When You Want to Eat Healthy, Then Don't.
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The honesty is appreciated. It helps me to reflect on solutions when I've seen angles I can't see on my own. It's a great community here. When you're ready you do it right? My period came hard and early which explains the recent bloating and cravings but not the long term. Which would be me just not being ready. Long term health wise, I do need to be more mindful about my nutrition. I've gone years of good eating, but lately I've been lazy and it's catching up to me. I start great in the morning and afternoon, then I tumble downhill in the evenings. The herbal tea trick works and it's a small habit I can start with. I've been striking a much better work life balance that I plan to continue in September so dinners have been getting more homemade and less take out. I've been working on a long term plan for better dinners and much less take out. But now to work on the after dinner boredom binges.
Those sound like positive steps on the food front.
Since you mention evenings being especially challenging, I'm wondering whether fatigue - possibly subtle fatigue - may be part of the picture. Fatigue tends to make our body seek energy, food provides energy . . . cue appetite/cravings.
If your sleep quality/quantity is sub-par, maybe try to improve that.
If your life is high-stress, consider some good stress reduction or stress management techniques, because stress is fatiguing.
Over-exercise for current fitness level can also trigger fatigue.
You also mention boredom as a trigger. Usually, it's easiest to kick a bad habit (like bored eating) by adopting a new, positive replacement habit. Can you consider a new or revived hobby as a distraction? Especially good are things that require clean hands (like needlework, sketching, coloring, playing a musical instrument, etc.) or create dirty hands (like carpentry, painting, gardening, etc.). How about some very mild exercise? Yoga or stretching might be good as potential stress-busters as well as distraction. If your neighborhood is safe, just an easy walk around the block might help.
Overall, your idea of making a series of gradual changes is really good IMO, and starting with changes that are relatively easy for you is also good. I'm not trying to overwhelm you, rather just to encourage you to consider whether there are other root causes of the current situation that might be among the easy alternatives for change, somewhere along the way. If eating is more of a symptom, something other than food can be a good solution.
If your concern is long term health, then gradual changes in routine habits - your patterns of eating and activity - are almost ideal. Patiently and gradually accumulating small changes can lead to patterns we can continue almost on autopilot as other parts of life get complicated (because they will). By contrast, "revolutionize my whole lifestyle" tends to fall apart when some other even slight challenge enters the picture.
I'm convinced that you can do this, and that you're thinking through the "how" in a more productive way. I'm cheering for that success for you, too. Best wishes!0 -
Shed a few pounds, starting to be more conscious of what I'm doing in terms of my nutrition during the day. Working on the evening tea habit.1
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Shed a few pounds, starting to be more conscious of what I'm doing in terms of my nutrition during the day. Working on the evening tea habit.
Try a high protein and low carb dinner with a ton of veg and from whole foods if possible. This satiates me personally and generally have no desire for the munchies and keeps me full right up until bed time. Keep it simple with nutrition, the more balls you have in the air the harder it is to juggle. Cheers2 -
There are several obstacles I'm dealing with, the biggest one being my own BS.
I just worked for 12-18 hours and NOW you want me to start working in my kitchen again AND have to clean it? Is that a joke? I just don't have it when I get home.
I have plenty of healthy meal options here at home,
But it all goes in the trash.
When you leave the house at 6am and get home after 6pm, it's hard to start even the "easy" meal.
I'll eat healthy, hit my macros, then after dinner I'll keep eating healthy stuff and consume another 1000+ calories of stuff.
I have a lot to sort out.
Yes my job takes more than it deserves and is the root of most of my health problems, but without it, who pays my bills?
A lot of it is sheer exhaustion
I am my own problem since I will order take out before getting up to peel that cucumber.
9/10 people will go "damn she's pathetic"
I recognize a lot of my "old self" in what you wrote.
My take on your situation: you are overworked and undersupported. You're at the extreme end of your rope, doing more than what is humanly possible, and you're beating yourself up for not being superhuman.
My suggestion: forget about healthy eating and cooking for the moment. Get take-out or prepared dinners, quick snack foods for work, whatever you gotta do to feed yourself. Buy things that actually appeal to you and which you will likely eat. Stop buying foods (no matter how "healthy") that you already know you won't be able to eat. Everything else just wastes your money & time and makes you feel guilty, and you gain nothing (!) at all from that.
Then focus on finding a job that will allow you to live like a human being. You deserve to have enough time and energy to care for yourself. Working 12-18 hours in a row clearly is not that.
And above all else, cut yourself some slack. You're not horrid, pathetic, whatever other words you wrote there. You're a mess because your job doesn't allow you to take care of your basic needs. You have a job that basically kills you. You're worth so much more than your labor.
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takinitalloff seriously, thank you for that.
Started my day today with fresh pineapple and a bowl of cheerios w/skim milk. Didn't graze after dinner last night and was pretty hydrated. I have about 2 months off now with arrangements at work to be much different when I return. I'm also building a new support system. People need people, and I don't really have people. I'm also coming off a long term health issue and I'm relearning how to live I guess. Being here has already helped too, my head is slowly coming out of my butt too. I have a whole new chapter to write and it can be completely different from how it used to be.
If I need to buy little baggies of apple slices because, for some odd reason, I don't eat a whole one...then buy the little baggies of apple slices.4 -
One day at a time. Planning, no night binging. Increasing my weight training is a must again. I fell off of that for too long now. There is a lot I need to reorder.2
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sollyn23l2 wrote: »I need a new approach to nutrition. I've been ultra lazy and really eating too many calories of garbage. I want to eat healthy, and then I don't. I know I can eat healthy, I'm just doomed with inconsistency. Maybe I can hold my self more accountable for my daily nutrition posting here.
Depends on your idea of healthy. I track nutritional goals rather than calories, and turn it into a challenge game. Can I get 20 grams of fiber today? Can I eat 3 servings of fruit? Can I get in 5 servings of vegetables? I also make simple swaps. Bown rice instead of white, millet instead of rice, chickpea pasta instead of regular.
That's a good idea and sounds like a better way to manage weight.0 -
takinitalloff seriously, thank you for that.
Started my day today with fresh pineapple and a bowl of cheerios w/skim milk. Didn't graze after dinner last night and was pretty hydrated. I have about 2 months off now with arrangements at work to be much different when I return. I'm also building a new support system. People need people, and I don't really have people. I'm also coming off a long term health issue and I'm relearning how to live I guess. Being here has already helped too, my head is slowly coming out of my butt too. I have a whole new chapter to write and it can be completely different from how it used to be.
If I need to buy little baggies of apple slices because, for some odd reason, I don't eat a whole one...then buy the little baggies of apple slices.
I never eat a whole apple. I eat part of an apple with cheese and/or peanut butter. When I have fruit, I add protein and fat to feel full.
Cosmic Crisp apples take forever to brown and taste delicious - better than my previous favorite, Honey Crisp.
I was wondering how you get two months off - are you in education and off for the summer?
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The honesty is appreciated. It helps me to reflect on solutions when I've seen angles I can't see on my own. It's a great community here. When you're ready you do it right? My period came hard and early which explains the recent bloating and cravings but not the long term. Which would be me just not being ready. Long term health wise, I do need to be more mindful about my nutrition. I've gone years of good eating, but lately I've been lazy and it's catching up to me. I start great in the morning and afternoon, then I tumble downhill in the evenings. The herbal tea trick works and it's a small habit I can start with. I've been striking a much better work life balance that I plan to continue in September so dinners have been getting more homemade and less take out. I've been working on a long term plan for better dinners and much less take out. But now to work on the after dinner boredom binges.
Often when women say they start great and binge in the evenings, they are not eating enough earlier in the day (or not eating macros that are satiating to them,) which easily triggers a binge.
Like this, only Wed, Fri, and Sunday is every day:
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/1200-calorie-diet/1 -
kshama2001 wrote: »The honesty is appreciated. It helps me to reflect on solutions when I've seen angles I can't see on my own. It's a great community here. When you're ready you do it right? My period came hard and early which explains the recent bloating and cravings but not the long term. Which would be me just not being ready. Long term health wise, I do need to be more mindful about my nutrition. I've gone years of good eating, but lately I've been lazy and it's catching up to me. I start great in the morning and afternoon, then I tumble downhill in the evenings. The herbal tea trick works and it's a small habit I can start with. I've been striking a much better work life balance that I plan to continue in September so dinners have been getting more homemade and less take out. I've been working on a long term plan for better dinners and much less take out. But now to work on the after dinner boredom binges.
Often when women say they start great and binge in the evenings, they are not eating enough earlier in the day (or not eating macros that are satiating to them,) which easily triggers a binge.
Like this, only Wed, Fri, and Sunday is every day:
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/1200-calorie-diet/
Yes. Or possibly there's a sleep quality/quantity, over-exercise, or stress management issue causing fatigue.
Fatigue can trigger appetite (energy seeking) while lowering inhibition to over-eating.
Shooting for fast loss can be a trap, counterproductive in various ways.0 -
kshama2001 wrote: »The honesty is appreciated. It helps me to reflect on solutions when I've seen angles I can't see on my own. It's a great community here. When you're ready you do it right? My period came hard and early which explains the recent bloating and cravings but not the long term. Which would be me just not being ready. Long term health wise, I do need to be more mindful about my nutrition. I've gone years of good eating, but lately I've been lazy and it's catching up to me. I start great in the morning and afternoon, then I tumble downhill in the evenings. The herbal tea trick works and it's a small habit I can start with. I've been striking a much better work life balance that I plan to continue in September so dinners have been getting more homemade and less take out. I've been working on a long term plan for better dinners and much less take out. But now to work on the after dinner boredom binges.
Often when women say they start great and binge in the evenings, they are not eating enough earlier in the day (or not eating macros that are satiating to them,) which easily triggers a binge.
Like this, only Wed, Fri, and Sunday is every day:
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/1200-calorie-diet/
Yes. Or possibly there's a sleep quality/quantity, over-exercise, or stress management issue causing fatigue.
Fatigue can trigger appetite (energy seeking) while lowering inhibition to over-eating.
Shooting for fast loss can be a trap, counterproductive in various ways.
@JennFit5K Speaking of fatigue, and hard periods, any chance you're anemic? That certainly caused crippling fatigue and demotivation for me.
Do get your iron levels tested rather than jumping in to supplementing. If you are anemic, it's important to establish a baseline, and if not, too much iron has problems of its own.1
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