What small changes made a BIG difference?
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Considering what I actually want to eat first and foremost before calories, nutrition, or anything else. After a short while of thinking I only want to eat low nutrient high calorie foods, food just became food and calories became a non-issue. Nutrition followed because I enjoy nutritious foods and I was just rebelling against dieting.
If I want to eat something that is easy to fit in, great, if I want something higher in calories, I try work my calories around it. Sometimes I discover I don't really want the high calorie item as much as I thought because working around it is less appealing, and I just have something else I want. Other times it really is what I want, and I enjoy it within calories. Shifting focus from "have to" to "want and enjoy" mage a big difference for diet sustainability.10 -
What protein bars do you like/find at that calorie level?cheryldumais wrote: »a low cal (110 cal) protein bar
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peachvine29 wrote: »jenncornelsen wrote: »I do not watch tv in the evenings in the living room. Was for whatever reason a major trigger it mindlessly eat. Since stopping i almost never nightly binge
Nice! Care to share what do you do instead? I'm having trouble structuring my evenings and am curious what people do besides watch TV.
Walk
Cycle
Work out in our home gym
Do homework ... I'm working toward a Master's degree part-time
Work on one of many home projects
Housework
Photography
The TV might be on in the evenings at times, but I can't imagine just watching TV.
If I am watching a show, I'll get up during most commercials and do something ... laundry, tidying the kitchen, taking pictures of the flowers in the yard, a few exercises, cleaning the bathroom ...3 -
peachvine29 wrote: »Anyone care to share any small changes that made a big difference for them?
Nuts are good for you, right?
But a handful of cashews at 3 pm is a lot of calories!! So I stopped eating them. That knocked 400-500 calories off my total.
Also, not drinking my calories.7 -
Prepping my breakfasts and lunches for the week on Sunday, so I can just grab them from the fridge on my way to work instead of rushing like a lunatic in the morning and perhaps making unhealthy choices
Brushing my teeth between 7-8 pm instead of right before I go to bed- Keeps me from late night snacking plus allows me to go right to bed when I'm ready7 -
What protein bars do you like/find at that calorie level?cheryldumais wrote: »a low cal (110 cal) protein bar
Built bars. You have to order them online. You will find they are very different. The center is sort of like turkish delight, very sticky. I love them but at first it was a bit of a shock as they aren't as sweet as expected.4 -
For me, it was the realisation that I could boost my relatively low calorie budget with exercise. Trying to eat at under 1200 was quite difficult for me ... Once I realised that exercise could boost it and I could use an exercise-created deficit, it made life sooooooooooo much easier and I was able to lose a lot of weight - plus be happy because I could eat all the foods I love to eat. In moderation of course.7
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Prelogging my food for the day but leaving enough for a random 100cal "treat" so if I fancy something then I don't feel I have to deny myself.
It's all psychological for me.7 -
I play piano! I get so wrapped up in practicing I don’t even think about snacking. Plus I learn pieces way faster when I actually put effort into thempeachvine29 wrote: »jenncornelsen wrote: »I do not watch tv in the evenings in the living room. Was for whatever reason a major trigger it mindlessly eat. Since stopping i almost never nightly binge
Nice! Care to share what do you do instead? I'm having trouble structuring my evenings and am curious what people do besides watch TV.
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more fiber, more water5
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I found workouts that I enjoyed and learned to be more flexible. Fitness is fun now and something I look forward to as a part of my daily life, rather than a chore I have to do to burn calories. I don’t do the same thing every time so it stays interesting and fun for me.6
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Keeping low calorie snacks around helps me tremendously.0
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More fiber! Helps me actually stay full til dinner, and side benefit of better gut health. And pre-logging also made logging WAY easier to keep up.1
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^I agree with the above! Finding exercise I actually liked made a huge difference from sporadic jogging and Pinterest challenge charts to a set weekly schedule that I always show up for. My favorite exercise is expensive as hell and worth every penny because pretending I'm ever going to love the treadmill is just lying to myself.7
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amusedmonkey wrote: »Considering what I actually want to eat first and foremost before calories, nutrition, or anything else. After a short while of thinking I only want to eat low nutrient high calorie foods, food just became food and calories became a non-issue. Nutrition followed because I enjoy nutritious foods and I was just rebelling against dieting.
If I want to eat something that is easy to fit in, great, if I want something higher in calories, I try work my calories around it. Sometimes I discover I don't really want the high calorie item as much as I thought because working around it is less appealing, and I just have something else I want. Other times it really is what I want, and I enjoy it within calories. Shifting focus from "have to" to "want and enjoy" mage a big difference for diet sustainability.
this is a great idea. THANK YOU!0 -
I stopped leaving such a big gap between meals. I fell into the whole IF and insulin trap where I thought it would benefit my pcos to just eat 2 times a day so I would avoid ‘insulin spikes’. Bad idea. Especially for premenopausal women (I’m 26 and I want to have kids!) because our bodies are more sensitive to hunger signals. So now I make sure to eat every 3-4 hours and balance my meals out. No more saving calories for dinner or that kinda stuff. I feel much better now that I’m not spacing my meals out so much. Still eating the same calories and hunger has gone! I still IF but only for 12-14 hours a few times a week. I think it’s called cresendo fasting.1
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I stopped leaving such a big gap between meals. I fell into the whole IF and insulin trap where I thought it would benefit my pcos to just eat 2 times a day so I would avoid ‘insulin spikes’. Bad idea. Especially for premenopausal women (I’m 26 and I want to have kids!) because our bodies are more sensitive to hunger signals. So now I make sure to eat every 3-4 hours and balance my meals out. No more saving calories for dinner or that kinda stuff. I feel much better now that I’m not spacing my meals out so much. Still eating the same calories and hunger has gone! I still IF but only for 12-14 hours a few times a week. I think it’s called cresendo fasting.
I agree! I tried skipping breakfast early in my weight loss journey and was always starving by lunch and would overeat a lot more easily. Now, I have three meals and at least two snacks. IF is just a fad, I find it does not work for me and many others.4 -
Being moderate so I could easily be consistent, plus treating the whole thing like a fun science fair project for grown-ups, not a measure of my self worth as a human.
If I was hungry one day, I'd look at my food diary (and think about things like stress, sleep, exercise load), form a hypothesis about the reason, then test alternative possible solutions. If I wasn't hitting calories or my personal macro targets, I'd review the diary to look for tweak opportunities that would gradually improve the situation. Along the way, I was collecting data that could help the "science", like careful food and exercise logs, daily weights, etc.11 -
Planning food the day before or prepping for the week if I have time. If I already have my day laid out it's infinitely easier to follow because I feel like I'm breaking the law I've set for myself if I don't.
This is true of life activities in general. I've written everything in a planner for 2 or so years now, and it's made me so much more conscious of how to manage my time well and productively. As an example, I started recording how much time I spent on TV, laptop, phone etc. That made me realize how much time was being wasted and I ended up replacing it with more exercise and outdoor activity.3 -
I decided to stop putting a "time frame" on my weight loss journey. No longer thought: I must lose twenty pounds by this event, or this holiday or this season. Once I eliminated that needless pressure and just accepted my weight loss as it came - slow, steady, one step ahead, two steps back (sometimes) - it became much easier and was very liberating...17
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Buying more expensive cheeses.
I used to buy bricks of cheddar because they were more economical, but then I got into a habit of going to the fridge every night and slicing off a small chunk to snack on. Then I'd keep going back for more, because nothing about it was particularly satisfying. Now I invest in good quality cheeses like blu or cotija or brie -- I'm way less likely to snack on them, but I don't have to give up having creamy, decadent cheese in my meals. I love crumbling some cheese on my soup or over my veggies. They're also way less calorie dense when crumbled. I'm usually very satisfied with a half oz or less, so it ends up being cheaper than when I was buying big blocks of cheese at Costco.12 -
I love lobster rolls and now use celery to scoop up the lobster salad instead of putting it between two halves of a buttery roll. Less carbs and more fiber, and I don't have to look longingly at lobster rolls anymore!7
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changing my goals from 1200kcal to 1300kcal a day.. I know it's only 100kcal but it's the difference between uncomfortably hungry and feeling fine for me8
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Not beating myself up about it all. And not having any kind of time frame.
Ignoring 90 per cent of what is said about weight loss on the internet.
Eating a lil bit of what I fancy and trying to eat a balanced nutrient dense diet most of the time
Lifting weights in a structured way. Finding cardio I enjoy doing.
Not caring what other people say or think.6 -
My biggest small thing was eliminating the nonsense calories. Those stupid things add up fast!
Example, I do stop for an egg sandwich most work mornings (it’s easy and fits in may cal count) I used to get an OJ, but realized I was getting it and drinking it out habit. One day I got an apple juice and realized it was just the right serving size and only 35 calories...so I saved about 100 calories with that one change.
Another example is my G&T’s. Switched the tonic for various sparkling water flavors and eliminated those calories. There are some great flavor choices these days.
I’m about 6 weeks in to my calorie tracking experiment and have lost 6 pounds with changing my food choices drastically, but changing small things.7 -
More water about 1 gallon a day helps, plus I work out what I used to eat and reduce it, say use to have 200g of potatoes now I have 170g. Do this for all of your food and it makes a huge difference.3
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Realistic goal setting and positive self talk. I also record calories.
Not taking myself too seriously.
Sorry hope that helps2 -
Resolutioner bump. Happy New Year everybody!4
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Cutting out sodas....simply because I couldn't moderate them. I'd go through a six pack of MTN Dew in a day and the calories would add up. Replaced that with water and caffeine pills.1
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Planning meals in advance, making a shopping list, eating something filling before shopping, and sticking to that list.2
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