I love the taste of food! Discipline! Does anyone else have this problem and what do you do?

AnnPT77 wrote: »

I don't know whether it's true for you, but on the exercise front, faaarrrr too many people think that brutally intense daily exercise is the most beneficial, maybe the only the thing that's beneficial. That's a total myth.

Too-intense exercise (for current fitness level) is counterproductive for weight loss: It's fatiguing, so we tend to drag though the rest of our day, resting more and doing less, so we burn fewer calories in daily life than we would've otherwise. That cancels out some of the exercise calorie benefits.

On top of that, very intense exercise all the time isn't how elite athletes in most sports train. They have the best possible professional advice about how to improve, from dietitians and trainers, among others. Why would us regular duffers shoot for all high intensity all the time, when they don't?

The most beneficial exercise (IMO) for both weight loss and fitness development for us regular folks is anything enjoyable (or at least tolerable/practical) that's a manageable challenge to our current fitness level . . . something that leaves us energized for the rest of our day, not exhausted. The energy boost helps with weight loss, and the (manageable) challenge progresses our fitness.

Doing something enjoyable makes it more likely that we'll actually do it routinely, instead of procrastinating or skipping it at the slightest excuse. (Any exercise we actually do is 100% more beneficial than one we skip!)

As we get fitter, the exercise will start feeling too easy, no longer a challenge. If we want to get even fitter, that's a hint that it's time to change intensity, frequency, duration or type of exercise to keep the mild challenge in the picture.

It can be surprising how much progress that kind of approach will produce, with patience and time.

So, for you: What sounds achievable, non-threatening? Walking, swimming (or pool walking), riding a bike, playing active video or VR games, dancing (any type), games (ping pong, frisbee golf, whatever), . . . ? Try it. If you like it, do enough to feel slightly challenged, then rest, and repeat (that, or something else active) in a couple of days. See how it goes.

I'm cheering for you!

P.S. As someone who also likes food a lot, sometimes too much, some of my strategies for weight loss were to
1. Get selective, and seek out the very most delicious things, cutting out things (especially high calorie ones) that were kind of "meh" to me for enjoyment/nutritious. I'm not giving calorie room to crappy grocery store baked goods or ugly fast foods.
2. Experiment with flavor profiles that don't rely on the same old tired "add fat, salt, sugar" ideas. That could be trying various ethnic foods I hadn't had, new veggies/fruits, ways to use flavoring ingredients like fresh herbs, new flavoring ingredients like miso or peanut butter powder or whatever, etc.

That may not work for you, but that honestly made cooking and eating more enjoyable for me, in addition to more calorie-appropriate. I absolutely think it makes sense to focus more on good things I can get into my eating, not focus on supposedly bad things to eliminate. If I focus on The Good Stuff and staying within calories, the less useful foods tend to drop out of the picture almost automagically.