Am I going to be on a "diet" for the rest of my life?

veggieheadie

Honestly, the best advice anyone ever gave me was to save room in my daily calories for a treat.....anything I wanted that was 300 calories or less. My weakness is Cadbury eggs and I eat one every day and I still lose. As long as you count your fun foods into your calories, I say your fine. There's an article about the "twinkie diet" on the news and it really helps shed some light on this. I wouldn't spend my entire calorie bank on treats, and you feel a lot fuller if you get the most food for the calories (healthy foods) but if you need it like I do, then don't deny yourself or you'll just end up binging, giving up and setting yourself up for failure. My diet allows me a coke and a cadbury egg everyday, and as long as I'm working out and keeping my calories at the correct level, I can lose.... most of the time.

angp7711

Thank you. For the record, I've lost 33-35 lbs. And I am not happy. I don't have friends, I'm new in town, no job, no family here, nothing that makes me happy. I thought losing weight and exercising would make me feel better about myself, and just from getting healthy. Now it's more of a burden - something I can't master and that won't go away. I need to learn how to eat - it's been a whole year and I still haven't figured it out. Thanks for the kind words. You're right. The problem is me - I know that, but I just don't know what I need to do to be happy and healthy and to eat food that fills me up without making me fat.

It sounds to me that this really has nothing to do with food. It is about your comfort item and filling an emotional void. You are just choosing food as your comfort item. It really is an easy scapegoat. If you overstress and get upset about your food you don't have to look at the other things that are going on in your life. Losing weight isn't magic. It doesn't automatically make life easier. Those first 80lbs I lost didn't fix my money problems, they didn't help my kids behave, or fix my grandma's health problems. Is my life better because of the weight? Hell yeah! BUT the things that have nothing to do with weight didn't change.
I still get stressed WAY easy. I am going through a crazy stressful time right now and I want to binge hourly. It would give me something else to think about. I don't have to think about selling my house if I am busy berating myself about the binge I just had and how fat and disgusted I am with myself. So instead of doing that I am choosing to control the only two things in my life that I have absolute control over
1. What I put in my mouth
2. How much I move my body

Hugs sweets! You have made progress remember that. If you need to sit down with a nutritionist or maybe even somebody on this site and figure out what "healthy" means to you. It might help. I have figured out I can't follow EVERYONE's rules. I pick the things that I want to work on and if I get that great or stop losing I will move on to the next thing.

Take care!
Ang

1234lbsgone

Healthy foods are the basis of junk foods anyways. Cheeseburgers don't have to be 1000 calories. Fries can be baked. Ice cream can still be good too. Every food in every restaurant started as a homecooked meal somewhere. Just start with whole ingredients and make whatever your heart desires.

Soup is a great food. Just get a pot, pour in some broth, chop up ome veggies, and wa-lah. You have soup. Sandwiches? Try different kinds of wraps, try an open faced sandwich, wrap it in lettuce, or forget the bread and have a big salad. Buy fresh chicken breasts and bake up a big batch once a week. Then you have your own "lunchmeat". Make your own dressing, whatever you want.

Don't overthink it. Just do it.

Mindful_Trent

Healthy foods are the basis of junk foods anyways. Cheeseburgers don't have to be 1000 calories. Fries can be baked. Ice cream can still be good too. Every food in every restaurant started as a homecooked meal somewhere. Just start with whole ingredients and make whatever your heart desires.

Soup is a great food. Just get a pot, pour in some broth, chop up ome veggies, and wa-lah. You have soup. Sandwiches? Try different kinds of wraps, try an open faced sandwich, wrap it in lettuce, or forget the bread and have a big salad. Buy fresh chicken breasts and bake up a big batch once a week. Then you have your own "lunchmeat". Make your own dressing, whatever you want.

Don't overthink it. Just do it.

Love this! And it's not as time-consuming / expensive / difficult as people think it is to do all of this.

ladyhawk00

I have cleaned up the attacks and insults on this thread. Please remember to keep it respectful. You may disagree with an opinion, you may NOT attack the person. If you feel a post is disrespectful, report the post and we will look into it. But if you attack back or insult another user, you are just as guilty.

We're all here to support eachother. Keep that in mind when posting.
Thank you for your cooperation.

Ladyhawk00
MyFitnessPal Forum Moderator

Jenn070608

You should not be on a "diet". You should be on a lifestyle change that you can live with for life. I did not realize that when I first started. Otherwise, I would not have chosen the screen name that I have. You need to focus on being healthy, not just losing weight.

mpfand

The thing I've learned most from being with mfp for 90 days is portion control. I am now happy with smaller servings and can walk away from the dinner table without having seconds and without feeling stuffed. I love going to bed every night and not feeling full and bloated, yet I am never hungry. I've learned the difference between "satisfied" and "stuffed". I still eat hamburgers from In & Out, I still enjoy eating at Red Robin, I still enjoy chocolate and ice cream. But now instead of eating an entire container of Ben & Jerry's in one sitting I eat it over the course of 4 days. I buy it less often, eat it more slowly, and enjoy it more than I ever did before starting mfp. I'm reading labels more, cooking at home more, and having fun doing it! Maybe consider take a cooking course. You may learn some new ways to cook, get new ideas, and meet new people, too.

Happyoceangirl

This may or may not be helpful but I had a very normal dinner this evening and felt grateful to be able to eat so well! I had a 4 oz steak with broccoli, a bit of squash, and a salad of mixed baby greens with feta cheese. I could've thrown some walnuts on top of the salad. The dressing was a really amazing honey mustard and I also had a glass of wine. Dessert was vanilla bean ice cream sprinkled with cinnamon.

The wine, the full fat dressing and the ice cream were indulgences tonight because I exercised my ever livin booty off and I had plenty of room to spare. A more typical evening might be no wine ( water instead) full fat dressin and no ice cream OR light dressing and half the ice cream OR no ice cream at all. There's room to be flexible. The meal would have been just as good because the basis of it was good.

Now that I think of it, lunch was normal too. A tuna sandwich on an English muffin with sprouts.

Last night was salmon with half a baked potato - sour cream and margarine, broccoli and the kabocha squash ( it tastes like a sweet potato). Seems like a another normal meal to me

Sorry if I'm rambling but I'm hoping to mms the point that those are awesome tasty meals and there's no deprivation in sight. If you look at my diary and go back more than a week you'll see more junk, less balance. I'm amazed to find that the right attitude is making all the difference.

I wish you well as you find your way. :flowerforyou:

Happyoceangirl

Also, I want to invite you to view my profile, as it might offer a bit about my perspective. Mayb e the reason I feel strongly about this topic is that I actually DO have to be conscious of my choices for the rest of my life if I want to maintain the quality of life I have achieved in the past two years.

Slowly and steadily I have made changes that over time have added up to the me I am today. For me, learning about nutrition has been an ongoing process and I am still learning. I not always happy that I have to choose wisely, but I am almost always happy with the results of those wise choices.

If you'd like the support and encouragement, friend me. I beleive you will find the balance you are looking for!

Mairgheal

I looked at your diary, and I guess I would consider eating a hodge podge of ingredients and calling it a lunch may be what I consider "healthy". I don't want to eat coconut oil, a piece of meat and some nutella with milk and call it a balanced meal. Eating "what I want" is what my mind considers a normal meal. A sandwich. Some soup. A salad. Pasta. Etc. This is what I can't get over. I don't want to start eating for nutrients and throwing out a way of life that most people do every day and don't get fat.

I understand you, trust me, I LOVE my junk, always did, always will. But at the end of the day, I don't want to be fat anymore, so I'd had to cut down on the junk drastically. And yes, I guess that would be for the rest of my life - ugh.
But if the rest of your daily diet is reasonably healthy, you can still have your bit of junk.

When it comes to healthy food, just keep it simple. Try not to buy ready-meals, go back to basics.

Nothing wrong with a sandwich. Get some delicious fresh bread, fill it with some ham or cheese or tuna, add lettuce, cucumber, peppers, whatever you fancy and you'd have a delicious, healthy sandwich. I'm not sure why you think you can't have carbs/protein/whatever, in my mind that's nonsense.
As for soup, don't get the soup in the shops, just throw some in-season-veggies in a pot, cook it, blend it, freeze it in portions. And dinners are the same, go back to basics, get a cookbook (Jamie Oliver's Ministery of food is great for basic recipes).

It takes time, quite a lot of time, for your mouth hunger to lessen, but it will eventually.

Good you're seeking help anyway, it seems you have a few more issues than diet alone, hope it'll work out for you x

ali258

First of all, this is a marathon and not a sprint. In other words, it's not a race to see who gets to the weight loss finish line first. Everyone moves at their own pace, and if you need to lose weight slower and eat more of the foods you enjoy, then do it. Just burn more calories than you eat -- you'll lose weight. You do not have to be perfect every day. If you want cheese, eat some cheese. Don't eat cheese every day for every meal. If you're like me, even though you love cheese, you won't really miss it when you start adding in things like avocado or some interesting mustard or some spices you like.

Second, you have to be happy with yourself -- fat, skinny, whatever. If you aren't happy with you generally, losing weight isn't going to MAKE you happy with yourself. I lost 80 lbs and I still wasn't happy. And I gained almost 50 of it back. I'm happier with myself now, so now I'm going to take the weight off again.

It sounds like you're eating a lot of "fake" foods and wondering why you're still hungry. If you eat more natural, higher fiber foods (fruits, vegetables, lean meats, whole grains) you will feel fuller longer. If you're still hungry after eating, consider whether you are thirsty or bored or feeling some emotion that you are mistaking for hunger. I used to eat a lot when I was just bored, and I thought it was just because I was really hungry in the afternoon. If you've recently eaten and you're still "hungry" maybe you could try writing in a journal to see if you can figure out if there is some other emotion behind it.

Good luck! And take it easy on yourself -- there isn't a final grade and there is no deadline to be done -- just enjoy the journey and appreciate all of the positive changes you are making in your life.