what do you do when....

jbug5j

i have been on here for about 2 months and through what i felt like was very hard work i lost 5 pounds watching what i ate. well... two weeks ago i moved and stopped logging because i was so busy. i havent gourged myself and in fact i still get full very fast. the problem is i realised how unhappy i was managing what i ate. i had quit caring these past two weeks and just ate what sounded good, without worrying about how many calories were in it. i logged today for the fist time since and i plan on continuing to do so. my question is..... what do you do about being so unhappy about how much you are allowing yourself. how do you deal with missing the stress free meals. i really want to get to my goal weight but it all seems so pointless if i cant be happy doing it. ya know? :frown:

JamesThiel

I eat what I want, (Tho' I do not eat Fast food anymore) it's all about portion control and exercise for me. It works, and I'm now happy

Nucky719

Maybe you could allow yourself one or two days a week where you don't log.

jcr85

Well you have to ask your self how did I gain the weight I want to lose. For most people it is because they are not conscious of what they are eating and being sedentary. So in order to lose weight you have to do the opposite of what you did to gain the weight.

But if eating is stressing you out maybe you need to reevaluate your diet plan.

Le_Joy

Logging food doesn't stress me out. It makes me more aware of what i am eating. I always eat what i want, I am just aware of portions and if I am truly hungry or just bored. If it did stress me out, I likely wouldn't do it. For me being fat and unable to lose weight* is worse than having to carefully track all my food. *I don't lose weight unless I pay close attention to what I eat.

jbug5j

i have no problem logging what i eat. it is actually interesting to me. the problem im having is when i do eat something i get stressed because i cant finish it or have as much as i would like to..... i know its kind of a "wah get over it" kind of situation. i get stressd and anxious very easy and have been the past few weeks and while i dont say im a comfort eater.. i do like my food. i was more asking how people delt with being bummed out about not being able to eat as much or knowing if you did you were done for the day. i cant be alone in this.... can i?

tataliciousd89

I'm not sure I understand... I love logging what I'm eating and I love the food I eat. I don't feel restricted in any way and I don't think you should either. This isn't a diet for me; it is the rest of my life. If you are miserable then you are going about it completely wrong. How many calories are you allowing yourself? How much do you exercise? Why are you eating foods that make you unhappy? I don't get it. I'm making chicken fried rice for dinner tomorrow and it will be delicious! I will be under my calorie goal for the day and go to bed with a full tummy. I've lost 26 lbs since january 9th and I've been eating this way. Stop making yourself miserable!!!

jbug5j

um.... i dont know how to explain it i guess. i eat foods i like and whatever i want. its that i cant seem to eat uh... as much? i dont know.... it seems i have lost what i was asking. *sigh* *thinks*

I eat what i want and measure out portions
i track my calories (1400 a day to lost 1 pound a week)
i am either hungry all day from eating small meals by stopping before im ready and full OR i get to my goal too fast and go over my calories before dinner.

that last point is the part that is stressing me out. does that make better sence? :embarassed:

auntiebabs

Don't worry about changing everything at once.

And remember you don't have to be perfect, you just have to be better.

Here's how I started:

1) tracking for a couple of weeks before I worried about losing.
(although seeing what I was eating I couldn't help but rein back a bit)

2) seeing where I could make small changes on things that weren't that important to me.
(Don't even think of taking chocolate out of my diet!!!)
--Reducing quantities where I won't notice it so much
--Swapping out things instead of eliminating them.

3) Look at my diary and started adding foods that had positive healthy effects specifically for the health issue in my family.
I found most of the things I "should" add were really yummy too! salmon, avocado, oatmeal, mango, red grapes....
(Sort of think of food as medicine to deal with family history of various health issue oatmeal is good for heart health, mango and red grapes lower cholesterol, tumeric and cinnamon good for arthritis)

4) every couple of weeks I see where I can make another couple of small changes.
If you completely revamp your diet, it's way easy to revert to old ways in times of stress.
If you make a series of small changes, food still offers you some sense of comfort.
sort of a comfort continuum, and after a while the first small changes will seem comforting in themselves.

5) also rather than being uberstrict with the target MFP set for me I did the math to find out the calories needed to maintain my goal weight and my current weight and...
I gave myself a range:
ROCK BOTTOM: 1200 cal,
TARGET: lose 1 lb/wk as my target (once that went down to 1200 cal I switched to lose 1/2 lb a week)
HIGH END: maintain my goal weight

As long as I keep within in this range I'll lose. I tend to naturally zig zag my calories 3-4 at very close to my target and then a higher calorie day closer to the top of my range.

SAFETY VALVE: As long as I stayed under maintain my current weight calories I won't gain. So no need to throw in the towel, just pick-up where I left off.

REMEMBER YOU ONLY HAVE 1 POUND TO LOSE... THE NEXT 1!
Once I found ways to lessen the stress, I found it way easier to focus on the process and let the results follow. (It's what worked for me some people need the stress to get them motivated. Me I get scared and overwhelmed and don't see the big goal as achievable.)

Food is not the enemy.
Oddly enough on my journey here I've reduced guilt over food.
I have the occasional treat and I fully enjoy it with no guilt involved.
The thing is since I'm not eating crap all the time the occasional treat is just that a TREAT it's special and I enjoy it so much more than when I was unconsciously shovel junk food into my face.

I figure if I've got a good plan that I can actually maintain I can keep this off for a long time to come, without feeling deprived.

Good Luck

tami101

I totally understand, when I was at 1400 calories goal if I did not exercise it would be really hard not to go over it. I would exercise to give myself more calories, but if I was not able to exercise that day I would almost always go over or go hungry. You might try going to .5 lb week loss and exercising more.

auntiebabs

If you are still hungry eating 1400 calories a day track your sugar.

There is so much sugar hidden in what is sold as *real foods* these days
Food manufactures like to do this because sugars and artificial sweeteners spurs your appetite.

I was shocked to find out the tomato sauce I was using had 9g of sugar per 1/2 cup serving. I'd always thought of tomato sauce as healthy.
(My favorite cookies have 9g sugar per 15 cookies!!!!!)

Yogurt also has a lot of sugar depending on the flavor you get.

I work hard to remove it from my *real foods* because I have a sweet tooth and like to enjoy a treat now and again.

jbug5j

hmm... i never thought about that before. i mean i have but not thought about doing it because, like you said, ALOT of foods have sugar in them. i know one of my problems with that is how much i LOVE noodles and bread... sad huh?

tataliciousd89

Yes, now that makes sense... I used to feel that way. I joined MFP about a year ago and I was losing at first, but always feeling deprived and unhappy. I bought into all that crap people spew about needing to eat frequent small meals and cutting down fat... blah, blah, blah. Anyways I gave up and gained everything back. In january I decided to try a different approach so I cut out most of the carbs in my diet and packed in a bunch more fat and protein. I eat in a way that works for me time wise and not the way everybody tells me I should. I have two big meals a day with a snack or two in between, but everything is super protein packed and usually pretty fatty so I never get hungry in between and I always go to bed full. You need to find out what way of eating works for you and your body. Losing weight isn't one size fits all and if you are miserable you really should try fooling around with your routine and seeing what works for you.

CaitlinR85

Not sure if this is a helpful suggestion... but maybe you might have to try eating some things that WILL fill you up from smaller portions? High protein foods are the best. Try boiled eggs, lean chicken, natural yoghurt, etc.

I try to eat 30% of my calories in protein and help myself to as many raw veggies as I like, because they are hardly any calories. I find that a bit of grilled chicken and a big leafy salad is very hard to get through these days.

But if I get hungry between meals, I grab a small handful of walnuts or almonds (4-6) and this, with lots of water, seems to keep the hunger pain away.

My caveat is that (unlike you) I'm more of an emotional eater, so I actually used to eat reasonably healthily (maybe slightly too big portions) but have frequent junk-food binges, and zero exercise.

I just thought I'd add my two cents in case anything resonated with you.

CaitlinR85

Also, if you're a pasta/noodle lover, have you tried Shirataki/Konyaaku noodles? I just tried them last night and was very impressed. I think they have something like 30 cals per serving, but are ALMOST as good as rice noodles.

I'm not saying they're the best, but I LOVED the fact that I could cook up a massive veggie/bolognese pasta sauce with my man, and have noodles while he had his pasta. Made me feel like I wasn't really depriving myself.