How do you break the unhealthy eating habit?

[DontFundHate]

I'm normally pretty healthy. But last few months have been awful. So much chocolate in our house so I suppose I should get rid of that. Can't be bothered cooking healthy meals. No energy. Have put on some of the weight I lost so now got to loose it again. But how do you get out of the unhealthy rut? Tips please!

If only I knew. Did really well last year and lost over a stone. Just can't get back to it the last few months since I had an op in January.

Mine is midnight snacking, that temptation!

I just love filth. I cannot help myself! I eat well in the day.

I do find upping my water can really help

For me it’s simply making sure I don’t have any unhealthy food at home. Also, preparing satisfying healthier meals - honestly got rid of my cravings

^I was doing so well a while ago, but because others at home bought my fav chocolate ice cream, and biscuits - I couldn’t resist tasting

And as soon as I have one bite, game over had far too much ice cream today
I stupidly had it before eating my dinner when I was hungry from work too which made me want more

Honestly? I ended my relationship. I have the occasional Bourbon biscuit relapse now ( once a month) but generally much better. Loads more veg, wholegrain stuff, far less alcohol. A sort of 12 month detox

Sugar fast. If I eat chocolate, I crave chocolate. Get it out of the house, don't eat sugar for a week (or booze, its evil twin).

Meal planning is your friend. Don’t go food shopping when you’re hungry, don’t get it delivered either. Too easy to tick the box on something you know you shouldn’t have and walking burns calories. Make a conscious decision to stay out of the biscuits and crap aisle when you’re food shopping. Try a new recipe to get your motivation back.

Buy a treat, nail polish, new lipstick, magazine etc Make sure you drink plenty. If you lapse you lapse it will happen, you just get yourself back on track the next day. Remember how easy clothes shopping was when you lost some of the weight. Get the chocolate out of the house, donate it to a food bank at you’re local supermarket, or take it into work.

If you crave sweet stuff, there are loads of low calorie treats you can have including ice cream and sorbets. Mini magnums etc. Check out the skinny cow label in the freezer isle, most supermarkets carry it. Good luck

Agree with the ops also look at your salt intake because too much makes one crave sugar to 'balance' the salt. Get 7 hours solid sleep if you can!!

The problem with low cal. foods Tatty is that they do contain lots of other stuff we don't need like aspartame , our bodies don't recognise them as food so we're better off eating proper food.

Drink lots of water , with a couple of drops of ess. oil of mint (it's not oil btw). between meals.

I've made a deal with myself that I have to track everything I eat on My Fitness Pal honestly for this year. It doesn't have to be healthy, just accurate.

It's an eye opener when you see the calories, sugar, fat and sodium levels total up for foods you'd eat mindlessly.

Personally I found myself eating less junk because I didn't want to log it. So far I've lost a stone in weight. I know it's slow going compared with some of the more intense eating plans out there but I eat what I want, I'm just a lot more mindful of what I actually want to eat instead of my filling my face for the sake of it.

@ItsAllGone2019

Yes! Thats a great reminder.

I lost a lot of weight last year using My Fitness Pal but its creeping piling back on.
I have been avoiding using MFP again because im not eating healthily.

But i did the same last year. I logged EVERYTHING. And I ate better because I didn't want to have am unhealthy day on my diary.
Thanks for reminding me.

This week Ive started my diet, prompted not only by an impending holiday but also from generally feeling fed up of eating rubbish.
So Ive been trying to focus on swapping- rather than thinking "I cant have this", Im thinking "Lets have some fruit/ Lets up the veg in this meal"- so far its helping me.

The Paul Mackenna way of eating is really good for weight loss and not eating shxx!! You have to eat mindfully, really chewing and tasting the food properly, sometimes with your eyes closed.

The rubbish tastes horrible if you eat like that!! You actually can't eat it!! Well I can't, I lost 3 stone doing it!

For me it is not having anything bad in the house and meal planning meals that I am excited to eat. Makes all thr differencd

@yogima you're welcome. It's funny how effective just recording what you're eating is.

One day all I ate was rubbish, I looked at my entries for the day and it gave me a right kick up the backside to actually eat food the following day. Aside from the weight losing potential it's making me feel much better getting a decent balance of nutrients in my body.

For me personally I put on a hell of a lot of weight when I ended up bed bound so exercise was completely out of the question, plus the fact I could even walk without falling over hence why stuck in bed but the worst but was almost doubling in size and eating crap almost constantly, boredom, just because it was there and thinking who’d give a shit anyway as my husband had started distancing himself the more disabled I got as after all who wants to be married to a cripple!!!
But then it hit me one day, by keep eating all the crap I was ultimately the only person I’d be hurting long term would be me!!!! Me and my kids as they didn’t need to see me fall completely to pieces: I’ve never had much self esteem and extremely vulnerable and always took whatever shit was thrown at me but put up with it as have always wanted a quiet life and I think that’s why my husband always gave me bags and bags of crap to eat rather than the healthy home cooked meals him and the kids were eating so knowing then that he was doing this to make into the overweight cripple he hated, like most people do but would never admit to, he was trying to break my soul and dignity and self respect by giving me all that crap to eat.

So do you know what I did instead, instead of eating the crap he’d given me I got kids to put in kitchen and then whenever I was hungry I’d ask for a bowl of cereal, shreddies, wheetabit, Cheerios, basically anything that didn’t contain chocolate and had it with semi skimmed milk and started to eat a bowl of cereal and glass of milk 3 times a day that would have been mealtimes. And slowly but surely the weight started dropping and even without exercise I was still managing to lose weight at a really decent rate.
Now 18 months on, I’m now half my body weight that I had been and am more mobile although still suffer from repeated falls.lol. But I’m not stuck in bed anymore, cut away from my kids and the outside world and I feel amazing!!!!!! I have a main meal with the kids in the evening and if I am peckish during the day I still have that bowl or 2 of cereal and my weight is still dropping. In total I’ve lost almost 50kg, have no idea what that is is stones but I’m betting it’s quite a few.lol. And now look better than I ever have done and am now roughly the size I used to be before having my children and haven’t been this size since I was 16 years old, but now weight 59kg which is just over my ‘recommended’ weight.
So trust me if I can do it so can you!!!!! Just give yourself enough credit.
Most people don’t think of using cereal to lose weight as most use full fat milk but use semi skimmed or even skimmed means you’re also getting a good intake of calcium which is good for bones and teeth etc. And cereals now, especially shreddies, my favourite, is now full of so much goodness and whole grain etc that you’re eating something you like as well as something that’s good for you without having to eat horrible veg and fruit.lol. You’d be surprised just how healthy cereal really is, look at the packets to show you. Pick a few cereals you like so aren’t eating the same one day after day so don’t get bored and likely to stray so pick ones you like and you’ll actually end up having enjoying yourself and also losing weight too. Bonus all round I’d say!!!!!!

Xxxx