Eating Healthy.. Does it ever get easier

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paula228
paula228 Posts: 5
in Food and Nutrition
Ive taken a few steps toward making my lifestyle change a little easier such as junking all the junk in my cupboards, buying fresh fruits and vegetables, drinking low fat soy milk, cutting back on red meats and finally.... kicking the pop :( . . . I've been eating healty for ... About a week now.. went shopping LAST Night and am proud of the food I bought.. I even researched what foods are acutally healthy vs foods that just say their healthy....

But am still VERY VERY tempted to just chug a big slam, get some rolos and scarf dill pickle chips... And one question... Is ever okay to eat that way? Another... With the fourth coming up.. What are some ideas or motivational tacktics do you use in order to maintain your diet, healthy eating habits etc. . . .

Replies

  • RAGGEDYANN1970
    RAGGEDYANN1970 Posts: 115 Member
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    i think it's always ok to have something you LOVE every now and again. i can tell you, after clean healthy eating for so long, i have stopped craving so many things that i loved before (chips & bread mostly; i was addicted!) i wanted a cheeseburger the other night ( my weakness, from Jack In The Box ) so i had one (had PMS big time! LOL) no big deal, just went back to my regular healthy eating the next day. i can't live the rest of my life without cheeseburgers, however, i don't crave them the way i used to, and i also feel horrible after eating it since my body is used to healthier foods. just give it time. everything in moderation, even healthy living :happy:
  • RAGGEDYANN1970
    RAGGEDYANN1970 Posts: 115 Member
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    as for parties on the 4th of july, etc. take your own healthy foods. OR have a BITE of something you love and move-on to the healthy options. we are having a huge block party and my contribution is cupcakes. i won't eat any, but instead, i might have one small piece of dark chocolate while i'm baking the cupcakes (smelling that chocolate will do me in! LOL) have 1 beer instead of 3, eat a hambuger with no bun if you are trying to cut back on bread. take a platter of veggies with healthy dips instead of eating chips. good luck :smile:
  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
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    Eat all the foods, just stay at a calorie deficit, try to meet your macros and be mindful of your micros. You wanna lose this weight for life? Then eat the way you're going to for the rest of your life, not something you can only keep up for a short time because that is the recipe for taking it off and then putting it right back on.
  • refinedredbird
    refinedredbird Posts: 209 Member
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    I started to think of food as fuel for my body to work properly instead of a hobby and it helped me change my eating habits.
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
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    Ive taken a few steps toward making my lifestyle change a little easier such as junking all the junk in my cupboards, buying fresh fruits and vegetables, drinking low fat soy milk, cutting back on red meats and finally.... kicking the pop :( . . . I've been eating healty for ... About a week now.. went shopping LAST Night and am proud of the food I bought.. I even researched what foods are acutally healthy vs foods that just say their healthy....

    But am still VERY VERY tempted to just chug a big slam, get some rolos and scarf dill pickle chips... And one question... Is ever okay to eat that way? Another... With the fourth coming up.. What are some ideas or motivational tacktics do you use in order to maintain your diet, healthy eating habits etc. . . .

    You can eat whatever you want and lose weight. Also labeling foods healthy or unhealthy with no regards to dosage or how it fits in the context of your daily diet is silly
  • redscylla
    redscylla Posts: 211 Member
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    YES, it does get easier.

    YES, it is ok to occasionally have a bit of junk food.

    Case in point: I used to eat Twizzlers licorice all the time. The longer I've gone without, and the more honest I am about what garbage that stuff is, it has been easier to just say no. In the last 18 months, I have had no Twizzlers, with two exceptions. Both were times when I went to see a movie I was really excited to see, and instead of buying a BAG of licorice, I bought a small package, scarfed it joyfully in the theater, and went right back to eating right. No harm, no foul.
  • BrunetteRunner87
    BrunetteRunner87 Posts: 591 Member
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    It does get easier, but not as much easier as exercise gets. I still struggle with making the right decisions after 2 years, but overall, my decisions are still better than they were.
  • cmeiron
    cmeiron Posts: 1,599 Member
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    Eating in an overly restrictive way (i.e., eliminating all the treat-like foods you enjoy) is a recipe for disaster. It's not sustainable. Learn how to incorporate modest, sensible amounts of these things into your weekly or daily nutrition. It's absolutely ok to eat stuff like chips or chocolate. Again, in moderation. I try to keep my treats to about 10-20% of my daily intake, though some days it's much higher than that. What's most important is that you stick to your calorie goals and get adequate protein and fat throughout the day.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    Your notions of "healthy' are skewed. You can eat healthy and get your nutrition and be fit without being overly restrictive.
  • elvensnow
    elvensnow Posts: 154 Member
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    The short answer is... yes. Generally your body will adapt to the new diet and will stop "craving" some "unhealthy" things (mostly those items high in fat/sodium). Sure you may still see an ad and think "that looks yummy" but generally I have found after years of eating better, I never really *want* things like fast food. I certainly don't feel cravings for it in the way I used to.

    Also if it helps try to find ways to make eating "healthy" fun or interesting. Through dieting I found I really enjoy cooking. Yes often I am lazy and it can be hard for me to get myself into the kitchen. But I find once I start chopping veggies and heating the oil, I get really into it. And I love seeing what kind of creations I can make and how good the stuff I made is. Not that everything I make is low calorie, or what some might deem "healthy". Yesterday I made grilled cheese jalapeno popper sandwiches. It was delicious, but also calorie heavy, but also fit in my calories and I felt no remorse :) Oh, and I also baked cookies. Had some of those too.

    And yes I put "healthy" and "unhealthy" in quotes because like some of the above, I don't really think of food in those terms. It's really only about macros and fitting into my diet. Maybe the one thing I would regard and unhealthy is things with trans fats, since there's a lot of evidence about how bad they are for you. But generally if I want pizza, hamburgers, whatever, I find a way to fit it in. And there's almost always a way to make a "healthier" (at least, lower calorie) version at home.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,679 Member
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    Abstinence from foods you actually like is the reason why many people regain weight after being on a diet. While one can train themselves to eat "healthy", the body doesn't distinguish where/what the macronutrients it uses come from. In other words, if you ate a steak or protein shake, the body breaks them both down to it's simplest components (amino acids) then absorbs them.
    If your goal is to eat "healthy", then just stick to whole unprocessed foods. But realize that means about 70% of the food out there is processed in some way or another.
    I see NO REASON why people can't eat what they like in moderation. You'll find that the majority of people around the world who are normal body weight just eat enough. They don't surplus their calories.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • shirleygirl910
    shirleygirl910 Posts: 503 Member
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    Weigh, measure, and log everything. Then as you go to make choices it becomes habit to know portion size, and how much it’s going to cost in calories, carbs, fat and protein. Sometimes things aren’t worth it now because I can have something else, that I also enjoy, but this second option I can have lots more or it would fill me up. Don’t get me wrong sometimes there is no substitution, so I count it in my day.

    Plan ahead if you don’t seem to come out with the right amount of calories, carbs, fat and protein for the day. That way you are not standing at the fridge asking what you are in the mood for and totally ruining your calories for the day, or coming into dinner time and there aren’t any more carbs left for the day.
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
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    Ive taken a few steps toward making my lifestyle change a little easier such as junking all the junk in my cupboards, buying fresh fruits and vegetables, drinking low fat soy milk, cutting back on red meats and finally.... kicking the pop :( . . . I've been eating healty for ... About a week now.. went shopping LAST Night and am proud of the food I bought.. I even researched what foods are acutally healthy vs foods that just say their healthy....
    I don't think you're making this easier on yourself, I think you're making things a lot harder than they need to be.

    You can eat whatever you want and lose weight. Also labeling foods healthy or unhealthy with no regards to dosage or how it fits in the context of your daily diet is silly
    ^ this.
  • corgicake
    corgicake Posts: 846 Member
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    Abstinence from foods you actually like is the reason why many people regain weight after being on a diet.

    THIS.

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