On days you don't work out, how do you keep yourself on trac

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tusher2011
tusher2011 Posts: 201 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I find that if I don't workout, that day I am a mess foodwise. I want to eat everything, lol. Well, not everything, but bad stuff anyway. And I don't drink enough water.

How do you keep yourself on track?

Replies

  • jrich1
    jrich1 Posts: 2,408 Member
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    eat snacks every 2 hours so I am never really hungry and drink lots of water
  • Hernandezedw
    Hernandezedw Posts: 284
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    Keep yourself busy. Being idle makes me want to eat.
  • Purplegal32
    Purplegal32 Posts: 85 Member
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    I sooooooo know what ya mean I have the same problems. But I too have a few really low calorie snacks in hand so I dont go over. I like the Healthy harvest applesauce. They r only 50 calories!
  • dittiepe
    dittiepe Posts: 557 Member
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    Amusingly, every time I try to take a rest day, I end up exercising because I see everyone else doing it. So I guess that keeps me on track :)
  • bioteacher01
    bioteacher01 Posts: 12
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    Yeah, stay busy. Anything can be exercise, even if it's not an official workout. Try just a leisurely walk to take your mind off of food. I'm really bad about eating when I'm bored, so I try to stay busy.
  • 27strange
    27strange Posts: 837 Member
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    bump, to hear more replies. I struggle with this too. Days I exercise I am motivated to eat good, days I don't exercise then I want to eat all the bad stuff. Therefore I have been trying to exercise 7 days a week, this keeps me motivated to eat better. Exercise for me leads to better eating habits, it don't work the other way.
  • ProudMomoftwo
    ProudMomoftwo Posts: 525
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    I eat high fiber & high protein foods every 2 - 3 hrs so I don't get real hungry throughout the day.
    Plan to stay BUSY.
    Drink LOTS of water and plan ahead for rest days ( surround yourself with healthy options).
    A rest day doesn't mean you can't head out for a relaxing walk with your dog or take an easy bike ride around the neighborhood with the kids or lounge and lightly play in the pool.
    All that can still be considered exercise but it is a lot more restful to your body than say...your regular workout.

    I workout to get to eat...plain and simple so I try and get some movement in every day - even my rest days.

    Keep on...keepin' on.
  • almondbliss
    almondbliss Posts: 115
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    Take your body weight divide it in half, get you a big water jug one with measurements on it fill it with half your body weights worth of water first thing in the morning and start chugging. I promise it will be hard to drink all that and eat the snacks, if you do still manage to eat the snacks it will be way less than what you would have eaten without the water. Protein Shakes also help with curbing hunger or unnecessary snacking.
  • trud72
    trud72 Posts: 1,912 Member
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    i workout 7 days a week just not so hard on the weekends! go for a walk or something instead...burns cals still :)
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
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    Ditto on the keep yourself occupied. Boredom (especially combined with watching TV) seems to be a very common trigger for eating so avoid that at all costs.

    Typically I end up not really taking a rest day either because in order to avoid boredom, I'll go window shopping or clean or go for a long walk. And think of it this way - if you do end up doing something like that, you've earned some extra calories for a treat.
    You can also do this in a non-active way though - call a friend, read a good book, play a video game, browse the MFP boards. :)

    Getting tempting foods out of the house helps a lot too. All I have on hand for snacks are 100 calorie popcorn, fruit and greek yogurt. The only temptation that's stil in my cupboard is peanut butter (I could seriously eat the whole jar with some celery sticks) but I avoid out of laziness - it's too hard to measure!

    Edited to add - treat every day the same, that way you don't get into the whole "oh, it's my day off, I can eat whatever I want" routine and have to play catch up every few days. I don't always get onto MFP on the weekends but I still write all my food down and then track everything Monday. I don't want to see those totals spike so I keep a mental total of my calories and know my limits.

    Eat a larger breakfast with plenty of protein - I find that keeps me full longer and when I'm full, I'm not tempted to reach for snacks.

    Also, if you start to reach for something, track it on here first - that may keep you from eating it.
  • infamousmk
    infamousmk Posts: 6,033 Member
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    On days I don't plan to work out I make sure to (espeically) balance my protien/fiber/carbs in smaller, more frequent snack meals. Drinking water just has to happen - I like making the glass overflow in the diary, so I get a kick out of drinking plenty of water. But like others have said, lately I don't really have 'rest days' .. there are days when I have a lower impact activity like a long walk, or I do a yoga/streching DVD, but it seems like a day doesn't go by any more that I don't make my body move.
  • tusher2011
    tusher2011 Posts: 201 Member
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    Thanks, glad I'm not alone. I have a treadmill at home, so on my "rest" day, I guess I can even just walk on that to help keep me on track. I'm happy to know that I made myself feel guilty for not working out and for eating crappy. In that past, I would have just pushed that guilt right out of my head.:)
  • taso42_DELETED
    taso42_DELETED Posts: 3,394 Member
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    Usually my rest day and free day are the same day, so I don't sweat it and eat what I want.
  • Keeley23
    Keeley23 Posts: 13 Member
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    I have 1 rest day a week, today as it happens. My limit is 1200 and i am on 1290 as of 9pm...i just gobbled up a 94 cal skinny cow ice-cream which has taken me over. I have been thinking about ice-cream all day, i should have just factored it in but i have been ravenous today, and that's with lots of protein and 4 litres of water.

    I like the idea of having a free day, or a maintenance day in my case, on which you take a rest, makes a lot of sense.

    On the plus side, tomorrow is my eat at maintenance day, i will also do some exercise so i can have quite a feast =)
  • milaxx
    milaxx Posts: 1,122 Member
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    I do my menu for the entire day as soon as possible. It helps me set parameters so I don't fool myself into thinking I have more calories to play with than I actually do. I also set the alarm on my phone and every 3 hours I try to drink 16oz. Due to health problems I still struggle drinking loads of water so even if I don't drink the entire 16oz at least I am reminded to drink.

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