Share Your Day
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So interesting Laurie! When I eat something I look forward to and savor, I feel much more in control and not searching for snacks. However a mindless “healthy” meal 🥬🥒🥕often leads to snacking. Like I’m looking for something to satisfy the hungry head space.
But how to reconcile satisfaction with lower calories when I find I ENJOY calorific much more. Who wouldn’t want a bowl of ice cream over an apple 🍎 for dessert?
For me personally, it’s eat what I want but exercise some portion control and tracking.
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Who wouldn’t want a bowl of ice cream over an apple 🍎 for dessert?
When the joy, satiety, and satisfaction (total economic utility) brought in by 750g of yogurt, 300g of apples and 5g of cinnamon multiplied by 1.64 to equalise for the Calories exceed the joy, satiety, and satisfaction brought in by a 430g pint tub of Cherry Garcia ice cream!
Which, I will let you know, DOES happen quite often! But not always!
Tonight? tonight in honor of Yoolie was 3 * 80ml = 0.51 pint of skyr yogurt bars for 240Cal! Which means a pint comes just under the tub of yogurt in calories!!! Hmmmmm..... I sense more skyr bars in our future!!!3 -
But how to reconcile satisfaction with lower calories when I find I ENJOY calorific much more. Who wouldn’t want a bowl of ice cream over an apple 🍎 for dessert?
Most of the time I'd choose the apple over the ice-cream...even if they were nutritionally identical. I think you can trick your mind into wanting the stuff that's nutritionally healthier. It's all in the way you sell it to yourself...
You could say to yourself 'Shall I have a bowl of rich, creamy, ice cream or a boring apple?'
Or you could say 'Shall I have a bowl of fatty ice cream or a crisp, juicy, refreshing apple?'
It's all in the adjectives....
Plus it helps if you make a mental association between the crisp, juicy, refreshing apple and beautiful fit healthy people looking like they're enjoying themselves:
And a negative mental association about ice cream and fat unhealthy people:
Trick those hamsters into wanting the healthy stuff! I mean, who wouldn't choose picture two over picture one?
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Nope the fatty stuff still looks better to me! I don’t know that I can change 74 years of what tastes good to me. BUT I can control how much and how often I eat the goodies. No need for obscene amounts or daily indulgence.
Had a fast food hamburger yesterday modified - no buttered bun, no cheese, no mayo sauce. Still very satisfying.
This might not be the path others can follow. When I lost the majority of my weight two years ago, I tried not to drastically change too much. Mostly I eat well and carefully but won’t give up the things I enjoy.
Changing my diet completely in the past resulted in regaining. This time there was no cutting out entire categories of foods, no fasting, no “I’m not allowed to eat that”, no avoiding eating out or socializing. Just doing better by controlling some ingredients, eating less and exercising more.
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See, to me there is no negative association with Ice Cream because I don't think of food as good or bad. Or, at least I am trying not to. That sort of thinking is the #1 way for me to trigger my food anxiety. As for the bottom 2 pictures I wouldn't choose one over the other. Give me that burger with the corn on the cob and maybe some air fryer fries or even a salad. Or that slice of pizza but load it up with some of the veggies and have a salad on the side.
So I guess I am closer to Yoolypr. I know that cutting everything out or telling myself I can never have something again is going to lead to failure.
The best way for ME to control my choices though is with a plan. When I don't have a plan, everything goes out the window. No idea why. It's kinda how my brain works and breaking that has been very difficult.3 -
I seem to gravitate toward desiring the healthier food - unless I'm TRYING to cut calories (or have been).
Watching my grandson has been good for me too. An example - I've opened a pomegranate while he had a bowl of ice cream in front of him. He pushed the ice cream aside.
No thought of nutrition or calories or anything. Just what seemed more exciting, and tastier.
I'm hoping to get some of that back? Lately I've felt as if I could happily eat a slice of cold butter.
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Err, guys? It's incorrect reading of what Garfield and myself are saying if you think that you're closer to Yulie if you're believing what she says: "Mostly I eat well and carefully but won’t give up the things I enjoy"
Because both Garfield and myself are saying that.
I am saying that at times the burgers and pizza win. But that they cannot and do not win all the time in quantity because all considerations are in play including whether they're worth the calories.
Garfield I believe is saying that you can trick your brain into wanting more of the things you want to make it want.
I don't agree with the negative association bit myself. But I see nothing wrong with a positive association to eat more of the things you desire to eat if for whatever reason you want to make it
Personally I tend not to think too much I just open the fridge and the cupboard and come up with something. Unless something else has caught my attention for whatever reason.
I might be getting fast food Burger or onion rings today by the sounds of the hamsters.
Assuming that I still want to after coffee and my veggies in tomato sauce.
1.3kg veggies in tomato sauce consumed yesterday. And mashed potatoes 😊1 -
And absolutely the biggest Revelation and only thing that made this possible for me was not only to not consciously cut out anything permanently but even to reintroduce things I had denied myself before starting MFP
Whether they are objectively good for me or not, harm mitigation in terms of weight control is allowing within budget constraints as opposed to permanently denying and then having meltdown2 -
So then we all pretty much agree!2
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me too!2
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But...it seems - especially of late - that I cannot find moderation when I'm tracking. I just go over the top and turn into a food fascist. I'm hoping stepping away for awhile will curb that behaviour. The high I get from tracking "successfully" brings on the crazy idea to just ramp it up a bit more and lose those 30 pounds in 2 months. Resisting that urge is as challenging as resisting a binge after too much restriction. In other words - I don't seem to have that kind of control any which way. Maybe some time away from tracking - then a return to tracking a more reasonable approach will lead to success?
(maybe I should just go out and pick up some summer clothes
to get rid of that pressure? ) 2 -
I'll admit I don't make the negative mental associations either (though I think they could be helpful for some folks)...but I definitely encourage in myself the formation of positive mental associations around certain healthy foods that wouldn't necessarily have been my go-to choices in the past. So now, if I think of an apple, I definitely imagine it being crisp, juicy, delicious and hitting the spot...and eating one makes me feel part of a stardust-sprinkled cadre of fit and healthy fruit-fanciers.
My diet continues to routinely include butter, whole milk, aged full-fat cheeses, fresh baked bread, homemade pasta, nuts and seeds, dark chocolate, red wine...just in smaller quantities than before. No foods are off limits. If only pizza will hit the spot, I'll have the pizza...or the icecream...or the chips and dip....
But, more often than not, I gravitate towards healthier foods...mainly because I find the bright primary colours of fruits and veggies visually appealing. So that proclivity is 'natural' for me. But there's a learned/trained component too, which comes from me actively making the positive mental associations and reinforcing them through consistently using appealing adjectives. I love me some juicy berries, some crisp, sweet grapes, some sharp, tangy rhubarb, some bitter, peppery green olives......
Oooh, I'm making my mouth water!2 -
Sad statement about "food in 3 minutes or less" available "chez moi"... and the final option chosen as an "even faster" snack: white bread and laughing cow!!!
I mean there is some red and green... somewhere... but I need more Bella!
Oh! And I forgot the freezer...
Nothing like what I imagine some of your beautiful pre-prepared freezers and fridges look like!
Especially all the industrious ones of you who actually pre-plan and pre-cook and have delectable combos ready to go!!!
Still, I do get rescued by my apples with my yogurts too!
Bella: you made MY mouth water... but all I've got is the veggies in tomato sauce... which I'm saving either for later or for tomorrow!
The white bread is there because of the dog! I would truly rather eat bread full of seeds or a hearty rye! OK: and I also had a "salad" with 350g of the tomatoes, 120g of the fake crab, and some of the pickled onions you guys made me make last month!!!
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It may not be the most beautiful pantry or freezer PAV - but it gets the job done for you. You’re doing what you need to do within your time limits ⏰ and busy life.
Those of us who no longer need to go to work have more time to plan meals and organize our pantry. 🧘🏼♀️2 -
Nah... I could too.... if I didn't spend so much time on MFP! (mind you, MFP is not usually on the main screen, I admit)2
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Laurie not that summer clothes are not a good thing, and they sure are more functional than no clothes 😹🤣, but how would they help your🐹s?
So far yogurt with frozen cherries has won over burgers... because more convenient since the McDonald's 250-300m/yards down the street is renovating 🤣1 -
Picked up some nofat chocolate pudding to go with my yogurt night time mix
Come summer I won't have anything to wear - unless I lose those 30 pounds that found me since surgery. AND ... I'm off to ROME for 4 days in June. That brings on the crazy must lose 30 pounds now urge. Which is doable by the end of June. But I don't want to go in a tailspin again. So a closet full of too small clothes just puts more pressure on the hamsters so that they can't accept a "moderate" "slow" "reasonable" rate of weight loss.
At least 10 times a day I'm changing my plan. 3 -
I will change your plan for you now and tell you that not now but after the weather warms up you have to go for shopping! 😎
Yeah not only will you lose some but you will lose substantially between now and June🤞🐹😎
But 10 lb a month is not just substantial. It is a step above substantial to everything being fully optimal.
And if you're trying for optimum perfection or failure and everything went bust, well... that's not a place of happiness, or equanimity or experimentation!1 -
Time to hit the thrift shops Laurie. You can get 4 days worth of Rome clothes that are nice, only gently worn and recycled. It takes some repeated shopping but doable. That will take some of the urgency from having to fit into existing clothes. Once you have backup travel wear, you can lose those pounds at a sensible rate. Because you know the faster you lose it the faster it returns!
Surely some basics with size stretch leeway will get you through the summer. Our local Goodwill has half price on various colored tags each week. Most of my clothes are from thrift shops and many were never worn. When I need more I turn in what I no longer need.
Honestly my thrift shop clothes are better quality than the shoddier clothes I bought at my highest weight when I felt I didn’t deserve to spend money on “good” clothes for myself. And no, I am not a designer label chaser or name brand fan. I just want nice, well made functional clothes that fit my chubby body.2 -
Thrift and second hand stores are a most excellent idea.
In fact most second hand stores are extremely selective as to what they're willing to sell (as I know from having tried to "dispose" of brand new (or extremely lightly used clothes) belonging to mom, and you would have a reasonable chance that the items there have been pre-screened for (current store target audience) relevance and time of year. Thrift stores would end up with a "wider" selection. if shipping costs weren't so extreme.... but they are.2
