how do I eat "less healthy" foods in moderation?

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  • ckish
    ckish Posts: 341 Member
    The better food choices I make the easier it is to continue to make good choices. There are some foods that if I start eating them I will have a hard time stopping myself from eating every last crumb so I make sure that I carefully control my access to them so I can eat all of it when i do have it. Other foods are easier for me to stop after a serving. I try not to have a "treat" everyday. I strive for 2-3 times a weak max.
  • Jewlz280
    Jewlz280 Posts: 547 Member
    It takes time. For a while I had to just not buy Nutella, as it was one of those foods that I would just sit down with a spoon and poof! the whole jar was gone.

    I ADORE chocolate, however, so I fit it into my life. I go for things like lindt truffles or more recently I bought the little squares of dark chocolate from Costco. Or there are the godiva truffles. The lindt are 80 cals each, the costco dark choc. squares are 34 cals each, godiva ones are usually around 40 or 50 cals each. This makes it quite easy to fit one or two into every day.

    And like Achrya, I often log my chocolate or ice cream (or frozen yogurt) right away, so I know I will have room for it in my day. I tend to save my "treat" foods for the end of the day, as I like to know I have that to look forward to.

    I also tell myself that I can always have more another day. I grew up in one of those homes where certain foods didn't happen often, and when they did everybody ate as much as they could as quickly as they could, before it was all gone. So if the cookie jar is almost empty, I tell myself "It's OKAY. You can always make/buy more."

    I've slowly gained more control, although I have my moments. I can even buy Nutella from time to time.

    THIS. At one point in time, I DID feel like if I was around food, I wanted to eat it all and eat it NOW. But now... Now I remind myself I am grown and there are stores EVERY WHERE and if I want more, then I can make or buy more. It just clicked one day. I can't remember what I was going to eat, but I was about to eat something and I thought, "Why am I eating this? I have more downstairs. I'm full now. And if I want it tomorrow, even for breakfast, I can have it." Since then, it has been MUCH easier to walk away. Not to mention, it's allowed me to enjoy food again! No snarfing something just to eat it. :) It gets easier as time goes by, so don't beat yourself up too badly. It sounds like you are on the right path -- just keep truckin'!
  • shaynepoole
    shaynepoole Posts: 493 Member
    I know I have to stop labeling food. I agree! I am trying to work on it. :) I grew up being hated for who I was, my mother did terrible mind tricks of telling me not to eat certain things because I was fat (I never was) and then buying my favorite snacks and monitoring if I ate them or not and how much. She would reprimand me If I ate more than what she considered to be "acceptable" (more than 1 square of chocolate or 1 cookie for example was "bad" )

    I know that I am an adult now, and that I have control of my life and my choices. Baby steps. I am working on that messed up thinking space :)

    I will try prelogging when I can. Thank you

    My mother was very weight conscious as well - monitoring everything I ate to make sure I did not get fat... or would reprimand me for getting fat while I was visiting grandparents/other people/anywhere out of her sight. Of course the inevitable outcome is when you get away from that, you get fat.

    I started off abstaining from certain foods because I had to... now I try to work them back in - in proper serving sizes and within my calorie guidelines.

    I try to get foods that are already pre-portioned -- like the Healthy choice frozen yogurt 100 calorie cups vs buying a pint of ice cream

    When I cook, I measure/weight out the servings so that I only have 1 serving on my plate and the rest goes into tupperware already measured out in a serving size in the fridge or the freezer depending on

    Eventually, when you feel more confident in your ability to resist having more than 1 serving, I would then introduce those trigger foods back in.

    Mine were salty snacks. I currently have a cabinet filled with snacks but I have trained myself to take a serving size and stop - and it is enough

    I quite frankly like the new body better than the old one and I want to keep it for a while

    but it is always going to be a work in progress and it is not easy
  • EvenThatNameIsTaken
    EvenThatNameIsTaken Posts: 164 Member
    I think it is like planned self control. You can predict when you will be weak (when the whole bag is sitting there open and you've just had some and it's yummy) and you make preparations for that moment. For me it is to buy those indulgent things in very small packages so that the temptation isn't even there to continue because it's gone before I can do too much damage.

    Similar to earlier post about getting out a portion and putting the rest away.. It's about making it harder for yourself to have more.

    Out shopping today I ended up in the crispy thin crackers section, I just love crispy stuff and can just keep eating and eating them, I am pretty sure i just started drooling looking at all the pictures on the boxes. Anyway the smallest box there was 3 servings, 120 cals each serving. So even if i ate the whole thing, it wouldn't make or break my whole process. I had someone to share it with so it ended up fitting into my day and i got that really satisfying feeling of 'i ate it all,' just modified to a smaller package^^

    I am not always this smart about my choices (especially at parties,etc where there are plates of food just sitting, available), but i'm improving. It takes time and vigilance and practice for sure.
  • SilverOnTheTree
    SilverOnTheTree Posts: 102 Member
    All the portion-size advice here seems good.

    I found (still find) the most difficult habit to break is buying junk food from the supermarket in the first place. I tend to buy more of whatever I got last time, especially if it's 'on sale'. For a while last year that was fresh fruit and chick peas, but recently compulsive salty-snack buying has crept back in. Once it's in the pantry, it's far too easy to access.

    For a while, I had an arrangement a friend who lived two doors down: I could store all my junk food in his pantry, which meant I could only access it during social hours. It was like the timer-food-safe idea.

    Now, I try to cut the crispy/salty treats with a healthier or less calorific addition: potato chips with cottage cheese, or chocolate with coffee. But you have to make sure that doesn't push your calories over too!
  • Dewymorning
    Dewymorning Posts: 762 Member
    Well I do water down my wine so I guess it's not so bad.

    It's nice to read that I am not alone. Sometimes I read all the success stories on here and while I am really happy for them, I struggled with HOW did they overcome all their demons to get there? And I find it hard to see myself at the end sometimes

    A successful horse rider is not the one who never fell off the horse, but the one who fell off many times, but got back on everytime.

    We all have our struggles, some more difficult than the other. The successful people on this site are the ones who kept going even when they 'failed'.
  • turtleball
    turtleball Posts: 217 Member
    omg that kitchen safe is hilarious! I don't think that would work me, if I had it and wanted it, I'd break that thing to get at it!


    darn! everyone I show this to is saying that, they dont need a kitchen safe to stop them they need superman lol.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    For me, I prelog everything I eat. So I'll have a 100 chocolate bar... and if I want another, I'll log it first... then I'll see if it leaves me enough calories for the day or not. If not, I ask myself if it's really worth not having dinner for another chocolate bar. Often... no.

    The key is to enjoy your treat while telling yourself - I'll only have one. I've found that often I'm in the mindset that while I eat my chocolate bar... I'm already thinking about the next one. Got to nip that in the bud. Take smaller bites, enjoy it, and tell yourself you're having only one.

    Still a work in progress here, but I've made it work so far.
  • Jade0529
    Jade0529 Posts: 213 Member
    I wasn't in a great place last night. I wanted to thank everyone for their kind words, ideas and support. Today is a new day with no mistakes in it :smile: Resetting the switch and moving on.

    It's lovely to be able to have a place to turn to and freak out a little and have people that understand.
  • verasdaughter
    verasdaughter Posts: 71 Member
    Instead of buying a whole bottle if wine or a whole box if cookies just buy an individual bottle of wine. They now have small one serving bottles. Or get one cookie/cupcake from the bakery. Also I try to split things like that with my husband. If it fits into your allottef calories why not.
  • VelveteenArabian
    VelveteenArabian Posts: 758 Member
    When I was at my heaviest many years ago I taught myself delayed gratification. I would figure out one serving size of whatever and worked it in to my day. I would put it in a baggie and tell myself that I could eat that snack whenever I wanted but that was IT until tomorrow. I would also bargain with myself and sometimes skip the snack and to for a bigger portion at the end of the day if I worked out and needed to catch up on calories.

    For me, it worked. Almost too well. I currently have a CLOSED bag of milk chocolates in ny desk at work and its been there for 3 weeks now. It makes me happy knowing it's there, waiting for me. I would also rather skip them and eat some ice cream or something else.
  • LoraF83
    LoraF83 Posts: 15,694 Member
    first, you need to stop labeling foods "bad"….don't think of it as bad, just think of it as food…

    Then I would suggest pre-logging…so log the food that you want to have first, IE Pizza…and then see what that leaves you for the day and then fill in your diary backwards from there so that you stay in a deficit and hit your targets for protein, carbs, and fat….

    This is what I do. I know that I'm going to have ice cream almost every night. I log that first and then plan my day around it (and I preplan a day in advance). If we are getting pizza on a Friday night, I preplan for that too - lunch will probably be a big salad, yogurt and an apple for a snack to save the calories for that night. You work around the indulgences and make your meal plan work for you.

    That said, it takes practice to be able to moderate. If you're used to eating a half a bag of chips, it sucks to portion out 1 serving. And it's hard not to reach back into the bag to get more. But the more you do it, the easier it gets and pretty soon it's no big deal at all. It's ok to have a slip up here and there - as long as you keep trying.

    One thing that I always tell myself that helps: There's always more. You can get more ice cream another day. You can another slice of pizza next week. They make this stuff every day and you can always get it. So, there's no need to eat *all* of it right now.
  • MichaelVRenner
    MichaelVRenner Posts: 92 Member
    Load your meals with vegetables.
  • piejin
    piejin Posts: 41 Member
    I also struggle with moderation when it comes to unhealthy foods! I'm one of those people where if I make a pizza, I WILL eat the whole thing. If I have ice cream, it will probably be 2 or 3 servings... if there are cookies, I won't have just one. What's helped me out while I struggle to get that under control is thinking about my calorie goals in terms of the week instead of day by day. So instead of aiming for 1200 calories a day every day, I aim for 1200 calories a day after the week has been averaged out. I usually have one or two days where I go overboard with something really bad, and my calories go way over. But what I do after that is look at how many calories I am over and figure out how I can split that excess up throughout the rest of the week to make up for it. That way I still feel like I am under control with my overall calories/hitting my goals without going over, and it has the added bonus of keeping me so focused on making up for the damage done that I make good decisions for the rest of the week! Of course, mastering moderation would be awesome, but I feel like this is a step in the right direction until I can get to that point. YMMV, of course!
  • dunnodunno
    dunnodunno Posts: 2,290 Member
    What I do is incorporate some of my favorite snacks everyday. Some days it might be ice cream other days it might be M&Ms. What I do is measure out a portion on the food scale & then put the package away. I think a good tip to use is to say to yourself that you can always have some more of your favorite snack/treat tomorrow or later if your calories allow it.

    You could also try to pre-plan your days worth of calories a day or two in advance & then figure out how many calories you could allot to your favorite treats.

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