Problem with Eating Properly!

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I just can`t get into the pace of healthy eating. Every now and then I have a bowl of salad but on the whole I`m still eating complete rubbish. Everyday my stats tell me that I`m pushing myself into starvation mode but I don`t know how to break the habit. Any ideas? Anyone else in a similar situation?

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  • Petal
    Petal Posts: 27
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    I just can`t get into the pace of healthy eating. Every now and then I have a bowl of salad but on the whole I`m still eating complete rubbish. Everyday my stats tell me that I`m pushing myself into starvation mode but I don`t know how to break the habit. Any ideas? Anyone else in a similar situation?
  • banks1850
    banks1850 Posts: 3,475 Member
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    Petal,

    Its all in the planning, before you go food shopping, you need to do some research into what you like to eat, how healthy those foods are for you, and of course, the sad part (for me) is the cutting out of the easy stuff, like enriched white flower and white rice, refined sugar...etc. Write out an outline of how you want your weekdays to go with regards to food. then you can shop easilly. Here's an example of how I used to do it (now It's committed to memory so I don't need to write it out anymore).

    breakfast (oatmeal, or a breakfast bar, some protein and some good carbs)
    mid-morning snack (apple, yogurt, or some beef jerky or wheat thins) good carbs please! fuel!
    lunch (plenty of the weight watcher meals, some Kashi meals, campbels select soups)
    mid-afternoon (apple, banana, carrots (a munchie) AND some more good carbs like nuts)
    Dinner (good full dinner like roast chicken or chili, must have a veggie serving! )
    Snack (whole wheat pretzel, healthy choice pop corn, or some yogurt or FF/Sugar free pudding)

    this is a guideline for me, but with it, I can pretty much map out my eating schedule and go shopping based on this. It makes it relatively easy to do. Is this more expensive then just grabbing stuff off the shelf? Probably, well, Yes it is, but I don't care if I spend $25 extra a week on food, cuz A) I don't eat out as much which saves atleast that much, and B) I refuse to put a price on my new lifestyle.

    I hope this helps you as it does me every week. Food choice is my hardest part too, but once you are there it's easy to eat right because you aren't starving and don't crave the stuff like you used to.
  • banks1850
    banks1850 Posts: 3,475 Member
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    Oh, and forget the salad, salad isn't a good tool, it has no nutrients in it. Now if you add nuts, cranberries, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli, peppers, onions, chick peas to it, and keep the dressing low fat and low calorie (I.E. 1 tblspn of extra virgin olive oil and as much vinigar as you like) then it becomes a meal. But I don't recommend this a lot as its actually a pain in the butt to make and doesn't stay in the fridge for more then a day or two (the lettuce gets all soggy and gross, trust me on this one). If I'm gonna spend 20/30 minutes in the kitchen preparing food after my normal 10 hour work day and 2 hour commute, I am going to cook something worth it! Like a nice fat sweet potatoe, a good piece of broiled chicken breast, and some steamed broccoli with a touch of melted cheddar cheese! Now doesn't that sound better then a salad? Takes about the same time to make believe it or not! Plus you can cook extra chicken and put it in the fridge for a mid-day munchie, cooked chicken stays in the fridge for a good 5 days or so!
  • fessler
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    Try taking a trash can and throwing away all temptation.

    Then ease yourself into giving up your habits.

    Change one meal a week...start with breakfast...make it wholesome.

    Example: 1/2 english muffin, 1 tsp peant butter, 1/2 cup strawberries, 1-80cal yogurt, 8oz low calorie juice....give yourself a snack that inludes protein 2.5-3hrs later.

    ...go ahead and change lunch the following week...and so on.
  • tdroseler
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    hi Petal

    yet another thing you can do...lol

    my hubby and i found out recently that sometimes you just have to go with what you really enjoy. We can all start eating rabbit food and ignoring our more basic desires, but that doesn't mean it will work. We researched...and it works for us. I looked up recipes, played around with portions, and grew to love the food scale. Now, we make at home all those things we dearly loved.
    Making things homemade, instead of what is packaged at the store, or fried the heck out of at the restaurant allows us to eat much more healthy.
    You can control portion sizes...noone really needs to be super-sized. You can substitue ingredients...i mix ground beef and shredded carrots, can't tell the difference when cooked, and hubby still gets his meat. You can make it how you want...homemade french fries done in the oven are awesome. I have found if you micro them, then bake them, they get nice and krispie.
    There are still things we don't get...like i haven't figured out how to do cream filled donuts, lol....but i don't miss them, cause i can make other things
    Bonus thing is, it makes time for us to spend together, as he helps me in the kitchen. We are both very busy with work and such..consequently we had fallen into a rut. Now we are on the road to being healthier in so many ways. He even came up with his own recipe for alphagetti, lol...no unhealthy ingredients.
  • PSUgrl921
    PSUgrl921 Posts: 368 Member
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    I have the same problem still and what I'm doing is for now, letting myself have 2-3 meals a week of those things I crave (hopefully in smaller portions though). And I'm cutting that back as I go. I don't know if I'll ever get to the no rubbish meals but doing 2-3 and then eventually only 1 is a lot better than the way I was eating.
  • buiebunch
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    I am just trying to cut back on what I like, not cut it out completely unless it is just TOTALLY BAD (Like Fried foods) I have tryed to cut out ALL fried foods. Example I made homemade Potato soup last week and instead of eatting a bowl of soup I had a cup of soup and some steamed veggies. If you like to get fast food burgers get a small one instead of a large one. Every little bit helps.