Don't know what to do anymore
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Dump any breads and rice, even brown rice, and stick to eating quinoa as much as possible in substitute of rice and breads. If you don't feel like the battle has lessened a bit then ill wash your car.0
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Salads may be good for you but you're the one in control of your food relationship. Wanting to be healthy is a wonderful thing, but as we all know actually doing it takes some real dedication. I believe that you do what you do when you're actaully ready for it. Until then just keep logging in and dropping notes and tracking your weight. One day you will be ready and all the support you want is right here waiting for you. We all fail, and personally I believe that through failure we find strength. So, have your dairy Queens and count those calories. Have that burger and count that too......and if you are hungry after 30 minutes of eating you probably are not getting the right food in your stomach or in the case of someone that has an enlarged stomach streatched from over eatting, the pangs of hunger are quite natural............when that happends you have to just sleep or live through it. filling that stomach will not help it shrink and that needs to happen for any weight loss program. We all want our special junk food and will not give it up, we somehow just have to work it into what we decide our calories will be for that day. None of this is easy........ :-( but, I promise it will be worth it down the road!! I'm counting on it! :-)0
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1. Make a large salad and add some turkey or chicken to help you feel full longer. Some of my salads come up to 700 calories. I feel full and they last. My light salads leave me hungry 30 minutes later and seem like a waste of calories.
2. For bread, there is sarah lee 45 calorie bread and it tastes pretty good. I recently switched from that to Joseph's pita bread. 60 calories for a whole pita. I traded out mayo for avocado too. Yum.
3. Try some flavored greek yogurt. I like Chobans. They even have one with chocolate in it
. I add cinnamon roasted almonds or a banana and it's VERY filling. I also like to take roasted almonds and mix them with cinnamon almonds for a healthy snack that tastes sinful. I will try to post a recipe for healthy cookies at the end of my response. They are SO yummy.
4. Do what you need to do to get your veggies in. I used to HATE veggies but I started slowly adding them. I started with green smoothies. Just some spinach or kale with yummy fruits. I branched to salads and now to steamed and roasted veggies. I find steaming veggies makes them much easier to tolerate. I use a little real butter and some sea salt and they are YUM.
You break these one small step at a time. Don't rush and try to do it all at once. Set a small goal and go for it. After you are secure in that accomplishment move to the next goal. You'll get there. This isn't a race, it's a journey.
Don't give up over one mistake. You made the mistake, forget it, move on. It's that simple. Just get right back to your goals.
If exercise calories just make you want to eat poorly, then do it as long as it fits your calorie goals. It's best to eat healthy but the key to weight loss is a calorie deficit.
You can do this. Avoiding processed carbs will help with the cravings. Be kind to yourself and it will come. Good luck.So I have some problems:
1. I don't really like to eat salads. I but a bag of salad mix, or a head of romaine, and it goes bad before I've gotten halfway through it. The kind of salads I like, end up being 450 calories or something ridiculous like that. Otherwise, I'm hungry 30 minutes after eating it.
2. I can't seem to find bread or wraps that don't end up making my sandwich 300 calories. Or maybe I need to make different types of sandwiches.
3. I need some kind of junkfood-like substitute for the actually stuff I crave. Chips? Candy? When I don't have it, I go grocery shopping and end up buying some very unhealthy stuff even though I don't intend to. And then I binge on it.
4. I really try to eat vegetables. Again, many of them go bad before I eat them. I buy bags of frozen vegetable stir fry, but find I need to smother them in teriyaki sauce to really enjoy them. Raw cut vegetables - I gotta have ranch to eat them.
How the hell do I break these habits/addictions? Sometimes I just feel hopeless. I need more self control.
Dairy Queen - pumpkin pie blizzards are amazing! It has taken all I have not to go get one, and that's mostly because I can't afford to waste the money and the closest one is across town.
Someone brought in a bag of candy yesterday at work, I ate SIX pieces (Twix, Snickers) instead of controlling myself and having one or two and working them into my calories.
It's like I just give up once I've made one bad choice and make six more bad choices before bed time.
I need to exercise but I don't want those exercise calories to be an excuse for not eating well.
I log my calories in the morning and by the afternoon, I've blown it so bad that I just don't bother logging the rest of the day.
I really want to be healthy, but it's like I'm addicted to a drug that just won't let me go! I don't want to give up but I don't know what to do anymore..
Just had to get that out there.0 -
My normal bread (regular sandwich "wheat" bread) is 90 calories for 2 slices. Pieces are not very big, but it's reasonable if I want something with bread in it. Others have mentioned a lot of good low calorie bread options. I do the bags of frozen veggies thing too. Also sometimes onions and tomatoes, both are easy to chop up and add to whatever I am eating. I snack on grapes/cucumbers/strawberries during the day at work (buy over the weekend, cut everything up and individually bag it all on sunday). Maybe blueberries/raspberries would be good? You have to find something you like.
I'm not a fan of "salad" and don't waste my time with it. I focus more on getting good protein throughout the day. Vegetables are a secondary priority for me, but I add them when I can. I find eating protein throughout the day keeps me more full. I also have not given up sweets, and make room for ice cream almost every single day. I was eating about 1360 calories but have recently upped it to 1450 (find I am tired too often and workouts not going well, so going to try this for a while, I am okay with very slow weight loss).
Typical foods I eat:
Snacks - grapes, cucumbers, low calorie protein shake
Lunches - soup, turkey sandwiches (~400 calories, sliced tomatoes on sourdough bread), leftover chicken/veggies from the night before
Dinners - Stir fry frozen veggies, chicken breast, ground turkey, sometimes lean ground beef, sometimes just beans and veggies
and like I mentioned before, I eat ice cream and oreos nearly every day. I have little mugs and little cups where I know exactly where 1 cup of ice cream or 1/2 cup of ice cream is, and portion out, and add to my food log.
Not as awesome as those who survive off salads, chicken and brocolli all day, but I find it is a step in the right direction, and something I can handle 7 days a week. I don't do "low carb" purposefully, but find it just happens when I try to keep protein high and calories low. I have to keep any kind of starchy snack food out of the house (no chips, crackers, granola bars, etc) or I'd eat the whole thing in one sitting. Good luck!0 -
Kettle brand baked kettle chips, many flavors, they are low sodium and baked and sooo good. I found them in the health food section of the grocery store. Hersheys kisses are only 23 calories per kiss. Condensed cream of mushroom soup makes an excellent vegetable sauce, 1% sour cream only 40 calories for 2 tbsp, someone posted something called pumpkin fluff on here that looks great, I am going to try it and maybe add a bit of pumpkin spice. Lots of alternatives to keep those cravings satisfied and the calories in check. Good luck. ( I mashed boiled broccoli with condensed cream of mushroom soup and it was one of the best broccoli soups I ever tasted)0
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I'm going to be blunt and honest...since everyone else is avoiding the real issue...
90% of your challenge is MENTAL AWARENESS. You either want to change, or you dont.
Realize.Visualize.Choose.Act.SUCCEED.
If you are unhealthy, it is because YOU CHOSE and ACTED to be unhealthy. Choices are abundant in every moment of life. The impacts of your actions, both consciously and sub-consciously, are what define your present being. You CREATE the present. Accept that the reason you are who you are is by your choices and actions, REALIZE. See where you want to Improve, VISUALIZE. Make the CHOICE to Change. Take ACTION upon the choices that lead you to SUCCESS.
If you truly want to change, you will stop making excuses and overcome. Bread is not, salads can be made to taste good. You want DQ? Then WORK IT OFF.0 -
I just want to say that I love pumpkin, and have a bad pumpkin latte addiction (hello, 800 calories) I started adding pumpkin spice and a scoop of pumpkin puree (NOT pie filling) to my greek yogurt and protein smoothies in the morning, oh so yummy! sometimes I do cold coffee, almond milk and ice with it for that frappe effect......0
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Almost forgot the cookies. Enjoy.
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup almond or oat flour. (I make oat flour by putting rolled oats into my blender/food processor to create flour)
1 cup creamy cashew butter, almond butter or peanut butter. (I use all natural almond butter)
1/2 cup applesauce. (I use non-sweetened all natural)
1/3 cup date honey (I don't even know what date honey is so I use 1/3 cup organic agave nectar and it tastes fab)
1/2 cup raisins (I skip the raisins)
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts (I skip the walnuts)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I just eyeball in a good amount of cinnamon, yum)
I add 1 banana blended but the recipe does not call for it.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix oats, oat flour, almond butter, applesauce, and agave nectar in a large bowl until well combined. Add raisins, walnuts and cinnamon. Stir well. Drop by spoonfuls, two inches apart, on an 11 by 17-inch baking sheet. Flatten and shape into circles. Bake 10-12 minutes.
*You can increase the applesauce to one cup if you want to skip the date honey/agave nectar.0 -
Hey sweetie... Tips...
.... Plan ahead.
.... Pre log
.... Cook in big batches and fridge or freeze.
... Make an effort to make one new recipe per week.
... Aldi is your best friend! Cheap veg... Even if a bit goes of, it's not great but not the end of the world... Especially. On super 6
...roast your veggies... They taste amazing and go a little sweet. Lovely!
... If you go over one day, don't worry. Keep logging. People are not going to judge you for having one bad day. If people's reactions bother you too much close your diary.
... Think Bout changing your loss to 1lb per week for now. When you get used to that you can always go to 1.5lb.
... Be kind to yourself, put the baseball bats away.
... EVERY day is a NEW day, a fresh start. One day at a time!
Good luck!
P. S... 450 cals for a salad if it's a meal isn't terrible. I have cucumber, lettuce, tomatoes, marinaded chicken and one calorie spray dressing... Around 250 cals and very filling. Another fav of mine is tuna, egg and sweet chilli sauce :-) lots of protein to tide you over for very little calories! X0 -
I'm going to be blunt and honest...since everyone else is avoiding the real issue...
90% of your challenge is MENTAL AWARENESS. You either want to change, or you dont.
Realize.Visualize.Choose.Act.SUCCEED.
If you are unhealthy, it is because YOU CHOSE and ACTED to be unhealthy. Choices are abundant in every moment of life. The impacts of your actions, both consciously and sub-consciously, are what define your present being. You CREATE the present. Accept that the reason you are who you are is by your choices and actions, REALIZE. See where you want to Improve, VISUALIZE. Make the CHOICE to Change. Take ACTION upon the choices that lead you to SUCCESS.
If you truly want to change, you will stop making excuses and overcome. Bread is not, salads can be made to taste good. You want DQ? Then WORK IT OFF.
this. you're an adult, you control you, you are the only one that can break your habits, you will find alternatives that you like, or you will learn to like things you don't think you do, or you will stay stuck. OR yu will work out balls to the wall to eat what you like.0 -
hide your veggies in a tomato sauce, and then instead of a huge heaping pile of pasta and tomato sauce, make a smaller pile of pasta with more sauce (because that's where the goodness is). or go half and half with pasta and shredded zucchini or spaghetti squash to make a heaping pile, with lots of sauce on top. this way you're getting some pasta, but benefiting from the extra veggies and not having to go "all-in" right away on the "diet" food.
baby steps. that's the key. I started out just eliminating carbonated drinks... and continued to eat whatever. i lost 5 pounds. then i eliminated all sugary drinks and just drank water. lost another few pounds. then i started to cut back (not eliminate) starchy foods (rice, pasta, bread), while increasing whole grains. slowly but surely things started happening. i may not have lost a huge amount of weight, but i certainly feel healthier.
everyone slips up now and then... learn to forgive and forget. nobody is perfect. :flowerforyou:0 -
My goal is 1450cal a day. I actually don't mind most veggies, maybe it's just a habit of smothering them with sauce or spices that is my problem.
I think part of it is that I find something healthy that I like.. like cantaloupe over the summer.. that I say OH I like this! and then I focus on it so much that I burn myself out on it.
I have a bunch of spaghetti squash and acorn squash from my garden, I just haven't been able to find good recipes for it yet. I spend hours looking at recipes some days and get overwhelmed and only end up getting two or three recipes out of them all and they're never for the ingredients I already have at home. Or, I try and don't cook them well. My mom didn't like to cook and I'm now living across the country from my family and trying to learn on my own, and I get discouraged sometimes. I lack the ability to cook things without following a recipe, or the confidence. So then making dinner becomes a big ordeal and sometimes I take the easy way out and buy fast food or something.
When I eat higher-calorie meals and see that I only have 400cals left for the day after I eat lunch, it's like I panic and give up, thinking there's no way I can stay under my calorie goal anyways so why try? When I don't eat the higher cal stuff I'm starving all day and end up bingeing at night. (Edit: I just changed my goals from 2lbs/week to 1.5lbs/week, I WAS trying to restrict to 1200cal/day. With the 1450 I may not have such a problem with this? I hope.)
I just can't seem to win!
I don't know what's wrong with me.
400 cals isn't bad for a dinner. I have 430cals left today, and I'll be having a quorn stroganoff (http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mc1imuIL2L1qewyu0o1_500.jpg) with rice. If you use the calories on the right stuff then it'll work out okay. Smaller portions are a big thing for me to get my head around too. It is hard work, but I find it helps to plan what I'm going to have and often pre-log things I know I will be eating then seeing what I have left for "extras".0 -
3. I need some kind of junkfood-like substitute for the actually stuff I crave. Chips? Candy? When I don't have it, I go grocery shopping and end up buying some very unhealthy stuff even though I don't intend to. And then I binge on it.
For salt cravings, turn your oven to 350, sprinkle some olive oil (or olive oiol spray to save calories), salt and pepper on some asparagus and roast on a cookie sheet for 30 minutes, It's almost like eating french fries, but fewer calories.
For sweet, I have two go-tos:
A fruit smoothie (you can make it any way you want)
Green & Black's 85% dark chocolate (even if you don't like dark chocolate, this stuff is awesome) with or without peanut butter. I eat 6 squares a day.
As for your 450-calorie salads and 300-calorie sandwiches, if that's the whole or the largest part of your meal and it's filling, then I don't see the problem.
My lunch usually runs me more than 500 calories and dinner and my smoothie dessert around 600. I usually come in below 1,300 calories on any given day and I'm not hungry.0 -
It won't be easy... the actual problem is that you ARE addicted.You need to re-generate your taste buds to enjoy and accept normal, healthy food. The more crap you eat, the more crap you need to feel satisfied.
I used to despise all vegetables and now I can't picture a salad or sandwich without things like tomatoes, peppers, onions, beets, alfalfa sprouts etc. It takes time to get used to real food with one ingredient. It's hard but plunder on and you will soon see that you were just addicted to crappy foods.0 -
I don't really like raw veggies either. If I do have to eat a salad, I do one with vinegar and olive oil dressing (be sure not to drench your salad with olive oil though). One thing I do to make sure I get enough veggies for the day is to make a green smoothie -- I add celery, carrot, spinach, and apple with almond milk to make a smoothie as sort of a mid-day snack. I also like to roast my veggies -- especially asparagus, broccoli, or cauliflower with a bit of salt and pepper as a side with my meals -- it's delicious. I also don't do sandwiches b/c I find bread adds calories that I would rather eat elsewhere. I usually just bake chicken with lemon pepper and eat that with a side of veggies. Make small changes. Changing your entire diet all at once is gonna be overwhelming, so try to do a couple of things differently each week, and soon it will be easier and become a habit 0
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I have a hard time leaving the "good" stuff off of veggies / salad too.
For steamed veggies, I like to use some "I can't believe it's not butter" spray, a little garlic salt, pepper, and a sprinkle of parmesan. It's actually really good. I sometimes mix it with brown rice and eat it as a snack or light lunch.
I also LOVE Chick-Fil-A's Chargrilled Chicken Salad - I get their ranch dressing, and then measure out just a tablespoon from the packet (and immediately throw the rest in the trash so I won't be tempted). It's not a ton of dressing, so I make sure I mix it up really well and add a little salt (I know it's bad for me) and pepper. I also trash the croutons, but will save the sunflower seeds for a snack later. It's really good and pretty satisfying. I usually follow it with some cottage cheese or a "mini" whole wheat bagel because salad alone just doesn't cut it for me. I think a lot of that is just mental (for me anyway).
I can totally empathize about the Blizzards. For me it's Baskin Robins' Pralines and Cream in a waffle cone. Unfortunately for me, there's one on my way home from work. Just a couple of days ago I had to make a point of driving in the far right lane all the way home so that when I approached the intersection where the ice cream shop is I would have to make a conscious decision to cut across two lanes of traffic in order to make the left turn into the parking lot. Maybe a little silly, but it worked.
None of us is perfect. I have to avoid the desk of my evil co-worker who plagues me with the temptation of her candy bowl. I also sit right next to the vending machine which is my nemesis. I have named it Lucifer. I let myself have one square of Dove chocolate every day - I let it melt in my mouth so I can enjoy it longer. Because I would be tempted to eat the whole bag, I leave the bag at home and bring 5 to work on Monday. I figure that way if I fall off the wagon, it's only a couple hundred calories instead of a whole bag of chocolate (which I have been known to do). If I eat all 5 in one day, then there are no more for the rest of the days of the week. I had a bad day yesterday and ate tons of crap, but today is a new day. I think it helps to keep logging even when we mess up because we don't always realize how much we actually ate until that number shows up. It definitely helps to push me back in the right direction.
Hang in there, and do some experimenting. Get creative. You'll be amazed at what you can come up with. 0 -
Just some tricks that I have picked up - and I'm sure a bunch of people have touched on some of them.
1) I just started eating what I knew to be healthy. 50/50 spring mix and baby spinach salad with a can of tuna or salmon (in water) with a bit of oil and italian spices (minus salt). Eventually, I trained my body to actually LIKE the taste! It feels good knowing that I'm eating something that nourishes my body. Now it's kind of fun to find other good-for-you foods (the cleaner the better) that I like. I try not putting anything on my veggies to see what they are SUPPOSED to taste like! Seasonings can be your best friend!
2) LEAN PROTEIN AND WATER (Which has been said). I have BodyLogix Whey protein in strawberry banana flavor, and I mix it with 10-12 oz. of vanilla unsweetened almond milk. I now CRAVE these shakes even on days I don't work out. It just tastes SO yummy!
3) I keep a bunch of motivational post-it notes all around the house/work/car. They say things like, "Think about why you started", "Don't give up what you want MOST for what you want NOW", "Be the girl you were too lazy to be yesterday", and "Suck it up and one day you won't have to suck it in".
ONE DAY AT A TIME. Be proud of your accomplishments. Learn from the mistakes.
If you eat better you feel better....0 -
If I'm starving I have liquid eggs (3 servings), 1 flatout wrap (90 calories) and a wedge of laughing cow light cheese schmeared on it.
If I'm craving sweet I like plain greek yogurt and a half scoop of protein powder.
Roasting is an amazing way to start enjoying veggies........I usually do all mine at the beginning of the week, then when I come home starving I only have to pop it in the microwave.
Try mixing lean chicken (ground) with some taco seasoning and putting that on your salads! It's so so good (unless you're watching sodium too)
Good luck and don't beat yourself up. Don't stop logging your calories "because you blew it" for the day. Look at mine! Some days I am not proud of myself either
But tomorrow is another. Even if you went over by 300 calories............you're still 200 under maintenence. It's a hard change.....slow and steady! 0 -
I'd never thought of eating chocolate with peanut butter... OH NO WHAT HAVE YOU DONE :sad:Green & Black's 85% dark chocolate (even if you don't like dark chocolate, this stuff is awesome) with or without peanut butter. I eat 6 squares a day.
Seriously, that sounds like an awesome carby snack, perfect for either pre- or post-workout. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate by itself, but I can imagine how amazing it can be when paired with peanut butter!0 -
I say give yourself 30 days of healthy food. See if your taste changes. Mine sure did. One example, my whole life I thought I hated mangoes, after eating whole foods, I love mangos, they are pretty much my new candy. Ha! I also thought I hated sweet potato. Turns out I don't anymore. I think it just takes getting used to.
Also frozen veggies taste nasty to me, see if you can get fresh if possible and you will see a taste difference. Any kind of vegetable in a can taste gross to me too, mushy and salty.
I love the Sweet Riot 85% dark as a "treat." I have 3 pieces every night (21 cal per piece.)0
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