How do you all do it?

bigguygettingskinny
bigguygettingskinny Posts: 21 Member
edited November 21 in Food and Nutrition
How do you all stay on track for long periods of time. I was doing good for a few days then today happened. 2 sandwiches on white bread with processed lunch meat processed cheese and mayo. Then half a bag of crispers and half a tube of pringles. Now my bp is up and making my head screwy.

It happens every time i have a few good days and my bp comes down just a few points and i start to feel better then i do days like today.

How do you all keep on track. Please no smart remarks I know I messed up just looking for advice to not make it happen again.
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Replies

  • ISweat4This
    ISweat4This Posts: 653 Member
    Stay focused, keep logging your meals and don't give up.
  • CMNVA
    CMNVA Posts: 733 Member
    I mess up a LOT. I overeat at least two times a week. However, what you described is probably NOT something I'd do. Every food you described probably makes your crave foods more. White Bread? LOVE IT (with PB&J) but it just does NOT come into my life anymore. DO NOT BUY IT anymore. That sort of eating leads me right to the chips and other things that naturally go with it.

    We all have days that we slip and eat something that seems to derail us but I think you probably need to plan a little better. You might eat more than you should here and there, but you need to work on not having things that are your trigger foods so easily accessible. Not trying to lecture or shame you, but you did ask how we do it.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited September 2017
    Like everyone else I stay the track by not expecting to stay the track all the time. This is what my life is now, and if I don't bend with what my days throw at me from time to time I'm not being realistically serious about doing it long term. In my opinion, weight loss is much more about learning how to live life while working on my goals instead of the other way around, trying to bend life to fit my goals. Not going to happen. I believe in tweaks, not 180s. At least for myself, someone who is lazy and loves food.

    Are you restricting too much or eliminating foods needlessly? You mentioned white bread and processed meat as things that you felt derailed you. You'll serve your diet best if you don't eliminate something unless you feel doing so makes dieting easier, not because someone somewhere said white is bad and processed is evil. I really hope you were just listing foods you overate to illustrate that you overate, and not to point out that you felt derailed because of the kinds of food you overate. Dieting does get easier with time, but it gets even easier when you don't create unrealistic or arbitrary rules for yourself. I just use this litmus test: is this something that has the potential to feel natural to me and I see myself doing long term?
  • bigguygettingskinny
    bigguygettingskinny Posts: 21 Member
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    Like everyone else I stay the track by not expecting to stay the track all the time. This is what my life is now, and if I don't bend with what my days throw at me from time to time I'm not being realistically serious about doing it long term. In my opinion, weight loss is much more about learning how to live life while working on my goals instead of the other way around, trying to bend life to fit my goals. Not going to happen. I believe in tweaks, not 180s. At least for myself, someone who is lazy and loves food.

    Are you restricting too much or eliminating foods needlessly? You mentioned white bread and processed meat as things that you felt derailed you. You'll serve your diet best if you don't eliminate something unless you feel doing so makes dieting easier, not because someone somewhere said white is bad and processed is evil. I really hope you were just listing foods you overate to illustrate that you overate, and not to point out that you felt derailed because of the kinds of food you overate. Dieting does get easier with time, but it gets even easier when you don't create unrealistic or arbitrary rules for yourself. I just use this litmus test: is this something that has the potential to feel natural to me and I see myself doing long term?

    The process meat I said as it is full of sodium and I have high blood pressure and am suppose to not go over 1800mg ish. Same with the chips.
  • CMNVA
    CMNVA Posts: 733 Member
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    Like everyone else I stay the track by not expecting to stay the track all the time. This is what my life is now, and if I don't bend with what my days throw at me from time to time I'm not being realistically serious about doing it long term. In my opinion, weight loss is much more about learning how to live life while working on my goals instead of the other way around, trying to bend life to fit my goals. Not going to happen. I believe in tweaks, not 180s. At least for myself, someone who is lazy and loves food.

    Are you restricting too much or eliminating foods needlessly? You mentioned white bread and processed meat as things that you felt derailed you. You'll serve your diet best if you don't eliminate something unless you feel doing so makes dieting easier, not because someone somewhere said white is bad and processed is evil. I really hope you were just listing foods you overate to illustrate that you overate, and not to point out that you felt derailed because of the kinds of food you overate. Dieting does get easier with time, but it gets even easier when you don't create unrealistic or arbitrary rules for yourself. I just use this litmus test: is this something that has the potential to feel natural to me and I see myself doing long term?

    I agree with all this--it just sounds like these types of foods are trigger foods for the OP; hence, one type of food led to another and he overate. I recommend avoiding those foods until you get better control of your eating. Sounds like he's just a few days in.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    bigguygettingskinny wrote: »
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    Like everyone else I stay the track by not expecting to stay the track all the time. This is what my life is now, and if I don't bend with what my days throw at me from time to time I'm not being realistically serious about doing it long term. In my opinion, weight loss is much more about learning how to live life while working on my goals instead of the other way around, trying to bend life to fit my goals. Not going to happen. I believe in tweaks, not 180s. At least for myself, someone who is lazy and loves food.

    Are you restricting too much or eliminating foods needlessly? You mentioned white bread and processed meat as things that you felt derailed you. You'll serve your diet best if you don't eliminate something unless you feel doing so makes dieting easier, not because someone somewhere said white is bad and processed is evil. I really hope you were just listing foods you overate to illustrate that you overate, and not to point out that you felt derailed because of the kinds of food you overate. Dieting does get easier with time, but it gets even easier when you don't create unrealistic or arbitrary rules for yourself. I just use this litmus test: is this something that has the potential to feel natural to me and I see myself doing long term?

    The process meat I said as it is full of sodium and I have high blood pressure and am suppose to not go over 1800mg ish. Same with the chips.

    Cook and slice your own meats for sandwiches. This is what I do for my hypertensive sandwich loving husband.
  • hoffman2300
    hoffman2300 Posts: 104 Member
    There's so much wisdom here! Many people already said "It happens. Log it and move on". They're SO right.

    And @CMNVA also had a great suggestion - if it came from your house, don't bring it in anymore. And if you do, log it and move on! You can do this!
  • steveko89
    steveko89 Posts: 2,223 Member
    Don't beat yourself up for having a misstep, just don't compound that single occurrence by throwing in the towel and punting on the whole day or week. Setbacks, poor choices, circumstances out of our control all happen, just do what you can to mitigate them. This is a process, use each hiccup on the way as a learning experience of where your pitfalls are and how to avoid them. Like others suggested, don't buy certain foods any more, plan out meals for the day in advance, lay out workout clothes the night before, pre-pack your gym bag, etc. I learned I needed to stop carrying around small bills to force myself not to get something out of the vending machine when I was bored at work at 3pm. Motivation and will power only get us so far, create a structure of habits to keep you on track when your willpower starts to wane.
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
    Also - get rid of the foods you know you have problems with until you know you are in better control of yourself. Out of sight, out of mind.

    I totally avoided pizza (and didn't order it for the family) for the first three months of my weight loss efforts. It's simply one of those foods that destroys my willpower and I knew I was better off without it.
  • jdlobb
    jdlobb Posts: 1,232 Member
    edited September 2017
    I forced myself to do it for the first few weeks, the longer you force yourself to do it the more it becomes a habit. Now if I don't log something I feel guilty and anxious.

    the very act of logging all of my food also helps me make better choices, because I can see them front and center, in real time. I'll start to log something and say "nope, that's not gonna work" and eat something else.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    bigguygettingskinny wrote: »
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    Like everyone else I stay the track by not expecting to stay the track all the time. This is what my life is now, and if I don't bend with what my days throw at me from time to time I'm not being realistically serious about doing it long term. In my opinion, weight loss is much more about learning how to live life while working on my goals instead of the other way around, trying to bend life to fit my goals. Not going to happen. I believe in tweaks, not 180s. At least for myself, someone who is lazy and loves food.

    Are you restricting too much or eliminating foods needlessly? You mentioned white bread and processed meat as things that you felt derailed you. You'll serve your diet best if you don't eliminate something unless you feel doing so makes dieting easier, not because someone somewhere said white is bad and processed is evil. I really hope you were just listing foods you overate to illustrate that you overate, and not to point out that you felt derailed because of the kinds of food you overate. Dieting does get easier with time, but it gets even easier when you don't create unrealistic or arbitrary rules for yourself. I just use this litmus test: is this something that has the potential to feel natural to me and I see myself doing long term?

    The process meat I said as it is full of sodium and I have high blood pressure and am suppose to not go over 1800mg ish. Same with the chips.

    Are low sodium processed meats(is that even a thing) an option? Do you like any other things that scratch the same itch? How do you feel about preparing things that are low sodium but ready to grab and having them in the fridge/pantry? I found that one of the best things I could do to help manage a situation I'm less happy about is by imagining it happening again (because it WILL happen eventually) and prepare things that will help me handle it next time. For example, one problem I had is that I like to nibble on random things from the fridge. All I needed to do was move all the higher calorie items to the back and under other stuff and lower calorie things in the front. I needed to work on my nibbling, but I knew it wouldn't happen overnight, so that was a great way of making it manageable while I continued working on it, instead of going cold turkey and expecting it to work right away.
  • Cbean08
    Cbean08 Posts: 1,092 Member
    If you have certain "no breaks" foods (basically ones that once you start eating you can't stop) then you need to allow yourself to have them to break the psychological connection. Eat those foods away from the house where you can't eat a bunch. If you like white bread, you can still eat it. Bring a loaf to work and keep it in the break room. Buy a small bag of chips, the ones that are around 150 cals, and enjoy those with your sandwich. You're less likely to binge on those foods if 1. they are already portion controlled or 2. you are eating with other people and are on a limited time schedule.

    For other things, ask yourself, "will this help me meet my goals?" If you eat something that is over calorie budget, then acknowledge it and move on. There is no reason to turn a single splurge into an all day affair that will only make yourself feel worse.

    It takes a lot of self control, but you can do it. Think through your decisions before you make them. Even just taking an extra 2 minutes to consider what you are about to put in your mouth can help.
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
    Two years in and I still have plenty of bad days. Here are my top tips:
    1. Don't let yourself get too hungry
    2. Plan, plan, plan. Pre-log and packeverything for the next day, then stick with the plan
    3. Have plenty of healthy snacks at the ready (cut veggies, fruit, popcorn, oatmeal packets)
    4. Don't white knuckle it thru a too-large deficit. In the long run, you'll come out ahead if you go slow and steady
    5. Learn great habits along the way
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    edited September 2017
    I prelog my food for the day so I can see that it meets my goals. I don't have to be perfect every day to manage things.

    I choose what comes into my home. If I had a health condition and needed to lower my sodium I would probably stop buying those high sodium foods like lunchmeats and chips because if they are in the house I will probably eat them. More cooking from scratch to control the ingredients. I would look for low sodium alternatives where possible and learn to live differently. There is a lot to learn when changing your diet for medical reasons so don't beat yourself up if it takes time.
  • xvolution
    xvolution Posts: 721 Member
    Given enough time, your body adjusts to whatever lifestyle changes you've done. The hard part is sticking with the changes long enough for the body to adjust. I was on a salt-restriction diet for a few months now (started seriously in mid May) and now I find any high sodium foods to be way too salty to enjoy.
  • AnnJey
    AnnJey Posts: 4 Member
    I eat at maintainance on Saturday's (or a random day of the same week if I have an event). I find it helps since I can look forward to it and know if I have serious cravings for something, I can fulfill it in a couple of days.

    But IMO the main thing is your will to lose weight. Anyone can go on the next new diet, but if you're not 100% committed to doing it, you'll fall off eventually. Yeah, you could say "I'll start again tomorrow", or you can say "I don't actually need [food] to survive". Something that has helped me is to wait an hour after I've finished eating. I find that immediately after eating I don't always feel satisfied so before I would go for more, but if I wait around 30 minutes or so, I suddenly start feeling really full. I also use that principle when I'm having cravings; if I still want it hours later then I'll have a little bit of it. But usually I don't want it that long after.
  • Derpy_Hooves
    Derpy_Hooves Posts: 234 Member
    edited September 2017
    I've been doing this for 6 years (mostly maintenance) and I still screw up. Sure "naturally" skinny people have blow-out days too, that's life. As long as you get back on track it'll be fine, slow and steady and all that.
  • Ironandwine69
    Ironandwine69 Posts: 2,432 Member
    I live a healthy life for the most part, and I "mess up" every week, I overeat on the weekends and undereat during the week. On purpose.
    You have to find a balance. Some people, including me, like the mental break on the weekend. Some like to be consistent all week long. It's not messing up if you know it's going to happen and plan for it.
  • achagpar
    achagpar Posts: 493 Member
    I make small changes -- good habits -- and stick to them. I also find it starts in the grocery store. I don't buy chips or ice cream any more -- so I don't have them. When I'm out, it's harder -- I don't control what's served -- but I try to keep in the right headspace. I've gotten this far, don't want to go back. Will I screw up on occasion? Yes. I just try to keep those limited; and things I really want rather than mindless decisions. Then I pick myself back up and get back on track. It's a lifetime marathon, not a sprint.
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