Giving it another shot

eg1776

Hi everyone, my name is Eric. I'm a software architect and happy husband and father of two. My weight has been creeping up on me and now I'm overweight and severely out of shape. I've struggled with my weight for years now. My weakness is fast food and eating potato chips while driving home from work.

I don't want to go on a diet, I want to change my lifestyle. My wife has lost over 30lbs over the past few months just by cutting out the wheat and eating real food (meat, vegetables, fruit, anything but processed foods.) She cooks these healthy meals for me and my kids. I turn around and blow it during the day by stopping for mocha and fast food. I need to stop!

I also want to exercise regularly. I always feel great after a workout and kick myself for not sticking with it more than a couple of days.

I'm hoping by joining a community I'll get enough motivation to stick with it.

bonnie_bear

Hi Eric! Sounds like the word "diet" to you conjures up hellish ideas of barely-there meals and yucky food - don't worry, a diet doesn't have to be, and shouldn't be, that. If you're changing what you are eating because your wife cooks differently, you are literally changing your diet and this is all you need to do - switch the fast food for the good food! I don't like the phrase "going on a diet", because it implies that the change is temporary, that in a short time you'll go back to what you were eating before, which of course is not going to work. You need to consistently be eating suitable foods for your daily activity levels and routines, and this doesn't have to be hard. Just take a quick look on the net - you'll find heaps of great "food plans", as they call them, because the word "diet" has so many negative connotations.
As for the "blowing it" with fast food - I know it can be difficult to stop eating those quick, yummy snacks. I have been lucky to never get fat eating those things, but that certainly doesn't mean I didn't eat them! You can be unhealthy without being fat. But once you stop eating them - for say, three or four months - you'll realise they're not so great after all. Let me give you some examples:
Maccas/Hungry Jacks/Burger King/etc. - I used to LOVE eating my traditional cheeseburger and fries. But after a few months without any, I tried one again and found that it doesn't taste like much at all. It certainly doesn't taste as good as a well-cooked roast or a clean salad. My guess is that nearly everyone who tries this will feel the same way (I think it's the MSG lol. MSG itself is not bad - but it can make you think that bad stuff tastes good.).
Chips/Crisps - I loved my sour cream and chives Grainwaves, my salt and vinegar Red Rock Deli, and I still do. But now I feel sick if I have too much.
Mocha/Chocolate Milk/Biscuits/Chocolate - Okay this one is not so easy. That stuff still tastes and feels great. For things like this, I put a mental kind of barrier/repulsion on it, so that if I have it too often or too much, I feel bad enough so that I don't do it again for a while. Another thing that helps with this is having a "fat day"/a "cheat day" - for example, go the whole week eating little or none of this stuff, and working out. Then on one day, say Staurday, just go all out and eat fat-food. This will satisfy the desire for it, and by the end of the day you may also feel disgusting enough to not do it for the rest of the week. Doing this cheat-day thing also has biological benefits, believe it or not, but I can't remember how that part works, lol. You'll probably find the explanation in a few eating plans. Oh and chocolate - not so bad after all. Just go for the dark stuff.

Maybe you know all this already, I dunno. But maybe you don't. Anyway I hope it helped! And feel free to add me too if you want another person to share the journey with. I've recently lost my motivation, so that is what I need to work on to get in shape!