I can't stick to healthy eating, anyone else?

[Cow00000]

I drink 3 to 4 cans of Pepsi max a day
Barely any veg
My food budget is £40 per week for myself, I've looked at healthy meal prep deliveries but I cannot afford it

I last 3 days on a healthy diet then back to sweets, cakes, biscuits, chocolate, white carbs. It's an addiction, I don't drink at all, never smoked or taken drugs, it's just the food.

I'm not overweight but I know my way of eating is dangerous. I do eat some healthy meals but it's not enough, I have sleeping issues, I'm sluggish, I have dark circles under my eyes.

I know the only way is to go cold turkey, but for whatever reason it doesn't last. Has anyone managed to change things long-term and improve their diet?

Meal planning and a supermarket delivery might help. Work out what you want to eat for a week. Include broadly healthy meals and some treats - keep the Pepsi max for now. Order the food to make those meals. That means the only willpower you need is one heave to meal plan and order, then you can just follow the plan. For me, that takes away the “what should I eat” (I always want something unhealthy!), and the “ooh I’m bored I’ll just have another biscuit” (you’ve run out) and the wandering round the supermarket having to exert willpower every time I see something I want but “shouldn’t” eat (almost everything is fine in moderation).

Don’t try to revolutionise everything at once, you’ll never stick to it. Do the meal planning and try to stretch to 4 days of healthy, then do 5, etc. Try to drop one of your cans - do you have them at particular times or is there a trigger? Three is better than four, and two is better than three, but do it slowly.

Thanks for your advice, I appreciate it. I think a lot of it is boredom, im in a boring, low paid role which i am looking to progress from so a nice can of Pepsi and a cake just makes the morning a bit better, stuff like that.

Cold turkey didn't work for me. I was able to radically change my health habits but VERY slowly. I'm talking years. Little by little, discovering healthier substitutes with time. I think I never went back to my unhealthy habits because time allowed me to discover food that was actually delicious. Trust me, it's possible to make veggies taste really good. But you got to try recipes. Sodas are so tough. Just stop buying them. If you don't have shit in your home, its just so much harder to consume them. As soon as you start noticing the results in your sleep, digestion and overall mood, it will get easier. Hang in there

Why do you think the only way is to go cold turkey?
I haven't been as extreme, but I've certainly got myself into a routine of only eating carby convenience food, chocolate (emotional eating) and getting through on caffeine. It's generally I've been really stressed/busy and stopped prioritising looking after myself (usually hand in hand with poor sleep and lack of exercise/daylight, working long hours)

The way I've dealt with it is by consciously adding healthier foods to start to change my palate, I find fruit the best for this to start with. I also try and pause and think about what's in the food and what I'm going to get from it. So if I really want some chocolate because I think I'll really enjoy it, fine. But if I'm reaching for chocolate because actually I'm hungry and haven't made myself a proper meal, it gives me time to pause and rethink, and 'treat' myself to something more nutritious. I try and remember how I feel after healthier food and that starts to be motivating. If I do that, and do it gradually (NOT cold turkey) then I find i start eating more healthier/nutritious/tasty options and that displaces the junk. After a while of eating more whole foods/fewer convenience foods I find my taste buds start to shift and that makes things easier.

Trying to shame yourself into healthy eating (or any change of behaviour really) just doesn't work. And cutting everything out at once is more likely to lead to binging later. Start with smaller changes and it's more likely to be sustainable.

Protein for breakfast keeps me on the straight and narrow. 3 eggs scrambled in butter every morning. eggs are cheap. It’s very filling and I don’t get hungry for ages. If I start the day with white carbs like cereal or toast or something I get such bad cravings for shit food all day. Start the day right and everything feels easier.

I'm in this rut. I'm in peri now and I think for me it's basically:

Chocolate and carbs = serotonin

So I need to replace it. I think cold turkey will cause me to spiral into depression though! But I do need to change it.

I think it has be gradual though because my gut microbiome is some kind of nuclear wasteland.

Protein is more filling. If husband is in a rush and has cerea for breakfast l he feels blah and a bit shaky. Whereas if he has a protein breakfast he feels much better.

Vegetables, do you like soups @Cow00000 ?

Do you have sugar in tea and coffee?

Thank you, i have fruit and fibre topped with raisins for breakfast but it just doesn't fill me up. I don't drink any tea or coffee just hot chocolate,

I am like you and the only thing that helps me is the gym as when I work out, I don't want to ruin it by just eating rubbish and moreover because I need lots of protein and filling carbs for fuel and to satiate me as opposed to white carbs and junk food which make me feel more hungry.

I sometimes end up eating breakfast en route as if I haven't slept well I end up getting up as late as possible and then no time to make a proper breakfast

I go to Home Bargains and get cans of Pepsi for 49p, I know it's not good

You need some fiber, protein and fat in it to fill you up. Try adding yogurt and oats to these fruits. Raisins will give you inside spike with no nutritional value, empty calories. Another good combo for breakfast is whole wheat toast (complex carbs and fiber) with eggs (protein) and avocado (healthy fat)

Why go cold turkey? That’s the problem, treating things as “bad”. You don’t need to cut them all out, just reduce them. Keep them as a part of a balanced diet. Have some chocolate as a treat, just don’t have loads of it around. The best way to make a difference is to made gradual and sustainable changes.

DH has recently had serious heart surgery, so I have spent the last 6 weeks on cardiac wards visiting him. Very few of the patients he was on wards with had heart issues that weren't caused by their lifestyles. It has been quite the eye opener.

On one ward DH was the only patient who didn't have diabetes. It is easy to tell because the nurses were going around distributing drugs for diabetes at mealtimes. He was also the only patient who wasn't overweight.

How much is 28 cans of Pepsi costing you? That would be a money saver if you could cut them out.

I hope this isn't coming across as a lecture, but it was certainly a wake up call for me, although I don't usually eat a lot of rubbish and don't have a pepsi max habit.

Same here. In my case it's to cope with a stressful emotionally exhausting job. Every 15 mins I am reaching for a little pick-me-up, a treat to reward myself for getting through a bit more of the day, or an incentive for the next bit.
I bring all healthy food with me but by 3pm I am stuffing in whatever is in the staff room, and there are always cakes and biscuits. I just completely lack any willpower to stop because I'm so tired and wrung out and there's still 4 hours to go.
Some useful tips here from posters, thanks.

That cereal is just as crappy as Coco pops just better marketed.

Not sure if a sweet protein powder is something you could get?
I make oats the night before for breakfast - yoghurt or oat milk, oats, vanilla protein powder, and some fruit (you can put raisins in or even do it with your fruit and fiber?). I love a sweet breakfast and it really kills the craving early and fills me up well.

Set the alarm early, get up and fall into the shower. Lay out your breakfast stuff the night before. Two eggs and some wholemeal toast takes five minutes. Or chop up an apple and eat some cheese with it.

I have a Pepsi Max in the evening before dinner. Ice cold. It's my vice.

Hot chocolate if it's that packet stuff also chemicals. Make some proper cocoa with milk. You can put that in a flask.

A few of my hacks to improve my eating

buy a soda stream and make fizzy water to drink.

replace breakfast cereal with eggs .. cheap and filling and cuts carb cravings

eat a handful of almonds with a couple of glasses of fizzy water ( cheap in aldi) for fibre good fats and protein when you want to snack.

swap sweet coffees for black coffee

make chia and pure greek yoghurt with fruit and sprinkle with nuts in jam jars with lids in fridge to grab and go.

cook chicken pieces in bulk and have in fridge to snack on

baby bel light to snack on

best of luck 🤞

Yes. But I'd never have coped with cold turkey because like most people, tell me I can't have something and I'm preoccupied with it. I didn't ban unhealthy foods, I added healthy ones and made myself have these before I ate anything else. So if I were you, before the coke I'd drink a pint of lemon water. Before the chocolate I'd have a plate raw veg. This ensures you're getting thd nutrients you need and takes the edge of your appetite for less useful foods. Gradually increase the amounts of good stuff you have before you bring the other stuff out. The idea being you crowd them out to nothing or negligible amounts over time. Worked for me.

Surely all that Pepsi is at least part of a reason you can’t sleep?

personally I used to drink 3 cans of Diet Coke a day and for me cold turkey was the only thing that worked. Fizzy water with lime juice was my alternative.

healthy eating doesn’t have to be 100% healthy for 100% of meals, and those meal delivery services aren’t the way forward IMO.

a bit of planning- so that there are snacks/meals that appeal to you in the house- is the key.

like cake? So allow yourself some cake! But get some fruit/nuts/low fat crisps/cereal bars too so that it’s not always cake.

be nice to yourself- even one healthy swap is a win.

I feel your pain and then some. What makes it worse is the gaslighting by the diet industry:

‘If you’re hungry, have a delicious glass of water, a bath, an apple, maybe push the boat out and have a forkful of boiled chicken breast’

Matchbox sized piece of cheese, anyone?

Men giving up the odd biscuit, going for a sweaty jog round the block and then losing a stone in a week.

The ‘feeders’. Thin, uptight women who bring in mountains of homemade cake and biscuits.

‘This cake serves 17 people’

Chia, yoghurt, fruit and nuts. Normal people do not do this. Normal people with children to look after and gas bills to pay do not ‘sprinkle’ food. They take big handfuls as a coping mechanism for life.

Can you eat at work? I find it helps to have my meals at work instead of the snacks. So make overnight oats and take them to work to eat, a box with cubed cheese, chunks of pepper, cucumber, pickles etc for lunch.

Obviously totally dependent on your workplace!

But yes, I find it hard. I’ve kicked the Pepsi habit several times, but I slip back into it. Try swapping Pepsi for a different soda. Then reducing that soda.

£40 a week is not an achievable budget. You spend that much on Pepsi.