Eating Habits!

[FitFamilyFaith]

I am struggling with my bad eating habits. Lately, no matter what I do I find myself eating horrible! I usually can stick with doing my workouts, but then I get discouraged when I don't lose weight. I know I'm not losing weight because of my eating. I just do not know how to control it. I'm feeling lost and hopeless! How did you guys knock your bad eating habits?! 

Spoiler

[josephz2va]

Since you're working out, have you added sports nutritional supplements? Those are important for strength building. Check your area for a sports nutritionist store. You need to have some Whey Protein (non-diary), CLA, EFA, and a few other ingredients for sustaining hunger and building up.

It also helps to find non caloric foods. For me, it's buying a box of sugar free chewing gum when it comes to hunger strikes at work and reminding myself to drink 10 cups of water a day or more.

[sjcostanza]

It can be tough, but the way I kicked my bad habits was to really buckle down and go cold turkey for a month. I cut out all processed foods, dairy, wheat, chips (my vice), and alcohol. After that month, my body lost the ability to tolerate those things and now I find it very easy to avoid them. For example, I have no desire to eat ice cream ever again because it will literally incapacitate me for a whole day. Once I realized how good I felt with my new eating habits, I realized in hindsight how terrible I used to feel every day. I do think it's important to allow yourself to have a vice or two. Allowing myself to go out for a burger and a few beers on a Saturday keeps me sane (as my trainer says, have a cheat meal, not a cheat day). If you try completely deprive yourself of everything permanently you will find it much harder to stay on track.

[whome]

Logging the food I eat and seeing the nutrition breakdown - I love the hash brown potatoes at my local breakfast spot but they are very easy to skip now that I know how many calories a serving contains - lol

Good luck

Craig

[josephz2va]

It's also not very satisfying.

McDonald's Hash Browns is the size of your palm and has only one gram of protein and two grams of fiber. Not to mention the sodium is 307 grams and 147 calories. That's a whole diet food tray right there, except for the sodium via processed foods.

[Naomi94 · Accepted solution]

Hi FitFamily, 

I am sorry to hear about your troubles. Compulsive eating and binge eating usually have several components to them. I have an exercise for you. I want you to go to the fridge, open it, and ask yourself a question, "What am I really feeling right now?" I want you to put the bag of chips and soda physically in your hands, close your eyes and ask yourself, "In all honesty, am I feeling hungry right now?" I want you to do this exercise several times throughout the day. 

I have a second exercise for you. When you go grocery shopping, I want you to go up to your favorite junk food, pick it up and hold it in your hands for a few minutes. Then, I want you to physically put it on the shelf and walk away. Do this every time you go grocery shopping for the next two months. 

The point of this exercise is to start paying attention to what your mind and stomach are telling you. Many times we eat out of habit, culture, boredom or anxiety. You have to buckle down, take responsibility and identify what exactly is your trigger. Once you find the trigger - eliminate it. Make a choice, and destroy that trigger. 

Next: To solve this problem you must create a weekly menu. You must eat 4 - 5 times a day. You must log all the foods you eat every day. 

The next time you think about binging, I want you to do 10 situps and 10 jumping jacks and 10 bodyweight squats. That is how you will "punish" yourself for thinking about the binging. 

The long term solution to this problem is simple: preparation, preparation, prepation. You must know what you are going to eat one day in advance. Precook as much of your food as you can. Do not find yourself without a meal already planned in advance. 

Good Luck 

[FitFamilyFaith]

Thank you so much! I've been struggling with this for some time. I will definitely try your exercises. (:

[whome]

@josephz2va - oh man, no Mcdonalds - only 147 calories to a serving - the local place I go makes them fresh from the raw potatoes - it is a humongous pile, has to be at least 500 to 600 calories - nothing but fats and carbs and hardly any real nutrition - when I was actively losing weight it was so easy to say no to - just cutting those out of my diet and reducing the beer I drank by 50% easily accounted for 3500 calories in a week

Of course my weight loss system only works for an RJ such as myself

Good luck

Craig

[Aundrea1234]

I have a hard time also. It's not so bad util I'm around other people, then I cave easily. For example, we spent 6 hours cleaning the garage today and decided to go to dinner instead of cooking. I wanted Subway, but my hubby wanted Red Robin. I of course pigged out on fries. My redeeming aspect is that I logged my calories and am going to ride the stationary bike tonight to help make up for them and only eat a few pieces for fruit for the rest of the night. Logging my calories helps a lot so I can adjust my food intake to match my output.

My few ways I try to control my calories is: #1 Eating a piece of sugar free gum if I'm having a sweets craving #2 Brush my teeth after meals to keep from wanting to snack #3 Drink 8 oz of water before eating a meal. Anyway... Good luck with everything 🙂

[GameGirl]

I struggle with the same problem. I had a set a fitness goal to be completed by May 1, but only followed the program 80% of the time and therefore, did not suceed. I know it is because of cheating on eating! 😞

I recently got in a car accident and was laid up for a month. I'm just getting back to the gym this week and will be headstrong on dieting.  I have set a new goal and will follow the program 100%! The results will come if you give it 100%. Bad eating is not worth it if you want to meet your goal. You will feel better if you say "no" to unhealthly foods.

Be Strong! Every bite counts! It never gets easier; YOU get better. The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.  Don't let your mind hold your body back. Smile often 🙂

[Spang]

I too find, at night, that I will have run away eating. Have not had that the last couple of days. It appears that if I do not get the nutrients I need during the day that I try and make up for it at night. I have found that the accountability of log my food here is great. The challenge, and I some times blow it if, is that not everything I eat can I find a way to place in the food log. Being a diabetic it is important that I watch what I am doing. Since I have become engrossed with the fitbit I have been able to keep a  BG reading average for 14 day at 98. 

Focus, take a good multivitamins, I also take calcium, Cinnamon, iron, and D. These I have found my body needs. Have your Dr. give your a blood test of all the vitamins in your system and see which might be causing you to want to eat.

[dipgal]

Naomi has some good exercises here to get us thinking about why we are wanting to eat something when not hungry or is not healthy for us.  However, I think the "punishment" exercise is the exact opposite of what we should do .  I am not saying doing some physical activity is not a good thing.. but should not be used as punishment.

If we want to eat when we are not truly physically hungry, there is something going on at a subconscious level.  We may be bored, angry, frustrated, hurt, etc. etc.  Sitting down and taking a moment to think about why we want to turn to food as an escape or distraction when we are not really hungry should be the exercise.  Once we have done this over and over we'll eventually not turn to food out of emotions or habit.

Then, we should move our bodies doing things we enjoy that makes us feel good.  We don't want to resent exercise or feel it is punishment for being "bad".

[DblGee]

I admit this is my biggest struggle.  I work non traditional hours so it is hard to get a formal breakfast, lunch, and dinner time in.  I do most of my cooking on the weekends so that I can have leftovers throughout the week.  I am obese - yet I don't eat enough calories everyday so my metabolism is all screwed up.

[thedancinghiker]

I think that getting my Fitbit has helped reshape my eating habits a lot. Having to enter in chocolate ice cream and seeing the calories, fat, sugar, etc has helped me make better choices. Are you logging what you eat? Try it, if you aren't already.

[DblGee]

Yes - I do log and have for a long time.  While it has helped me to make better choices as in I don't do fast food and pretty much only eat home cooking 🙂 ...like right now....I just got up 2 hours ago...I've walked and done a couple of chores...but am just now getting around to making breakfast!

My typical day now is breakfast about 8 - 10 at night.  Snacking on vegetables and fruit at work and eating when I get home but that isn't an awesome thing to do because I of course depending on what I have to do that day....have to go to sleep within a few hours after. 

Sometimes....I do get busy and forget to eat and then I have to cram the calories in just to get them in and it's like a whole viscious cycle.

[Kibbles314]

I have struggled with emotional and binge eating since middle school (probably would have been bulimic if throwing up didn't scare me so bad) and understand how difficult it can be to break. The thing that helped me most was to realize I was gluten intolerant. I felt like crap all of the time, and when I cut it out I felt better within a week. Now if I eat anything with gluten I get sick within the hour. I don't know if you have any allergies or intolerances, so what I would suggest is replacing some of your bad foods to start. While going cold turkey works for some people, it can sabotage others (like how for a while I still tried to sneak doughnuts even though they made me sick) and it may help to try a little at a time. When the healthy foods become normal, you'll find yourself craving them more, and slowly you can just push the bad foods out. Stay strong, don't get discouraged by mistakes. You can do it 😄