How do you eat healthy? HELP!

cwolfman13

For most people, part of the issue is a complete lack of anything resembling patience. For whatever reason, people seem to think that they can clean up their diet and exercise a little and somehow the Lbs will just melt away in a matter of days and weeks...when in reality it takes months and years.

Making a total life change doesn't happen over night. On paper this is all very simple...figure out how many calories you need per day given your stats and a particular activity level and take a cut from that to lose weight...and at it's very surface, that's all there really is to it. That said, replacing bad habits with good habits is not always that easy. Educating yourself on what exactly constitutes proper nutrition takes work and is time consuming. Determining a fitness regimen that is going to work for you now and into perpetuity can be cumbersome.

Ultimately, all of the above will be necessary in truly making a life change, and none of it is going to come easy or quick. You don't just eat some broccoli and fruit for a couple of days and then throw up your hands because nothing has happened....ultimately, all of this nutrition and fitness stuff is a life long endeavor; there is no finish line.

levitateme

For most people, part of the issue is a complete lack of anything resembling patience. For whatever reason, people seem to think that they can clean up their diet and exercise a little and somehow the Lbs will just melt away in a matter of days and weeks...when in reality it takes months and years.

Making a total life change doesn't happen over night. On paper this is all very simple...figure out how many calories you need per day given your stats and a particular activity level and take a cut from that to lose weight...and at it's very surface, that's all there really is to it. That said, replacing bad habits with good habits is not always that easy. Educating yourself on what exactly constitutes proper nutrition takes work and is time consuming. Determining a fitness regimen that is going to work for you now and into perpetuity can be cumbersome.

Ultimately, all of the above will be necessary in truly making a life change, and none of it is going to come easy or quick. You don't just eat some broccoli and fruit for a couple of days and then throw up your hands because nothing has happened....ultimately, all of this nutrition and fitness stuff is a life long endeavor; there is no finish line.

100% this.

thavoice

Some people on here have been saying it doesn't matter what you eat, but how much. Well, that's dumb because I can eat an entire head of lettuce for around 200 calories (I'm guessing), but a grilled cheese sandwich is the same amount of calories.

What I recommend is a strict diet of fruits, vegetables, and nuts and seeds for about two weeks or so. Not that long. It will cleanse your body and you will learn to love those foods. And you can have fun with them like make a smoothie out of frozen fruit for the morning, celery and peanut butter for snacks (but beware, peanut butter is addicting), a nice veggie plate for lunch, and so on. This way, you can eat as much as you want (of the fruits and vegetables. The nuts are high in calories, so limit them) and you'll totally alkalize yourself.

I completely recommend the book Eating for Energy. You can buy it as an Ebook. It's about thirty bucks, but it's the best thirty bucks you'll every spend. It teaches you all about your body and what food does for it. It's based on a raw vegan diet, but you don't have to do that. And if anything else, It has awesome smoothie recipes that I use all of the time. (It also has other healthy recipes too, but they're kind of out there)

Anyways, hope this helps, and good luck on your adventure.

Uh, No. It is not dumb genius. Eat a caloric deficit and you lose weight. It really is that simple. Btw..a head of lettuce is like 110 calories or so.

Strict diet of fruits and veggies nuts and seeds for two weeks. Yeah, I am sure if the person is struggling now that they can surely stick to that regimine of foods.


Make sure you are weighing and measuring and know how mcany calories you are eating. VERY good chance you are eating many more than you think.

This really isnt the difficult to do. You dont need to buy special foods, or give up all the stuff you like. Just eat less of them.

KillaKaliKrackerKilla

If you want it plain and simple here it is it worked for me and it will work for any human point blank period, but only IF YOU STICK TO THE DIET!!! I was 187 a few months back now im 147-150 I go up and down here is how I did it, first you MUST weight train I cant strss that enough. If your not a big fan of running and jogging on a treadmill for 45 mins a day like most of us its cool just dont, but you must weight train atleast 3 times a week.You will burn more calories doing full body weight training then jogging plus the calories you burn from 45 minutes of jogging you can get right back by over eating a little at dinner, so skip jogging machines and weight train unless you like jogging then do it but still weight train. Now diet all you have to do is eat clean food as far as meat stick to white meat and fish drop all starchy carbs like bread, potatoes, and pastas and replace them with healthy carbs like corn, peas, broccoli google healthy carbs theres tons of them. Another MUST is if your a big soda or juice drinker well you have to STOP not cut back but absolutey STOP! drink nothing but water water water not even Gatorade or vitamin water they have sugars that are going to go strait to the gut and slow down your weight loss, remember sugar is the devil to your diet so obviously no sugars .. do what I say and I promise you that you will loose weight you will see the pounds fall off its going to be hard im not saying its going to be easy but the longer you stick to this diet the easier it gets, befor you know it its natural and you've made a healthy life change I also recomend giving yourself one cheat day a week to eat whatever the hell you want just dont go to crazy good luck! Ps you said all thediets you've tried aren't working you keep gaining weight, remember in order to lose weight you must burn more calories then ypu take in each day, so its simple as you are eating to much if you were burning more cal then you eat you WILL lose weight thats a fact. You also wanted to know how to count carbs, you can do that by downloading a app "calorie counter" or simply read the back of whatever you eat everything you buy tells you how many calories are in one serving and make sure you are only eating one serving its alote smaller then most people think well I wish you good luck, I hope you stick with it.

kbkeats

It can be an upward battle for sure. For me it was more about finding foods I enjoyed rather than restricting myself. For example, I loooove hummus so cauliflower and hummas became my go-to snack. Salmon on spinach salad became a go-to for lunches, etc

Don't ever try to force yourself to choke down healthy foods you don't like - you'll hate every second and you'll binge on un-healthy foods!

PRMinx

Some people on here have been saying it doesn't matter what you eat, but how much. Well, that's dumb because I can eat an entire head of lettuce for around 200 calories (I'm guessing), but a grilled cheese sandwich is the same amount of calories.

What I recommend is a strict diet of fruits, vegetables, and nuts and seeds for about two weeks or so. Not that long. It will cleanse your body and you will learn to love those foods. And you can have fun with them like make a smoothie out of frozen fruit for the morning, celery and peanut butter for snacks (but beware, peanut butter is addicting), a nice veggie plate for lunch, and so on. This way, you can eat as much as you want (of the fruits and vegetables. The nuts are high in calories, so limit them) and you'll totally alkalize yourself.

Cool story. A few questions:

What happens after two weeks of fruits, vegetables and nuts?
Can you describe what you are cleansing out of the body with this diet?

woodml1

If you opened up your food diary, it'd be easier for us to help you :flowerforyou:

chezzabelle82

Just a thought but is there anyway that you could cook healthy meals on your day off and portion them up and freeze so all you have to do is defrost reheat and add veg??

lemurcat12

6 PM: Dinner
4 oz Salmon
1 c. grilled asparagus
small side salad with 50/50 mix, red onions and balsamic vinegar

This is a good example of a dinner I might make, and that would take essentially no time. (I'd be likely to have something with a few more calories with it, like sweet potato, which adds a bit to the overall time before dinner, but not the actual cooking time.)

For me, most meals I cook take little time unless I decide to make something more time consuming, and for those I use the weekend, plan ahead, or the slow cooker.

Basically, come in the house, turn on the oven to the temp you prefer, pop in the relevant number of bone-in, skin on chicken breasts or thighs or various other meats you might like. Or take some fish and wrap it in foil (or parchment is better, but foil works fine) with some olive oil and a few veggies that seem to go). Or, in the alternative, cook the fish or boneless breasts or pork loin on top of the stove. At most you end up roasting for 40 mins completely hands off, while you do other things, and most options take far less than that. Last night I had calamari steaks which cooked in about 5 mins. Heck, get some lean ground beef and cook that. People who want can have burgers, if you don't it's good without the bun.

Potatoes or sweet potatoes can be roasted in the oven, totally hands off. Vegetables can be roasted for less time or pan fried (perfectly healthy) for even less. I know various people here are down on pasta, but that can be a super fast easy dinner--boil water and put the pasta in (whole wheat if you like) and in a pan sautee some pieces of whatever meat you like (I often like smoked salmon, which is about as fast as can be, but shrimp, chicken, whatever) with whatever vegetables sound good to you (asparagus, zucchini, spinach, etc.) plus some mushrooms, some tomatoes, olives or pine nuts, whatever you like. Use olive oil so it will kind of coat the pasta when you add it, but not too much. Add a bit of cheese if you like.

I spend maybe 15-30 mins actually cooking and have meals about 30-45 mins after I walk in the door (I tend to get home late). The ONLY difficulty in doing this is if you don't have food on hand, so now I make sure I do, and have a sense of what I will make each day. I also always make extra portions of everything so that I always have leftovers for lunch or a dinner where I don't want to cook.

Oh, and I rarely use the recipe builder, although it works great and is essential for some meals. I weigh and note down amounts when I am cooking, keep track of what piece of meat is mine, and log everything based on the ingredients (e.g., broccoli, raw, find one that says USDA or just has no asterisk, ideally with lots of confirmations).