How do you make a lifestyle change instead of a temporary one?

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Hello, I want to make a lifestyle change, right now I am not working out with any consistency, or eating healthy at all. I don’t want to go on a diet lose weight then gain it all back after, I want to eat healthier but also still eat the things I love. People have told me this is a cheat meal and you get one once a week or something but I’ve never been able to be that good with my eating, especially if I feel like I “can’t” have that food. Can I have a cheat meal each day and still lose weight?
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  • LiveLoveProgress
    LiveLoveProgress Posts: 10 Member
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    As long as it fits within your daily calorie goal you can have whatever you like!
    If you think that you have to eat healthy to loose weight youre starting out with the wrong mindset, you shouldn't feel like you have to deprive yourself or youre setting yourself up for failure
    I used to think like that and spent 10 years at least yo-yoing up and down... I now eat chocolate and crisps most days and have lost over 2 and half stone using MFP, just smaller and more calculated portions rather than a share size bag or bar!! I feel full most days but on the odd occasions that ive gone way over, ive just logged it regardless and carried on trying to hit my calorie goal the next day
    Good luck on your journey x
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    It depends on what you mean by cheat meal. If you stick to your calorie goal, you can eat anything you want and lose/maintain weight. After all, fewer calories in than out means weight loss.

    I have created a diet conisting solely on comfort foods for myself. I also pay attention to good nutrition. It works very well for me. But I don't cheat. I eat the amount of calories that I need, over time, to maintain my weight.

    What I don't do, is "try to eat healthy"; I have stopped doing that - it made me feel triumphant, but it also made me feel guilty when I failed, and because I had perfection as a goal while at the same time no clear idea of what I was aiming for, I kept failing.
  • tess5036
    tess5036 Posts: 942 Member
    edited October 2017
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    It can be daunting to think about making major lifestyle changes, especially if they are going to impact on different areas of your like. I can tell you what worked for me; I made changes in one are at a time, and let them become a habit. For example, when deciding to loose weight (Nov/Dec 2016) the first thing I did was cut out soda from my diet, as that became a habit I changed other things. By the time I joined the gym in April I'd got a calorie under control and had lost a good chunk of weight.

    When I joined the gym it was scary, and it felt very intimidating at first, but I knew if I wanted to keep going I needed to establish a habit, so I went daily for about two weeks. By the end of the two weeks I knew people there, and was no longer intimidated. Since then I've joined classes and created new habits.

    Create good habits, one habit at a time :)
  • Aint2Proud2Meg
    Aint2Proud2Meg Posts: 193 Member
    edited October 2017
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    It depends on what you mean by cheat meal. If you stick to your calorie goal, you can eat anything you want and lose/maintain weight. After all, fewer calories in than out means weight loss.

    I have created a diet conisting solely on comfort foods for myself. I also pay attention to good nutrition. It works very well for me. But I don't cheat. I eat the amount of calories that I need, over time, to maintain my weight.

    What I don't do, is "try to eat healthy"; I have stopped doing that - it made me feel triumphant, but it also made me feel guilty when I failed, and because I had perfection as a goal while at the same time no clear idea of what I was aiming for, I kept failing.

    Agree big time. Also, just take a little time to maybe look at copycat recipes of comfort foods with lower calories. There are some healthier swaps you might like more, but there will be some you just don't like, and that's ok. If you spend just a few minutes looking around for "low calorie", "copycat", etc etc you'll find plenty. Adding your own meals and recipes to mfp takes a little getting used to but is very helpful.
  • VeggieBarbells
    VeggieBarbells Posts: 175 Member
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    Personally I don't believe in cheat meals, the mere fact that it registers as cheating is just the wrong mindset for me. Others swear by it and call me mad #RME.

    To your point: How do you make a lifestyle change instead of a temporary one?

    Here's a few comments I've made on other threads:

    Temptation - does it ever get easier?
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/40672642#Comment_40672642

    How do you make fitness a priority?
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/40686831#Comment_40686831

    I have found wanting it and doing it are two very different things. The bottom line is how much do you want the life style change. I have totally changed my eating habits because I want be around more than anything else. Only you can decide and only you can make it happen.

    Here's a poster I have on my wall: "The best way to predict the future, is to create it" << this applies to lifestyle changes too.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
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    For me it was small and incremental changes. Turning everything on its head or making drastic alterations wasn't the way. There's a reason we are in our lifestyle grooves, and convenience and preference aren't weaknesses or flaws, they're adult things to be worked with. If you're a soda person, deal with that for a few weeks. If you've a sweet tooth, explore edits to that for a few weeks after that. And so on. Say for this month I'm gonna have a fruit or veg with every meal, that's all. Just little stuff and work on up.
  • JaydedMiss
    JaydedMiss Posts: 4,286 Member
    edited October 2017
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    What everyone else said, The mindset of the foods you like being "cheat" meals is negative and will get you negative results. Eat to nourish yourself, Sure some foods can benefit you more. slowly add them in. Replace what you can slowly while maintaining satiety and happiness. Over time things change, Slowly. Think baked french fries vs deep fried. Benefit is you can eat alot more fries. Win. Thats you you make lifelong changes. Diving right in starting with negativity is how you crash and burn and hate the process and give up.

    Just dont complicate things!
  • Sunnybrooke99
    Sunnybrooke99 Posts: 369 Member
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    Use tracking as a feed back system, and not with the idea of how you are eating and exercising as being temporary. Take note of how you feel, which food choices are truly the most satisfying, and keep trying new things. If you know you are going to a barbecue on Saturday, put in a little extra workout during the week, and leave yourself a decent surplus that week. Don’t get mad at yourself for going over sometimes, but think about what you can do better in the future.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    It depends on what you mean by cheat meal. If you stick to your calorie goal, you can eat anything you want and lose/maintain weight. After all, fewer calories in than out means weight loss.

    I have created a diet conisting solely on comfort foods for myself. I also pay attention to good nutrition. It works very well for me. But I don't cheat. I eat the amount of calories that I need, over time, to maintain my weight.

    What I don't do, is "try to eat healthy"; I have stopped doing that - it made me feel triumphant, but it also made me feel guilty when I failed, and because I had perfection as a goal while at the same time no clear idea of what I was aiming for, I kept failing.

    Agree big time. Also, just take a little time to maybe look at copycat recipes of comfort foods with lower calories. There are some healthier swaps you might like more, but there will be some you just don't like, and that's ok. If you spend just a few minutes looking around for "low calorie", "copycat", etc etc you'll find plenty. Adding your own meals and recipes to mfp takes a little getting used to but is very helpful.
    I don't think I have made any lower calorie versions of anything. I just don't eat so much and all the time anymore.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    Small changes. Figure out what the biggest deficiency is in your current lifestyle and pick one small way to improve it - like eat one more serving of veggies per day, or take a 10 minute walk after dinner. Do that until it's easy, then pick a new small goal.

    Look at the big picture when determining "healthy". Don't get too caught up in each food or activity, but on how it fits into your lifestyle as a whole.

    Don't get discouraged when you go off plan. No one is perfect, and the people who succeed are the ones who shrug off a bad day and just keep going. And if there is one specific thing you're trying to do but just can't make it work, put that goal aside and move on to something else, you can always come back to it later.

    Good luck!
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    i eat what i want. i make it fit within my calorie goals.

    ive lost 100 pounds eating what i want. i maintained it for a year without logging ever. so obviously, what i learned in the previous 2 years of losing weight, STUCK. thats what a lifestyle change IS. learning how to eat, how much to eat and how to balance it all out. i want to finish losing the weight, and am now back to logging (i can maintain without logging, i have learned i can not lose WITHOUT logging)
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    Noel_57 wrote: »
    Awesome thread. It should be a sticky.

    Yes, @Noel_57 it's fantastic. :heart:

    I hope the OP comes back and sees it.