How to jump into a healthy lifestyle and maintain it?

ashmar1993
ashmar1993 Posts: 2 Member
edited December 2024 in Getting Started
I know maintaining a healthy lifestyle is composed of nutrition, working out, and mental control of saying know to bad foods but man is it so hard when you work, study in school, balance sleep, me time. Am I making excuses? Any tips :)

Replies

  • n_zmiez
    n_zmiez Posts: 1 Member
    Agree
  • JBanx256
    JBanx256 Posts: 1,479 Member
    [quote="ashmar1993;d-10721550"Am I making excuses? )[/quote]

    Not to be harsh, but in a word...yes.

    There will ALWAYS be obstacles in your path. So you have other stuff to do (work, school, sleep, social life). So does everyone else. And some people they also have a lot of other stuff too (kids, ailing parents to care for, you name it). You have to prioritize and figure out what you want & what you are willing to do for it. It will always be too hot, too cold, too rainy, too snowy, too but-I-wanna-go-to-the-movies-with-my-friends, too but-gee-the-game-is-on, too but-my-bed-is-so-comfy...but guess what? It's that way for EVERYONE. Be stronger than your excuses.

    BUT, as others have said - you don't have to jump in. And it's probably better if you don't. Small, incremental changes that are manageable & sustainable. Otherwise you will flash-in-the-pan and hate everything and quit. So find something, however small, that you can change TODAY. Build on that. Day by day, brick by brick, build your foundation. You'll get there if you decide that's what you want to do. But you do have to want it and be willing work for it.
  • zeejane03
    zeejane03 Posts: 993 Member
    pinuplove wrote: »
    Don't "jump in." Start small and build up. A new "healthy" lifestyle won't benefit you much if you can't sustain it.

    This.

    I'm 7ish years into this process and change had to happen naturally, over time. If I had tried forcing it/jumping in and making drastic changes at the beginning I would have failed.

    I'd start with the basics-what are your short term goals? What are some long term goals? If you have a goal to lose weight, then first learn how weight loss actually works (calories in, calories out). If fitness is a goal, then start with something that's realistic for your schedule and that you'll enjoy doing. If better nutrition is a goal, start by adding vegetables to your dinner plate. Switch to whole wheat bread instead of white etc etc. Small, sustainable changes :)
  • ashmar1993
    ashmar1993 Posts: 2 Member
    Thanks everyone! Inspiring!
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    What I recommend for anyone starting out is to spend the first week or two doing nothing else but logging *everything* that passes your lips. The good, the bad and the ugly. Don't try to change anything.

    Get a kitchen scale right from day one, and learn how to use it. It's the single most useful tool you can have. Trying to reduce calories to effect weight loss can only happen if you have an accurate picture of what you normally consume in the first place.

    Spend this time making sure the entries in your diary are accurate. The food database here on MFP is member-sourced and, as such, can be wildly (and in some case, hilariously) wrong. Getting accurate entries for the foods you eat, and building/saving recipes for the things you tend to eat a lot, although a bit tedious at the beginning, becomes a breeze once you've done it.

    For example, I created a "recipe" for my morning coffee, which has all of the elements that go into it, namely the coffee, the cream, the sweetener. So, every morning I can simply add one serving of this recipe to my diary instead of individually logging the separate elements of it every day.

    After a week or two, and once you are comfortable with weighing and logging your food, have a peek at your diary. The data you've gathered should then be the basis for implementing some gradual changes.

    Start off small. Grand sweeping changes to your diet generally only last as long as your initial enthusiasm does.

    I started by taking that cup of coffee and adjusting it. A bit less cream. One teaspoon of sugar and one packet of stevia instead of 2 sugars. Then the next week, I eliminated the sugar entirely and went with just the stevia. This one very simple change saved me over a 100 calories each day. Applied the same principles to other items in my diet. For me, for the most part, the biggest bang for the buck came from simply reducing the amount of what I ate rather than eliminating foods that I love.

    There were, of course, things that I normally ate that I quickly realized just weren't worth the caloric cost. Those items got bumped off my list or moved to the once-in-a-while category.

    There were also things that, for me, were definitely worth scrimping a bit for. Like chocolate. And ice cream.

    Tl;dr? It will take a while to figure out the changes that are best for you. Make them slowly, stick with it and trust the process.

    It's a marathon and not a sprint.

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,436 Member
    edited January 2019
    snickerscharlie wrote: »
    What I recommend for anyone starting out is to spend the first week or two doing nothing else but logging *everything* that passes your lips. The good, the bad and the ugly. Don't try to change anything.

    Get a kitchen scale right from day one, and learn how to use it. It's the single most useful tool you can have. Trying to reduce calories to effect weight loss can only happen if you have an accurate picture of what you normally consume in the first place.

    Spend this time making sure the entries in your diary are accurate. The food database here on MFP is member-sourced and, as such, can be wildly (and in some case, hilariously) wrong. Getting accurate entries for the foods you eat, and building/saving recipes for the things you tend to eat a lot, although a bit tedious at the beginning, becomes a breeze once you've done it.

    For example, I created a "recipe" for my morning coffee, which has all of the elements that go into it, namely the coffee, the cream, the sweetener. So, every morning I can simply add one serving of this recipe to my diary instead of individually logging the separate elements of it every day.

    After a week or two, and once you are comfortable with weighing and logging your food, have a peek at your diary. The data you've gathered should then be the basis for implementing some gradual changes.

    Start off small. Grand sweeping changes to your diet generally only last as long as your initial enthusiasm does.

    I started by taking that cup of coffee and adjusting it. A bit less cream. One teaspoon of sugar and one packet of stevia instead of 2 sugars. Then the next week, I eliminated the sugar entirely and went with just the stevia. This one very simple change saved me over a 100 calories each day. Applied the same principles to other items in my diet. For me, for the most part, the biggest bang for the buck came from simply reducing the amount of what I ate rather than eliminating foods that I love.

    There were, of course, things that I normally ate that I quickly realized just weren't worth the caloric cost. Those items got bumped off my list or moved to the once-in-a-while category.

    There were also things that, for me, were definitely worth scrimping a bit for. Like chocolate. And ice cream.

    Tl;dr? It will take a while to figure out the changes that are best for you. Make them slowly, stick with it and trust the process.

    It's a marathon and not a sprint.

    This is nearly exactly what I was going to say, including the chocolate and ice cream.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,864 Member
    I don't know anyone who has any kind of long term success who tries to jump in and just flip a switch. Start with small changes and work from there. Also, as fitness goes, you have to do what you can do...forcing hours of exercise into a busy schedule is just going to lead to burn out. Your fitness regimen needs to be flexible.
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