How do you make a lifestyle change instead of a temporary one?
superluvjo
Posts: 6 Member
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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You CAN eat food you like. . .just in quantities that keep you in your calorie goals. I don't eliminate any foods, but they have to fit into my numbers.
Lifestyle vs temporary - do the above forever.
I do have occasional "over" days, but not every day.7 -
Sell your car and start walking or bicycling everywhere. You will find that you are much healthier just doing ordinary stuff.11
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If you deprive yourself of foods that you love, there is no way you will be successful in your "lifestyle change". As long as you stay within your calorie goal for the day/week, you can eat the foods you like and still lose weight. It's not "cheating", it's just living a happy life. If you make yourself miserable, why would you stick with it for the rest of your life?8
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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 x3 -
For me, baby steps were key. Make a small change that I can easily adapt to. It's like nothing really changed at all. Then make another small change. All those little nothings add up to something in the end.
Can you have a cheat meal every day? I wouldn't. Of course that's not knowing your definition of a cheat meal. Make those things that you want to "cheat with" into "once in a while" indulgences. Keep tweaking your menu until you don't feel the need to "cheat" every day. You need a daily menu that doesn't leave you bored and unsatisfied.7 -
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.4 -
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
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kommodevaran wrote: »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.2 -
At first, you wing it. Then gradually and slowly you discover things that make you go "well, this isn't too bad! I think I can do this", and those "not too bad" things will be the seed for habits that keep evolving to the better. Don't expect to go to bed and wake up a new person with new habits the next day. By definition habits take time to cultivate and consistency to stick. For example, you vow to walk for 10 minutes every day. It's just 10 minutes and doesn't sound daunting. Some days you will be can't wait for these 10 minutes to pass, but then there comes a day where you walk 12 minutes and think "well, this isn't too bad". If 10 minutes to start feels too much, start with 5, even with 1 minutes. Doesn't matter where you start as long as you do something consistently enough and eventually improve on it.
Forget about the concept of "cheat meals". Food is food and you aren't cheating. Just eat what you want and try to hit your calories most days. Gradually and after a while you will find yourself having certain foods less often, using certain foods more often, certain foods will feel like they aren't worth it to you because you know they would leave you hungry, and certain foods you just feel are worth the calories and you would rather keep them as is. It doesn't happen overnight and you don't need to rush it or push it. Try some new food every now and then to see how you like it and if you would like to add it to your food rotation. Modify higher calorie foods you like to make them lower in calories and easier to fit...etc.
Wanting a lifestyle change is a frame of mind, how it unfolds with time is personal to you. Some dieters here eat pizza, for example, several times a week, while others don't feel it's worth it and only eat it rarely. I eat bread every day, while some people feel it's a waste of calories and they would rather spend those calories on other things. Don't stress and keep learning about yourself and your preference. The rest will come gradually.
ETA: what I said above doesn't mean you shouldn't put in any effort. It simply means to start slow and learn as much as you can about yourself at first. What you like, what you don't like, what you're willing to compromise, what you are not willing to modify, what causes certain behaviors, what helps you avoid certain behaviors, what foods make dieting easier...etc. Just observe. This will allow you to gradually put effort into the changes that will stick and be specific to you, not the ones "guru" X says you should implement.9 -
I think the biggest change for me this time around has been getting over that all or nothing thinking. I felt like I had to be perfect all the time and when I "messed up", I felt like I might as well give up because what's the point now, right?
I started with really small, manageable changes and made sure to record my progress (google the X-Effect. I do something similar, but use stickers because I am a 5 year old at heart and still love getting gold stars).
That did two things:
1. It was easier to take those first baby steps (doing something active at least 2 times a week, and just tracking my food) and then build on them over the course of months, constantly feeling like I was achieving goals, rather than try to immediately going into working out 5+ times per week and eating completely clean gourmet meals that I make from scratch and failing after a week.
2. I started building gold star streaks and I didn't want to break them. Also, I could see how one or two empty days (even a whole month that I kind of slipped up on) didn't really make a big difference. As long as I was doing the right thing, most of the time, I was fine.
Long winded. Sorry! But try not to look at your favourite foods as a "cheat" or something bad. It can be part of the bigger picture.7 -
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.
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Nothing is cheating. It's all food. Some food is more calorie-dense. Some food is more nutrient-dense. Make your choices to best meet your goals. Once you start measuring and counting, you can remove the guilt from enjoying certain things.
I really LOVE heavy cream. It now is a staple I can use 15 grams at a time without guilt whereas before I felt like I was violating some rule every time I considered buying it. My standard breakfast is two eggs scrambled with 15g (1 Tbl) of heavy cream and 28g (1 ounce) of a good cheese for a grand total of 300 luscious calories. It's a breakfast high in saturated fat and lacking vegetable matter but I make up for that with other meals and snacks so the day as a whole is fairly well-balanced.
I find for me that a relatively substantial breakfast of eggs, cheese and cream starts the day with hunger pangs quelled. I am more likely to be able to control how much I eat without feeling deprived. Eggs for breakfast seems to help me avoid late night snacking. A bowl of Special K with berries for breakfast would make me feel ravenous all day long.
You will need to figure out what works for you and that is more than a single-day decision or, for that matter, a single decision. It's a matter of trial and error, self-reflection and analysis, and periodic adjustments. Embrace the process and you will get there.5 -
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.1
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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!1 -
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.2
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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.AintTooProudToMeg wrote: »kommodevaran wrote: »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.
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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!2 -
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)0 -
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I am currently trying to figure that out myself. The way I have tried to go about it is to find recipes for the meals/foods that I enjoy and figure out healthier substitutes for some of the ingredients. I have also upped my veggie intake a great deal. I use a lot of spices as well. I love food and now I still have stir fry's, curries, pasta and etc but I make it myself so that I know exactly what is going into it. I have also found a blog that has healthy versions of comfort food recipes- Skinnytaste. You just have to find what works for you.0
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TimothyFish wrote: »Sell your car and start walking or bicycling everywhere. You will find that you are much healthier just doing ordinary stuff.Awesome thread. It should be a sticky.
Except maybe the above quoted...
If I sold my car and walked to work every day it would take me 6 hours and 33 minutes to get there. One way.
Not everyone lives in the city!6 -
If you're looking to make a long term lifestyle change, then get rid of the "cheat meal" mentality. You need an approach to food that is sustainable over the long haul. Depriving yourself of things you like to eat and then going overboard with them once a week is not sustainable for most people. You can also easily destroy an entire week's calorie deficit with a "cheat meal."
You can eat things you like in moderation. Weigh them out and have a moderate amount along with lower-calorie options. I like rice, but instead of eating a big bowl of rice like I used to, I have a half cup of rice with lots of protein and veggies. Instead of eating a whole chocolate bar, I have a square or two of dark chocolate.
I also changed the way I cook. Most recipes do not need as much oil as the recipe calls for. If a recipe calls for two tablespoons of oil, try cooking with 1.5 tablespoons. If that works, then next time try 1 tablespoon, and so on. I also bake things instead of sauteeing, which dramatically cuts down on oil. I use less sugar, or mix sugar and Splenda. Some baked goods can be sweetened with pureed fruit, like applesauce or banana. Soups can be made creamier by pureeing all or part of the soup, rather than using cream. There are a lot of ways to cut back on oil and sugar while still eating what you like.
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superluvjo wrote: »...but I’ve never been able to be that good with my eating, especially if I feel like I “can’t” have that food....
I was never that good with my eating either, and so for me I figured out I needed some external motivation or feedback. I found for me that 1) logging calories in MFP and seeing they were below/at my limit, 2) keeping track of my measurements so I could see I was getting smaller, and 3) logging my workouts so I could see I was improving, gave me enough positive feedback to keep me going--and keep me from overeating. And, now I am almost 120 pounds lighter and 6 pounds from my goal!1 -
Yeah, I want to echo what everyone else is saying about not thinking about "cheat meals" or worrying too much about cutting out specific foods. Once you start tracking your calories and macronutrients you will likely find that you can still eat basically any food you want. You may not be able to eat them in the same quantities as before, but as long as you are hitting your calorie goals each day, you will continue to succeed at weight loss.
For example, yesterday I ate 3 slices of pepperoni pizza for dinner. I still hit my calorie goals for the day so it was fine.1 -
cbohling1987 wrote: »Yeah, I want to echo what everyone else is saying about not thinking about "cheat meals" or worrying too much about cutting out specific foods. Once you start tracking your calories and macronutrients you will likely find that you can still eat basically any food you want. You may not be able to eat them in the same quantities as before, but as long as you are hitting your calorie goals each day, you will continue to succeed at weight loss.
For example, yesterday I ate 3 slices of pepperoni pizza for dinner. I still hit my calorie goals for the day so it was fine.
Repurposing a phrase used in another context to fit dieting: you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want, in any quantity you want, but you will have to pick only two.3 -
TimothyFish wrote: »Sell your car and start walking or bicycling everywhere. You will find that you are much healthier just doing ordinary stuff.
Not practical for everyone, seeing as I live 1.25 hours away from my job.
However being more active in general is a great idea. So do things you enjoy. Hiking, swimming, biking, yoga, whatever it is for you. And if you don't know, try a bunch of new things 0 -
Much like others in the thread, I'm a big fan of starting off slow. I spent several months just logging everything I ate and drank, gathering information. Then I started cutting things here and there, gradually. It took another few months before I was losing much weight at all, but once things started moving they kept moving.
I also suggest separating weight-loss, nutrition, and fitness into three separate goals, and I think focusing on weight-loss first is a good way to do it, because it requires the fewest changes to get going. If you eat McDonald's every day, you don't need to completely overhaul your diet to lose weight, you just have to eat less. That certainly isn't to say that nutrition and fitness aren't important, but if you're looking at making those long-term changes, I think easing into it is the way to go.0
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