Need some help

i dont know what to say. my fiance has already warned me about the same thing when we get our place. hopefully thats at the end of the year but i do dread what it might do to my new good habits. i already miss the junk. im hopin it passes. let me know if you get a good solution.

I hear you guys! It's really hard when you are trying to watch what you eat and the people in the house aren't doing so. There are two things causing us greif: 1) the junk food in the house and 2) our own will power.

But let's be honest here.... It is not fair to blame the men for our lack of willpower. The hard truth is that wanting food that isn't healthy for us is our own internal problem and changing our willpower is part of what we have to do to achieve our goals. No one said that getting more healthy and learning new eating habits was going to be easy. If it was then we wouldn't hate "dieting". Studies show that our willpower decreases throughout the day, so it is likely that the worst times for us to "cheat" will be at the end of the day when we are tired and trying to relax. We need to know this and be prepared for these cravings.

Don't fret ladies! We can do this! It's about remember why we want to be more healthy and learning how to make it work.

I have learned several strategies to cope and I hope they help you too:

Eat breakfast (300ish caloires) that includes some form of protein (egg, dairy, nuts, whatever)!!! Eat within the first hour of getting up (after you shower and get dressed, before you leave the house, get on the computer or start the days activites). Studies show that people who eat breakfast eat fewer calories overall in the day than those who skip it.

Plan for cheating. Figure out what you want to cheat with and when, and put it into your food tracker. This way you take control and can adapt the rest of your eating to keep you on track or you can do more exercise to cover the calories. For instance, if you want cookies for dessert then have less rice or pasta at dinner or just a light salad with a piece of fruit for lunch or add time to your workout to cover the calories. You can of course combine these strategies and you will find that when you realize you have to a 40 minute walk for the bag of chips or chocolate bar, you will think twice.

Connect treats" to efforts towards your goal - it's like paying yourself a food allowance. For instance, once a week I allow myself a "treat" if I stick to my workout goals for the week. Just be sure that your treat doesn't swallow all of your exercise calories

FInd lower calorie snacks that feel like a treat but don't break the calorie bank. For instance, I love fresh cherries and while they are expensive sometimes, what I am not spending on chips or chocolate I spend on cherries and flowers for myself instead. Or, if you like tatziki like I do, you'll discover it only has 5 cals/tablespoon and so I often use it as my dip for veggies.

If you have a bad day, let it go. Do not let it throw you off. Do not let it sabotage the next day, thinking things like "well it doesn't matter what I do today because of yesterday". Forgive yourself, you are human and aren't perfect. Rallying after a bad day and forgiving yourself are as important as discipline and a plan.

Finally, use your bigger goal to feed your willpower. Think things like "I want to lose 5 pounds and fit into those pants more than I want a chocolate bar" "I want to fit into my wedding dress more than I want that ice cream" "I want to feel good in my body more than I want that bag of chips". Keep your eye on the prize because achieving it will be more satisfying than anything you will put in your mouth.

To summarize:

1. Eat a 300ish calorie breakfast that has protien.
2. Plan for your cheating using your food diary or exercise to work around the calories treats use up.
3. Reward your efforts using a treat allowance system
4. Find lower calorie treats that you like/love and have them in the house for snack time.
5. When you fall of the horse, forgive yourself and get back on as fast as you can.
6. Remember your bigger goal and use it to feed your willpower.

If you want it, have it, just have it in moderation. As for chocolate, if you can use chocolate baking powder. I use it on my bananas etc. A lot less calories compared to eating even a piece of chocolate. You will find ways to sub, you just have to look and work at it a little more.

Some lower calorie snack foods include:

Popcorn (without butter unfortunately)
Jelly beans
Jube jubes
Lollipops
Freezes or even better, frozen fruit (melon cubes on a stick, frozen berries)
Jello
Fruit roll-ups
Yoghurt
Frozen yoghurt


Also, your body does not account for liquid calories as well as it does solid food calories so limit how many calories you consume in liquid form.

i have found that just cutting my carbs down and focusing on getting 40% of my calories from protein has kept me full and I am not missing all of the starchy snacks i usually craved. I have been making my husband some kind of side to go with whatever I cook and I stick to the meat and vegetable for myself and seem to be doing ok for the last 2-3 weeks. This is a huge contrast to using up my calories on pretzels, low cal snacks and low fat yogurt it seems. My husband was a collegiate cross-country runner and thinks a half marathon is just an easy saturday morning and doesn't want to eat fish because "it doesn't fill him up" so we go through tons of meat...and sometimes he just has to put up with fish and have another snack after dinner.

now that I've got a jump start I think I'll start adding back in a few whole grains but try to avoid white flour and sugar as much as possible