Struggling to maintain clean diet :(

kshama2001

StaciMarie1974 wrote: »

bassi1978 wrote: »

I do really well for a week then go back to eating rubbish again. Why is it so difficult to maintian a diet

Because the thought of "I can never have _____________ (fill in the fave food you're avoiding) ever again my life" is setting one's self up for failure.

Only for moderators. Not for abstainers. (And anyway, the real issue is that the OP is seriously undereating.)

http://gretchenrubin.com/happiness_project/2012/10/back-by-popular-demand-are-you-an-abstainer-or-a-moderator/

When dealing with temptation, I often see the advice, “Be moderate. Don’t have ice cream every night, but if you try to deny yourself altogether, you’ll fall off the wagon. Allow yourself to have the occasional treat, it will help you stick to your plan.”

I’ve come to believe that this is good advice for some people: the “moderators.” They do better when they avoid absolutes and strict rules.

For a long time, I kept trying this strategy of moderation–and failing. Then I read a line from Samuel Johnson, who said, when someone offered him wine: “Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult.”
Ah ha! Like Dr. Johnson, I’m an “abstainer.”

I find it far easier to give something up altogether than to indulge moderately. When I admitted to myself that I was eating my favorite frozen yogurt treat very often–two and even three times a day–I gave it up cold turkey. That was far easier for me to do than to eat it twice a week. If I try to be moderate, I exhaust myself debating, “Today, tomorrow?” “Does this time ‘count’?” “Don’t I deserve this?” etc. If I never do something, it requires no self-control for me; if I do something sometimes, it requires enormous self-control.

There’s no right way or wrong way–it’s just a matter of knowing which strategy works better for you. If moderators try to abstain, they feel trapped and rebellious. If abstainers try to be moderate, they spend a lot of precious energy justifying why they should go ahead and indulge.

StealthHealth

@kshama2001 Agree the OPs issue is under eating.

re Abstainer or a Moderator article.

My opinion from my own perspective (and I am aware that I am probably falling for the "People can be surprisingly judgmental about which approach you take. As an abstainer, I often get disapproving comments like, “It’s not healthy to take such a severe approach” comment but...

Although abstinence got me a fair way along the road with food/exercise and my goal to be fit/healthy/whatever, I did not feel that my relationship with food was healed or a healthy one until I dropped the abstinence mentality and was able to accept a place for my "trigger" foods in my diet without it leading to negative habits.

The concept of saying to myself that "I can never eat _____ again because I can't control myself" was, for me the same as saying "I don't have this under control at all".

Put another way, being able to take a bite of the forbidden fruit and live to tell the tale, proved to me that I was well on the way to having a normal attitude to food.

cwolfman13

If your diary is accurate, you need to worry less about "clean eating" and start taking in more calories regardless of source. Getting an appropriate amount of calories is just as important to proper nutrition as anything. 1500 is the minimum for a sedentary male. You are substantially under-eating...

jgnatca

Read up on "all or nothing" cognitive distortion.
Redefine clean and rubbish and you are well on your way.
If there isn't enough "clean" food at home you may choose not to eat at all. Which then becomes a destructive cycle the first time you pass a fast food joint.

PWRLFTR1

Meal prep. If I didn't prep my meals every week, who knows what I would eat. Weekends I'm not as strict, but I do try to be mindful so that my clothes still fit on Monday.