Help! My first ever diet/lifestyle change

Hey there - I have the same issues! I run a few times a week and try to fit in some weight training, walking, maybe spinning, etc. So I'm buring calories and being healthy on that front. But food - ugh!! I usually eat well during the week, and the weekend hits and I binge and ruin all the work I did during the week, and end up starting again on Monday. I just need to find a way to commit and stop making excuses for myself. Haven't figured out how to do that yet, so thought I'd try communicating with people in this community. Good luck to you - I'd be happy to check in with you weekly if you'd like support/someone to be accountable to.

Hello I also have a problem with eating! I'm trying to incorporate more exercise in so maybe you could help me with that! I eat very healthy most of the time but sometimes, I fall off the wagon. Feel free to add me and I can help you with food choices if you message me! I work in a health food store, have taken nutrition courses and have a pretty good handle on it

Hi! I'm also very new here, like I just started ten minutes ago, I also have a problem with eating everything. Although, I'm trying to stop. Exercise really isn't my thing, but I take my dogs for walks and my partner makes me do a lot of things which I'm sure helps. I really need to up my exercise but anyways, I know what you're going through. It's like when you go out to eat or something and you see everything that looks so freaking good, but you really know you should just have a salad with maybe a little bit of dressing on it. But oh, that smothered chicken looks incredibly delicious. It just the whole fact of knowing that you can't have what you truly want. Its about your goal. And you have to keep that goal in your head. Mine is always repeating to myself, "I want to be 140 lbs." Which is my goal weight at the moment. Just keep reminding yourself, because in the long run, you'll be happier with who you are and you'll be glad you didn't get that smothered chicken. :]

I've only been on my lifestyle change program for a few days, but one of the biggest eye-openers for me is to see my daily food intake reports. I have MFP installed on my Android phone and scan the barcodes from all the foods I eat. It makes the food tracking SOOOO much easier!

If a food item is not scannable (like fruits and veggies) I search for the items in the database and add them.

The main thing for me is to see how certain foods I love are putting me WAY over the suggested nutrition amounts (my main areas of concern are calories and sodium).

Food tracking is a bit of a pain at first, but it's not something you need to do long-term. Once you get a good sense of what is good or bad for you, you won't have to rely on food tracking.

I'm planning to stick with the daily food tracking for 5-6 weeks, then scale back to once a week. I'm hoping that I will have established a decent enough personal food knowledgebase that can aid me in my decision making.

Right now I'm keeping my meals simple which bodes well for me in terms of food tracking. I've also declined some lunch invitations from coworkers because frankly, I'm just not disciplined (and nutritionally educated) enough to hold my own at a restaurant.

Anyway, if you can get yourself into a solid food tracking habit, that may help you overcome your current obstacle. It's working for me so far.

You obviously recognise that your food intake is holding you back from reaching your goals. Maybe you could try tackling this in small chunks.

One of the things I did over the weekend is I made a checklist of very specific daily actions I could take to help me reach my goals. Here is my list:

Healthy Brkfast (<=650 cal)
Healthy Lunch (<=650 cal)
Healthy Dinner (<=650 cal)
Healthy Snacks (<=250 cal)
Target <=2200 daily cal
Excercise 30min or more
Climb Stairs at work
Morning stomach crunches
Evening stomach crunches
Morning pushups
Evening pushups
64oz water
Avoid Breakfast Tacos
Avoid BWCM Coffee creamer
Avoid Soft Drinks (diet OK)
Avoid Large cereal servings
Avoid Fast food
In bed by 10pm

So what I do each day (in a spreadsheet) is I mark the items that I completed successfully. I don't have lofty expectations that I will execute on all 18 items everyday though. For me (esp since I'm just starting out), I consider it a "win" if I can accomplish 12-15 of the items in a given day. Notice the 5 items that start with "Avoid ...". I specifically called these 5 items out in my list because I consider them to be my biggest food weaknesses. The BWCM is Belgian White Chocolate Mocha creamer (heaven in a bottle!!).

Over time, I hope to execute on all of the items on a more consistent basis. But Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was my large frame. It will take time. I consider tracking food and tracking daily success factors as tactical actions that will ultimately help me build the right kind of lifestyle habits that are necessary for me to lose weight, and more importantly maintain it.

Sorry for being long winded....I did not expect this response to be this long.

All best,

Charles