Terrible Eatting Habits Advice On How To Fix Them

I'm not sure if it's a regional thing or what, but all the carbonated water I can remember seeing doesn't have any aspartame. Although, thinking about it, the ones I go for tend to be called mineral water, so maybe that's got something to do with it. Perrier is my standby because the store next to my work carries it cheap.

I find it helps to think in terms of changing habits rather than being 'on a diet', and only changing one habit at a time. Learning to cook is part of that process and is fun!

I will be interested o hear how you get on!

This.

I like to think of it as a lifestyle change. Maybe you aren't on a diet pre-say in the terms of Atkins or South Beach (or I dunno whatever else is out there), but you make healthier lifestyle changes. Remember you can always eat what you want, just maybe in a smaller portion.

Get used to measuring out your food. And yes make baby step changes if that works for you better. I find I do better if I jump cold turkey ****s to the wall.

I'm a little scared to try cold turkey but I mean if I find going slow doesn't work I might just take the chance and jump in head first.

This may have already been addressed, but as someone who has recently walked away from diet sodas (concious rationing to keep the intake at 2 liters per day, or I'd have guzzled up to 6!), here is what I did:

I invested in a carbonater - doesn't matter what brand, but I found the sodastream brand at Walmart. They have some off-the-shelf flavors you can add to the water once it's carbonated, both diet and regular. I can't drink the regulars, and didn't like the splenda option of the diet varieties (splenda makes my stomach go nuts and upsets the rest of the system along the way... not a pretty picture!)
Then, I experimented with some of the low calorie on-the-go juice drink mixes. I've been away from sweet stuff long enough that the super sweet varieties didn't appeal, and the tarter flavors did. Now, I STILL go through between 2 and 6 L of carbonated fluids, but it is all from the juice drinks, NOT from the diet sodas. Granted, the flavors I prefer still have aspartamine in them, I have heard that some of the crystal light flavors do not. If you want to try out the option before committing to the carbonator first, you can always get a cheap bottle of club soda, and your choice of flavoring first.

That was my SECOND nasty habit to break. The first was the sugars.

Sugary sweets were not just something I craved, they were something I LIVED on - sugary cereal, sugary snack cakes, candy bars, you name it. If it was sweet, in the house (or I could afford it) it was MINE. Often one or more of these items would make up an entire meal (on top of the regular foods I was eating.) I shudder to think of the calories I was consuming!

I started fighting this with a few SMALL changes - since I loved snack cakes, I cut out everything BUT the snack cakes. Then, I started limiting the snack cakes to once per week. (I can guarantee you the box did NOT last the entire week!) Then, I started substituting the snack cakes with healthier options - granola bars, pre-made trail mixes with fruit and/or yogurt bites (can't remember the variety, but it's at Walmart). When I could get to a point where I could portion control the trail mix, I started substituting THAT with sweet fruit choices (pineapple, grapes, ect.) in any quantity that satisfied. THEN, I started working on portion control for the fruit. Never did get the last phase fully implemented because I had finally broken the sugar addiction, and super sweet things didn't taste good any more.

Now, if I crave something "sweet" a scoop of protein powder in a cup of yogurt is enough, and almost too sweet still. But, until the body decreed that sugary things were a no-go, I did NOT make anything taboo. I put restrictions in place, but because these items were NOT forbidden, it left a pressure valve to relieve the stress while I was making the changes.

It is NOT easy, but it IS completely doable in a shorter time than you would probably think.

I hear ya on the soda. Im a former two literer myself who also wanted to stay away from aspartame. Luckily I found diet gingerale with splenda. I also like to drink tea with no milk or sugar, so im lucky that way too.

As far as food, what are some of your favorite frozen dinners? maybe u should try to pick on each week and try to make it home made, with fresh ingredients and less preservitives. u can also control sodium that way, and add more produce as filler! u could even make big batches and freeze them if u really don't like cooking. Ive lost 32 lbs now, and I eat sandwiches almost every day. Rye bread is a low cal option, and whole wheat pitas are fantastic!! stack ur sandwhiches with tonnes of produce ( lettuce, tomatoes, raw onions!) and lean deli meats such as a low sodium chicken breast. I know its hard to change ur habits, but if u really want to, then u can do it your stomach shrinks eventually, so u wont always feel as hungry as u do the first week of cutting portions.

This started at 3 years old, been going on for 12 years. Are you 15?

You can not change unless you want to.

So do you want to change?

Over 30 years ago I was a two pack a day smoker. Oh I tried to quit but I would just fool myself by not buying and just bumming smokes. When I developed a smokers morning cough I decided I had to do something. So I got hypnotised. From that day forward I never touched another cigarette. Did the hypnosis work or did I need a reason to do what I already knew I had to do? Did spending $150 on hypnosis force me to make it work? Does it matter? No it does not.

So are you ready to change?

If you are then take it in steps.

Start easy. Make a resolution that hungry or not, you will eat one bowl of oatmeal every day. Don't worry about calories right now, so add milk, butter and brown sugar if you like. Make a big batch. Mix in the milk and butter and sugar to your taste and then get some 1 cup freezer and microwave safe containers and fill then up and freeze daily portions.

That is where you start. One easy to make meal you can freeze. Do this for 1 month straight and see how you feel and report back.