"Healthy Habits" - Goals, Both Short and Long Term
angelaengbrecht
Posts: 55 Member
So, in the last week I've been struggling quite a bit, but this morning I found this list of goals I had previously comprised, and I hope it will help me refocuse. Sometimes I think we focus too much on punishing ourselves for the behaviors we want to eliminate, instead of doing the logical (and much gentler) thing, which is to be proud of, and reward ourselves, for doing the RIGHT thing.
I thought this topic could be a nice place to share our long and short term goals for healthy habits surrounding food, and to celebrate our successes!
So, here's my list:
Goals:
1) Eat and drink slowly. Put utensils down. Taste and enjoy your food. Take small bites and sips to maximize enjoyment of food.
2) Recognize your hunger and strive to primarily eat when hungry.
3) Eat a relatively even amount of calories on most days. Small fluctuations are normal; wild highs and lows are not.
4) Stop eating when full. Be able to leave food on your plate at restaurants, even when it's a 'small amount' that you COULD finish.
5) Be able to buy and keep "normal" groceries.
6) Be able to resist or save highly preferred foods, even when they are in your home.
7) Be able to eat 1/2 or partial portions of treats and successfully save the rest for later.
8) Gain flexibility with your eating choices. Be able to tolerate changes in your plans resulting from the dietary choices of others.
9) Focus social events around activities rather than food.
10) Don't be afraid of social events with food. Be able to engage with others in a setting with highly preferred choices, and resist over consumption.
11) Recognize that hunger isn't an emergency.
12) Recognize the daily call to feed yourself as a true need. Eating is not a reward or a pacifier; it is a biological necessity.
13) Cope with boredom and loneliness with life-enriching experiences instead of food.
14) Make food choices that you are proud of, including indulgences.
15) Fade out logging of food to every other week, and maintain control over choices and calorie intake. Evaluate further logging schedules based on success of logging alternating weeks.
16) Recognize a binge or potential binge. Identify perceived causes, and formulate a plan to fill your needs with something other than food.
17) Be able to pull back mid-binge.
Some of these I'm still pretty far away from.
I do want to congratulate myself for pulling back mid binge several times in April.
What are your goals? What have you been doing "right?"
I thought this topic could be a nice place to share our long and short term goals for healthy habits surrounding food, and to celebrate our successes!
So, here's my list:
Goals:
1) Eat and drink slowly. Put utensils down. Taste and enjoy your food. Take small bites and sips to maximize enjoyment of food.
2) Recognize your hunger and strive to primarily eat when hungry.
3) Eat a relatively even amount of calories on most days. Small fluctuations are normal; wild highs and lows are not.
4) Stop eating when full. Be able to leave food on your plate at restaurants, even when it's a 'small amount' that you COULD finish.
5) Be able to buy and keep "normal" groceries.
6) Be able to resist or save highly preferred foods, even when they are in your home.
7) Be able to eat 1/2 or partial portions of treats and successfully save the rest for later.
8) Gain flexibility with your eating choices. Be able to tolerate changes in your plans resulting from the dietary choices of others.
9) Focus social events around activities rather than food.
10) Don't be afraid of social events with food. Be able to engage with others in a setting with highly preferred choices, and resist over consumption.
11) Recognize that hunger isn't an emergency.
12) Recognize the daily call to feed yourself as a true need. Eating is not a reward or a pacifier; it is a biological necessity.
13) Cope with boredom and loneliness with life-enriching experiences instead of food.
14) Make food choices that you are proud of, including indulgences.
15) Fade out logging of food to every other week, and maintain control over choices and calorie intake. Evaluate further logging schedules based on success of logging alternating weeks.
16) Recognize a binge or potential binge. Identify perceived causes, and formulate a plan to fill your needs with something other than food.
17) Be able to pull back mid-binge.
Some of these I'm still pretty far away from.
I do want to congratulate myself for pulling back mid binge several times in April.
What are your goals? What have you been doing "right?"
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Replies
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right now, my goal is to stay around my calorie goal and log my food.
it has been very hard, but i am logging everyday, even binges. i know that if i stick with it, it will get better.0 -
I conquered 11 by using Intermittent Fasting.
The rest, I am sort of working on, but not in a concentrated way as I find the more goals and rules I make, the more likely I am to end up binging from the pressure. It seems too artificial sometimes to have to make goals regarding food. My main aim is to continue with my ability to get back on track the next day after a bad binge, and to continue making the best choices I can when I do eat, and to lose my dread of being in situations where I have to eat out for days at a time.0 -
Today I stopped eating when full, during lunch at work.
There's always a surplus of delicious food available and sometimes I find it hard to stop. It was nice that today I was able to hold back.
Of course, later I binged, so I don't know what good that did me...
Still, one thing at a time...0 -
I seem to be the only one that's into this, but I'm going to keep doing it, because it's a way to quantify and celebrate progress, instead of venting about mistakes.
Yesterday I bought some normal groceries, and thus far have not felt compelled to binge on them.
I also stopped eating when I was full, but before all the food was gone at 2 meals today.
I'm also proud because I bought some dark chocolate, but since I'm slightly over calories for the day, I decided to save it. This is a near impossible task for me, yet I'm totally doing it!
This is a nice contrast to April, which was super difficult for me.0 -
I've still got "normal" groceries in my house, including some foods that are potentially binge worthy, and so far, so good.
Yesterday, I ate dinner when I was hungry instead if following a rigid set of rules about when I was "allowed" to eat. This is great for me, because I frequently skip dinner (opting for a snack instead) unless I'm in binge mode. I'm not usually very good at differentiating "head hunger" from "heart hunger."
I'm making forward progress! I hope to have most of these goals under my belt by the end of June, so that I'm more prepared to move back home from Hong Kong and cohabitate with my boyfriend.0
