To ask what MAKES you choose to eat healthily?

[fatgirlgonerogue]

I’m struggling with motivation to lose weight.

I’ve never been slim and in my adult years have never had a BMI less than 29.
Right now it’s at 37

My motivation for eating healthily used to be socialising, I wanted to look and feel good.
Since that hasn’t been happening for the last year I no longer have that motivation. I don’t get dressed up. I just live in lounge wear.

I start the day well and just eat rubbish come early evening.

I pretty much live on takeaways at the minute.

I ordered it and I know I’m fat and will get fatter, but I just think so what

I’m always really fascinated when I see people out running, eating healthy food.
Why is that? What makes people want to give up a nice big juicy burger (which would bring so much satisfaction) in favour of a salad

I don’t even think about the health implications of my weight. It’s like I just don’t care.

I did go for a walk to my local park a few days ago and saw a friend. I purposely walked in the opposite direction so she didn’t see me and my vert obvious large weight gain.
So it must to an extent bother me. But not enough to do anything about it... 🤷🏻‍♀️

It makes me feel better and I'm vain!

I have children. I want to live for a long time. I want lots of energy.

I never developed a taste for the sorts of foods that make you gain weight. I eat 'a nice juicy burger', I just don't follow it up with thousands more calories of, as you say, 'rubbish'.

Also healthy people don't eat 'a salad', this is only something defensive fat people say. We eat the same foods. A burger (but not three), a hotdog (just the one), perhaps we get a takeaway (once or twice a month, not twice a day).

You openly admit to 'eating rubbish all day' and living on 'takeaways', but don't seem to grasp that it's not that OR 'eating salad'. You could just meet somewhere in the middle and eat like a normal person.

Because I was told I'd be insulin dependent if I didn't sort it out. I love food, have always been the fat jolly one. Its hard. I've given up carbs, eat about 1000 cals a day and have lost 2.5 stone since Xmas. In my experience something has to trigger to make the change. I do feel much better. But beyond that I know I'm going to have to be in this for the long haul.

Mine is simply that I expect a lot from my body so I need to look after it, your body cannot function well without healthy foods and activities.

@Pennethorne

You could just meet somewhere in the middle and eat like a normal person.

Tell me how.... 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

The realisation that I am only 10 years younger than my mum was when she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

It's not until you're slim you realise how shit you're treated as a fat person

I also think “eat like a normal person” but does that still exist?

I don’t see it as the choice between a juicy burger or a boring salad, as you say in OP. To be fair I would not get excited about either.

Have been a good bmi all my life and I eat 3 meals a day, breakfast is toast/cereal/porridge, lunch is a sandwich or a cheese toastie or soup with bread. I’ll have a choc bar or some biscuits (1 or 2) with my cuppa. I will eat carb+ protein+veg+ salad for dinner. Pudding/wine only at weekends. I also eat 2X fruit every day. Drink water or tea.

I don’t deprive myself, I happily eat a burger some days or a takeaway but it’s often too rich/heavy for me and I feel a bit crap after! Takeaways are so salty I am thirsty all night, and so fatty they give me heartburn

Maybe heartburn is a secret blessing, as I only get it after greasy food. So I avoid it.

Oh yes the food hangover. I didn't realise that I felt that way until I no longer felt crap in the mornings - I didn't realise I had been!

I just have always liked vegetables tbh. Don't get me wrong, I obviously sometimes reach for chocolate or crisps, but I'd just as happily have a bowl of peas, some carrots or some hummus.

I've always had a fondness for bitter tastes too.

My ED ensures I eat healthily. That and I like the way I look at a size 8 and I know that 7 pounds heavier and my clothes won’t fit.

Our grandchild. Hopefully, we can see him soon. Want to be here for him for as long as possible.

• Buy some cook books & try new recipes, things like Anna Jones and Ottolenghi. It's foodie food packed with vegetables and the right kind of fats and proteins and great flavours.
• Don't buy junk food. I know for a fact that if I buy a pack of biscuits then I will eat them!! I keep a pack of rich tea biscuits at home and if I want a sweet treat then it's a rich tea biscuits and a piece of plain 70 per cent dark chocolate.
• Load up your fridge with vegetables and cook with them!

I love eating well. It's not a chore to me. My body craves vegetables and beans and grains etc. If I eat too much junk food I just feel grim.

I am losing weight for:

1. Vanity - my face does not look attractive when I'm overweight.
2. Money - I need to stop spenind £££ on takeaways, cake and sweets
3. I want another baby and want to be a mid-healthy BMI before I get pregnant (18 months so need to crack on)
4. Anti- consumerism one carrot at a time
5. Feminism - what can be more fem8nist than looking after my health and being as fit and healthy as I can be (Ok it clashes with reason 1)
6. Be a good example to my daughter.

"- Buy some cook books & try new recipes, things like Anna Jones and Ottolenghi. It's foodie food packed with vegetables and the right kind of fats and proteins and great flavours."

Very complicated recipes I think. Might be OK for OP, but not for the average person who doesn't cook much.

Diabetes, heart disease run in my family so I exercise to keep that at bay. I like feeling good in my clothes, I genuinely like healthy food (also quite like dominos), I love the endorphins you get from a good workout/run.

"I think a lot of the healthy eating thing, is re-framing it in your own mind. When you pick something healthy, over an unhealthy food, it's telling yourself, "I deserve this. I'm eating this food that keeps my body healthy and strong. I am treating my body with the love and respect it deserves."

The other day, I was really craving a supermarket sandwich (I don't know why either!) At first I looked at the tuna mayo, that was £1.50, but then I asked myself, "is this the healthiest thing I can give my body?" Then I ended up choosing the chicken salad, which was £3.
I saw the extra £1.50 as "investing" in my long-term health."

This is what I need to start thinking. I see healthy food as a kind of punishment, a chore that has to be done for uncertain gain. I tend to see expensive food, like organic veg, as a bit of a scam...

Realisation it takes me 2 days to recover when I overeat crap.

Once I get into it, remembering it does feel good to look after myself.

Not being able to fit into 80% of my wardrobe

Doing the NHS BMI test and realising I am overweight

I have not given up burgers! I make my own with mince and put them in between gem, cos or chicory lettuce leaves with sweet potato wedges.

Mindset of doing what my future self will thank me for.

Sheer bloody mindedness.

I like healthy(ish) food. Junk food makes me feel crap, often quite literally.

I am not keen on junk food, much prefer home cooked meals with quality meat and fish.
I enjoy eating salad and most cooked vegetables.
I can give or take pasta, muffins, pastries, cakes, cheese, fizzy drinks.
I find fruit juice too sweet so rarely drink.
I like being a size 10!
I enjoy walking and jogging.

An aching back on waking, clothes not fitting, realising my mood is set by a biscuit tin 😫 I've always been slim (size 8) but lockdown/menopause have hit and nothing fits. I've been kidding myself that I've been following MFP, and while I lost a stone in the summer, have put half of that back through boredom eating. It doesn't help that I don't generally feel any ill-effects from sugar and crap. I feel great after a jam donut and half a packet of chocolate digestives But in a broader sense know how much more energy I have from moving more and snacking less.
This thread has been an eye opener for me. No more excuses - it's now or never!

I honestly cannot understand the "tasty food = junk food / healthy food = boring, rabbit food" mentality.
I have been obese. I never had junk food.

What made me lose the weight was a combination of several factors :

• pure vanity. I am so much prettier at a size 8/10 than 22.
• a health scare about my blood sugar levels (I never got them tested but I was thirsty all the time). I do not want to be diabetic.
• I love hiit workouts (I have been exercising everyday for years, even when obese) and there are lots of moves I cannot do when I am carrying 70lb of extra fat.

Now I have lost the weight, I have realised how much it impacted on my mental health. I believe that either eating too many carbs or having too much body fat (that produces hormones) made me depressed. I am getting so much more done in a day now!

What makes me choose?

A pre- diabetes diagnosis worked a treat for me...

BTW, if you are waiting for something to "make" you want to lose the weight, you are in the wrong mindset. At the moment you are choosing to overeat. You have to choose to eat less, and this cannot come from outside you.