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... 🤷🏻‍♀️

And I also think to the future and what health conditions I'd be at risk of developing if I was overweight, and that's not a road I want to go down as I get older.

I have little motivation so I rely on habits

For example not buying the sweet stuff I like, having a time where I stop snacking, making a meal with vegetables in every day.

I do fall off the rails on all those examples but I revert to the habits.

Watch Michael moseley’s lose a stone in 21 days. I did this as I was worried about the impact covid might have on me. It took me about 26 days to lose the first stone, I’ve now lost about 2s2lb. It’s 3 weeks-that’s all, 3 weeks out of your life. I found the quick weight loss very motivating (though it took about 4 months to lose the rest. I basically had a healthy lunch and healthy dinner and reduced carbs but didn’t actually count them. Some days I’m sure it was more than 800 calories I ate but I also did couch to 5k. Honestly, do it for 3 weeks, what have you got to lose (other than weight)?

This isn’t hugely helpful if you’ve always been obese but my motivation is that I know how enjoyable exercise and activity is when you are a healthy weight. I was in late 2018 and I still remember how it felt. Through 2019 I gained a bit and should have sorted it in early 2020 but in first lockdown I was very stressed and super strict about only leaving the house once a day - which I used to take my young dc out so no real adult exercise.
I’m trying to get back on top of things now but everyday have to tell myself over and over to try to remember how good being lighter felt because frankly I’m too mentally exhausted from working/homeschooling to think of anything else.

Health, pure and simple.
In no way do I want bad health.
If I have an ailment, I look up what foods to make it better.

I think it’s very hard when you feel down about yourself. As a poster said above over eating can be a form of self harm.

One thing I would say is that small improvements make a big difference. I think I felt before like it was very all or nothing but actually a small weight loss and/ or increase in activity can really make you feel better.

At my heaviest I decided that I’d walk everyday and stop eating snacks. That really got the ball rolling for me!

I have a family history of heart disease which nearly killed both my siblings in their early fifties and has left one with a very shortened life expectancy
I am also a shallow vain cow who likes looking good in her clothes
The combination of these two things keeps me mostly on the straight and narrow

I was raised on Chinese and English food. Plus the Chinese food I eat is nothing like the unhealthy stuff Chinese takeaways offer.

I was given lessons by my Dad on how to cook rice perfectly and steam fish correctly. Food is sort of loved in my family but it’s all about the quality and not quantity.

My husbands English and likes mountains of potatoes and tons of bread. The difference is very noticeable to me. It’s a joke in my house how I don’t peel potatoes.

Snacking was forbidden in my childhood, we were allowed some penny sweets on the way home from school on a Friday.

I think how our parents fed us really affects our relationships with food. DS was taught how to cook by me at 12, I have never taught him how to bake cakes as I also don’t bake cakes. That’s what I find with my English friends, cake baking seems the most admired sort of cooking. It’s their art form, but it’s never going to be healthy.

I don’t eat salad every day. In fact I probably eat salad once a week. It took a lot to change my mindset from salad = healthy and everything else =unhealthy. I calorie count and allow myself absolutely everything within those calories. If I want chocolate or a burger I’ll have it as long as it’s within my calorie allowance. No good and no bad foods. I think things like slimming world are really bad because they teach you the mind set that certain foods are bad in the context of sins.

Of course I do try to maximise my calories and get more bang for my buck which leads me to eating a lot more vegetables because they’re more calorie dense so I get more for the calories but not all of the time. I also find it helps if I log my calories for dinner in the morning then I can divide whatever is left between breakfast and lunch meaning if I’m having a huge fry up for dinner I can have lighter breakfast and lunches. I’m a healthy weight now but I calorie track for maintenance as I spent much of my younger years yo yo dieting and over weight and I’ve found if I don’t calorie count then I do over eat and the weight slowly comes back. Obviously I do have days where I think fuck it but most of the time I will count calories.

Also I do a lot of exercise but I don’t have a reason for that other than I really love it. I found something that as enjoyable for me and stuck with it. I like how it makes me feel about myself after I’ve done a workout.

I thought about this just now as I went for my run and honestly there's just no feeling like it. How it feels to get your heart going and fresh air deep into your lungs. The effect on mood is immediate and powerful.

I realise that it's a lot more complicated and difficult when you're starting from a place of not feeling good in your body and having significant weight to lose, but I really do think that it's about retraining your body and helping it understand that it feels good with movement and good fuel and valuing your body enough to give it these things. And I don't think there's any harm in vanity if it pushes you towards healthier habits. I admit I'm vain. I like the way I look in shape. I like my clothes and I don't want to buy new ones.

I have a biomedical degree. Learning about nutrition, especially learning about all the ways your cells use nutrients and the biochemical mechanisms behind it, makes you want to live as healthily as possible.
Not just food my whole lifestyle.

Dr Chatterjee’s Four Pillar Plan book is great OP: really simple, non-judgmental and easy to follow, but I have noticed a difference very quickly.

You get used to it and it's nicer. I've overdone takeaway during lockdown and tbh it's boring, greasy, salty, etc. Salad doesn't just have to be leaves.

@goodbyelenin

I like really good food.

Cheap take-aways bring me no satisfaction whatsoever, I'd feel depressed if I was facing a week of pasta/potatoes/stodgy food!

A decent burger doesn't make you fat: good quality meat, salad bits, cheese, you don't become overweight for having 1 bun of some kind in an entire day.

I don't like cheap chocolate, I don't like crisps, I always finish meals with something sweet but I like good quality deserts.

I eat good MEALS and healthy "snacks", an apple, a banana.
I don't force myself to eat either, a soup or a yogurt is enough sometimes, I'll eat more when I am hungry at the next meal.

I eat healthy food because it tastes a lot better. It doesn't cost that much more, you just buy a lot less.

This and what others have said.

I have always eaten fresh, unprocessed food and so that’s what I enjoy eating.

But, even if I loved fast food etc I would not eat it because I don’t want to be one of those 60 year olds that’s more like a 90 year old - trouble walking, unable to run 5km, on lots of medication, etc.

We eat a mix: generally healthy, home cooked meals and balanced lunches etc in the week, then maybe takeaway or pizza for a treat at weekends.

We eat healthily (not quinoa or anything faddy, but lean pork chops and veg or salmon and veg and potatoes etc) because we want to give our DS and ourselves a balanced diet, be responsible parents, model healthy eating, not store up health problems eg diabetes or increased cancer risk for the future, and be a bit slimmer. Your DC can’t make healthy choices without knowing about fibre, vitamins and minerals, so we eat everything at home, all in moderation.

I feel like crap when I eat crap food, so I limit it.

I also want to model good habits for my DC. I wouldn’t want them eating takeaways every day or loads of sweets & snacks, so I don’t give myself that choice either.

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

Because a 6oz homemade burger (mince, salt, pepper, cooked in a pan with a lid) with some blue cheese melted on top,

served with
salad leaves,
cherry tomatoes,
cucumber,
gherkin slices,
red onion,
spring onion,
radish,
avocado slices,
fresh herbs
and some fresh lemon and olive oil,
plus some thick cut oven chips

is a million times nicer and more satisfying than

two crappy frozen 4oz patties
a burger roll,
a cheese slice,
a teaspoon of stale shredded Iceberg,
a slice of tomato
and half a cup of mayonnaise
with some stringy fries that need more mayonnaise to get them down easier (and half an ounce of table salt to make them vaguely palatable).

Being able to run would be amazing. Being disabled and not being able to run, even if there was a horde of Zombies after me, is shit. Being able to walk without pain would be nice, too.

^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.

It is about fitness and health for sure, many people can't run 5 meters never mind 5 miles without breaking a sweat.

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 envy

Simple answer is I don't.

I will have the burger, the decadent cake, do unspeakable things to an all you can eat buffet arrangement but not all the time

I don't always fancy such heavy food and feel a bit shit if I eat too much heavy fat too often

I enjoy food so much more when I am eating 1600-1800 calories a day. Keeps the appetite keen and avoids the mindless stuffing of the face. What foods do supermarkets place at the entrance to tempt us in? The fresh fruits and vegetables because they are appealing and tasty, often just as they are, without preparation. What foods do we or manufacturers have to add sauces and flavourings to just to make it edible? The processed foods. What foods give us indigestion - a beige buffet or a takeaway.

@Emeraldshamrock

^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.

It is about fitness and health for sure, many people can't run 5 meters never mind 5 miles without breaking a sweat.

the fittest people I know tend to sweat a lot actually.

They don't get out of breath, but sweating they do. Sweating is not a bad thing.

Honestly, my extended family are all extremely overweight/borderline obese (my mum isn't though) but I started comfort eating in my teens and was at a weight I didn't feel great about myself and knew I had to make some changes otherwise I would end up like my family which I didn't want.

I started going to the gym/running and trying new foods and having less junk/saturated fats and that in turn turned into an obsession where I would only eat certain foods and the FEAR of gaining weight.

Gradually I started eating more and gaining weight and now I'm a healthy weight and genuinely enjoy healthy foods as they make me feel so good inside AND I can walk miles with my dog and hopefully I will have a healthy heart/bones and joints as I age!

I know what you mean when you said you can never imagine choosing a salad over a burger because I was the exact same and tbh I still choose a burger most times. I just dont eat like that all the time and we rarely have takeaways! (Had a few more recently as im pregnant and McDonald's was the only thing that helped my morning sickness!) But things like homemade pizza is so easy and so much better for you.