Eating Guilt?
Replies
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RelCanonical wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »"Food in itself is neither healthy nor unhealthy" so with this kind of thinking....chocolate has the same nutritional health value as...broccoli?
No, it means it's the overall context of your diet that is important. Chocolate isn't, by itself, unhealthy. Broccoli isn't, by itself, healthy. We need a great many things from our diet so we're lucky that foods come with such a wide range of macro- and micronutrients to help meet our various needs.
Yep, it's about nutritional needs and goals.
100 grams of milk chocolate has 18% of your daily value of calcium
100 grams of broccoli has 4% of your daily value of calcium
If you need calcium and had to choose between the two, which one is "healthier"?
IDK - I guess the >500 calories in the 100g of chocolate would deter me1 -
"Food in itself is neither healthy nor unhealthy" so with this kind of thinking....chocolate has the same nutritional health value as...broccoli?
I think the fact that this is the conclusion you drew from the statement that food in itself is neither healthy nor unhealthy says more about your reading comprehension than it does about the poster's thinking...4 -
WanderingRivers wrote: »I only go 1200 or under when making up for a binge or I just don't feel good.
I have a minimum of 5 more lbs to go but I am thinking I may go to a lower goal then I have currently have.
Again, without knowing more details of what your overindulgence was, I can't say this with absolute certainty - but eating over your maintenance calories at a family gathering is NOT a binge. Binge eating disorder is a clinical diagnosis and comparing eating a few hundred extra calories above your maintenance to the experiences of those with actual BED is inconsiderate at best.
Secondly, with 5 lbs left to go, even if you decide to lose more but it is less than 20 lbs; you should be aiming for a rate of loss of 0.5 lb/week. That rate of loss would likely put you at a calorie target over 1200 calories, thinking about how you are going to successfully transition to maintenance and what your long term plans are should be part of your consideration now - not feeling guilty about overdoing it at a family bbq and feeling like you have to make up for that. Family events, holidays, special occasions- these are all part of life. Don't you want to develop a healthy sustainable plan for how to cope in those situations, even when you aren't actively trying to lose weight?
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I think that dividing food into "good" and "bad" categories can lead to unhealthy eating habits (like an eating disorder). In my experience restricting things that I've labeled as "unhealthy" or "bad" just led me to feel deprived and I ended up falling off the wagon altogether because I wasn't learning to eat the things I love in moderation. We have nutritional needs of course and it's good to eat nutritionally dense foods (if that is a good term to use, I'm not sure) but cake, cookies, chips, etc. are not inherently bad. Just if you eat an excess of them and aren't getting your nutrition needs overall.5
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I think that dividing food into "good" and "bad" categories can lead to unhealthy eating habits (like an eating disorder). In my experience restricting things that I've labeled as "unhealthy" or "bad" just led me to feel deprived and I ended up falling off the wagon altogether because I wasn't learning to eat the things I love in moderation. We have nutritional needs of course and it's good to eat nutritionally dense foods (if that is a good term to use, I'm not sure) but cake, cookies, chips, etc. are not inherently bad. Just if you eat an excess of them and aren't getting your nutrition needs overall.
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RelCanonical wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »"Food in itself is neither healthy nor unhealthy" so with this kind of thinking....chocolate has the same nutritional health value as...broccoli?
No, it means it's the overall context of your diet that is important. Chocolate isn't, by itself, unhealthy. Broccoli isn't, by itself, healthy. We need a great many things from our diet so we're lucky that foods come with such a wide range of macro- and micronutrients to help meet our various needs.
Yep, it's about nutritional needs and goals.
100 grams of milk chocolate has 18% of your daily value of calcium
100 grams of broccoli has 4% of your daily value of calcium
If you need calcium and had to choose between the two, which one is "healthier"?
IDK - I guess the >500 calories in the 100g of chocolate would deter me
Again, it's all about goals. If you needed to gain weight (some people have trouble putting food down, or have issues with chewing, for example), chocolate would be the better option. For most of us, chocolate probably wouldn't be the better option because it's calorie-dense, but that doesn't make chocolate "unhealthy". It just means that chocolate is calorie-dense and you'll probably gain if you don't moderate it. But it's not evil. Chocolate doesn't have an agenda.8 -
RelCanonical wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »"Food in itself is neither healthy nor unhealthy" so with this kind of thinking....chocolate has the same nutritional health value as...broccoli?
No, it means it's the overall context of your diet that is important. Chocolate isn't, by itself, unhealthy. Broccoli isn't, by itself, healthy. We need a great many things from our diet so we're lucky that foods come with such a wide range of macro- and micronutrients to help meet our various needs.
Yep, it's about nutritional needs and goals.
100 grams of milk chocolate has 18% of your daily value of calcium
100 grams of broccoli has 4% of your daily value of calcium
If you need calcium and had to choose between the two, which one is "healthier"?
IDK - I guess the >500 calories in the 100g of chocolate would deter me
You don't want to eat more than you need, but the general point is that chocolate does have some nutrients that broccoli doesn't have. Neither food is "healthy" or "unhealthy" in and of itself, the healthfulness is going to come down to the overall context of the diet (which includes, like you pointed out, the number of calories that we need).
I don't often eat 100 grams of chocolate, but I do snack on chocolate and the particular kind I choose is rich in iron. For me, that's a great choice nutritionally.6 -
RelCanonical wrote: »RelCanonical wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »"Food in itself is neither healthy nor unhealthy" so with this kind of thinking....chocolate has the same nutritional health value as...broccoli?
No, it means it's the overall context of your diet that is important. Chocolate isn't, by itself, unhealthy. Broccoli isn't, by itself, healthy. We need a great many things from our diet so we're lucky that foods come with such a wide range of macro- and micronutrients to help meet our various needs.
Yep, it's about nutritional needs and goals.
100 grams of milk chocolate has 18% of your daily value of calcium
100 grams of broccoli has 4% of your daily value of calcium
If you need calcium and had to choose between the two, which one is "healthier"?
IDK - I guess the >500 calories in the 100g of chocolate would deter me
Again, it's all about goals. If you needed to gain weight (some people have trouble putting food down, or have issues with chewing, for example), chocolate would be the better option. For most of us, chocolate probably wouldn't be the better option because it's calorie-dense, but that doesn't make chocolate "unhealthy". It just means that chocolate is calorie-dense and you'll probably gain if you don't moderate it. But it's not evil. Chocolate doesn't have an agenda.
Didn't say either food was bad or unhealthy. Just said it would deter me. Agree goals are different for everyone and right now 100g of chocolate would not be in my best interest. That being said the 16g of dark chocolate with sunflower seeds at night for a snack is delicious
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I think that dividing food into "good" and "bad" categories can lead to unhealthy eating habits (like an eating disorder). In my experience restricting things that I've labeled as "unhealthy" or "bad" just led me to feel deprived and I ended up falling off the wagon altogether because I wasn't learning to eat the things I love in moderation. We have nutritional needs of course and it's good to eat nutritionally dense foods (if that is a good term to use, I'm not sure) but cake, cookies, chips, etc. are not inherently bad. Just if you eat an excess of them and aren't getting your nutrition needs overall.
This has been my experience too. Some things too a long time to learn to moderate (ice cream - you were my kryptonite), but I can now keep it in the house and eat one serving when it fits my goals. Much less guilt and shame now.1 -
Does anyone else have the problem of feeling guilty eating anything unhealthy? For the past two weeks or so, I have buckled down drastically on what I am eating and drinking, and honestly I am pretty proud of myself. However, I am to the point where it is getting extremely difficult to eat anything other than what I schedule for myself. For example: I have a slice of cake waiting for me in my fridge, and while I really want it, I cannot bring myself to do so. I guess, I feel like eating even the slightest amount of bad stuff makes me a failure. I am sure part of it, too, is I am afraid of going back to my old habits.
But am I crazy here? Does anyone else have anything similar to this? Please tell me I am not alone..lol
(Sidenote: I am not saying this is a bad thing necessarily. I just want to know if anyone else has the same feeling.)
Someone on these boards once told me that guilt is a worthless emotion when it comes to food and I hated that advice at the time. But it's really very true and a good mindset to find. I have been down the spiral of feeling guilty every time I eat off plan. It can be really, terribly awful if you continue down that path. I was lucky that my therapist caught it and we were able to find a happier medium so that I could stop crying in my friend's driveway because I knew there would be yummy food inside. Interrupt those thoughts as much as you can now before they take you someplace unhealthy.
Every time you eat, you're making a choice. Choices aren't inherently good or bad. You aren't deciding who lives and who dies. Think about it more like you're picking out paint colors for your house. Some of the colors you choose are going to work. Some of them might not and you choose something else next time. After a while you may get tired of them and start over from the beginning. A piece of cake now and again won't tear down the foundations of your house. It's just one more neutral choice you are going to make in a lifetime of choices about food. There will be good ones. There will be bad ones. There will be choices you regret at times for various reasons. But none of them should make you feel like you've done something wrong. It's not wrong to eat food that makes you feel happy now and again.8 -
"Food in itself is neither healthy nor unhealthy" so with this kind of thinking....chocolate has the same nutritional health value as...broccoli?
That's ...just a remarkable misunderstanding of the belief that foods can be neutral choices while still having different nutritional values.3 -
WinoGelato wrote: »WanderingRivers wrote: »I only go 1200 or under when making up for a binge or I just don't feel good.
I have a minimum of 5 more lbs to go but I am thinking I may go to a lower goal then I have currently have.
Again, without knowing more details of what your overindulgence was, I can't say this with absolute certainty - but eating over your maintenance calories at a family gathering is NOT a binge. Binge eating disorder is a clinical diagnosis and comparing eating a few hundred extra calories above your maintenance to the experiences of those with actual BED is inconsiderate at best.
Secondly, with 5 lbs left to go, even if you decide to lose more but it is less than 20 lbs; you should be aiming for a rate of loss of 0.5 lb/week. That rate of loss would likely put you at a calorie target over 1200 calories, thinking about how you are going to successfully transition to maintenance and what your long term plans are should be part of your consideration now - not feeling guilty about overdoing it at a family bbq and feeling like you have to make up for that. Family events, holidays, special occasions- these are all part of life. Don't you want to develop a healthy sustainable plan for how to cope in those situations, even when you aren't actively trying to lose weight?
To *me*, it was a binge. I was uncomfortably full and I didn't like the feeling.
The basic plan is to develop better self control so I don't eat like a cow and just keep the mantra of "it's not in my calories."1 -
WanderingRivers wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »WanderingRivers wrote: »I only go 1200 or under when making up for a binge or I just don't feel good.
I have a minimum of 5 more lbs to go but I am thinking I may go to a lower goal then I have currently have.
Again, without knowing more details of what your overindulgence was, I can't say this with absolute certainty - but eating over your maintenance calories at a family gathering is NOT a binge. Binge eating disorder is a clinical diagnosis and comparing eating a few hundred extra calories above your maintenance to the experiences of those with actual BED is inconsiderate at best.
Secondly, with 5 lbs left to go, even if you decide to lose more but it is less than 20 lbs; you should be aiming for a rate of loss of 0.5 lb/week. That rate of loss would likely put you at a calorie target over 1200 calories, thinking about how you are going to successfully transition to maintenance and what your long term plans are should be part of your consideration now - not feeling guilty about overdoing it at a family bbq and feeling like you have to make up for that. Family events, holidays, special occasions- these are all part of life. Don't you want to develop a healthy sustainable plan for how to cope in those situations, even when you aren't actively trying to lose weight?
To *me*, it was a binge. I was uncomfortably full and I didn't like the feeling.
The basic plan is to develop better self control so I don't eat like a cow and just keep the mantra of "it's not in my calories."
I think you need to revisit the overall mindset you have about food - you’ve made several concerning statements in this thread that suggest you may not have a healthy outlook on this.
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Eh, I feel guilty sometimes, but my work outs usually make up for that. If I go all out and eat a bunch, then follow it up with no work out, I feel guilty, but I know that I'm lifting enough that the food is going to good use fueling those muscles.1
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I had what I consider a "mini binge" today. But if you look at my diary, it looks fine. Until you look at tomorrow. I have rolled forward several hundred calories. Tomorrow is a SUP paddling afternoon. I will probably paddle 8 to 10 miles on a slow SUP and burn up every bit of that. I am learning not to obsess over every day being perfect. If something comes up and I don't paddle tomorrow, I won't keep rolling it. I will watch the scale and adjust down if I need to. I am well below goal and there is no need to panic (I am convincing myself of this as much as explaining it).0
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WanderingRivers wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »WanderingRivers wrote: »I only go 1200 or under when making up for a binge or I just don't feel good.
I have a minimum of 5 more lbs to go but I am thinking I may go to a lower goal then I have currently have.
Again, without knowing more details of what your overindulgence was, I can't say this with absolute certainty - but eating over your maintenance calories at a family gathering is NOT a binge. Binge eating disorder is a clinical diagnosis and comparing eating a few hundred extra calories above your maintenance to the experiences of those with actual BED is inconsiderate at best.
Secondly, with 5 lbs left to go, even if you decide to lose more but it is less than 20 lbs; you should be aiming for a rate of loss of 0.5 lb/week. That rate of loss would likely put you at a calorie target over 1200 calories, thinking about how you are going to successfully transition to maintenance and what your long term plans are should be part of your consideration now - not feeling guilty about overdoing it at a family bbq and feeling like you have to make up for that. Family events, holidays, special occasions- these are all part of life. Don't you want to develop a healthy sustainable plan for how to cope in those situations, even when you aren't actively trying to lose weight?
To *me*, it was a binge. I was uncomfortably full and I didn't like the feeling.
The basic plan is to develop better self control so I don't eat like a cow and just keep the mantra of "it's not in my calories."
Which is fine if you have a reasonable calorie goal. You don't if you are aiming for 1000.2 -
Guilt is a way your brain can rationalize depriving the body of food. Try meditation/ urge surfing. Let it go!0
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amusedmonkey wrote: »That's a dangerous way of thinking and yes, it is a bad thing. It's one thing to choose not to have something because it's easier without it, it's another thing to fear food. Why does eating cake make you a failure? You're failing to do what, exactly? Will one slice of cake have an effect on your weight management out of context? Why do you consider it bad, and is that justified out of context? Start there. When you dive deep into your reasoning you'll find that these are just restrictions to chose to arbitrarily place on yourself because you've been influenced by scaremongerers, not real facts.
I have lost more than 100 lbs and let me tell you, at no point in my weight loss did food guilt produce good results, physically or mentally.
^^^
A sustainable approach to weight loss is to look PAST the actual weight. Find a balance. Eat foods that make you feel good, yet allow you to be social. I am learning this too, but know that the obsessive thinking and guilt over "unhealthy" foods (no such thing) only leads to later consequences. You're in it for the long haul, so just enjoy life!1
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