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... 🤷🏻‍♀️

When you change your diet you will be able to feed the impact

Protein rich foods fill me up, I am not a great fat of meat but it's great for low calorie protein dense foods as is fat free Greek yogurt.

Salad, carrots and tomatoes great nutrient dense foods for low calories

Lots of bread = bloating and more hunger

Maccys love it but it never fills me up so it's not worth the calories

Protein bars great treat but they also fill you up

Roast dinner planned tonight? Very small breakfast then nothing until dinner which I'll serve at 4 and will see us through to tomorrow

Keep moving, 10000 steps as a minimum
and a workout every day

For me it's role modelling for my kids and as they're always around or I'm working there isn't much space for bad eating

I also think I want to be a good role model ( I'm not a the moment) and know o did everything I could to help me as I get older.

However I'm aware a lot of aging is luck. My dad was a healthy weight, daily exercise, teetotal, non smoking. Died in his 50s of cancer.

My mum has smoked since her teens, has the worse diet I know. Still going almost 70. She would be much healthier if she hadn't done those she would have a better quality of life though.

I watched some documentaries about the effect of junk food on your body. One about how pizza acts like a poison almost. I have never eaten pizza since 😂

I love being able to run 5km without breaking a sweat

Whether you sweat or not generally has very little to do with how fit and healthy you are, by the way.

I'll get flamed for this but I dont care. I watch 'fat' programmes to motivate me to start my exercise each morning.

So half ton mom, supersize v super skinny, secret eaters, fat families, my 600lb life etc etc etc.

I get up, put one of those on YouTube while I drink my first green tea and then I end up starting my steps. I either walk them or do them on the cross trainer. I walk my dog separately to add on steps. When the weather is bad I walk up and down the living room.

When I get up I put my sports clothes on and my trainers, rather than pyjamas and slippers, so I'm ready to start.

I downloaded Samsung health too, which has the together challenge, where you 'compete' against all the other users. I do at least 13,500 steps a day because of that now.

When I have had treats I've weighed them out, so 100g of chips for example, I've also done either/or so left my wedges and only ate the chicken wrap. It's just having discipline.

I've still got 3st to lose too op.

Actually, I also meant to say in my reply: eating well and exercising regularly is about valuing yourself, it's an act of self care. You DESERVE to be well looked after, healthy and strong.

@Lovelivesmile - please could you link or tell me the names of those documentaries? Even though I eat like Gywnneth these days I’m still giving pizza to my kids...

When I get up I put my sports clothes on and my trainers, rather than pyjamas and slippers, so I'm ready to start

I think this definitely helps. I work an active job so I'm "on the go" from when I leave the house, but getting up and dressed right away is a big help.

Dh is T1 diabetic and I had a real wake up when I met him about how unhealthy I was eating. First thing to go was sugar. And I became more aware of processed food and carb loaded food. The biggest positive for us as a family is that my dc eat so healthily.
We do eat takeout and have desserts etc but we are able to really moderate ourselves. In my case, I don't think I would have even considered how unhealthy I was eating if it wasn't for dh health reasons.

Op I’ve been in your shoes. What motivated me was looking after a friend whilst she recovered from knee replacement surgery. It was very painful for her, and took months. I was very overweight with bad knees and it really scared me to think that could be me in a few years.
Unlike other posters, I have lost weight whilst always keeping a huge amount of chocolate in the house. But only small, individually wrapped chocolates. I find that if I know I have a good supply in, and that I can have one or two after every meal, I don’t actually binge that much. Whereas whenever I’ve tried to ban chocolate from the house I end up obsessing about it and then having a mad binge. Also knowing that all my favorite chocs are waiting for me at home makes it easier to turn down cake/dessert if I’m eating out.
Plus intermittent fasting and some form of gentle movement for at least 30 mins a day has made a real difference.

I just feel better in honesty. I do eat chocolate etc if I want it, but usually I feel like crap after and remember why I don't usually bother.

You will be fine it has been a shit year the weather is brighter, you can still move, use and enjoy life start walking it will help with motivation, energy creates more energy.
Think if continue as you are and you'll lose your mobility the pressure on your organs will increase.
Check out visceral fat it is frightening.

You don’t see very overweight old people.

But worse than an early death by heart disease or a stroke or cancer, is if you end up infirm or in chronic pain and dependant on others for years, a burden on your family. An unhealthy lifestyle also increases your dementia risk.

You can live an active life until you’re at least 90 if you take care of yourself.

I want to look nice again. I'm 5.5, and overweight and I hate having to look at myself in the mirror. I started making more of a life style change a month ago, more protein rich foods, filling up on veg, no more cheese or pasta, more carefully researched exercise etc I've been working so hard...and I've lost the grand total of ZERO in 4 weeks. Fuck this :(

It's absolutely true that when you eat poorly you feel crap. I can see when my 21 year old daughter has been living off takeaways as she is depressed, listless and even her skin looks bad. She will visit me begging for a home cooked meal and visibly perks up after eating one. She now recognises the effect of a good diet and puts this into practice cooking proper meals for herself and her flatmate.
The proof is in the pudding (excuse the pun), eat well and you'll feel good.

A lot of posts on here being a little bit smug about how their body tells them how they feel. My body just tells me it likes pizza

OP, something that doesn’t come though enough for me in this thread is how bloody hard it is. Mentally and physically we are wired to like food. Add in the psychology of ‘treats’ and comfort eating and self-esteem and it’s makes it all the harder.

The only thing that has ever worked for me is tangible evidence. A PP mentioned FItBit up thread as a good tool. I use it it track food and track steps. Every single step is a win. It motivates me every day rather than waiting weeks to see any result. So hour by hour I’m making a choice - not thinking ahead but just right now - what choice am I going to make? To move, to eat that biscuit, to not eat the biscuit. And then recording the choice and being able to see the impact of the choice - more steps and calories burned or those calories in.

I have dropped 2 stones since April last year - my motivation was that I am 50 plus - definitely had the weight to lose and didn't want to be so clearly in a high risk group re dying of covid if I got it. There are lots of other bonuses to having dropped the weight...

@YouJustDoYou My Dsis loves pasta she lost 5 stone with slimming world. She stuck with a weekly takeaway then realised it wasn't worth undoing a weeks work she changed to a monthly takeaway eventually realised it tastes shit.
I eat healthy takeaway leaves me feeling shit.
She is still 9 stone 5 years later.

I eat healthily because I feel better. I exercise because I feel better. I don't necessarily love the exercise whilst I am doing it, in fact sometimes I hate it so much it makes me want to cry because squats/burpees/weight lifting is hard, and running is hard. But when the workout is finished I feel so much better. And I enjoy the fact that I now fit into clothes that are two sizes smaller than they were a year ago. I enjoy the fact that when I catch sight of myself in the mirror, I see someone with a waist.

When you break the habit of eating unhealthily you don't even miss it any more. It just doesn't bring you the pleasure that you thought it did.

It’s not a binary choice between being a miserable, self-denying exercise junkie or a fat unhealthy slob. You can have a sensible balance of the two.

Find some exercise that you actually enjoy doing, so it becomes a pleasure, not a chore. For me, it’s walking & cycling in the beautiful Derbyshire countryside. Eat delicious, healthy, fresh home cooked food and snack on fruit rather than cake most of the time, but don’t deny yourself an occasional burger, takeaway or bun as a treat. The key word being ‘occasional’, obviously.

My blood pressure is what kicked me up the butt.

I also bought a blood glucose monitor. And seeing how high (diabetic levels) my glucose went after eating carbs was a BIG wake up call.

I've been on Fast800 since January.

Have lost 20lb and my BP and glucose are so much better.

I need to put my future health ahead of wanting to eat crap. Because it's not a joke or something to be ignored anymore.

Literally was putting myself at a hugely increased risk of cancer/dementia and death. Fucking ridiculous really.

No food is worth that.

Also my mental health and self confidence have improved so much too.

I want to be fit and feel good. I wouldn't feel good about myself if I wasn't looking after myself by maintaining my weight and exercising.
I also look better at a healthy weight. To me it doesn't matter that we're not socialising or going anywhere, I do it for myself

I run 10k a week and eat healthily because I enjoy it and actively prefer it. It's not a sacrifice to me.