how to make other meals. Your diet is pointlessly boring.5
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In for StealthHealth's sweet potato lasagna.
To the OP, I second what jemhh said. You need much more variety in your diet. Not that there's anything wrong with incorporating the treats you've been eating into your days, but what you've been doing in the name of "eating clean" is just ... dull.4 -
Eat some salads to mix it up0
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An occasional sweetie is no problem, but skipping dinner to eat chocolate is a damn sight less "healthy" or "clean" than just varying your meal.
Almost any sort of meat / fish / seafood / veggie substitute with any sort of carb and any vegetable side would give you broadly similar nutrition to your boring dinner. Just keep control of the portion sizes and don't go mad with the cooking fat. It doesn't need to take significantly longer to cook than what you have now, once you've done the initial research to find some menus you like.2 -
I did the "clean eating" thing for, what? 10 days? I had to nip it in the bud pretty early because I was starting to get orthorexic and it starting showing clear signs of affecting my mind and life negatively. What's funny is that even before I decided to lose weight most of the food I ate could be considered "clean", but having "good foods bad foods" boundaries somehow triggered the rebellious child inside of me and I was often too stressed with constant mental battles between "want" and "should". Foods that only occasionally came to mind suddenly acquired this attractive halo of forbidden fruit and I thought about them more often than I usually would. I wasn't on it long enough to get bored of the foods, especially that I like whole foods anyway, but they somehow lost their attractiveness, which was weird to me. I knew that wasn't for me, so I stopped before I could do much damage and moved onto a more flexible approach and was rewarded with a105 lb sustainable less stressful weight loss.
Balance if often healthier than extremes, and normalizing foods is often less stressful than creating forbidden rooms of choices that you only venture into filled with a sense of dread and anxiety, which seems to come through loudly in your posts.
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What way of eating is going to be sustainable for you, for the next 20, 30, 40+ years? The weight loss phase is for a short period of time, and then you're faced with the many years of maintenance. This is where most people fail miserably. You need to learn how to do this whole thing in a way that's realistic and sustainable, and is doable for the rest of your life. Obviously what you're doing now isn't that. No harm done, but now you need to figure out how to proceed from here.
There's no need to arbitrarily cut out the foods you enjoy, that only leads to frustration and failure. Weight loss and weight maintenance is about consuming the correct amount of calories for your goals. Eat what you like and hit your calorie goals. Simple as that
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I have to eat a restricted diet for my health. Even after excluding eggs and rice, I still eat more variety than you do . Pinterest and Google are your best friends for recipes. Taco stuffed squash, portobello mushroom burger, chili, spiced butternut squash and apple soup, curry, stir fry, honey cilantro salmon, spaghetti squash or zoodles with shrimp, musaka....you can alter most of these to fit your goals. Just expand your palate.1
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It wouldn't exactly be clean, but, frozen salmon filets aren't too expensive. I nuke them in a sealed plastic bowl with pre-sauced frozen vegetables (lightly sauced varieties). Judge me for microwaving fish, but it perfectly steams it and cooks the sauce into the fish. Some combos have been damn tasty.1
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dave_in_ni wrote: »I started my weigh loss journey in December 2015. Since then I've ate clean 90% of the time and been rewarded with a 60 lb weight loss.
I don't know if others are like this but I can eat pretty much anything whether I like it or not and well most of what I eat I'm not exactly fussed on and the novelty has really started to wear off. I eat chicken breast and brown rice and veg 4/5 nights per week because it's cheap and easily cooked after a days work, this past few days now I've either skipped dinner and ate chocolate as sick of eating it or I've ate the kids
leftovers, yesterday's dinner was a 3 musketeers bar for example.
As I say I've ate the same things daily for almost a year, chicken, rice, veg, eggs, turkey, sweet potatoes and am really sick of looking at them all.
Anyone experienced this or any advice?
There are a bazillion more foods out there that qualify as "clean" in the traditional sense. Why on earth would you eat the same 6 things? Also, with the right seasonings, a couple more ingredients and varied combinations, you could probably make nearly a year's worth of dinners out of those 6 things without ever repeating an exact recipe.1 -
kommodevaran wrote: »The same old story there
We can do a lot of unpleasant things as long as we are motivated enough, and if it's just slightly unpleasant, we can do it for quite a while, and then we can't figure out why we suddenly can't do it anymore, because it did work, for quite a while?
We need taste, we need good nutrition, we need variety, we need to make out own choices.
This is what I think too.
Although I consider "clean eating" rather pointless--it means whatever people say it means, and I don't think processed foods (which include frozen veg, cottage cheese, smoked salmon, etc., and for that matter, rice) are inherently bad for me, or non processed foods impossible to get fat on--the issue here isn't "clean eating," but that you've been eating such little variety and such a basic "diet" meal all the time that of course you get bored and can't sustain it. The trick is to understand that good nutrition doesn't require such limited fare (in fact, I think it's better nutritionally to eat more variety) and that there are a huge number of delicious meals that will fit fine in your calories and goals--it's not chicken, rice, and veg or a chocolate bar.
Spend a little time (it really takes very little) thinking of some different things to cook that you would enjoy and have the ingredients on hand so it's a fast after work thing like the chicken or like grabbing chocolate. I'm not sure why the kids have to have different meals, for example -- if there's something you can cook for all of you that would be easier.
I usually think of dinner as some combination of protein, starch, and vegetables (and use a lot of vegetables) but beyond that the sky's the limit.1 -
I have to eat a restricted diet for my health. Even after excluding eggs and rice, I still eat more variety than you do . Pinterest and Google are your best friends for recipes. Taco stuffed squash, portobello mushroom burger, chili, spiced butternut squash and apple soup, curry, stir fry, honey cilantro salmon, spaghetti squash or zoodles with shrimp, musaka....you can alter most of these to fit your goals. Just expand your palate.
Same here. I also have a crazy amount of restricted foods and i could.nevee survive on the variety the op has. Variety is the spice of life after all0 -
Time to branch out. It's amazing that you ate the same thing as long as you did. Instead of "clean eating" why don't you think of it as "quality eating"? Look up some recipes and have fun.3
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I like pork loin ,, it's the other white meat
Good luck1 -
Too restrictive, no wonder you are tired. To me "clean" eating is if it didn't fall on the floor and get pet hair on it. I don't play that game. I try to stick with healthier choices the majority of time but I still eat my favorites when I want. Life without Dairy Queen is not a life to me
You can stick to your calories without eating the same bland foods day in day out.5 -
kristikitter wrote: »dave_in_ni wrote: »I don't know if others are like this but I can eat pretty much anything whether I like it or not and well most of what I eat I'm not exactly fussed on and the novelty has really started to wear off. I eat chicken breast and brown rice and veg 4/5 nights per week because it's cheap and easily cooked after a days work, this past few days now I've either skipped dinner and ate chocolate as sick of eating it or I've ate the kids
leftovers, yesterday's dinner was a 3 musketeers bar for example.
I just love that line break... it made me chuckle.
I eat everything, I just fit it into my calories. Chocolate, chicken, fish and chips, ham rolls, casseroles, roast dinners... everything.
ETA: my diary is open if you want to have a browse for some ideas.
How many calories are the kids ? Lol
Good luck3
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