I'm not one to ask for support much, but here it goes....
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I feel you on that. I always used to say "I'll start on Monday" then Monday would come, and I would have forgotten I was meant to be on a diet! Lol.
The turning point for me was going to my doctor, getting weighed, and realising I was not only the heaviest I had ever been, but I was far heavier than I initially thought! I came out of the doctor's, thought about my options (which were very few) and decided something had to be done.
That was in May of this year, I've since counted calories on here, and started swimming (usually 5 times a week) and I'm down 105lbs! Still got a long way to go, but it's possible. It's just a case of getting to a point where you genuinely think "enough is enough"
Good luck!0 -
Alot of people say the more junk they eat, the more they crave it.
Go shopping, buy lots of nutrious foods you like, or want to try.. and find recipes to try.
Also.. a lot of people rely on Proteins to fill 'em up more too, thus helping them "binge" less.
Top 10 Foods Highest in Protein:
#1: Turkey Breast (and Chicken Breast)
#2: Fish (Tuna, Salmon, Halibut)
#3: Cheese (Low-fat Mozzarella and Cottage Cheese)
#4: Pork Loin (Chops)
#5: Lean Beef and Veal (Low Fat)
#6: Tofu
#7: Beans (Mature Soy Beans)
#8: Eggs (Especially Egg Whites)
#9: Yogurt, Milk, and Soymilk
#10: Nuts and Seeds (Pumpkin, Squash, and Watermelon Seeds, Peanuts, Almonds)0 -
I strongly recommend developing a weekly food plan. Sometimes you can find these on line; I buy one from emeals.com. (There's usually a Groupon) Figure out what you are going to eat for the entire day before you eat breakfast. Leave nothing to "chance" except when you have a ton of calories left for the day. And even then, plan, plan, plan. Don't even think of bringing trigger foods into the house until you learn how to eat them in reasonable portions
If you don't know how to cook, it is important to start learning If you are relying on heavily processed or fast food for most of your intake, it will be much harder to lose the weight When you cook, you are in total control! What could be better than that? The recipe builder on this site works great! Sparkpeople.com has some great, tasty, filling and healthy recipes, too. At least as long as you're tryin to get a handle on this, don't eat out unless you know exactly the macros for the foods you'll consume Think whole foods
Never, ever give up and log everything. When you get to your recommended calorie total for the day--STOP! You're done for the day! Food should never be used as a reward--there are better ways to reward progress Have your treats, but learn what a serving really is (ice cream is a half cup only)
You must work in exercise (it lets you eat a bit more).
There's no reason to starve yourself, but you may need to develop some new tastes in food.
Use small plates and always use a plate (no eating out of boxes and bags)
Focus on today NOT tomorrow. If even "today" is too daunting, focus simply on a single moment. Eat mindfully
You can do this, but simply wanting it badly won't be enough. This has to be a new lifestyle for you in order to really work!
Sending good wishes--your reasons for doing this are outstanding! May you make all your dreams come true0 -
Detox your house!! Throw everything bad out and don't think twice about it. Try shopping on days where you're not craving so that you don't have the urge to pick that stuff up.
If it's not there then you won't eat it.
Good luck
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Fall in love with the process. The results will come automatically. That firefighter test won't stand a chance.
^^^THIS
Because it *is* a process. It's not giving up when you "binge". It's stopping as soon as you can make yourself stop. Whether that's in the middle of a plate of greasy fatty goodness, or after three. It's realizing what you want will not come unless you change the way you view food. It is fuel. No more. I want my fuel to taste good, and be enjoyable, but it is no more than fuel. I do not need all that extra fuel to live. So my choices must be ones that give me enough energy to make it through my day.
As others have said -the change is in you. And we have all been there...we have ALL had to take ownership of our addiction to food. You mention a meth addict. Yes. It's hard. But we don't just look at the meth addict and shake our heads, sigh, and say "Well, she's addicted. What can be done?" I don't mean this to sound harsh, but if you look at it like an addiction, like it's something you can't control, you never will.
And you'll never pass that exam.
And you'll never have children.
What do you want more? A pizza or a child?
Try thinking of it in those terms. Every time you binge, every bite you take that you KNOW you should not is a step away from those things you want.
Make the little changes.
For GOD's sake, start eating enough. You cannot survive on 1200 calories a day unless you're completely sedentary and are tiny to start with. If you're eating at a lower deficit, you'll lose weight and not be hungry. Eat enough protein, and less carbs. Move a little. Get a fitbit if you have the spare cash lying about. They seem to make people move more. (Mine did.
Take things one day at a time. One meal at a time. Geez. Sometimes for me, it's an hour at a time. Make the best choice you can each and every moment, and you'll get what you want. It might be slow. But as we all learned as children reading about the tortise and the hare...slow and steady is the way to go...0 -
I'm struggling guys. I am really, really struggling. I am up 40 pounds in two years. Got married last month, was absolutely horrified when I saw the pics. Doc told me I may not be able to get pregnant with my weight, and it is just tearing me down. I want to be a firefighter, but at this rate the combat physical would give me a heart attack, and that depresses me so much, because I want it more than anything.
I do so well for about a week. I stay under my goal, lose a few pounds....then BAM. One bad night and it ruins EVERYTHING. Then I shoot back up in a few days. Fast food, cookies, popcorn, eating out....it's an addiction. I want in constantly! I know it should be as easy as, "If you really want it....."
I DO want it. I want it so much. But it feels equivalent to telling a meth addict, "Well, if you really want to be clean...."
UGH. Every day that I binge I simply think, "Tomorrow will be better." As if that gives me some kind of excuse. And then guess what? That "better" day turns into nothing more than the day before. And then I think again, "No more of this. TOMORROW WILL BE BETTER." But it rarely is.
I need help guys. I need advice. I need to know how you all stuck to your guns when all you wanted to do was say, "It's fine today, because tomorrow I'll do better."
Thanks for your help. I am just so frustrated. I have never been 240 pounds :-/
your mindset is wrong. that's what is causing your failure.
this is a calorie counting website. that's the ONLY thing that works. forget all of the garbage you previously learned about "good" foods and "bad" foods and "unhealthy" foods and all of that other garbage peddled by the fad/gimmick diet industry.
- log your fog accurately and honestly and every day.
- make sure to meet your macronutritional and micronutritional goals.
- eat whatever foods you want that filly you up and make you happy while meeting your calorie and nutritional goals.
- if it's easier, worry about your 3-day or 7-day averages rather than your daily numbers.
- add cardio to increase your daily calorie burn and/or allow for more calories to be eaten that day.
- don't eat too little... that leads to binging later.
- don't feel guilt or shame over the foods you eat... food is just fuel.
- don't strive for too high a calorie deficit. that's unsustainable in the long run (leads to yo-yo dieting).
- add strength training 3-4 days per week to retain lean body mass.
- don't deprive yourself of foods you like. that leads to obsessing about them.
- don't get caught up in the latest weight loss gimmick (raspberry ketones) or fad diet (low carb/gluten-free/clean/paleo/etc.)
- try to eat a balanced diet, but leave room for treats.
- stop thinking about this as a temporary diet and instead, think of it as a new lifestyle.
- never give up, never surrender! (with apologies to Galaxyquest).
i lose weight eating whatever i want to eat. sometimes that's bananas or oranges or eggs or milk or lima beans... and sometimes that's pizza or candy or bagels or ice cream. as long as my overall calorie intake is less than my overall calorie burn, i will lose weight. do that enough days in a year, and that translates to a lot of lost weight.
it really is all about the math. no matter what anybody else tells you... if calories in < calories out, you'll lose weight. simple physics.
now get to it and enjoy yourself while doing it. that's the key to sticking with it. :happy:
PS - if you're having trouble establishing these habits, start by just logging everything. even if you're eating a ton of calories, get in the habit of logging EVERYTHING. then, you can start to make changes to the foods you eat (or amounts) based on what you're seeing after a couple of weeks of accurately logging. i also find that pre-logging your meals for the day is a good way to get back on track. it's much easier to simply follow a meal plan for the day that has already be chosen to meet your goals, than to "wing it" with impulsive food choices and hope that your day ends up being ok.
^This.0 -
And sorry I know you don't want to hear it but if you want something bad enough then you will find a way to make it happen. This is coming from a formerly obese guy so yeah, I've earned the right to say it in this context.
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Another formerly obese guy. Never going back.0 -
Your problem is tomorrow. The moment you feel like saying tomorrow will be better change it to this next moment will be better. Commit to this moment because it is the only one you have.
^^ This
It's easy to put off things that we don't want to deal with, and every day put it off a little more. What's another day?
But if you always say "tomorrow", you never deal with it. Because we don't live in "tomorrow". We llive in "today".
Here's the really cool thing...once you reach out and take hold of what you planned to do "tomorrow" and actually DO IT "today", you will start to see changes. Not all at once, of course. It takes time to play out; it's a process. But they do come. A little NSV here, a pound or two there. That sometimes seems terribly slow, but it adds up, you know. And while it seems impossible to believe right now, the day will come, not even all that far off, when you'll be running around getting ready to go out and swish past the mirror and have to back up and do a double take. Because that pound or two here and there adds up.
You'll discover energy you never knew you had...and as your fitness improves your capacity for exercise will increase to levels you find laughable right now. You'll discover what a powerful ally having a little momentum is, and you won't cheat on your diet or skip your exercise because it's only cheating yourself. You'll discover a sense of self-worth you never knew about too, and a self-respect that will also keep you from straying too far from your plan. And for every goal you set and meet you'll be more and more confident, until you reach the point where you aren't at your goal yet, but are serene in the knowledge that you are going to get there.
Fall in love with the process. The results will come automatically. That firefighter test won't stand a chance.
One more thing: if you keep putting it off for "tomorrow", a year from now you'll be sitting there wishing you'd started "today".
Good luck.
Wow that was beautifully expressed! My "year from now" is approaching fast and although I wont be at goal, I am so GLAD I started to lose weight and quit putting it off. I never thought a year later would come quickly, but now that I am there, I realize well.........it came And your year later will be here before you know it. Visualize how fabulous you will feel if you have lost weight when that year gets here. 0 -
You are not weak clearly and I did the same things you describe. I weighed the most when I got married that I have ever weighed in my entire life. I looked at the pictures and thought to myself, why did I do this to myself when I knew it would be immortalized in pictures for the rest of my life? After trying lots of things to lose weight, the thing that finally helped me was a book called, "Woman, Food and God". It helped me understand that we eat in a way that doesn't match our goals when we are feeling things and don't want to feel them. In the moment we stuff our faces with food that tastes so good we forget the discomfort of the feelings we were having. Then the food is gone and the feelings are still there along with discouragement, self-hate and disgust in ourselves that we "blew it again".
This book changed my life and occasionally I feel out of control and reach for food but then the information in this book comes back to me and I stop myself and ask what I'm feeling and feel it. I can then move from a place of consciousness about what I'm doing or about to do to decide whether I really need to eat that piece of cake/chips, etc. or stop at that fast food place. I can usually choose well from that point because logic kicks in and I know that eating whatever I've suddenly fixated on will not "fix" what I'm feeling. Only acceptance of the feelings or taking action to change my situation that is causing those feelings will create a positive result. Eating that thing I think I'm craving is never going fix what I'm feeling.
I wish you all the best my dear and you are not a failure. Feel free to friend me if you want to stay in touch.0 -
Op,It is clear that you really want this,Honestly I would not have even logged most of the foods,like you have. You do eat alot of fast food. Dont get me wrong,I still eat out but I keep Mcdonalds at a minimum. I felt like you and some days I still do but you can only take it one day at a time. Do research on tdee,I just recently switch to this method and feel much better. Start getting in shape and you will be fine. Good luck0
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Here's another trick I use.
Sometimes I want something bad. Something I maybe haven't had in a while. My wife is always bringing bags of potato chips into the house and leaving them lying around. Maybe I get a hankering for them.
There's a couple ways to handle this.
I can leave them alone. Likely as not I will leave the room and think about them for the next hour.
I can eat the whole bag. That'll teach her.
I can weigh the bag, eat what I like, weigh it again then log what I ate.
I can take a set amount, weight it, eat it, and log it at some point.
or I can take a set amount, weigh it and log it. 9 times out of 10 when I see how many calories I just took I put half the bowl back in the bag.
Do the last one. If you are going to have bad food it should be a conscious decision for which you are willing to live with the consequences. A decision based on the knowledge of exactly what you're eating and how it fits into your goals. Do it any other way and you're eating it and hoping to get away with it.
You already do the first step which is log your food without prejudice. That's a big part of the battle. But don't just log it, LOOK at your log. Ask yourself if what's in it is helping you lose weight. I know when I logged my food for the first time (I used to do it in a notebook with a pencil and a food count book!) it was eye-opening to say the least.0 -
You are not weak clearly and I did the same things you describe. I weighed the most when I got married that I have ever weighed in my entire life. I looked at the pictures and thought to myself, why did I do this to myself when I knew it would be immortalized in pictures for the rest of my life? After trying lots of things to lose weight, the thing that finally helped me was a book called, "Woman, Food and God". It helped me understand that we eat in a way that doesn't match our goals when we are feeling things and don't want to feel them. In the moment we stuff our faces with food that tastes so good we forget the discomfort of the feelings we were having. Then the food is gone and the feelings are still there along with discouragement, self-hate and disgust in ourselves that we "blew it again".
This book changed my life and occasionally I feel out of control and reach for food but then the information in this book comes back to me and I stop myself and ask what I'm feeling and feel it. I can then move from a place of consciousness about what I'm doing or about to do to decide whether I really need to eat that piece of cake/chips, etc. or stop at that fast food place. I can usually choose well from that point because logic kicks in and I know that eating whatever I've suddenly fixated on will not "fix" what I'm feeling. Only acceptance of the feelings or taking action to change my situation that is causing those feelings will create a positive result. Eating that thing I think I'm craving is never going fix what I'm feeling.
I wish you all the best my dear and you are not a failure. Feel free to friend me if you want to stay in touch.
"Junk" food makes us feel good.
But it only makes us feel good while it's in our mouths. The moment we swallow it the enjoyable part of eating junk food is gone, and what's left? The consequences, that's what. Physical, emotional, whatever, once it's past our taste buds it's probably not doing us any good. Put food in that context when you're tempted to eat it. Some junk is fine, even good. But not a lifestyle built on it. :flowerforyou:0 -
I've been where you are. Take one day, one meal at a time. Forget tomorrow because tomorrow never comes!!!!
Find someone who you can weigh in with weekly whether it be your spouse, friend, etc. Being held accountable to someone else knowing how you've done on the scale is huge. Plan, prepare, plan, prepare and repeat. If you have the tools and foods in house there is no excuse to binge. I used to be addicted to food too...all it does is provide instant gratification, if any at all, only for you to feel worthless afterwards. Binging on fast food or other junk will not replace the other things that are lacking in your life or making you unhappy. Find an exercise you like and use it to work through the stressors. Believe it or not but exercise is the very best therapy!!!0
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