Weight loss without eating right?

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  • butlera8
    butlera8 Posts: 130 Member
    "(I'm sure many of you know that some healthy food is not as good as we would like it to be)". Well, here's the thing, and someone started to mention this but I thought I'd expand on it. When one eats primarily processed foods, you actually lose the ability to taste non-processed things, which is why healthy food reportedly tastes 'bad' or 'not as good as we would like it to be'. But take heart, as you cut out (gradually, or cold turkey) the unhealthy foods, you develop a taste for healthy ones! My personal favourite example of this is with yogurt. I didn't really like it, but I wanted to give it a try so I tried all kinds of flavours, and fat free or not, sugar free or not. I found I loved vanilla, strawberry, and blueberry yogurt with other stuff. Then I thought," I'll try some plain". YUCK! But then I tried greek yogurt, plain, but adding some honey and my own fruit. Fast forward, now all those flavoured yogurts taste gross to me! They're too sweet, too false tasting! My taste buds recovered. Today things that once didn't have flavour before do! I can tell the difference between lettuces, whereas before I could only taste the difference in dressing. So just keep trucking, and keep trying new :happy: things. Keep coming back to retry foods too, you might hate it today... but come to love it next week, or month, or year!

    I'm glad you mentioned yogurt as that and food like it is my issue. I have a problem with the consistency of yogurt, but I'm committed to losing this weight and I will try hat you did. Thank you!
  • butlera8
    butlera8 Posts: 130 Member
    There is a person on my friends list who's food diary consist of mostly fast food. If there's a vegetable to even be seen, it's generally a french fry or a tater tot, maybe a fried mushroom. She has been losing weight because she remains consistently under her calorie goal, but I would guess that she is starving in terms of nutrients and will have health related issues down the line (heart disease, gall bladder issues, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc).

    i would suggest making small changes at a time... things that you can live with and stick to. If you don't mind drinking tea instead of a large coke or have wheat bread instead of white, the little changes over time count towards gradually improving your health. I don't think there should truly be a total elimination of anything. It's all about a balanced, healthy diet, not 100% grass and berries, or 100% fat and junk food.

    Good luck to you.

    Fast food was a problem, but it hast been hard to give that up. I did buy some tea, so that I can give up soda. I haven't had soda since Sunday. That's pretty good for me!
  • butlera8
    butlera8 Posts: 130 Member
    Yes, you can absolutely lose weight with just portion control, or portion control and exercise. Cutting down sugary drinks will help a lot! My diet is not clean, by any means, and I've had good success.

    Yes, I love sugary drinks! I try to drink mostly water during the day and maybe one sugary drink a days (I said it was a process lol)

    I have never been a big pop drinker, but would have about 12 oz. of Mt. Dew a day during the week (mostly for the sleepy afternoon issues LOL). I restricted myself initially to one a WEEK, usually on Fridays. And I've slowly lost my taste for it. I'll still have one occasionally, but maybe 1 a month now, or even less.

    I've noticed my beloved Flavor Ice popsicles (only 25 calories each LOL) are sometimes too sweet for me as well. Especially the blue ones. Man, those suckers are sweet now LOL.

    Because I love soda so much I don't really even want to try one a week. I should've mentioned that soda is the one thing I'm trying to give up cold turkey.
  • butlera8
    butlera8 Posts: 130 Member
    I have not completely cut out the less-healthy (and even totally unhealthy) foods I love, and I don't ever plan to. I believe in "all things in moderation." Here's what I have focused on:

    * Portion control. My trainer says that your stomach is the size of your fist. He said to imagine your meal squished into a ball -- it ought to be about the size of your fist. If it's more than that, you are eating too much for one meal.

    * I do count my calories. This helps me get an idea of how much I am eating through the whole day. It also encourages me to eat lower calorie foods, because if I ate 1300 calories worth of Twinkies, I'd still be starving!

    * I concentrate more on adding healthy foods to my diet than on cutting out unhealthy ones. I set my food tracker on here to show me protein, vitamin A and C, and iron (instead of showing me how much fat or carbs I'm eating), and I try to maximize those in my diet. I figure, if I am eating only 1300 calories, and most of it is actively doing me good, then there's not enough room for it to be doing me much bad.

    * Oh, and drink a TON of water. I drink water all day long, and only occasionally have a soda (usually if I'm at a bar). Not only does cutting down the sugary drinks really help with calories, but drinking water all day helps you not feel so hungry. I've gotten to where I actually prefer water. I bought myself a Sprite Zero this morning, and ended up putting it in the fridge, because I'd rather drink water.

    Also, a tip I read that has really worked for me, is to eat the same foods over and over. I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day, and then I keep two kinds of healthy snacks on hand at all times. (I do mix it up for dinner, because I'm cooking for the whole family.) If I know I am going to eat X, then there's no temptation to eat Y. There's no rummaging around in the pantry looking for something to eat, and coming out with a box of oreos. Then, when I go out to eat, or decide to buy a cherry pie for dessert, there's no guilt because I know I eat healthy most of the time.

    Oh, and the result? I've been doing this for 75 days now, and I have lost 12 pounds. That's more than a pound a week.

    But I have tiny hands though lol! But overall these were good tips! Thank you!
  • kristyjoy16
    kristyjoy16 Posts: 24
    Totally. Just check out the Twinkie diet (not that you'd want to do that).

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html
  • michelleepotter
    michelleepotter Posts: 800 Member
    But I have tiny hands though lol! But overall these were good tips! Thank you!

    LOL! Well, maybe a little bigger than your fist, then. :P Oh, and I meant to mention, not only have I lost weight by using moderation and concentrating on positives instead of negatives, but I also feel FANTASTIC. I have more energy than I've had in years!
  • gumigal82
    gumigal82 Posts: 350
    First off, I've been here for a while, but I'm finally ready to get things in gear.
    Secondly, I know successful weight loss is a combination of eating right and exercising. However, the problem I'm running into is giving up food I love for healthy food. (I'm sure many of you know that some healthy food is not as good as we would like it to be). This is truly a tedious process for me, that I think few people truly understand.

    As of right now instead of stopping cold turkey I've focused on portion control and giving up large amounts of sugary drinks. After all of this rambling can I expect to see some results by just focusing on exercise and portion control until I can fully wean myself off unhealthy food?


    For some people they need to cut out all unhealthy food. All of it--and go cold turkey. Others just do smaller portions of his/her previous diet. I (like others) prefer to cut down a lot on the bad, add in lot more good. If I need a tasty treat, I eat a very small portion of it.
  • susieqa6699
    susieqa6699 Posts: 42 Member
    I am by no means an expert, but I found with myself I could not give up cold turkey. As I go through the days I have found, I CHOOSE differently than I used to. Meaning I still have a slice a pizza, but go for the thin crust with veggies.....or taco bell fresco menu....grilled chicken snack wraps instead of a big mac. On occasion....not every day or even every week and I have started cooking a lot at home, changing from frying to baking my chicken and french fries.
  • waldo56
    waldo56 Posts: 1,861 Member
    There are 1000 definitions to what is and isn't healthy food.

    Pretty much everything but uncooked veggies is deemed unhealthy by some group preaching that they have the healthy eating answers. And you can't survive on uncooked veggies.

    I personally think that the healthiness or lack thereof of food is a myth. Vary things using all food groups and you don't have to worry about micronutrients. Eat enough protein and don't eat too many or too few calories. The details of what make up those calories is entirely inconsequential. Heck I purposely eat hundreds of calories of sugar a day, I stick to small IF-like feeding windows more because of my natural schedule than anything, when you need to eat 2000-2500 calories in a 2 hr period, sugar is your friend.
  • dme1977
    dme1977 Posts: 537 Member
    swap out the sugar drinks for Crystal light or diet or the zero kind. ( or plain water with a squeeze of lemon juice)
    the rest is just learning to eat in moderation, portion control and exercise. It works just fine that way for A LOT of us....
    I limit what, how much, how often and calorie count. . plus i throw in a few 20 minute cardio workouts and 30 minute bike rides with my son.
    I am more likely to stay with this lifestyle change and have continued success, than to cut out the other things in my life and make it more like a diet...
    * that is just ME personally*

    good luck on your journey and I wish you all the success in the world :flowerforyou:
  • KIMBAILEYWILLIAMSON
    KIMBAILEYWILLIAMSON Posts: 258 Member
    Yes you can lose by portion control and exercise. I didn't really believe this until I saw a coworker losing weight and asked her how she did it and she said she eats 1/2 of what she would normally eat and so I started using MFP and doing just that and exercise and it took a little while to start actually seeing or feeling the weight lose but I am on my way. Although after a while of just watching your portions you will be surprised at how you will make healthier choices, believe me you will, I did and do. I love using MFP because I can keep up with calories way better and how many calories are burned with my exercises.
  • DoingthisforChris
    DoingthisforChris Posts: 38
    Let me start off by saying congratulations on your decision to really kick your weight loss goals into gear! The hardest step is always the first one, but I'm sure once you begin to habituate yourself to new habits you'll find its actually quite enjoyable.

    Your concerns with limiting portions and sugary drinks is an excellent first step to take. There is a major difference between the idea of weight loss and getting ripped. For something like getting perfect 6 pack abs, there may be specific foods you have to avoid. When doing general weight loss, portion and calorie control are usually more important as well as trying to make slightly better eating decisions when available. The sugary drinks aspect is a big one that you'll see great results from giving up. However, there are several really healthy recipes that you would never know were healthy based on the taste. My facebook page is actually doing a focus on healthy recipes this week, so if you're interested I'll post it at the bottom of this post. So far, I've covered Pizza, Pancakes, side salads, and today I posted a recipe for a Steak Sandwich!

    www.facebook.com/OHealthCenter

    Thank you for linking your facebook page, Im in there :wink:

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