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You can have anything you want in moderation, successful dieters tell you. Yeah, not so much for me.
I'm in a really happy place in my life, but it's a very busy place at the same time. And the truth of the matter is that food is my vice. I LOVE it. I love the most bad-for-you fast-food burgers to homemade comfort food to high-end and healthy cuisine. I graze and I gorge.
I'm a sensation eater - there's nothing unusual there. But it really is like a hobby to me, to the point that my two best friends regularly question why I didn't become a food critic or start a food blog. The common wisdom that one's pleasure decreases with each bite does not apply to me. I revel in each bite just as much as the first and I'm sad when a meal is over. It's just how I'm wired.
Well, I'm now 50 pounds over what I should be, and I've done a total lockdown on certain things in my life. Bread, pasta, ice cream, dessert in general, candy, cookies, deep-fried foods (basically white flour and sugar and fast food) and started up doing the My Fitness Pal app again. And once again, I'm targeting upping my fiber and protein intake. I'm down 5 lbs in 3 days. But I'm not going to touch any of my big trigger foods until I've hit my goal weight.
I'm also trying to up my activity, but that can be a rough one given my penchant for sedentary hobbies (writing and reading - oh yeah, and cooking).
Anyone have to take a similar approach?
Yes and no. I'm not really that interested in food to the point you describe, but I do appreciate quality and flavor. The only time I remember having the reaction you described was when I had a Margarita Fresh Mex Bowl at Chili's. It was so fabulous, that I started feeling sad when it was almost gone. LOL.
Anyway, I also follow a low carb diet, and I feel better and find that I require very small amounts of food to be satisfied. If I crave a higher carb food, I go ahead and have it, like once a week pasta, or a piece of birthday cake once in awhile, or green beer on St Patricks Day.
Exercise doesn't really help you lose weight anyway. You have to do so much to burn so few calories, and then you just want to eat a horse because you're starving from the exercise lol.
I'm working on losing weight, because my blood sugar is pre-diabetic, and I'm tired of having a hard time putting on my shoes, etc., because I'm so fat. I'm 5'6 and was up to 227.
What's working for me now, and I've started losing about 1.5 pounds per week, is not drinking wine every night like I was. When I drink alcohol, not only do I get those calories, but for some reason, alcohol makes me hungry. I'll eat twice as much. So, I am not saying I won't ever drink, and if I just feel like it once in a while, I let myself. But, it's probably been a couple weeks since I've had a drink now, and I can feel the weight is coming off. My scale battery died, but I'm kind of glad, because otherwise I obsessively get on it.
The other thing I love to do, is munch while I watch Netflix. I'm just slightly modifying what I munch on. I love cheese and crackers, but I found some spreadable brie, so I don't eat as much cheese/calories, and eat lower-calorie water crackers. And I also put a whole cut up apple on the plate. And I found some popcorn with some type of white cheese on it, which is way lower calories than nuts, which I love. My "appy" plate is my dinner.
So, I still allow myself to munch, but I get full much faster and don't eat near as much without the wine. I drink decaf diet green tea, which I make myself and really like.
So, maybe you can just make some simple changes as far as what you munch on, so you can still munch something you like, but is lower calories.
I will never be a rice-cake eater, or ever be successful at any diet that leaves me hungry. I don't care about becoming super-model beautiful anymore. I'm 60. I just would like to be healthier, and have less weight in the way, or to carry around.
Like I said, moderation isn't my thing. I've proven time and time again that it does not work for me. I view this as a sort of long-term detox. When I reach my goal weight, I'm going to revisit the foods I love and see what is important to me and can be reintroduced. After eschewing some things, I have actually developed a distaste or indifference for them when I revisited them some time later. My wiring with regards to food is more similar to an addict's than a normal person's.
The other problem is that I generally want to indulge when I am stressed or in pain. I have a demanding and very sedentary job and a tendency to get very annoying sinus headaches that can last for days. In those moments, if I have a bacon cheeseburger, I'm going to follow it up with a giant sundae as well. Tasty food soothes me.
I'm basically giving myself a year to get rid of the weight, but if the 50 lbs happens earlier, I won't be sad.
Yes there will be exercise. But stress and headaches can derail that as well. When I get a sinus headache, any movement can be painful. Once the schedule gets derailed, it's hard to restart.
I am approaching this as I just don't really have a choice. I'm not stranger to hard work and sacrifices, but this is not an area where I can be rational or disciplined. So I need to shut things down while I reassess my relationship with food. Nothing else has worked with any consistency, so I need to try something different.
JZ first of all BRAVO!! to you for making a goal/decision and executing it,,,but more importantly, you are alredy seeing some positive progress
I had 15lbs to lose,,,and did close to what you did,,
dropped the carbs,,,the breads, pastas, potatos, the sweets.
and upped the protein,, and some veggies
in most diets I get HUNGRY!! to a point and splurge on what I shouldn't..
I removed the temptations in the house
protein- seems to be one of the few things that fill me up,,,so I eat lots of boneless chicken breasts, lean pork and steaks..
and have plenty of energy
I love fruit,,, fruit is nutritious but ive read some fruits are very high in sugars....but I still eat a few- ive also upped my exercise...even if it jumping rope after work,,,,need to get sweaty!!
good luck to you,,and I fully understand about the moderation,,,i don't have some things in he house bcause id eat the whole thing
keep doing what works for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How goes it Jrz. I have been off all sugar and processed foods about 3 weeks now. My tastes have changed. I am actually enjoying my food so much more these days. I get a few sugar cravings here and there when I wake up but that's it. Also when I eat now I feel satisfied and not so much full. I was every bit as much a sugar junkie as anyone too. Also down 15 lbs, which has to be some water weight. It wasn't as scary as I made it out to be in my mind.
You can have anything you want in moderation, successful dieters tell you. Yeah, not so much for me.
I'm in a really happy place in my life, but it's a very busy place at the same time. And the truth of the matter is that food is my vice. I LOVE it. I love the most bad-for-you fast-food burgers to homemade comfort food to high-end and healthy cuisine. I graze and I gorge.
I'm a sensation eater - there's nothing unusual there. But it really is like a hobby to me, to the point that my two best friends regularly question why I didn't become a food critic or start a food blog. The common wisdom that one's pleasure decreases with each bite does not apply to me. I revel in each bite just as much as the first and I'm sad when a meal is over. It's just how I'm wired.
Well, I'm now 50 pounds over what I should be, and I've done a total lockdown on certain things in my life. Bread, pasta, ice cream, dessert in general, candy, cookies, deep-fried foods (basically white flour and sugar and fast food) and started up doing the My Fitness Pal app again. And once again, I'm targeting upping my fiber and protein intake. I'm down 5 lbs in 3 days. But I'm not going to touch any of my big trigger foods until I've hit my goal weight.
I'm also trying to up my activity, but that can be a rough one given my penchant for sedentary hobbies (writing and reading - oh yeah, and cooking).
Anyone have to take a similar approach?
I have a question.
If you can't do moderation - the alternative is to NEVER eat certain foods? Or to keep re-gaining and re-losing weight because you fall off the wagon?
I had to learn to eat in moderation - but this had more to do with my emotional eating than anything else.
I tend to do intermittent moderation. I don't moderate by meal/serving, but rather by frequency. So I don't give in to a sweet tooth a little bit every day with a square of chocolate or one cookie or whatever. I eat right and every once in awhile, have the 6 cookies I really want.
If you can't do moderation - the alternative is to NEVER eat certain foods? Or to keep re-gaining and re-losing weight because you fall off the wagon?
I had to learn to eat in moderation - but this had more to do with my emotional eating than anything else.
I choosing never to eat the certain foods. I was off all sugar before and thought after a month I had broken the spell and could moderate. That lasted about 2 weeks and it was back just as bad as before. I have tried cutting down but that doesn't work for me either. I end up wanting the second cookie more than I wanted the first. The thought of never eating sugar again really doesn't bother me. In exchange for that I never have to worry about my weight again and will feel healthier. Seems like an obvious choice for someone like me. I am most likely an addict though.
If you can't do moderation - the alternative is to NEVER eat certain foods? Or to keep re-gaining and re-losing weight because you fall off the wagon?
I had to learn to eat in moderation - but this had more to do with my emotional eating than anything else.
I acknowledge that I'm probably going to yo yo as far as my weight is concerned, but my goal is to do so less often and in a less extreme way. I've basically shut down desserts in my life for the time being, and I'm actually fine with that. I haven't been desperately craving sugar lately. I'm not sugar free by any means, but I'm not doing the crazy sugar binges I was doing before - eating a pint of Ben & Jerry's or a bag of vanilla wafers in an afternoon, for example. Until the weight is off, no dessert or pizza (HUGE trigger food). And fast food is an occasional allowance, with the calories closely monitored - but it's mostly out of my life. I'm not feeling deprived.
I got derailed a bit this week, as I am really sick and had to put my dog down. With the dog, I took her out for ice cream and a burger before we went to the vet. It was the first fast-food burger I'd had in like 3 weeks (that's a long time for me). It was good, but not so crazy good that I felt like having 3 more. She had the ice cream, I didn't. I expected to do a "grief binge" but it pretty much stopped with the one bacon cheeseburger.
However, then I came down with a really bad cold, complete with chills and a constant cough, and my body has felt all over the place. Comfort food has been my big craving. I've been eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (had cut bread out of my diet up til now) and some fast food. But in a reasonable way - not all day, every day. I'm just not feeling like cooking and the idea of a salad is honestly just repellent to me right now. I've continued to lose weight, so life is good. I'm not feeling out of control, like I usually do. I'll probably have whole-grain noodles with broth tonight for dinner, maybe throw in some spinach, if I'm even hungry. I'm mostly staying within my allotted calories for the day.
I'm actually looking forward to getting back to salads, but for some reason, right now they just seem so unappetizing with all the congestion and hacking. I've got the plan in place for as soon as I feel better - apples and peanut butter for snacks, salad ingredients ready to go, healthy frozen meals lined up for reheating. I just wish I'd had more frozen chicken soup on hand for my current situation - I'd have gladly eaten that instead of PB&J. That's actually something I've talked with my life coach about (planning for derailing episodes), and if this cold had held off another couple weeks, that problem would have been addressed as I had making more freezer meals (including chicken and wild rice soup with a ton of veggies) on the to-do list.
But yeah, I'm hoping I can reintroduce things like pizza, ice cream and cookies in small amounts. Just not for a while - I need to lose my taste for it and my habit for it. And I don't think I can ever keep them in the house. I'm also reading a book on mindful eating, and I'm thinking that might help.
But oh god, this cold sucks. I am completely miserable. Just trying not to fall into my usual "misery eating" habits, which is helped by the fact that my appetite is pretty much dead. That never stopped me before though.
Yeah, that's the conclusion I've arrived at with cookies and ice cream. It can't be in the house.
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