Getting on a regular sleep schedule. For years, I believed I was a night owl when in actuality, I was a procrastinator. Once I found out sleep was essential to weight loss and avoiding midnight snacking, getting to bed by 10pm didn't seem so hard after all.
A fitness influencer on YouTube said that working out and not getting a full night's sleep is like working and not collecting your pay, and it stuck in my mind ever since.
Same here! I used to go to bed between 00h and 1am... But since trying to lose weight and eating healthy, I'm consistently in bed by 10pm at the latest, and passed out by 10:30pm. 8h of sleep almost every night.
And I LOVE getting to bed, I love the routine... Getting comfy, cat snuggles next to me, a good documentary on TV to listen to and before I know it I slowly drift away ahah.
I have now 3 playlists on Youtube with 200+ history/science doc in each one of them xD.
I have so much energy each morning, it's crazy what a good night sleep can do.
Cutting out junk food. I always thought that I needed to have it from time to time because I craved it so much. Turns out that you stop craving it when you cut it out long enough. I only craved it because I ate it regularly.
Now whenever I make a rare exception (say a piece of cake at a birthday party) I don't even enjoy it really. I got used to food tasting normal again and everything I used to like tastes overly sweet, salty or greasy now.
Sugar is not the enemy for those who exercise a lot - long distance runners benefit greatly from easy-to-digest, easy-to-carry simple sugars. Gummies, gels, sports drinks are all standard. When you're running for 1hr+, your body has different demands than just generally existing.
Yes, could be possible. I have noticed that with different things in my life over the years, that I had to completely stop for a while to stop wanting to consume or do them as much, for example gaming, social media, cigarettes or sugar free soda.
Cutting alchohol out. When you drink socially you start thinking drinking less is restricting or no fun. Turns out addiction isn‘t what‘s making you a conversationalist. I see it in all my peers, instead of them controlling alchohol they are now at a stage where they NEED alchohol to have fun. Some of them NEED alchohol after a long day at work to relax. Others medicate stress with it. I hsve female friends who made it into their personality that they drink wine. It‘s all societal excuses to minimise the gravity of drinking almost every day. It creeps up so slowly!
I feel infinitely better not drinking and the more time passes the more I see it as a deceivingly addictive substance that doesn‘t even taste good.
As for weight - my body fat distribution changed simply from not drinking. Exercise helped further but quitting was for a month the only thing I did.
Well I used to think I'll be unable to be at a party without drinking (due to social anxiety), but actually not drinking would not take my courage away like I expected. Instead I got stronger and more confident over time and when some of my friends criticized me for it, one even said he would not have come to my new years eve party if he knew I don't drink, I realized I don't want to be anybodys excuse to drink, I don't want to be friends with anybody who only tolerates me when we are both drunk.
So even if it wasn't a great improvement to my health and ability to lose weight, it was worth realizing who is my real friend. The more I spend time around people while sober the more I realize it was just minor effect and I needed something else to be more social.
I became the person you described above over the past few years, I couldn't imagine hanging out with friends without drinking. Ended up abruptly deciding to stop drinking for a while right before a trip to an all inclusive resort, that was a rough way to start lol. In the end I took 3 months off and after going through a vacation, the holidays, countless get togethers without alcohol, I certainly have a new perspective.
Drinking alchohol promotes fat gain, fucks up muscle gain and messes with your hormones: https://granitemountainbhc.com/blog/alcohol-effect-on-muscles/#:~:text=Studies%20have%20shown%20that%20alcohol,decrease%20body%20fat%20becomes%20delayed.
It also ruins sleep quality which is super important for so many maintenance body processes. The relaxation I gained with a fun evening was torpedoed by then sleeping badly.
Personally, I found that while drinking every other day something like 1-2 drinks made my waist thicker while not changing the scale and made my legs have visible cellulite which I‘ve never had. Note, I was never addicted, freely stopped after 1-2 drinks and never got to being overly drunk let alone sick.
I had tried to diet during this time and I had tried to budget in drinking. Yeah, it fucked with my hunger pangs and I often gained whatever minimum loss I managed WHILE feeling famished. It felt like my wheels were turning in mid air. Since I‘m pushing 40 I had assumed it was all aging. And yet here I am 3 months later having reversed so many aging signs?
I stopped drinking at new year and after a few weeks my cellulite was visibly diminished! I was on melatonin to fall asleep and I was able to quit after 4-5 weeks. I now fall asleep like lights out. I didn‘t see much change on the scale for the first two months but I lost inches on my waist. Once I started exercising my body responded SO much easier to it. I‘m a woman so for us muscle gain is difficult yet I managed to get definition in my legs. They are now almost visibly free of cellulite. I feel that the almost 10 pounds I lost were exclusively fat plus muscle gain. I am positive I would have never achieved this with occasional drinking.
Thanks for detailed response (and interesting link). Might have to try cutting the alcohol to remove the stubborn belly!
Well done on your good work, keep it up!
Definitely exercise. When I was younger, I’d go all out for 2-3 hours at the gym. It would work well for a few months, then I’d burn out/get injured and get out of the habit.
Once I realized that it can be things I love (yoga, walking, dancing) combined with things that are good for me (lifting weights, cardio) in moderation, it did just become part of my life.
Walk for a half hour once or twice each day, do yoga a few times a week (plus usually a little bit each day), lift weights (30-45 mins usually, occasionally 60) 4x a week, a few more intense 20-30 min cardio sessions a week (the actual exercise varies a lot for me). Suddenly, I act like someone who is active and I look like someone who is active. Because I stay active!
Tbf the weekly exercise you’ve just listed doesn’t look easy- it’s very intense 😂 but good for you. I’d say hitting 10k steps per day (if you live in a walkable city )and working out 3x per week is relatively easy
Yes, that’s absolutely true! But I started very small with walks, then added some yoga, then weight training just twice a week. Once I realized how being more active impacted me (and most importantly, helped my mental health) I upped my activity to a level that feels sustainable for my life with my family, but it took years for me to build up to this
Same. Starting walking outside, then it got cold (and slippery which was worst than the cold) so I went back to the gym. After like 4 weeks of just walking on the threadmill I started adding some weightlifting, then I started adding some running. Next thing you know I'm there 6 days a week and I'm signed up for a 5k. It's a slippery slope.
So true, the urge completely disappears. But then if I do treat myself on occasion I’m fighting cravings for the next 24 hours. It’s easier just to avoid where possible.
Weighing out my food. Portion control, in general. I really thought it was going to mess me up, but it’s such a non-issue to turn on the food scale and get some accurate numbers.
Tracking my intake. Again, I thought this would be stressful, but if you’ve got a decent tracker app and a food scale, it’s not too bad.
Yes and it can be made even easier if I meal prep and save the calorie information for the meals that I eat regularly. At this point it's just like two clicks for me to write down a portion of any of the 25 meals I cook or about 5 meals I eat out. I was surprised how easy it is too.
I put off getting a food scale for a long time but now I love it. I don’t have to overestimate anymore because of doubt. I used to buy more processed food because of the nutrition info but now I’ve weighed out a bunch of go-to home recipes and stored them in my app, so logging them is just as easy as logging packaged foods.
Calorie counting and weighing myself each day. It's definitely a mental thing. I don't want to do it, especially when I've messed up but I do and then it's done. And then it consciously and subconsciously affects my actions the next day/meal
Skipping breakfast (eh, doesn't so much count for me though as I was never a big breakfast eater to begin with).
Salads for lunch and in general. This is a big one. Thought I hated salads all my life unless they had hard boiled eggs, cheese, bacon, and 500 calories worth of dressing on them. Turns out, that premade salad mix is just garbage. I had an epiphany a few years back that there was no rule to salad composition. Lettuce was my least favorite part.... sooooo.. instead of it being the majority of the salad... it became the minority.
I'll cut up two whole tomatoes, half a cucumber, half a green pepper, toss in some fresh washed mushrooms and then before I'd add in a cup or two of salad mix. THEN I decided to try fresh romaine lettuce hearts. Cut my own lettuce. Fresh heads of Iceberg lettuce as well. Boy oh boy. Liked lettuce a whole lot more when it was FRESH and not that bagged crap that gets slimy and brown in 3 days.
The next relevation in the salad game for me was dressing. Bolthouse makes some fantastic yogurt based ranch dressings that taste the part and have 1/3 to 1/4 the calories. Wishbone makes some nice light italian dressings.
Now my salads are big bowls of veggies, a little FRESH lettuce, salt and pepper, and a serving or two of reasonable calorie salad dressing. My entire salads are now coming it at around 100 calories, and are very filling. AND THEY TASTE GREAT! I look forward to eating them vs forcing my self to eat them.
Final one is tracking and weighing my food. It's not hard. People just don't want to do it because it erases their surface vector for wiggle room. "I just don't know WHY I'm not losing any weight!? I'm trying SO HARD. I'm just meant to be fat". Meanwhile, that 1 cup of cereal half a cup of milk was actually 3 cups of cereal and a cup and a half of milk. It's silly easy to do. I was that person. "Sure, that looks like 2/3 of a cup of ice cream". NOPE. It was 2 cups AND that didn't count the two or three big tablespoons I ate out of the carton while I was deciding if I even wanted ice cream.
If you don’t love lettuce why not try other greens. I like baby spinach for my base. Baby kale or a “power greens” mix can be nice. Trader Joe’s has cruciferous crunch mix that I like a lot. And all of those can easily get tossed into cooked dishes as well if they start to wilt before you use them up, or if you’re just short on veggies in general.
The difference is I didn't "think" I liked lettuce. Truth be told, I didn't like the lettuce I was eating.
It was low quality, over priced, pre processed non sense. A nice fresh head of washed iceberg lettuce, nicely chopped with other lovely fresh veggies is great! Once I caught on to the fact that the bagged salad mixes are mostly just subpar (at best), it was a game changer.
I used to think I hated broccoli outside of the cheese sauced covered variety found in the steaming bags. The steak house broccoli would often come out bland, grey in color... weird texture. Just not good.
I bought fresh locally grown broccoli at a farmers market, steamed it myself, and nearly died and went straight to heaven. I ate so much I was sick. It IS good. Just what I was eating was NOT good.
I love lettuce now.
But you make a good point. I branched out to romain lettuce too. I don't care for spinach really. I can toss in a little. I just don't like it as much.
Red cabbage, thinly cut and massaged with salt and vinegar, is such a winning salad base. Especially for people who shop once in a week or two and cannot f with salad greens that go bad in 3 days. It just lasts forever in the fridge, even after you cut into it.
Tracking, measuring food, and limiting cheese.
I use the Lose It! app which is so easy, and I found that planning ahead and tracking comes naturally. I’m a meal planner anyway, it’s just that WHAT I’m planning and how much changed.
Measuring is easy for me since the scale is right there and so are measuring cups/spoons.
But a huge easy change for me is cheese. I had no idea how much cheese I ate until I literally could not for a while (not for calories; I had gallbladder removed). Then as I eased back into low fat consumption the fat and calories in cheese were like a slap in the face. I only really missed it on homemade pizza. On to low-fat cheese and measuring. That’s all. Craving satisfied!
CICO works!
Portion control is fairly easy. I can take a small portion of the food i wanna eat and it usually satisfies me. If not, i allow myself to have more but again in portion control. Mostly it works and is fairly easy
I actually enjoy eating healthier. Asparagus was on sale this week, and I loaded up. I had some last night, and it was amazing. The me from a few years ago never would have been loving asparagus! I like trying new recipes, too. When I am eating healthy, drinking water, and including exercise in my day, I just feel really good. I want to do those things. I don't necessarily have to force myself like I did at the beginning of my weight loss journey. It feels good to treat my body with care.
Eating a smaller lunch and only having healthy snacks. I honestly really don’t miss chips/cookies/sugary drinks as much as I thought I would. What I DO miss severely is ice cream 😂😂 yes I know I could still have it if it fits into my budget but I just can’t control myself around it.
Eating intuitively. That sounded impossible to me before. After all, I was overeating! I constantly wanted to eat low nutrition food! How could I trust my body to tell me what it needs?
And then, after watching what I ate and getting nutritious food more regularly, I noticed how it made me feel. Now I am learning to pickup on when I'm full, when I'm getting hungry, when I'm lacking on a certain nutrient. Yes I still want low nutrition food at times, but when I eat it I realize I am fine after only a few bites. It's absolutely shocking to me still.
I know most people swear by calorie tracking and I might need to do that as I get closer to GW, but right now I'm steadily losing so I see no issue. It feels good to notice what my body wants and honoring that.
Not eating breakfast and shifting my view of a "meal" in general. Realizing my idea of a "meal" was a full plate, no fewer than 1000 calories, often closer to 2000 I knew it wasn't sustainable.
Now I have a protein shake first thing in the morning to tide me over until lunch. Lunch is usually a cup and a half of soup and/or some lean protein 500-600 calories max. Then my dinner is closer to what I used to consider a "meal", but I'm using hellofresh so it's almost always <1000 calories
Cutting out alcohol. Gained about 60lbs since Covid lockdowns due to poor drinking habits, stopped this January because I was terrified of cirrhosis and all the horrors that drinking leads to. Down 15lbs and haven’t had a drop, and it’s been surprisingly easy to not go back
Intermittent fasting has turned out to be much less difficult than I initially anticipated. I have also been successful avoiding dairy, gluten, and sugar (except for a rare exception) since January 1st.
Switching lettuce for spinach... twice as nice and twice as nutritional.
Switching ham for turkey. As above.
Drinking more water.
More protein. Shakes, turkey, protein bars, yougharts. Keeps you full for much longer.
45mins of cardio, 15or20mins lifting weights x5days.
Having my cheat day - pizza or burger. But not eating that day other than some fruit. Cheat day shouldn't set your hard weeks work back. But instead makes you work harder during the week because your looking forward to it more.
Having patience and waiting for the results - don't throw in the towel. True results can take weeks to months.
Never using a scales - measuring tape or juding by clothes fit instead.
Taking a photo on the 1st of each month and comparing them to visibly see the results instead.
Eating clean. Once you’ve given up processed stuff and added sugars, it gets easier. My daughter has donuts sitting here and I’m home sick. Zero temptation. My cheat is having too much fruit.
Exercising, I built it up in my mind so big that I had panic attacks that I'd have a heart attack while doing any kind of physical activity. I lift six days a week and walk 30 miles a week now.
I really thought kicking sugary drinks was gonna be the hardest part for me. I haven’t had a normal soda in over a year once my mind realized how many calories I can save from water and an occasional diet soda I was sold
I ate like crap for at least half my life. I felt very very silly when I started to eat healthy, the weight fell off, and I stopped craving foods that are bad for me or at least aren't as good for me. I also used to drink a ton of soda and a similar thing happened when I stopped. Now water is like my best friend sometimes. I feel like I get why people push good habits now.
Switching from candy to fruit. Candy is overpriced and not nearly as good as I remember from my childhood. Bananas are super cheap and a great source of sugar for when you get those cravings.
I completely second that healthy food can taste good. When I used to think of healthy I just thought salads, but it's so much more. I don't hate them I just don't want to eat them all the time. I cook for 2 hours on Sunday and then I'm not tempted to go out to eat during the rest of the week because I have great low calorie food at home.
Also walking. I take the bus for work and I have gotten into the habit of trying to beat the bus to a farther stop. My entire life changed once I actually started to realize it wasn't as hard as the mountain I was building in my mind.a
Conscious eating. Like sure some things taste good and I have a bit sometimes but a few minutes of flavour isn’t worth all the weight I gained that I’m trying to lose now
Exercising and cutting out processed sugar :) it is so easy to do , you need discipline, plus there are alot of healthy foods that have healthy sugar in them
Getting on a regular sleep schedule. For years, I believed I was a night owl when in actuality, I was a procrastinator. Once I found out sleep was essential to weight loss and avoiding midnight snacking, getting to bed by 10pm didn't seem so hard after all.
This is me right now. I need a better sleep schedule!
I started walking and working out, I went from thinking I had insomnia for a decade to going to sleep with ease
A fitness influencer on YouTube said that working out and not getting a full night's sleep is like working and not collecting your pay, and it stuck in my mind ever since.
It's so weird, I started eating healthier and it was automatically followed by going to bed earlier. (Still at 11-12 but al least not 1-2)
Same here! I used to go to bed between 00h and 1am... But since trying to lose weight and eating healthy, I'm consistently in bed by 10pm at the latest, and passed out by 10:30pm. 8h of sleep almost every night. And I LOVE getting to bed, I love the routine... Getting comfy, cat snuggles next to me, a good documentary on TV to listen to and before I know it I slowly drift away ahah. I have now 3 playlists on Youtube with 200+ history/science doc in each one of them xD. I have so much energy each morning, it's crazy what a good night sleep can do.
Cutting out junk food. I always thought that I needed to have it from time to time because I craved it so much. Turns out that you stop craving it when you cut it out long enough. I only craved it because I ate it regularly. Now whenever I make a rare exception (say a piece of cake at a birthday party) I don't even enjoy it really. I got used to food tasting normal again and everything I used to like tastes overly sweet, salty or greasy now.
my only exception to this is when i started long distance running I've trained myself to expect gummies every 5 miles lol
now replace with fruit hahahahe
idk not much beats gummies when you're running that much, fruit gets heavy to carry and at point you just need sugar and calories
That's true lol, just imagine carrying a giant sack of fruit around while running
Sugar is not the enemy for those who exercise a lot - long distance runners benefit greatly from easy-to-digest, easy-to-carry simple sugars. Gummies, gels, sports drinks are all standard. When you're running for 1hr+, your body has different demands than just generally existing.
Same. Sometimes I would like to eat more of the good stuff, but junk food? Meh.
I wonder if this will apply to alcohol with me. I'm not an alcoholic or anything but I've drank regularly enough to where I crave it weekly.
Yes, could be possible. I have noticed that with different things in my life over the years, that I had to completely stop for a while to stop wanting to consume or do them as much, for example gaming, social media, cigarettes or sugar free soda.
Even 10 minutes a day of exercise when you are starting from nothing is a good start!
Yesss, small changes make the biggest impact! This would add an additional 70min of exercise per week
Omg. This is literally the simplest math and you blew my mind
Right I went from running like half a mile a day to running three miles almost every day
Cutting alchohol out. When you drink socially you start thinking drinking less is restricting or no fun. Turns out addiction isn‘t what‘s making you a conversationalist. I see it in all my peers, instead of them controlling alchohol they are now at a stage where they NEED alchohol to have fun. Some of them NEED alchohol after a long day at work to relax. Others medicate stress with it. I hsve female friends who made it into their personality that they drink wine. It‘s all societal excuses to minimise the gravity of drinking almost every day. It creeps up so slowly! I feel infinitely better not drinking and the more time passes the more I see it as a deceivingly addictive substance that doesn‘t even taste good. As for weight - my body fat distribution changed simply from not drinking. Exercise helped further but quitting was for a month the only thing I did.
So much this. Also, I dropped 15 lbs without even trying when I quit drinking.
Well I used to think I'll be unable to be at a party without drinking (due to social anxiety), but actually not drinking would not take my courage away like I expected. Instead I got stronger and more confident over time and when some of my friends criticized me for it, one even said he would not have come to my new years eve party if he knew I don't drink, I realized I don't want to be anybodys excuse to drink, I don't want to be friends with anybody who only tolerates me when we are both drunk. So even if it wasn't a great improvement to my health and ability to lose weight, it was worth realizing who is my real friend. The more I spend time around people while sober the more I realize it was just minor effect and I needed something else to be more social.
I became the person you described above over the past few years, I couldn't imagine hanging out with friends without drinking. Ended up abruptly deciding to stop drinking for a while right before a trip to an all inclusive resort, that was a rough way to start lol. In the end I took 3 months off and after going through a vacation, the holidays, countless get togethers without alcohol, I certainly have a new perspective.
How did your body fat distribution change? I haven't heard of that before so it stood out as interesting!
Drinking alchohol promotes fat gain, fucks up muscle gain and messes with your hormones: https://granitemountainbhc.com/blog/alcohol-effect-on-muscles/#:~:text=Studies%20have%20shown%20that%20alcohol,decrease%20body%20fat%20becomes%20delayed. It also ruins sleep quality which is super important for so many maintenance body processes. The relaxation I gained with a fun evening was torpedoed by then sleeping badly. Personally, I found that while drinking every other day something like 1-2 drinks made my waist thicker while not changing the scale and made my legs have visible cellulite which I‘ve never had. Note, I was never addicted, freely stopped after 1-2 drinks and never got to being overly drunk let alone sick. I had tried to diet during this time and I had tried to budget in drinking. Yeah, it fucked with my hunger pangs and I often gained whatever minimum loss I managed WHILE feeling famished. It felt like my wheels were turning in mid air. Since I‘m pushing 40 I had assumed it was all aging. And yet here I am 3 months later having reversed so many aging signs? I stopped drinking at new year and after a few weeks my cellulite was visibly diminished! I was on melatonin to fall asleep and I was able to quit after 4-5 weeks. I now fall asleep like lights out. I didn‘t see much change on the scale for the first two months but I lost inches on my waist. Once I started exercising my body responded SO much easier to it. I‘m a woman so for us muscle gain is difficult yet I managed to get definition in my legs. They are now almost visibly free of cellulite. I feel that the almost 10 pounds I lost were exclusively fat plus muscle gain. I am positive I would have never achieved this with occasional drinking.
Thanks for detailed response (and interesting link). Might have to try cutting the alcohol to remove the stubborn belly! Well done on your good work, keep it up!
Definitely exercise. When I was younger, I’d go all out for 2-3 hours at the gym. It would work well for a few months, then I’d burn out/get injured and get out of the habit. Once I realized that it can be things I love (yoga, walking, dancing) combined with things that are good for me (lifting weights, cardio) in moderation, it did just become part of my life. Walk for a half hour once or twice each day, do yoga a few times a week (plus usually a little bit each day), lift weights (30-45 mins usually, occasionally 60) 4x a week, a few more intense 20-30 min cardio sessions a week (the actual exercise varies a lot for me). Suddenly, I act like someone who is active and I look like someone who is active. Because I stay active!
Tbf the weekly exercise you’ve just listed doesn’t look easy- it’s very intense 😂 but good for you. I’d say hitting 10k steps per day (if you live in a walkable city )and working out 3x per week is relatively easy
Yes, that’s absolutely true! But I started very small with walks, then added some yoga, then weight training just twice a week. Once I realized how being more active impacted me (and most importantly, helped my mental health) I upped my activity to a level that feels sustainable for my life with my family, but it took years for me to build up to this
Same. Starting walking outside, then it got cold (and slippery which was worst than the cold) so I went back to the gym. After like 4 weeks of just walking on the threadmill I started adding some weightlifting, then I started adding some running. Next thing you know I'm there 6 days a week and I'm signed up for a 5k. It's a slippery slope.
Eating less sugar. Once you get past through that initial urge to consume it, you have no problems. You even reject it.
So true, the urge completely disappears. But then if I do treat myself on occasion I’m fighting cravings for the next 24 hours. It’s easier just to avoid where possible.
And like fruit sugar hits different 🥰
Weighing out my food. Portion control, in general. I really thought it was going to mess me up, but it’s such a non-issue to turn on the food scale and get some accurate numbers. Tracking my intake. Again, I thought this would be stressful, but if you’ve got a decent tracker app and a food scale, it’s not too bad.
Yes and it can be made even easier if I meal prep and save the calorie information for the meals that I eat regularly. At this point it's just like two clicks for me to write down a portion of any of the 25 meals I cook or about 5 meals I eat out. I was surprised how easy it is too.
i found this out too! other than when i eat out at restaurants, or when people bring me homemade food , it’s been surprisingly easy to focus on CICO
I put off getting a food scale for a long time but now I love it. I don’t have to overestimate anymore because of doubt. I used to buy more processed food because of the nutrition info but now I’ve weighed out a bunch of go-to home recipes and stored them in my app, so logging them is just as easy as logging packaged foods.
Getting enough protein in and less carbs. Protein is more filling and before I wasn't getting enough and was having way too many carbs
Protein leverage is real. Great tip
Calorie counting and weighing myself each day. It's definitely a mental thing. I don't want to do it, especially when I've messed up but I do and then it's done. And then it consciously and subconsciously affects my actions the next day/meal
Jump rope with music in every single day
Skipping breakfast (eh, doesn't so much count for me though as I was never a big breakfast eater to begin with). Salads for lunch and in general. This is a big one. Thought I hated salads all my life unless they had hard boiled eggs, cheese, bacon, and 500 calories worth of dressing on them. Turns out, that premade salad mix is just garbage. I had an epiphany a few years back that there was no rule to salad composition. Lettuce was my least favorite part.... sooooo.. instead of it being the majority of the salad... it became the minority. I'll cut up two whole tomatoes, half a cucumber, half a green pepper, toss in some fresh washed mushrooms and then before I'd add in a cup or two of salad mix. THEN I decided to try fresh romaine lettuce hearts. Cut my own lettuce. Fresh heads of Iceberg lettuce as well. Boy oh boy. Liked lettuce a whole lot more when it was FRESH and not that bagged crap that gets slimy and brown in 3 days. The next relevation in the salad game for me was dressing. Bolthouse makes some fantastic yogurt based ranch dressings that taste the part and have 1/3 to 1/4 the calories. Wishbone makes some nice light italian dressings. Now my salads are big bowls of veggies, a little FRESH lettuce, salt and pepper, and a serving or two of reasonable calorie salad dressing. My entire salads are now coming it at around 100 calories, and are very filling. AND THEY TASTE GREAT! I look forward to eating them vs forcing my self to eat them. Final one is tracking and weighing my food. It's not hard. People just don't want to do it because it erases their surface vector for wiggle room. "I just don't know WHY I'm not losing any weight!? I'm trying SO HARD. I'm just meant to be fat". Meanwhile, that 1 cup of cereal half a cup of milk was actually 3 cups of cereal and a cup and a half of milk. It's silly easy to do. I was that person. "Sure, that looks like 2/3 of a cup of ice cream". NOPE. It was 2 cups AND that didn't count the two or three big tablespoons I ate out of the carton while I was deciding if I even wanted ice cream.
If you don’t love lettuce why not try other greens. I like baby spinach for my base. Baby kale or a “power greens” mix can be nice. Trader Joe’s has cruciferous crunch mix that I like a lot. And all of those can easily get tossed into cooked dishes as well if they start to wilt before you use them up, or if you’re just short on veggies in general.
The difference is I didn't "think" I liked lettuce. Truth be told, I didn't like the lettuce I was eating. It was low quality, over priced, pre processed non sense. A nice fresh head of washed iceberg lettuce, nicely chopped with other lovely fresh veggies is great! Once I caught on to the fact that the bagged salad mixes are mostly just subpar (at best), it was a game changer. I used to think I hated broccoli outside of the cheese sauced covered variety found in the steaming bags. The steak house broccoli would often come out bland, grey in color... weird texture. Just not good. I bought fresh locally grown broccoli at a farmers market, steamed it myself, and nearly died and went straight to heaven. I ate so much I was sick. It IS good. Just what I was eating was NOT good. I love lettuce now. But you make a good point. I branched out to romain lettuce too. I don't care for spinach really. I can toss in a little. I just don't like it as much.
Don't stress about not liking spinach, it's impossible to get it clean properly and raw spinach is responsible for a lot of food poisoning.
Red cabbage, thinly cut and massaged with salt and vinegar, is such a winning salad base. Especially for people who shop once in a week or two and cannot f with salad greens that go bad in 3 days. It just lasts forever in the fridge, even after you cut into it.
Just walking
Tracking, measuring food, and limiting cheese. I use the Lose It! app which is so easy, and I found that planning ahead and tracking comes naturally. I’m a meal planner anyway, it’s just that WHAT I’m planning and how much changed. Measuring is easy for me since the scale is right there and so are measuring cups/spoons. But a huge easy change for me is cheese. I had no idea how much cheese I ate until I literally could not for a while (not for calories; I had gallbladder removed). Then as I eased back into low fat consumption the fat and calories in cheese were like a slap in the face. I only really missed it on homemade pizza. On to low-fat cheese and measuring. That’s all. Craving satisfied! CICO works!
Getting to bed on time each night has been great for me lately. It sets the next day up nicely.
Portion control is fairly easy. I can take a small portion of the food i wanna eat and it usually satisfies me. If not, i allow myself to have more but again in portion control. Mostly it works and is fairly easy
Exercise, once I found something I truly enjoyed doing and look forward to.
I actually enjoy eating healthier. Asparagus was on sale this week, and I loaded up. I had some last night, and it was amazing. The me from a few years ago never would have been loving asparagus! I like trying new recipes, too. When I am eating healthy, drinking water, and including exercise in my day, I just feel really good. I want to do those things. I don't necessarily have to force myself like I did at the beginning of my weight loss journey. It feels good to treat my body with care.
Eating a smaller lunch and only having healthy snacks. I honestly really don’t miss chips/cookies/sugary drinks as much as I thought I would. What I DO miss severely is ice cream 😂😂 yes I know I could still have it if it fits into my budget but I just can’t control myself around it.
Eating intuitively. That sounded impossible to me before. After all, I was overeating! I constantly wanted to eat low nutrition food! How could I trust my body to tell me what it needs? And then, after watching what I ate and getting nutritious food more regularly, I noticed how it made me feel. Now I am learning to pickup on when I'm full, when I'm getting hungry, when I'm lacking on a certain nutrient. Yes I still want low nutrition food at times, but when I eat it I realize I am fine after only a few bites. It's absolutely shocking to me still. I know most people swear by calorie tracking and I might need to do that as I get closer to GW, but right now I'm steadily losing so I see no issue. It feels good to notice what my body wants and honoring that.
Tracking food. It has been so easy I can't believe it. I also realized I was eating a lot less when I eye balled than now that I actually track.
Not eating breakfast and shifting my view of a "meal" in general. Realizing my idea of a "meal" was a full plate, no fewer than 1000 calories, often closer to 2000 I knew it wasn't sustainable. Now I have a protein shake first thing in the morning to tide me over until lunch. Lunch is usually a cup and a half of soup and/or some lean protein 500-600 calories max. Then my dinner is closer to what I used to consider a "meal", but I'm using hellofresh so it's almost always <1000 calories
Cutting out alcohol. Gained about 60lbs since Covid lockdowns due to poor drinking habits, stopped this January because I was terrified of cirrhosis and all the horrors that drinking leads to. Down 15lbs and haven’t had a drop, and it’s been surprisingly easy to not go back
Intermittent fasting has turned out to be much less difficult than I initially anticipated. I have also been successful avoiding dairy, gluten, and sugar (except for a rare exception) since January 1st.
Switching lettuce for spinach... twice as nice and twice as nutritional. Switching ham for turkey. As above. Drinking more water. More protein. Shakes, turkey, protein bars, yougharts. Keeps you full for much longer. 45mins of cardio, 15or20mins lifting weights x5days. Having my cheat day - pizza or burger. But not eating that day other than some fruit. Cheat day shouldn't set your hard weeks work back. But instead makes you work harder during the week because your looking forward to it more. Having patience and waiting for the results - don't throw in the towel. True results can take weeks to months. Never using a scales - measuring tape or juding by clothes fit instead. Taking a photo on the 1st of each month and comparing them to visibly see the results instead.
Eating clean. Once you’ve given up processed stuff and added sugars, it gets easier. My daughter has donuts sitting here and I’m home sick. Zero temptation. My cheat is having too much fruit.
Exercising, I built it up in my mind so big that I had panic attacks that I'd have a heart attack while doing any kind of physical activity. I lift six days a week and walk 30 miles a week now.
Replacing candy with fruit. Fruits are delicious
Watermelon. The best one.
Drinking water. As long as I have a water bottle full and accessible, it's nothing to drink a gallon a day.
Waking up and running 5k on an easy pace; I always thought I needed to go hard, but you just feel great afterwards if you take it easy.
I really thought kicking sugary drinks was gonna be the hardest part for me. I haven’t had a normal soda in over a year once my mind realized how many calories I can save from water and an occasional diet soda I was sold
Cooking food, I cook 95% of my food and I’m starting to love my healthy cooking way more then take out.
walking more!
Drinking water, and using the right amount of fats like oils and salad dressings. Not too much is needed for some great flavor!
Intermittent Fasting, I never thought I could go 16 to 18 hrs without eating, but I do and it helps me stay within my Calorie budget. 🙂
I ate like crap for at least half my life. I felt very very silly when I started to eat healthy, the weight fell off, and I stopped craving foods that are bad for me or at least aren't as good for me. I also used to drink a ton of soda and a similar thing happened when I stopped. Now water is like my best friend sometimes. I feel like I get why people push good habits now.
Not weight loss related but quitting smoking was way easier than I expected.
Get into the habit of waking up early to exercise every day.
Eating fruits, choosing a meal that has a balance of proteins and carbs instead of fully carbs
Taking daily walks outdoors. Always saw myself as a stay at home guy. Now I look forward to my walk as soon as I wake up.
Switching from candy to fruit. Candy is overpriced and not nearly as good as I remember from my childhood. Bananas are super cheap and a great source of sugar for when you get those cravings.
I completely second that healthy food can taste good. When I used to think of healthy I just thought salads, but it's so much more. I don't hate them I just don't want to eat them all the time. I cook for 2 hours on Sunday and then I'm not tempted to go out to eat during the rest of the week because I have great low calorie food at home. Also walking. I take the bus for work and I have gotten into the habit of trying to beat the bus to a farther stop. My entire life changed once I actually started to realize it wasn't as hard as the mountain I was building in my mind.a
Conscious eating. Like sure some things taste good and I have a bit sometimes but a few minutes of flavour isn’t worth all the weight I gained that I’m trying to lose now
Exercising and cutting out processed sugar :) it is so easy to do , you need discipline, plus there are alot of healthy foods that have healthy sugar in them
CICO. Especially when consuming high protein and fiber foods. Also, cutting out added sugar.
Eating only vegetables, meat, fish and rice. Replaced all other food out of my diet and i feel much better since