What was easy for you?

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TaraTall
TaraTall Posts: 339 Member
in Motivation and Support
I know people like to talk about what is really difficult to do but I'm curious how your existing habits may have contributed to your overall health? ie) You already walked most places, drank a lot of water, etc

For me, water consumption is super easy. My water bottle is always by my side and I get teased for how often I fill it up (and empty myself)

Replies

  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
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    Logging and the whole idea of calories in < calories out - it's just another restatement of energy conservation.

    Also walking a lot. I probably walked more when I was heavier than I do now, but that's because now I mix in a lot more intense exercise.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    edited February 2016
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    I like to play with plans, tables and calculations, so counting calories, prediction of weight loss and meal planning isn't just easy, it's fun.

    I'm also cheap, so the idea of getting "bang for my buck" was easy to apply to calories.

    I had learnt to drink water and black coffee a few years ago. Skipping sugar and lemon in my tea wasn't as hard as I imagined.

    I like fish, especially fatty fish, oatmeal, crispbread, raw vegetables, and fruit. This has remained staples through "thick and thin".

    I knew how to cook, even though I didn't liked to do it.

    I don't have a car, so I have to walk, and I live in a very walkable area.

    I am stubborn as hell when I just decide on something.
  • elaineamj
    elaineamj Posts: 347 Member
    edited February 2016
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    kommodevaran wrote: »
    I like to play with plans, tables and calculations, so counting calories, prediction of weight loss and meal planning isn't just easy, it's fun.

    I'm also cheap, so the idea of getting "bang for my buck" was easy to apply to calories.

    I had learnt to drink water and black coffee a few years ago. Skipping sugar and lemon in my tea wasn't as hard as I imagined.

    I like fish, especially fatty fish, oatmeal, crispbread, raw vegetables, and fruit. This has remained staples through "thick and thin".

    I knew how to cook, even though I didn't liked to do it.

    I don't have a car, so I have to walk, and I live in a very walkable area.

    I an stubborn as hell when I just decide on something.

    I find the planning and playing with numbers rather fun too! And getting the most bang for my buck is right up my tightwad alley!

    I also found cooking much more fun than I expected. And "diet food" can be delicious! I've been surprising myself by not being hungry even when on a low calorie "diet".

    I trained myself to drink my coffee and tea black many, many years ago so that has definitely been an advantage :)

    I also enjoy doing a lot of active stuff, walking, hiking, cycling, badminton, tennis.....
  • yesimpson
    yesimpson Posts: 1,372 Member
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    I like a wide variety of food, so finding other options when trying to reduce calories was easy enough.
    I've always liked to walk and keep active.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
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    Logging my food everyday is easy.
  • bunnerfly
    bunnerfly Posts: 197 Member
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    I actually enjoy working out. Anything that makes me sweaty, fatigued, and spent. I've used it to control anxiety and mild depression for years.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    Just sticking to my eating plan has been easier than I expected.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    Meal planning. I had already planned meals for years so that is easy for me. I think that also makes logging seem easy to me too. I'm used to sticking to my plan.
    I already mostly drank water and unsweetened tea. I saw the calories for some drinks and decided I prefered chewing food for that amount of calories.
    Getting enough sleep. I think this is helpful to not overeating or feeling too tired to move around.

  • Lizzy622
    Lizzy622 Posts: 3,705 Member
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    Eating my vegetables was really easy. I grew up with a large garden in my backyard and a love of vegetables. Replacing high calorie sides with low calorie veggies was easy.
  • CollieFit
    CollieFit Posts: 1,683 Member
    edited February 2016
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    Planning and logging meals I found easy, as I like to make lists, plan stuff etc.
    Moving more I found easy, as we have two dogs and I started by going more exciting places with them (cross country walks etc) and extending our hikes.
    I have some basic skills, from a previous period in life when I was really fit, which come in handy. I can swim and have a pool nearby. I can cycle and already have numerous bikes. I already had a gym membership and I have lifted weights previously so had an idea about form etc.
    I found it super easy to get my other half on side, because he is naturally pretty active/athletic and likes to eat healthily anyway.

    The only thing I found hard really was "snapping out" of a negative mindset where I just could not get myself to be motivated. After almost 3 years of caring for chronically sick parents and then two bereavements and their funerals to arrange and affairs to sort out, I was just in a depressed daze and totally fatigued. Taking the first step was hard. The rest was easy.
  • MommyL2015
    MommyL2015 Posts: 1,411 Member
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    Everything became easy for me once I got past what was hard, and that, for me, was getting started.
  • girlwithcurls2
    girlwithcurls2 Posts: 2,263 Member
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    I already meal plan (learned from my mom who has 7 kids), so I just started to find lower fat and calorie recipes. I cook almost exclusively from Cooking Light. Logging meals got super easy when mfp allowed us to copy and paste a recipe url. I used to put them all in by hand. Time consuming, for sure, but I loved seeing how healthy my meals were.

    Exercise. Once I took up the challenge to learn to swim properly, going to the pool became part of my day. I am 48 and have had brief periods of being active (a year at a time, here and there). I have become more active in my 40s than I ever was. I found things I enjoy, and I do something almost every day.

    Interesting question, OP, because once I started seeing success, the whole thing became "easy." Stick to the plan, the weight falls off, the heart and lungs feel great, the muscles feel strong... My biggest question is why it took me so long to get to this point :blush:
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Fortunately, everything was pretty easy...my previous diet while not ideal, was relatively good as compared to most people I know...I cooked most of the time and I'm pretty good in the kitchen...preparing meals from scratch, whole ingredients has never been an issue...my diet was mostly lacking in vegetables and fruit and I ate way too much...my portions were always huge.

    As fitness goes, it was pretty easy to get rolling there too...I grew up participating in all manner of sports and athletics and training for this or that or the other...I just got lazy for about 8 years there...it felt good to get back on the horse.

    My biggest issue was just overeating and being relatively sedentary...once I graduated college and took a desk job and started working a gazillion hours per week, I just sat on my *kitten* too much.
  • valente347
    valente347 Posts: 201 Member
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    I already cooked nearly everything at home, so it wasn't hard to give up eating out or anything like that. I also love many different foods, so I'm not just stuck with default lettuce salad. And I'm lucky my husband is game for most of what I cook (although he still won't eat beans) and has been super supportive of logging and goes with me to the gym nearly every night.
  • kat_princess12
    kat_princess12 Posts: 109 Member
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    I happen to really like veggies - raw or cooked, and especially in salad form. Of course, I also love breads, pasta, etc. or I wouldn't have this weight to lose! But it wasn't difficult to work on changing the proportion of veggies to those other delicious things in my diet. It didn't feel like deprivation.
  • neldabg
    neldabg Posts: 1,452 Member
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    MommyL2015 wrote: »
    Everything became easy for me once I got past what was hard, and that, for me, was getting started.
    kommodevaran wrote: »
    I like to play with plans, tables and calculations, so counting calories, prediction of weight loss and meal planning isn't just easy, it's fun.

    I'm also cheap, so the idea of getting "bang for my buck" was easy to apply to calories.

    I had learnt to drink water and black coffee a few years ago. Skipping sugar and lemon in my tea wasn't as hard as I imagined.

    I like fish, especially fatty fish, oatmeal, crispbread, raw vegetables, and fruit. This has remained staples through "thick and thin".

    I am stubborn as hell when I just decide on something.


    All of this. I'm a tough creature of habit, so once I decide on something and get the ball rolling, I press onward with an ironclad focus and rarely fall off track.
    Also, logging food is not hard at all and is sort of a hobby now. It's fun balancing my macros and calories for the days to come, adjusting accordingly to what life throws my way.
    If only I'd known the CICO "secret" to weight loss earlier, I would've been living the healthy life a long time ago.

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