Not wanting to track ''bad food''
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Over the last few days, I have been eating really badly.
When I know something is really bad like KFC or Burger King, I want to eat what I would usually eat there, and I know that will set me over my allowed calories for the day. It would probably be ok if it was only once a week or less, but my habit has been to eat fast food 4-5 times a week.
I think I have an addiction.
How can I manage this? Should I go cold turkey?
The only thing that really worries me, is that you dont want to track it. I have had some epic big meals, as well as embarrassing binges, and I log them. Eating issues love secrecy! I put it out there, for all MFP to see.
Someone told me on MFP once that willpower is a muscle. The more you excersize it, the stronger it becomes. I can say this is totally true.
I love bread and baked goods, and I used to just eat them until they were gone, and worry whenever someone brought any over.
Now I buy bakery bread regularly, because I can control myself with it. And If once and a while (for especially good bread) I eat more calories than I need for the day, I still enjoy it, log it, and move on, shame-free.
Fast food is dead easy to track. So allow yourself to have it, and fit it into your daily calories.
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Also, I think the "bad food" mentality is destructive.0
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More than likely not an addiction, but a habitual issue. Those foods can be substituted by lower calorie versions that taste almost as good, but for many, it's easy to just drop in and buy rather than prep and spend time making/cooking their own food.
So work on changing your habits.
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melimomTARDIS wrote: »Also, I think the "bad food" mentality is destructive.
Totally agree with you. Make something "forbidden" and I want to binge. Crazy huh? Some of us are like that though.
OP, when you are BRAND NEW to your lifestyle change it takes time and patience to change your habits and thinking patterns.
Stop beating yourself up OP and take your baby steps forward by logging ALL your food daily.
Don't even worry about the calories at first. Just examine how much you eat daily and then each week see if you can tweak it a bit.
Logging food daily is a lifestyle change for the beginner. Good Luck and stay in touch on MFP.
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SwankyTomato wrote: »melimomTARDIS wrote: »Also, I think the "bad food" mentality is destructive.
Totally agree with you. Make something "forbidden" and I want to binge. Crazy huh? Some of us are like that though.
OP, when you are BRAND NEW to your lifestyle change it takes time and patience to change your habits and thinking patterns.
Stop beating yourself up OP and take your baby steps forward by logging ALL your food daily.
Don't even worry about the calories at first. Just examine how much you eat daily and then each week see if you can tweak it a bit.
Logging food daily is a lifestyle change for the beginner. Good Luck and stay in touch on MFP.
Thanks
I don't even think I'm ready to lose weight, I'm not in the right head space. Every day is a battle.0 -
I used to eat a crap ton of Taco Bell. I LOVE it. I cut waaaay back and now when I do get it, it tastes even better since I don't eat it as much. And then I don't have it again for a month or so, and know when I do I'm going to enjoy it even more than if it was all the time.0
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SwankyTomato wrote: »melimomTARDIS wrote: »Also, I think the "bad food" mentality is destructive.
Totally agree with you. Make something "forbidden" and I want to binge. Crazy huh? Some of us are like that though.
OP, when you are BRAND NEW to your lifestyle change it takes time and patience to change your habits and thinking patterns.
Stop beating yourself up OP and take your baby steps forward by logging ALL your food daily.
Don't even worry about the calories at first. Just examine how much you eat daily and then each week see if you can tweak it a bit.
Logging food daily is a lifestyle change for the beginner. Good Luck and stay in touch on MFP.
Thanks
I don't even think I'm ready to lose weight, I'm not in the right head space. Every day is a battle.
Don't make it so difficult. If you keep it simple it does make it easier. Spend time just logging your food, see exactly what you are eating, once you get that habit down, look at ways you can create a small calorie deficit.
But if you aren't ready yet, that's okay too, getting your head in the game does help. But sometimes, just showing up and starting to develop those good habits will help with the mental part.
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Log everything.
Make different choices at restaurants. Plan what you will order and log in advance. Order a smaller portion. Skip sides like fries. Drink water or unsweetened tea. Exercise more if you want to eat that kind of food. Don't eat out as often- only go once a week maybe.
Don't go to those places at all.
Cook food you like at home. Think about how much tastier you can make food and save money.0 -
Definitely don't try to commit to something if you already know you're not in a headspace to do it. You may want to lose weight, you may want to be thinner, but if you're not ready to make the changes, you're just hitting your head against a brick wall.
I know wanting to indulge an urge. At the end of a work day, I have packed a gym bag, and all I had to do was turn left to walk a block to my car, or right to go to the gym. You turn your body toward the gym as the negative voice shouts to you that you want to go home. Likewise, you may almost feel a gravitational need to pull your car into the drive through. Listen to the voice of that urge, then tell it to shut up. Trust me, it gets easier. Habits can be hard to break, but it is possible to do.0 -
If you can't control yourself, then avoid those places altogether until you get your willpower under control.
Or, you could equate what you're eating to how much exercise you will need to burn it off. For example, if you eat a 500 calorie burger, you will need to run for 45 minutes (or whatever the example is).
If you still want to indulge in your favourite things sometimes, maybe eat a huge salad first, then go get yourself something small at one of the fast food places. At least you're still getting your fix, but exercising more moderation.0 -
In order to manage it, you have to change your relationship with food. This has to start in your mind and then in your mouth. Our bodies react in the manner in which we have programmed them to work. Therefore, your struggles are more from learned behavior than an addiction. Just as we have trained our bodies to overeat, losing weight is a matter of re-training our bodies to eat with less caloric intake. There isn’t any reason you can’t have the foods you like and still lose weight. It boils down to a matter of you doing the work to fit those calories into your plan.0
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For me, I had to go cold turkey off of fast food. I did a Whole30 challenge several months ago, which is SUPER strict on what you can eat. I got my husband to do it with me, and a good friend. It was so much easier to stick to that plan when I had that accountability to my loved ones too. THEY weren't cheating, so I didn't. After that, it was much easier not to go back to my drive-thru habit. It takes some serious planning to be prepared for when you're on the road and hungry or whatever...but it's so worth it.0
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I have serious cravings/obsessions with certain foods or places to eat too now and then. What works for me is to go cold turkey for about 3 weeks to a month. That gives my brain and body time to calm down and realize that those foods will always be there and I don't need to eat them like they are going out of style. Once I've achieved this state, I feel I can approach those foods/places with a more mature and controlled attitude.
Don't get me wrong, this cycle can happen multiple times a year and usually does. It's not easy.0 -
I may cheat from time to time but I never lie to the MFP logger. That is my primary ground rule.0
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Each to their own - I think there is "bad food" - greasy, salty, low-grade quality, chemical laden fast food isn't good for you to eat regularly and the more you eat it, the more your palate becomes conditioned to it and wants it - addiction is too strong a word, but it obviously is a very bad habit that far too many indulge
I used to crave fast food lunches all the time and eating those 1000 calorie lunches are the main thing that jacked up my weight - but the more I made a point of eating "good food" the more I came to like "good food" - just make it up in big batches, and always have some around especially early on - eat it before you give in to the temptation to eat some of the old garbage you were in the habit of shoving in your mouth
Now when I get stuck (that's how I feel about it now) eating fast food I don't even like it anymore and even feel a little ill if I eat some of the worst kinds0 -
SwankyTomato wrote: »melimomTARDIS wrote: »Also, I think the "bad food" mentality is destructive.
Totally agree with you. Make something "forbidden" and I want to binge. Crazy huh? Some of us are like that though.
OP, when you are BRAND NEW to your lifestyle change it takes time and patience to change your habits and thinking patterns.
Stop beating yourself up OP and take your baby steps forward by logging ALL your food daily.
Don't even worry about the calories at first. Just examine how much you eat daily and then each week see if you can tweak it a bit.
Logging food daily is a lifestyle change for the beginner. Good Luck and stay in touch on MFP.
Thanks
I don't even think I'm ready to lose weight, I'm not in the right head space. Every day is a battle.
You dont have to be in a good headspace to do it. I log regardless of my feelings, which range from, "I want to log" to "meh, this is drudgery" to "OMG what are my MFP friends gonna say when they see I ATE THE WHOLE THING?!"
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Some great advice in here, namely the advice about stop demonizing certain foods and don't restrict what you see as them. I've been consistently logging every bit of food that goes into my mouth - I haven't deprived of myself of anything when I really want it, and when I do, I eat a *normal portion* and have no issue eating to my calorie goal for the day.
As someone who's a binge eater I totally understand feeling like a failure because you lack the "willpower" to resist those foods, but it really isn't about willpower. It's about creating a solid routine for yourself and eating foods that are rewarding and make you feel good mentally and physically. It's basically about learning to see food as just food and not something that's going to make you feel better or worse about yourself.
It can take time, but imo really working on getting into a normalized routine can really help. 3-4 meals a day, log everything - the meals you feel were lovely and including the ones you feel you could have done better on - and DON'T FEEL GUILTY about the ones that end up not being quite what you would have liked.
Someone said that there's no such thing as a physical addiction, and that's true, but you might also be using food as a coping mechanism of some sort which, when it hits, is a craving that pretty much takes over your body. If you're being overly strict with yourself and trying to eat low-calorie, no/low fat, etc, then your body could be crying out for fats or something that you've deemed "illegal foods."0 -
reginastiffler wrote: »Lets say you do have an addiction to food... There's nothing that any of us can do to make you stop. You still need to make the decision that you value being healthy more than the fast food, and you still need to exercise the willpower to not give in.
I love this. It's like the "how do I get motivation" question. There's no answer anyone can give you that will "work" because the only thing that will make you stop is yourself. It's like a smoker stopping smoking. It's not easy but people do it all the time because they WANT to do it. No excuses.0 -
It sounds like you're beating yourself up which is going to make you much less likely to want to stick with this. You're on MFP, you're trying to log things, you're getting advice, these are all huge steps! You're doing great! You might want to start with baby steps, for example just log everything. Studies have shown you eat less automatically if you're writing it down.
From my calculations, your KFC dinner (with a 2 piece quarter pack and 2 original recipe, 1 breast and 1 drumstick since the breast is 320 calories and drumstick is 120) was around 1100 calories, if you had oatmeal for breakfast and a salad for lunch I bet you could fit that in your daily count. Exercise helps too, I would run 3 miles so my 600 calorie cheesesteak only cost me 300 calories.
It's true that quitting cold turkey will eventually make you crave things less, but if you're not ready to do that start small. Just being on here is a big step. Congratulate yourself on that, you deserve it!0
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