how do you figure out what to eat?

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moosect
moosect Posts: 4 Member
in Getting Started
i have been on here off and on for about a year . i do great for the first two weeks and then i slowly go back to the way i ate before. i do not want to force my family to change their eating habits. i am finding it very hard to figure out what to eat and change it up so i do not eat the same thing all the time.
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  • catsrule308
    catsrule308 Posts: 24 Member
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    I get what you mean,I've been the same way
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    edited February 2016
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    Eat your foods, just less of them and perhaps some different choices within your foods.

    Logging and portion control using a food scale have worked well for me. I don't feel restricted because I'm still eating the foods I like and I don't eat foods that I don't like.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    I'm kind of confused on what you mean.
    Personally I eat all foods (pizza? yes. I try to keep to 1-3 slices when we order it. Or sometimes we do a make your own pizza night, were I buy pizza crusts for my boys and tortillas for my crust. I can make a 12" pizza that's 300 calories or less for the whole thing. Chocolate? yes. A square of dark chocolate is a nice treat and isn't horrible on the calories. Plus with dark chocolate, 1 square is enough to get rid of any chocolate cravings.) I just have to keep my portions smaller than what I used to eat.

    If you want help coming up with healthy low calorie, but filling dishes then I suggest looking at the recipes on skinnytaste. My family loves the chicken taco chili.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    I eat what I like and adjust portions to my need. I like a lot of foods, so I plan my meals so that I get variety without wasting food. I like to try new foods and recipes from time to time, so I plot some into the plan too. I wouldn't expect somebody else to change their eating habits for me, but there's no reason why you should be eating different foods than you family. On the other hand, the person who cooks gets to decide the menu. Tweak recipes, or serve food as components so that everybody can serve themselves to suit their particular need. And just because your family likes some foods, that doesn't mean that they won't ever like anything else.
  • FantasticRunning
    FantasticRunning Posts: 40 Member
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    I stay away from processed foods and make everything from ketchup to gluten free bread from scratch. My boyfriend isn't on the same diet as me so I cook differently for him its not too hard to do such things. Like I don't eat bread but I can still make him a sandwich with bread. I also care about him so I make sure he eats what I believe is healthy and good for him.
  • drevaquera
    drevaquera Posts: 16 Member
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    work in more fruits, veggies and whole foods into your diet
  • OMP33
    OMP33 Posts: 308 Member
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    FantasticRunning wrote: »
    I stay away from processed foods and make everything from ketchup to gluten free bread from scratch. My boyfriend isn't on the same diet as me so I cook differently for him its not too hard to do such things. Like I don't eat bread but I can still make him a sandwich with bread. I also care about him so I make sure he eats what I believe is healthy and good for him.

    Fruits, vegetables, grains, starches. Just make sure you're exercising enough (I try to get an hour of biking in every day) and to keep your saturated/trans fat low. Check out my log if you want.
  • drevaquera
    drevaquera Posts: 16 Member
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    Skinny Taste is a good website and has lots of good recipes. Having a plan is the best way to stay on track.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,738 Member
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    From a process standpoint, I found it very helpful to carefully log my eating, then review the results at the end of the day. I think about which things I should eat more of (because they gave me plenty of nutrition or satisfaction for the number of calories), and which it would be sensible to reduce eating (because they had relatively more calories, and either didn't fill me up, or didn't offer good enough nutrition for the calorie "cost").

    In some cases, there would be a new food I'd seek out because I recognized a need - like snacks with more protein, or substitutes for the enjoyment I too often got from tortilla chips (which I still eat, but not as frequently in as large portions). Or, I'd read about some supposedly very nutritious food, check out the facts, and buy a bit to try out, including it in my eating if I really enjoyed it.

    Over time, this led to food selection & portion size choices that better met my goals. My eating evolved - there was no revolutionary change.
  • moosect
    moosect Posts: 4 Member
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    sorry i guess i was not specific enough. i trying to be low carb. and just eat just plain healthy.
  • OMP33
    OMP33 Posts: 308 Member
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    moosect wrote: »
    sorry i guess i was not specific enough. i trying to be low carb. and just eat just plain healthy.

    Don't go low carb. You're going to tear down your energy.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    edited February 2016
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    moosect wrote: »
    sorry i guess i was not specific enough. i trying to be low carb. and just eat just plain healthy.

    Can't help you on low carb - I tried that once, and never again.

    "Healthy" is also a maddeningly vague term. Foods aren't healthy or unhealthy, diets are, and how healthy a given diet is depends a lot on your existing health.

    For example, my biggest health problem is obesity. For me, the healthiest thing I can do for my diet is simply to watch calories and lose weight, which I've been doing very successfully for about half a year now. If I had high blood pressure, sodium and potassium could be important for my health. If I were diabetic, controlling carbs would be important. If I were vitamin B12 or protein deficient, a double cheeseburger would be a much healthier option compared to a salad.

    What is "healthy" for you really depends on what your specific needs are. Everyone needs to get adequate protein, adequate essential fats, and adequate micronutrients, but beyond that, you need to look at your personal wildly important health goals and go from there.

    And I would say - focus on the wildly important. For example, it's probably true that my diet would be "healthier" if I had more fiber. On the other hand, obesity is orders of magnitude more severe of a problem, for me, than any lack of fiber, so tackling obesity is wildly important, and fiber is not. It's impossible to focus on more than maybe three to four goals, so I have really only three.

    In descending order of importance:

    1. Calories at or below my daily limit
    2. Exercise as scheduled (3x per week strength & cardio)
    3. Protein at or close to my daily target

    Beyond that, I take a multivitamin and don't care about the rest - for now I need to focus on these, which I consider the three most important things I could be doing right now. Maybe those will change over time, but for now those are the only things I focus on.

    To actually meet my goals, I plan my meals the night before, and then do exactly what I planned.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    moosect wrote: »
    sorry i guess i was not specific enough. i trying to be low carb. and just eat just plain healthy.

    Any particular reason for going low carb?

    I know for me personally, if I had tried doing low carb or low fat or anything super restricting, I would have given up. I know this because I was super super strict for about 6 months or so (this was before I found MFP) and when I did hit that crash/burn point, I was only able to maintain the loss for a couple of months because I hadn't learned how to fit high calorie foods into my day. That's just me though. (and by super restrictive, I mean I seriously lived off chicken breasts and salads for 6 months.)
  • Panda_Poptarts
    Panda_Poptarts Posts: 971 Member
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    moosect wrote: »
    sorry i guess i was not specific enough. i trying to be low carb. and just eat just plain healthy.

    There's a low carb group, if you're into that =)
  • PaytraB
    PaytraB Posts: 2,360 Member
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    Eat like you normally do, only less. Adapt your meals to lower in calories than the family's while still eating the same main portion of the meal. For example, on casserole night, have a smaller portion of casserole and a larger portion of veggies on the side. On burger night, eat the patty, veggies, pickles and maybe a half of the bun or no bun and a small portion of fires (emphasis on the veggies; either cooked or in a salad). On fish & chip night, have one piece of fish (remove any breading), a small portion of fries and a large portion of veggies.
    The family can take sides as they wish.

    The best way of making this happen for yourself is to keep it as normal as you possibly can. The idea is to become aware of how to balance your portions to make this work.

    Keep trying. You'll find your way.
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,741 Member
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    While eating healthy is always a good goal, you can lose and/or maintain weight with portion control and calorie counting. If it's too hard to buy and prepare different food for yourself and your family won't eat the same things you would ideally eat...just eat smaller portions of the stuff they eat.
  • carolyn000000
    carolyn000000 Posts: 179 Member
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    Just keep trying and if it doesn't work, do something else. It took me ten years to figure it out. (I guess I am a slow learner). I tried low carb and it worked for a while but was not realistic for me for the long haul. What works for me is to eat a large breakfast that includes that includes some healthy fats such as almonds. The more I eat in the morning the less hungry I am at night. By recording what I eat I could see trends of what worked and what did not. It is all about not getting too hungry or you will end up over eating. Eat what you want within reason but just log everything. Some days I tell myself that I can eat what ever I want but I have to log it. It keeps me living in reality and not just mindlessly eating. I also workout 5 days a week for an hour. I eat back my calories. On days I don't workout, I eat at a maintenance level not at a calorie deficit. I have a whole list of things I did/do if you are interested.
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
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    moosect wrote: »
    sorry i guess i was not specific enough. i trying to be low carb. and just eat just plain healthy.
    If you try that and then give up after two weeks then it's not working for you.

    No way of eating will work if you give up after two weeks. You have to find compromises within your comfort zone. Only make changes that you are willing to do for the rest of your life.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,121 Member
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    moosect wrote: »
    i have been on here off and on for about a year . i do great for the first two weeks and then i slowly go back to the way i ate before. i do not want to force my family to change their eating habits. i am finding it very hard to figure out what to eat and change it up so i do not eat the same thing all the time.

    Go to the grocery stores and markets in your area.

    Have a good look at what's available. Read labels.

    Try some stuff.

  • Nikion901
    Nikion901 Posts: 2,467 Member
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    Check into some of the MFP Blog ... Hello Healthy. You might find some useful information there. You can search for low carb.

    There are stages of low-carb, and low-carb usually goes hand-in-hand with high fat. If you aren't getting enough fat when you low carb you will be too hungry to stay with it.

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