To be normal?

[Free6874368]

I feel like I have done every diet going, saying every Sunday... next week I'll be good.

I am going to try my best to be normal, I enjoy cooking so I would like to if possible to eat a normal/ decent 3 meals a day. Cut out the rubbish and try and achieve some enjoyable exercise 3 times a week.

No more specific diets, no more I need to eat this and can't eat that.

I am hoping for consistency, rather than obsessing over numbers. Does anyone else feel like this? What even is normal? What's your normal?

My normal is:

Breakfast - coffee
Lunch - fruit and a protein bar or cereal bar after my lunchtime run. If I'm not running I might have a sandwich or salad, but that's rare
Dinner- "ordinary" meal - so stir fry, curry, pasta, whatever. If I'm hungry I might have a bit of chocolate in the evening.

I drink coffee in the morning and then just water the rest of the day. Sometimes a non alcoholic beer as a "treat."

I spent most of my adult life yo yo dieting, not exercising and being overweight, but since I started running a few years ago I've easily maintained a size 8-10 with no real effort.

@Fellrunner85 that sounds a very sparse diet! are your getting enough nutrients? I'm fit and I run but need a lot more meals/calories

I started calorie counting in Sept. free app, no pressure no stress.
bit of a fuss to weigh everything but nothing's worth something comes easy.
I kept on thinking I'd rather weigh everything I eat out of choice now than out of necessity later having aquired some illness.

it all worked fabulously, no forbidden foods, most days I wouldn't reach my calorie allowance because I was full.
dropped 5kgs.
then I fell ill with this mother of all colds (5 weeks today) and had to abandon diet. I ate what I needed on some days, on other days I ate barely anything.
I'm hovering between -5kg & -6kg ever since.

once I'm better (will I ever be????) I'm back on the app. I'm in charge and with a bit of planning and batch cooking & freezing it's the best thing for me

I think that's a good goal, OP.

I lost just over 5 stone this year and cutting out snacking has really helped. I still have treats on the weekend but otherwise I stick to healthy, filling meals, plus fruit if I'm really peckish.

@MattDamon

I think that's a good goal, OP.

I lost just over 5 stone this year and cutting out snacking has really helped. I still have treats on the weekend but otherwise I stick to healthy, filling meals, plus fruit if I'm really peckish.

Thank you, that's encouraging to hear. I want to eat better overall but completely done with diets, calorie / points counting. I feel I need take better life choices.

Today, so far so good. Eggs for brekkie Nd a sandwich and fruit for lunch.

I'm 2 stone lighter than I was last year because I've take control of my food and started exercising regularly. Dieting doesn't work, but changing how I look at food really has.

To get the ball rolling I did calorie count via My Fitness Pal, just to get in my head how my meals balanced out nutrient wise. It didn't take long to get my portion sizes sorted and to have a clear idea of the right way to balance out my meals across a day or week - my meals don't vary by much from week to week so this was relatively easy.

Now I eat normally no measuring or counting with a side eye to the things I know should be an occasional visitor to my diet rather than a frequent flyer. I also run 3 times a week and walk regularly. I cover at least 10,000 steps a day - sometimes with vigour...sometimes just pottering around but I'm consciously making sure I move more.

Don't get me wrong, it's been a slow journey and I'm sure that a focused diet would probably have yielded better results, but my BMI has dropped from 44 to 36. I'm still obese rather than morbidly obese, I get that - but I'm much healthier than I've been in years, regularly exercising, eating a good variety of vegetables, drinking much more water.

My GP is delighted with my progress and thinks as it's a lifestyle change rather than a diet that I've got a really good chance of normalising my body and getting to at least only overweight despite the nonsense I've put my body through for the last 2 decades. I also feel so much better in myself and my skin looks much better than it did before.

I do think this approach is better than dieting even if it's slower.

I’ve never had ‘normal’
I was the only vegetarian in my family from being a toddler and my mum would give me what they were having minus the meat. So breakfast would be cereal, lunch would be sandwiches and dinner would be plain pasta or plain potatoes etc then at 16 I couldn’t cook, couldn’t afford much at all.
I’m still struggling for ‘normal’

I’m trying to have breakfast lunch and dinner (as usually just have a weird dinner of mash and cheese but tons of it) and trying to cut down on the junk. I’m now diagnosed coeliac which has made it harder for me to try and have a normal diet and I definitely need to work on it.

I agree, what should be normal now really isn't. Whether that be lack of knowledge around food, busy lifetsyles that stop us eating as well as we should. Everyone's normal is soo different t isn't it?

Have you ever seen back in time for tea? It’s like back then they ate what they could buy, now we have so many choices it doesn’t matter what season it is or if it’s healthy or needs freezing. We’re spoiled really but I imagine a lot of us don’t really have a clue about what a healthy diet actually is

I'm 56 and well into the menopause so have to pay attention to what I eat. I run every morning, never eat breakfast, lunch is homemade soup or salad (never eat bread, pasta, rice etc. Greek yoghurt fir dessert. Will have handful of almonds if hungry.
Dinner is something vegetarian like lentille spinach dahl, ratatouille feta bake etc. 85% chocolate. At weekends I drink red wine and eat some meat. I run upwards of 50 miles a week and never feel hungry.

My normal is eating anything I want but weighing and logging it all on My Fitness Pal so I keep within my target. I know you don’t want to calorie count but it’s very easy to over eat if you guestimate how much you are eating.

I wish I had educated myself about calories years ago. I’m post menopausal and, thanks to MFP, I’m now a size 8-10.

Thank you for all of your posts, I have small plates the the majority of my meals are fresh meat, fruit and veg. I will give this real normal thing a go before I consider counting etc. At least until the end of the year

How’s it going @Free6874368 ? I’m looking into something similar as I feel I’ve spent my life dieting and I just want to eat sensibly without thinking about points etc

Hi, I am getting on OK thank you. I am continuing to swim 2-3 times a week, which I love. I have been on a bug long walk this morning. Cooking each night with fresh food, I am not sure about weight as I am.not weighing myself but I definitely feel better for looking after myself more.