The balance between eating healthy and enjoying things.

girlinahat

I believe I have struck a nice balance. I lost 30 pounds and am maintaining now. I am a foodie at heart, an adventurous eater, and an avid home cook. I generally eat my definition of "clean" which means I don't eat much processed/boxed foods and I stay away from artificial sweeteners, preservatives, additives, food dyes, etc. Being that I love to cook, this isn't an issue on a day to day basis as I make most of my own food. I do love to travel and I love sampling different cuisines. When I am in travel mode, I eat what I want but just not loads of it- the old moderation mantra. If I have a huge warm buttered lobster roll for lunch, my dinner will be lighter and more sensible from a health standpoint. If I know I am going out to a steakhouse for dinner and will be chowing on red meat and creamed spinach, I eat a light lunch. Same thing for any high cal foods (fried food, greasy food, whatever).

It really hasn't been difficult to strike that balance. I generally eat healthy and with regular sized portions most of the time, so the indulgence here and there doesn't do any harm. If I want ice cream, I'll have the ice cream. One proper serving of ice cream isn't a big deal or that many calories in the grand scheme of things (like 250 cals for a 1/2 cup or so). The slippery slope is when people can't eat in moderation and a serving of ice cream equals a pint. That's just being piggish and that is what needs to be controlled. Once you master moderation, the balance is easy to strike.

^^ this.

with a caveat. When you want ice cream, don't just dig into any ice cream, find the most expensive and delicious ice cream you can (and look at the label. Ice cream is made from cream and sugar and often eggs. That's it. And flavours. Nothing else is required. If your ice cream has xantham gum or anything else in it, put it down and walk away.)

DeeVanderbles

I tend to limit myself in the fact that I don't eat my favorite things as often as I used to. For the most part, I eat great all week long. On the weekends, I give myself some slack but still try to be good and within my calorie goals unless it's a really really special occasion.

I love food. I want to try a low carb diet once I get through some of the higher carb snacks I recently bought and see how that works for me but I don't think it will. My fiance and I are planning portions of our honeymoon around food. While we aren't leaving the area, we are going to eat at new places so I know I'm going to want to try new things and eat whatever I want instead of trying to plan a healthier meal ahead of time from their website.

mulcahya

I agree with a lot of people here!

I am relatively new to MFP, but I am looking at it as a healthy lifestyle change, rather than a diet.

There are foods that are high-cal and not very healthy that I really enjoy, and if I try to cut them out completely, I'm just going to end up wanting them more and failing harder! I think this is human nature, and that it increases risk of failure to just cut out completely.

And so, I try to eat smaller portions and less often, and I will exercise more on these days to earn more calories.

I also have found some low-cal, healthy recipes that I find delicious (turkey burgers, tuna/corn/potato patties, etc.) that I can make a batch of and then eat regularly (e.g. 2 per day for a week) for lunches. This way even though I am eating the same thing, it is something that I enjoy, as well as being low-cal and healthy.

I try to choose healthier options, and just eat less in general. After about ten days of doing this, I noticed I could only eat half of my usual full unhealthy meal on a Friday! I also didn't want to eat the chips as much as I did before.

I think it's important to be satisfied with what you are eating, find healthy snacks/lunches that suit you, and eat treats in moderation.

If they fit my calorie goal, I won't restrict myself, however I generally try to fill up on a high protein snack rather than something unhealthy and limit my sugar intake etc.

I often review my week's (or the past few days') food diary at the end to see how I ate the day before, and identify where I ate a bit too much sugar, not enough protein, etc., and whether that was really the best choice.

I aim for this to be a lifelong lifestyle change, and the only way I see feasible of doing that is to learn to control indulgences and eat in moderation.

WendyTerry420

My thing is to add foods that I wasn't eating before, especially fruits and veggies. I make sure that I have enough protein and fiber each day. I am also very careful on portion sizes. AND, most importantly, I am exercising every day, even if I don't feel like it. My problem was that I ate until I was stuffed, had no regard for portions, and sat around looking at the TV all night.

I am more interested in being fit. I don't have any issues with an occasional treat, so long as I am staying under my caloric total for the day. For example, last night was my night for light exercises, instead of intense, and I was still a little sore from the day before, and tired. But I forced myself to get off my butt and do it. When I finished, I used my final 200-some-odd calories to indulge in a well-deserved 1/2 cup of ice cream. I measured out the ice cream and was quite satisfied with the small portion because it was Belfonte chocolate silk with chocolate chunks, one of my favorites. I still had some calories left, but I was satisfied and left it alone, took care of a few last minute things, watched a little bit of TV and went to bed.

So far, it's working for me. :happy:

CJisinShape

My problem in the past have been being obsessed with clean vegetarian eating and hours on top of hours of structured exercise sad because I had four ab muscles showing and not six. Swing to eating a chocolate bar every day and takeout three or four times a week sitting in my recliner fooling myself that I wasn't a glutton and lazy. Because I've been there, I know these aren't healthy places for me. I've been trying modify certain habits and focus on the habits and not on the weight per se. Now I have a chocolate maybe once a week, shared. I used to want donuts all the time - my husband brought home donuts and I wasn't tempted to have a single bite. I eat a lot of soup, and I hope to add some kind of warm cereal to that. One thing at a time. I still eat more than I should and not as healthfully as I'd like. That said, I do enjoy the food I eat. I pretty much eat the foods i enjoy - Im just enjoying different kinds of foods now. I dont feel deprived at all, but Introducing the new habit is a challenge. This week, its getting enough water. I'm very thankful to God that He has helped me so much.

81Katz

Yes I find it hard for me to find a balance. Most times it's one extreme or the other, no happy medium. NONE of it for a period of time, which obviously makes me feel deprived or crave it more or LOADS of it for a period of time, which obviously makes me over-eat/binge like crazy when I can get my hands on it

:ohwell:

Laddiegirl

I'm not on a strict diet myself. I've tried them in the past and they aren't something I know I can do longterm so I'd rather learn to encorporate the foods I love or learn to cook them in healthier ways. I plan for special treats and make sure to exercise when I know I'm going to go over or indulge in something. This past weekend I spent visiting my sister who does not cook so we ate out at every meal, I made good choices that fit in my macros, but were also things I wanted and only went over by 168 calories on one day. I made a point to exercise each day (I had my workout video on my laptop, took walks and swam laps in her complex pool) and I didn't gain an ounce and enjoyed my weekend with my sister.

For me this journey is about learning how to fit the foods I love into a healthy and balanced diet so that I can get to and maintain a healthy weight while still enjoying food and not making it the enemy.