Going cold turkey

I skipped cheese, and I use to love it, dont really miss it now that I dont eat it

I substituted nuts and seeds for chips and substituted fruits and dried fruits for cookies and cake. Even when I finish my weight loss and go into maintenance, I won't have many more calories to work with, so I expect to continue this way for as long as I don't want to get fat again.

Will I never in my whole life have chocolate again? Nah. I probably will, but if I'm smart I'll save it for special occasions.

I'm not cutting things out but I am cutting them down. I know if I try to cut something out cold turkey I'll fall off the wagon.

cutting out chocolate, or at least trying to

I miss Doritos!! Cold Turkey on Milk and Doritos!! hahahahaha and that's the truth! OH and Cheetos...them damn cheesie yummy sticks!! dammit I want some now!! Grrrr

Cigarettes and Soda. 173 days cold turkey.

Give up food? NEVER! Finding healthier ways to make and prepare it? Right on!

I also drink alcohol whenever the occasion seems right. Never hurt my losses. One bad day now and again is NOTHING to stress about. How many bad days did it take me to get out of shape in the first place? Years and years worth.

It is a lifestyle change. I solemnly vowed to my body that I will NEVER let it get out of shape again. Will I count forever? I don't count every day now. I will portion size when I go on maintenance, and if the scale says I'm gaining, my reps or the weight I'm throwing around better be increasing, or more cardio it is.

The change is, now I am willing to do something about the way my body looks and feels, whereas before I was totally apathetic to it, blamed everything (and nearly everyone) else for it, and I was miserable.

I hit rock bottom, I took a stand, and found that I owed a lot of things and people an apology. I was to blame. Period. So the ball was back in my court (it had never really left). I found the resolve to do something about it. It is as a simple as that.

In the past I cut out cold turkey:

- Chips
- Fries
- Bread
- Soda
- Kool Aid
- Juice (basically every drink but water)
- Crackers
- Pasta
- Pizza
- All desserts (cake, cookies, candy, ice cream)

Abstaining from those foods during my lower carb days eventually killed my craving for everything but "all desserts". Abstinence, not moderation, led me to impeccable control. I can have the most delicious pasta or bread in the world and still move on the next day and not have some for another year, and not even crave some. There simply is no temptation left in most of those foods.

I would never have gotten there following the popular "everything in moderation" approach. I did that in the past and it didn't fly. The "cold turkey" approach changed me, changed what I craved for, and gave me enough distance away from classic trigger foods to eventually come back to them and realize "wow, I don't really need or want this".

I don't mind the word "diet" at all, even if I don't use it often. I however have grown to loathe "lifestyle change", as it's largely used by people who think labeling their diet as a "lifestyle change" somehow makes them more likely to succeed. When somebody who actually has lost the weight and kept it off LONG term, like say 10+ years, uses that phrase then I respect it. Nobody knows if they've made a "lifestyle change" unless they walk it out successfully for a long time.

But considering you're not going to live on a calorie deficit for the rest of your life, and you're not going to be losing weight forever till you disappear out of thin air, some of this is temporary. With all the self restraint people seem to have, I really wonder how they got overweight to begin with.

I no longer drink alcohol because of a medication I'm on, and most of the time I only drink water or unsweetened iced tea. You could say that I gave up things like soda, juice, and other higher-calorie drinks, but I just see it as choosing to use my calories on food instead. When I was starting out, I did cut some things out because I knew I had trouble with portion control. Now that I have a better understanding of what my body needs, I just try to choose what I eat mindfully. I know how I am, and I know restricting myself from certain things would only make it more likely that I'd eventually give up and overindulge.

I do think it's possible to learn how to make better choices about what and how much we eat and what we might choose not to eat. You make it sound like people don't change. And to be honest, you sound overly concerned with what other people are doing. Figure out what's healthy and what works for you and stick to that. That's what the people you're criticizing have done.

Am I the only one who's cut things out entirely? Who feels that one glass of red wine will become two or three or that a hot dog is just too many calories with too little energy?

I haven't officially cut stuff out (I cut alcohol out for other reasons years ago). But there are lots of things that I make the choice not to eat because the calories aren't worth it to me, of course. I just don't see the point of a hard and fast rule "no ____." Usually I don't eat Chicago style pizza, for example, because a lot of it is overrated and it's just too many calories to easily fit in my current calorie limit and when I've been at events with pizza (on occasion) they've had thin crust as an option anyway. But what's the purpose of extending that to a rule? Instead, on the rare occasion we decide to go out to my favorite place that serves that type of pizza, I'll plan ahead and make room for it and have some, as I would have to do if in maintenance--it would just be easier since the calories budget would be higher. I really don't understand why it would be better to make some rule that I won't eat X until the diet is over. Most likely that would make me think about foods that I generally don't eat as it is, and want something that right now I have no need to have based simply on my daily calculus.

Diet Coke and fast food. I also quit biting my nails cold turkey 3 years ago, if that counts.

I had to give up chips and dip because I would eat the whole jar and bag of chips in like...1.5 days. The last time I did this, I gained 10 lbs. I realize it was temporary, because of the sodium...but it's the only food I completely avoid now.