What food/fitness/health "hack" has made a big difference for you?

Copper_Boom

I have started cutting up vegetables I buy at the grocery store as soon as I get them home, before putting in the refrigerator. I am far more likely to eat them when they are ready to snack on. Before, I would buy vegetables, let them sit in the fridge all week, and then throw them away since they'd rot before I could motivate myself to eat them.

BattyKnitter

Meal Prepping! No matter what food or what time I snack I am always STARVING by the time I get home. So I love coming home after work and just having to warm up my food, makes it so much easier to stay on track and I can work out earlier in the evening.

1houndgal

Swimming. It enables me to have a great workout, something I can't do on land.

Making a New years resoulution to fix my diet, I choose MFP app and I am now 1 pound shy of 30 pounds lost this year.

zyxst

Tare feature on a food scale.

ceiswyn

Going out for a walk in midafternoon when I start to feel tired and peckish. It wakes me up and distracts me from being hungry

(Also, Abel & Cole’s ‘One Pot Wonder’ recipe box. For about £17 it makes me six high-veg low-cal dinners, most of which I can freeze for days when I’m busy or tired or lazy; as well as providing several days’ worth of fruit to snack on. The recipes can be a bit variable in quality, but there are a few that have been good enough for me to keep and make again)

jigglypuff_wigglytuff

I drink all my water out of tumblers that come with straws. It keeps my "need-something-in-mouth" thing satisfied while sipping on the agua and gives me the placebo effect of thinking I'm having a fountain drink.

kommodevaran

I see your tare feature and raise you the negative numbers on the food scale.

Meal planning, and planning meals I actually want to eat (no more self-sabotage and food waste). Connnected to this is scheduled grocery shopping (I try to buy just the amount of perishables I can eat up before next shopping trip).
Dancing, leisurely walking and playing instead of trying to go to the gym, or boring long hikes.
Daily weigh-ins. No more anxiety, no more "making up for it tomorrow".

brightresolve

My fitness watch has really motivated me to see how much difference a set of 5 stairs when I visit the ladies' at work, or a 20 minute walk outside at lunch, can make to my overall activity level and calorie burn. Bought it to better earn points for a work thing, then really really liked it.

DebLaBounty

I put on my gym clothes on and lace up my shoes whether I feel like it or not. Once I'm at my class, about 20 minutes in I'm happy I went!

zyxst

kommodevaran wrote: »

I see your tare feature and raise you the negative numbers on the food scale.

Of course the tare function is absolutely useless compared to negative numbers. Why did I bother posting such a worthless "hack"?

zyxst

zyxst wrote: »

Tare feature on a food scale.

Thanks MFP for not allowing me to edit my post when I'm well within the editing time window.

Seffell

Prelogging my food from the day before.

mazcor536

Sleep!!! Or rather, instead of sitting watching tv in the evening and risking a snack blowout, I’ll go to bed. I will mess around on my phone until I go to sleep, but being in pyjamas, under a thick duvet, removes me from the temptation to undo my hard work for the day.

goldthistime

Eating minimum of 6 servings of veggies and/or fruits a day and getting adequate protein. Those two simple things (well, simple now that I'm used to it), have made this a relatively easy process.

suzyloveskoalas

Boiling eggs and having fruits and veggies readily available to snack on, freezing fresh bananas and strawberries (cheaper than buying frozen), prioritizing lifting weights over cardio when I’m short on time or bored, getting right back on the horse after falling off and not kill myself with cardio, telling myself to trust the process, literally throwing out my body weight scale, diet and working out consistently will always win, using half Greek yogurt and half Alfredo for Alfredo sauce, adding protein powder to French toast, adding veggies to eggs, using Greek yogurt as a substitute for sour cream and creamy dressings, add chia seeds to whatever I think tastes good for fiber, apple sauce as an oil/butter substitute when baking, milk instead of coffee creamer, eat pizza or ice cream and anything in between when I really really want it, and most importantly being nicer to myself.

MelanieCN77

I lay out my gym clothes for the morning as I am going to bed, and as soon as I get up I put them on.

seltzermint555

Habits/routine. Limiting meals out. In the past (long before MFP) I would often grab takeout through the week for convenience or "fun" and for years now I've planned x number of meals with my husband and it's an unwritten rule in our house that we're going to cook at home Sunday through Friday. Of course, there's still some flexibility for special occasions & travel. But I'd say 95% of the time we cook a healthier lunch and dinner during the week and save meals out for Saturdays only. Same with breakfast. We have a handful of go-to meals that are relatively healthy and it's not an option to me anymore to go to McDonald's drive thru on my way to work. I'll be having Greek yogurt, a small omelet, or whatever else, and coffee at home.

Another benefit of this is saving money!

AllSpiceNice

First thing in the morning, I pre-log my evening treat of a BIG bowl of Greek yogurt and frozen berries.

Knowing I have a big delicious dessert helps me keep unplanned night time snacking at bay. Pre-logging it helps me make smarter choices earlier in the day, so I can eat that dessert and stay within my calorie budget.

fitoverfortymom

Meal prep. Since weight loss mostly happens in the kitchen, I spend a lot of time there making sure I'm ready for the week.

HowUdish

Meal prep! When it's ready to eat and you just need to warm it up, you are far more likely to stick to healthy eating.

seltzermint555

I'm not trying to say meal prep is a bad thing (far from it) but I do think it varies by person/household. I would be much more likely to say "forget this" and just go out to dinner if I was on day #3 of a prepped-ahead-of-time meal that I just had to heat up. It would have long lost its novelty. I see the lovely prepped meals on Pinterest and all I can think is how much I would hate eating the same thing every night or even every day for lunch.

I'm sure not every person does it that way (same items every day of the week) but I definitely wouldn't like that.

brightresolve

Breakfasts are the same and I like it that way.

Lunch is where I meal prep with variety. "My" drawer in the work refrig has 100 calorie burrito wraps, no calorie chipotle ranch dressing, tomatillo salsa, maybe some leftovers, and whatever veggies. The freezer has some vegan crispy tenders. Some days I wrap, if I have LOTS of greens I salad and top it with the tenders, if I am craving something different I get 3 oz of smoked turkey and deviled eggs from the cafeteria and chop it on the salad. So it's easy, cheap, and enough variety to be okay.

CarvedTones

Short term (sort of) freezing. I get boneless skinless chicken breasts in the big frozen bag, thaw, marinate (various) and bake them all. Usually I do it as a dinner for family, but due to differing diets, usually only 2 or three serving get eaten. I take it to work for lunch with some salad, but not every day and it can take too long to use up, so I will split it into 2 or 3 batches and use the quart freezer bags. As I use up one, I grab another out of the freezer and put it in the fridge. They aren't frozen long enough to have any ill effects and they get used up without going bad. I also do this with medallions sliced from turkey tenderloins. Nearly always having some cooed chicken handy that is reasonably fresh without paying the high price for the convenient stuff helps me.

crabbybrianna

seltzermint555 wrote: »

I'm not trying to say meal prep is a bad thing (far from it) but I do think it varies by person/household. I would be much more likely to say "forget this" and just go out to dinner if I was on day #3 of a prepped-ahead-of-time meal that I just had to heat up. It would have long lost its novelty. I see the lovely prepped meals on Pinterest and all I can think is how much I would hate eating the same thing every night or even every day for lunch.

I'm sure not every person does it that way (same items every day of the week) but I definitely wouldn't like that.

I feel the same way. I also don’t like reheated food (unless it’s something like soup or a meat sauce for pasta), so the thought of reheated food for an entire week is really offputting. I have to have meat and vegetables freshly cooked.

I do pre-plan my meals in advance, though. I’ll usually plan what I’m going to eat 3 or 4 days ahead of time so I can have everything ready and I know what I’m going to be having.

Keto_Vampire

Mostly just psychology hacks...sticking to the same prepacked food portions, using the same size bowl/plates/etc., eating in the same setting, cutting up food as needed (slows down pace), using more solid foods when trying to lose weight, using more liquid/easy digesting foods when trying to gain, etc.

Lillymoo01

I've just gone back to uni as a mature aged student. This requires copious amounts of reading and video watching. If I don't need to take notes this is now done while on the treadmill. It keeps my step count up and after an hour long online lecture that treat has already be burnt off.
On top of that I always make sure I've cooked enough for two meals when I know I have a full uni day the following day so it is a simple reheat when I get home.

Keto_Vampire

Lillymoo01 wrote: »

I've just gone back to uni as a mature aged student. This requires copious amounts of reading and video watching. If I don't need to take notes this is now done while on the treadmill. It keeps my step count up and after an hour long online lecture that treat has already be burnt off.
On top of that I always make sure I've cooked enough for two meals when I know I have a full uni day the following day so it is a simple reheat when I get home.

Bringing back memories...to this day, I still review notes/do continuing education on the treadmill for multitasking madness. Takes almost no effort after doing for so long

MelanieCN77

Oh! And making a priority of not getting over hungry, so having things on hand I'm ok turning to if I need to snack, and thinking ahead for mealtimes.

hometeamwins

seltzermint555 wrote: »

I'm not trying to say meal prep is a bad thing (far from it) but I do think it varies by person/household. I would be much more likely to say "forget this" and just go out to dinner if I was on day #3 of a prepped-ahead-of-time meal that I just had to heat up. It would have long lost its novelty. I see the lovely prepped meals on Pinterest and all I can think is how much I would hate eating the same thing every night or even every day for lunch.

I'm sure not every person does it that way (same items every day of the week) but I definitely wouldn't like that.

Finally I know I’m not the only one!! The rows and rows of the same thing every day for a week?! I’m good with leftovers once, twice if it’s spaghetti... but four days of it??

newheavensearth

Meal prep, kids meals, single serving size snacks. Having a plan allows me to fit in the other two. The other two give me just enough to be satisfied and stay within my plan.

Kst76

mazcor536 wrote: »

Sleep!!! Or rather, instead of sitting watching tv in the evening and risking a snack blowout, I’ll go to bed. I will mess around on my phone until I go to sleep, but being in pyjamas, under a thick duvet, removes me from the temptation to undo my hard work for the day.

I like this. It works for me too!