Struggling to maintain clean diet :(
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danigirl1011 wrote: »Because food that is bad for you is horribly addictive! Just as long as you keep trying it's better to do one week of good stuff and fall off the wagon then to never be on the wagon
you do know there isn't actually a wagon... its just life....10 -
Food is food. It's not clean or dirty, it's not good or bad.
Drop these labels, set calorie and macro targets that will move you towards your goals. If there is a food that you crave or enjoy then ensure that you fit this into you diary every now and then.9 -
Eat what you desire, see how it fits in calories, how it affects macro's. Adjust a bit if needed.
No food restrictions.4 -
Having a one cheat day a week helps me stay on track. I stuff myself unlimited junk and sweets on Saturday.4
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Don't "eat clean." Make better choices and eat better portions of what you regularly eat.
If you cannot maintain a diet for a lifetime, its not going to work. Figure out what works for you, gets you the nutrients you need AND the pleasure in eating that you need but still keeps you at a calorie level to maintain the weight you want.4 -
Small changes...
and if you fail one week, try a little harder next week. Don´t be so hard on yourself and try to always find ways of be better1 -
Because it's a big pain in the *kitten* and deep down you know it's not that important.7
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If I tell myself I can't have a particular food guess what food I'm binging on come Saturday?5
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StaciMarie1974 wrote: »
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.4 -
@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.
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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...6
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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.1 -
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.1
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