Getting back into healthy eating times and patterns

seandominguez

I've been having difficulty for the longest time getting back into healthy eating times and habits.

What were your mental 'paradigm shifts' about eating that finally got you to stick with a good, sustainable pattern of eating meals?

For example, I know mentally that if I eat at 10:00am, 3:00pm, and 7:00pm and didn't eat until an "I'm stuffed" mentality, I'd be sitting pretty. However, I end up cheating one way or another, which sort of snowballs into something here and something there and then derails the whole day altogether.

Oftentimes at night after I get off of a long shift on my feet, I'll peek into the fridge to see what my Dad made that night and, if it's appetizing, I'll eat a couple of bites - sometimes more (if you know what I mean). I'm sure it's psychology screwing with me, but it's almost as if I feel that I've got to get something in my body before bed.

It's just the funniest thing when you think about it. Some people are able to just eat when their stomach growls and never think twice about it. For me (and many of you, I'm sure) it is constant work not to over eat, not to eat aimlessly, etc.,. I'd love to be able to restore some calm to this chaos.

Tips and tricks for your own mental barriers?

lori_oz

Hi, I'm finding it liberating to let go of some of the self imposed 'rules' I've had for so long and be open to learning what really suits me rather than what I believe should suit me.. Whatever pattern works for you that allows you to stay within your calorie and macro range eating relatively cleanly and enjoying it i,e. can keep up long term even after goal..

It sounds to me like you would really enjoy +-100 calories at bedtime. Why don't you allow for that, plan what those 100 cals will be at the start of the day or night before, log it and then no guilt.

I also find logging those unplanned nibbles asap helps because I see they're not that bad after all and the act of logging stops me from going overboard e.g. yesterday I accidentally licked some cake dough while baking eith my daughter. Wasn't actually more than a tsp but in the past I wouldve worried about it, now its in my diary it doesnt look that bad at all..