What Habits have you changed to help you lose weight.
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habits
eating at a deficit by weighing my food using mfp to tell me what calorie allotment fit my needs
logging honestly
weighing myself daily for data trends
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In my thought processes to lose weight and improve my health, I've realized that I've never really been hungry even though I'm overweight. The reason that came to me is that I have always included planned snacks into my meal plan but that which is helpful to others, only kept me from having time between meals to become hungry again for the next meal.
I no longer plan or have between meal snacks. Three meals and that's it for me. Because the calories from my planned snacks are now included into my three meals, they are heavier and more filling. That has made it easier to not have between meal snacks. Three meals and no snacks. That's it. No excusses. It's that simple.
When I first started this, it was hard to skip the snacks, so I would tell myself that if I could wait half an hour, I could have a bite of something. That half hour would come and I found myself able to wait another half hour. Before I knew it, it was close enough to the next planned meal, that I would just be able to wait until then. That made the no snacking rule a lot easier for me. I stopped thinking about it and just thought, no excusses, I never needed snacks before without realizing it. It works for me.
May all your journeys be a success!
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MelanieCN77 wrote: »The root habit is planning and thinking ahead. It all goes out the window for me if I don't visualize the plan. It could be as simple as jotting down my goal meals for the day, but without even that all the food scales and logging apps in the world won't really help me. Getting ahead of walking into the kitchen or a restaurant hungry at meal time is at the base of everything. I actually plan and execute meal prep now and not only is everything less stressful but I am wasting less groceries, too.
ditto for me. I've failed before after getting stuck in a food rut. It just took too long to plan.
This time we're letting platejoy.com handle most of our meal planning and it has worked great. We love the variety and over 14 months I'm down over 100 lb.
There are also some great books on habits that helped me understand triggers and responses. Most of the OP's list was forming good habits and it is good to be positive, but....
It's the bad habits, emotional/stress/bored/binge eating that modifying will have greatest impact. Don't be afraid of getting started. Fear of failing is a bad habit. Instead treat each setback as a learning opportunity to avoid your trigger or alter your response to the trigger.7 -
I know I'll probably be repeating a lot of things that have already been named.
- brushing and flossing right after dinner so I am not tempted to snack after that. This is huge for me.
- drinking lots of water. This is way harder for me in the cold weather but during most of the year, I try to finish up 9 cups just while I am work. Almost like it's part of my job!
- weigh myself every day or close to every day. This is controversial on MFP, I know, and different things work for different people. But in the past I was one of those people who didn't own a scale & only weighed at the doctor's office and was always in for an unpleasant surprise. I love knowing what I weigh at all times and better understanding that certain foods/sodium will cause a spike and how my cycle affects that and so on. It somehow becomes motivating to me instead of discouraging.
- meal planning, of course.
- aiming to eat at home every weekday and Sunday. I go a little nuts on Saturday (usually dine out for lunch and dinner both) and there's usually one weekday lunch when I meet my dad in a restaurant. But outside of that, I don't make it an option to "just grab something". This is good for meeting calorie goals but also good for the budget!
- new mate. Seriously. Sounds nuts and my ex wasn't horrible or anything...but my current husband is a very positive person, he cooks healthy food for us and is a willing participant and encourager when it comes to exercise & just general activity. He's also very appreciative of my body and not to provide TMI but being so much more physically affectionate with my partner has been incredibly motivating too (ex was generally more like a buddy).5 -
The only 'habit' I changed was how much attention I paid to the amount of food I ate.
As in previously I paid no attention to how much I ate and just ate completely mindlessly and with no control. Now I'm in the habit of paying attention. That's pretty much it.4 -
Hi, Thinking the night before what I will eating the next day. Right now, I will be weighing myself every 2 weeks. The scale really throws me off when I see a loss or a gain (undeserved by my standards). Being mindful - Two nights ago I binged at 12:30a.m. on 3 items. I thought to myself I won't eat breakfast and lunch the next day to make up for all the calories I ate. Well woke up wanting to eat. I actually felt and said to myself "Am I going to binge the whole day? And how long will the binge last?" So instead I just was able to eat my regular meals and snacks and maybe an extra healthy snack. Today in Walmart I started feeling sad. I felt like I wanted to eat something not healthy. I did the unbelievable. I bought a fresh cauliflower and figured that since I felt the "need" to eat, I would go home and roast it. I guess if I have those feelings (and out of habit for over 40 years), and if I am not able to get past my feelings, boredom, loneliness, etc., and need to eat, then a very healthy food that you can nibble on for a while might just do the trick. I have also been decluttering my house big time. Feels great.5
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jean133mjg wrote: »In my thought processes to lose weight and improve my health, I've realized that I've never really been hungry even though I'm overweight. The reason that came to me is that I have always included planned snacks into my meal plan but that which is helpful to others, only kept me from having time between meals to become hungry again for the next meal.
I no longer plan or have between meal snacks. Three meals and that's it for me. Because the calories from my planned snacks are now included into my three meals, they are heavier and more filling. That has made it easier to not have between meal snacks. Three meals and no snacks. That's it. No excusses. It's that simple.
When I first started this, it was hard to skip the snacks, so I would tell myself that if I could wait half an hour, I could have a bite of something. That half hour would come and I found myself able to wait another half hour. Before I knew it, it was close enough to the next planned meal, that I would just be able to wait until then. That made the no snacking rule a lot easier for me. I stopped thinking about it and just thought, no excusses, I never needed snacks before without realizing it. It works for me.
May all your journeys be a success!
its so interesting you say this because before becoming over weight I never snacked either. I didn't eat breakfast either. Just lunch and dinner (effectively intermitent fasting) I was fine, had plenty of energy. I didn't start stacking because I had a really fit person tell me I needed to. The thing is that was inappropriate for my size and muscle mass.1 -
My habits include:
Logging all my food, even if it's an estimate because I ate out or someone else made it.
Weighing myself daily. This reminds me the first thing every morning that losing weight is one of my priorities.
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I lost 70 pounds 2 years ago, and gained it back because i had stopped logging. So Just honestly logging my food is really the #1 habit that i needed to reinforce. Now that i'm tracking again, i'm losing - its pitiful how easy it's been.
Other than that, knowing my eating/snacking tendencies has helped too. I've noticed that if i skip breakfast, i'll end up having "little nibbles" that add up to way more than my breakfast would have been. If i have breakfast, i'm fine till lunch most days. I've also noticed that i ALWAYS want a sweet treat after dinner - so i make sure that i have the calories available for that too.
Now the only times i feel hungry/dissatisfied is when because of my work schedule i can't get to my lunch or dinner on time. The rest of the time i'm not usually hungry, and if i am i borrow some dessert calories for a small snack. Even if i do that - i almost always have room for SOMETHING sweet.
BTW - Kroger mini drumsticks are 130 calories each and MAN they're satisfying!2 -
I dropped most carbs, especially refined and sugary carbs, and my appetite dropped to the point where I can do not need to calorie count - I just eat when hungry. It's worked for 40 lbs of weight loss and maintenance. YMMV.0
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Listening to the Podcast Losing 100 Pounds with Phit N Phat (even though I don't have much to lose) has really motivated me. Drinking lots of water (probably always walked around dehydrated), now I don't have the need for Pepsi like I used to think. Creating weekly meal plan,and at minimum a 24-hour plan and sticking to it. A little meal prep helps too.
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Tbh, all of that sounds like a whole lot more work that just counting calories? Why make it that hard and complicated if it's not necessary?5
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jennifer_417 wrote: »Tbh, all of that sounds like a whole lot more work that just counting calories? Why make it that hard and complicated if it's not necessary?
Its a whole lot of work, to you. Counting calories isn’t for everyone believe it or not.
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sorting out my portion distortion ... by getting into the habit of weighing out all my food at home I can now identify when I am out if the portion size is excessive. I could easily eat too much tasty food before, now I can easily leave some1
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love this post! setting boundaries with myself. saying No when I have had enough and go do something healthy.0
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Here are the habits I'm focusing on:
~weighing and logging all food. Advance prepping and planning is key, so I am devoting more time to this. I am also cutting out bread and starchy carbs. I am paying attention to my macros, and also working to increase my fiber and protein intake.
~ actively drinking water all day long. Besides a little almond milk, it's the only thing I drink now. I need to do it more!
~Strength training. If I want to watch one of my shows, I'm doing various movements with my set of kettlebells, or use my resistance band machine. This is especially important since i have re-injured my ankle, after fracturing my foot and badly spraining my ankle just 4 months ago, and can't do much for cardio.
~ Using my fitbit app to reach a few daily goals, like making sure I'm logging 10,000 steps, I do at least 10 flights of stairs and have at least 30 minutes that qualify as "active"
~ I too am working on decluttering my house. So far it's been a little scattered, but today I realized that my kitchen is "fat" It's full of stuff, and very cluttered looking. So I am focusing there, and then will work my way through the house, in a more productive way. I have a hard time getting rid of things that could be useful, so this will be a little bit of a challenge.
~Getting off Facebook. I waste too much time looking at things that invoke negativity. I just uninstalled the app from my phone to greatly reduce my time scrolling. If I am taking a little break and looking at my phone, it will be health related.0 -
Packed and prepped cooler for food during the day for work
Buy fresh produce every 4-5 days a week
Started exercising again0 -
My big two were counting calories and paying attention to portion sizes. I used to have a fairly big bowl of ice cream everyday and I would never bother measuring it out. Now I still have my bowl, but I have cut way back on how much I have and I carefully measure out my portion and track it. I was never fat and looking back, I consider it something of a miracle that I didn’t get fat eating ice cream like I was. I diligently log every food that goes down my throat and I know that’s a big part of why I’ve been successful in keeping the weight off.0
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