How do you all do it?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

First, for the OP, hugs. It's SO hard, I know, and even harder when you get a few days and then screw up. I know exactly what that's like.

Here's a few bits of info that might help, plus what has worked in the past for me...and what I'm using right now, because I screwed up and got off my good diet and am in the same boat (for different reasons, but same boat, basically).


Okay, so first off, it's good to have some 'good' snacks around for whenever you need them. AT home, in the car, in your purse or pocket, whatever.

Then, it is REALLY helpful to notice WHEN you are eating the 'bad' foods. When you are hungry? Stressed or emotionally upset? Relaxed and happy? After work? During work?

If you notice some common themes, that's what you want to guard against with 'good' snacks for yourself. Go and proactively GET the good snacks when the themes are happening. You start to feel hungry, go right for the good snack before the cravings hit. If stress is the trigger, just go start munching when you feel stressed, and so on.


Another big, BIG help is to find food you can have and that you LIKE. This may take a little while (some nutritionists have their clients do this slowly, but you sound like that may not be possible), but basically, start trying out new dishes that meet your food requirements. Whenever you find a 'good' one, add that to your weekly meal plan until you eventually only have safe AND good tasting dishes to eat. It makes it much more likely to stay on the diet if you actually like it, you know?

I go on pinterest for this. If you haven't before, it is SO easy to browse for new recipes there and you get that visual picture right off the bat, so it's nice to browse through. Just put in recipe low sodium (or heart healthy maybe) and maybe an ingredient or two, and you'll likely come up with some good stuff (like this low sodium ranch seasoning mix - https://bakeatmidnite.com/low-sodium-ranch-seasoning-mix/).

And that brings me to another thing that can help - herbs. I would highly recommend starting an herb garden, because throwing in a handful of herbs can make a huge difference in flavor, which is such a big thing with the low sodium, yeah? And having a garden means you can use a lot of herbs without a big cost. :-)

And one last thing...a while back, there was a study on self-control/will. And basically, what was found was that people tend to have, well, kind of a finite level of will power. Everyone is different, but essentially, if you use a lot of will power for one thing, then you have LESS will power left for other things.

Like, if you use your will power in forcing yourself to exercise, you leave less that day for helping you eat right. And vice versa. It applies to anything that involves control, too. Didn't yell at a crummy boss, stayed up late studying, forced yourself to get up early, did a chore you didn't like? All of that takes will power.

So one thing that has helped me is to basically try to lower my 'will power' moments while i was trying to stick to my good diet. Not try to exercise, not try to talk to that one person who drives me nuts, and so on. It's not perfect, but it can help. And KNOWING about the will power, if it's been a day that required a lot of will power, it can help me to remember that it's going to be harder to stick to my diet that day, so I may want to take steps to help myself stay on track, you know?

wishing you good luck!

First of all - hurray to you for not letting a bumpy day throw you off track. We have them but can't let them defeat us. You are trying to learn from your bumpy day - so please give yourself a pat on the back for that.

I am finding that it gets easier the longer you are at it. At the beginning of this it takes a lot of thought and planning to change the way you eat and your old habits. But once you are more established in the better eating patterns instead of grabbing a few sandwiches you have more items in your repertoire to quickly pull together for a healthier option.

While I hate to grocery shop I am happy that I am the one to do the shopping and cooking because I am just keeping items I don't want to eat out of the house. It's not an option.

Keep at it. It will become more natural.

I went through the same thing a few days ago. Did great for about 5 days then all I could think about was pizza. And of course I didn't just order pizza I went ahead and ordered wedges and spicy wings and garlic bread. It arrived, I sat and enjoyed a slice of pizza and garlic bread and had two spicy wings. The rest as was always my habit I cooled and put in the fridge, again as I always used to. No later had I put it away that guilt hit me. The thought that I had done so well and now gone over. Suddenly the remaining food sitting in the fridge was my enemy. I grew so disheartened with myself that I threw it all out and made myself pay the equivalent amount I had spent on the food to a charity. Needless to say it was a hefty price to pay for one slip but a powerful lesson. There was no need for me to order the extras, I should have just stuck to pizza. But habit didn't even give me a chance to stop and think what I was doing when ordering, purely because this is how I had always ordered. So the next day I picked myself up, dusted myself off decided I wasn't going to beat myself up for it anymore and continued with my new way of eating. Accountable, calorie controlled and no guilt

I gotta tell you, the hardest part is the beginning. If you stick with it, really stick with it for let's say a month, you'll feel the difference in your body. More energy, less gas/bloating. Then, have an unhealthy meal. In the immediate, it's great but very soon after I feel greasy and bloated and heavy and lethargic. I've really come to differentiate how I feel after a cheat meal and sometimes I'm ok and it tempts me to continue eating crappy but then I do it too soon after and that gross feeling comes back.

Does that mean I don't stress? No freaking way. I still love the bad stuff but I hate the way I feel after eating it too much now.