How to get through the cravings

[babasaclover]

day 4 of diet and struggling. Thought I would lose something by now, as they say the weather retention goes first but scales exactly the same!!!

a stone to lose but struggling so hard with getting into the routine. Just broke and poured glass of wine which is obviously terrible empty calories.

send motivation!!!

It’s day 4 - you’re still recalibrating! Honestly it gets easier, the longer you don’t give in the less power the cravings have I find. I think 2 weeks was a huge turning point for me!

@NewYearNewMeethanks for your comment. I’ve been eating really badly since about September so hard to know how long it’ll take but glad to hear 2 weeks worked for you. Can I ask, I assume you had lost weight by then? I think the scales moving would have helped my motivation!

It gets easier, I think my turning point was around 2 weeks.
One thing that helped was to do intermittent fasting because I knew then even if I had a craving I couldn't eat.
Also all the kids snacks I bought were ones I dont eat so my worst vices were gone and in place I had a hot drink each time I craved something i had a drink. This all helped me loose 5 stone. You just have to redirect to something else what that something is is different for everyone.

I did drop a few lbs - what I do (on my PTs instruction!) is weigh three days a week and average it, to help avoid big swings caused by water retention etc. I got in snacks I could have, didn’t stock things I couldn’t in large portions and it worked.

Honestly mind over matter, you’ve totally got this!

Are you potentially trying to go too low on calories or restrictive in what you're trying to do? What are you actually eating?
I try and make losing weight as easy as possible, a sensible calorie deficit, trying out new recipes and finding nice low calorie snacks. Lots of fibre and protein to fill me up. Lots of volume eating so I'm not feeling sorry for myself. Could it be you're cracking on day 4 because you're being too hard on yourself?

Drink a glass of water and distract yourself.

But it depends what you are eating, how many calories have you had? 20g of nuts would be a better choice and fill you up more than wine.

I took it slowly - cut out snack, intermittent fasting, no carbs on, calorie control. But I did one step at a time. Also add in quite a bit of water to drink.

I've lost over a stone since mid Dec. Still got one to go and loss slowed to a pound a week, but that is what I expected.

It's not easy to retrain your system, which is why doing one step at a time is best.

A glass of wine would be the kiss of death to any diet for me. It completely destroys all willpower and I'd be in the kitchen making toast with thick butter after just one glass.

I plan and shop for lots of healthier snacks. I chop up a watermelon and have this ready to eat in the fridge, just take out a few slices each evening when I want something sweet. I also have protein snacks on, chicken satay, boiled eggs (season well), fruit and Greek yoghurt, prawns etc. I try to prioritise fibre and protein as they fill me up.

Are you weighing yourself daily? If the number on the scales makes you break the diet, maybe consider weighing weekly, so you’re always driving to that point.

also can you describe your diet, are you sure you’re in a defecit?

I like the idea of own thing at a time, hadn’t considered that.

the wine was a mistake as I then reached for the crisps so writing yesterday off and felt disappointed with myself today.

logging everything and eating lots of protein using MyFitnessPal. Trouble is I love water and have around 3 litres a day so not sure I’ll ever lose that but I need it to feel well.

I is salt redirect to exercise but had a poorly child so been housebound. Maybe it was the wrong week to start!

planning on one weekend cheat day for glasss of wine and nice food but guess I already had that yesterday now 😂

Well it certainly was ate whole big bag of crisps with the wine 😂 need to cut the wine again as no way would have had the crisps without

You don't need to "lose" water - water helps the fat cells release (or something), it's a positive.

I meant to say "no carbs pm", so I do have carbs, obvs, just not (refined ones) with my evening meal.

Btw, there's no such thing as a "cheat day", you have to find a way of eating that works for you all the time. If you're going for a meal out, eat less earlier in the day. DP and I share a starter now instead of one each, for example.

You could focus on moving alcohol to weekends only, and cutting out snacking. Do that for two weeks, then work on portion sizes. Then think about carb reduction. Etc.

Cheat days are guaranteed failure days, you need to eat in enough of a defecit on the other six days thay you can afford the extra cals on one day a week and then still stay in a defecit for the week averaged out per day, you need to find a way to eat that allows it.

and there will always be excuses, housebound, out with the kids, special occasions if you want to lose you need to navigate it and stay in a defecit to the extent you have the spare cals to allow you to eat or drink a bit more on occasion,

how many extra cals did you consume yesterday a large glass of wine and a large bag of crisps is about a 1000 extra cals, if you aim to lose a pound a week. It’s a 500 cal defecit per day, which means as you’d two days with no defecit, as you consumed an extra 1000, then you need to be under by 700 a day for the other 5 days to lose the pound a week.

its doable, but that’s rhe math you need to work to,

Well week two and feeling more positive. No weight loss yet but I am getting less hungry. Thanks for all the advice.

trying to make consciously better decisions though did have some wine at the weekend. It was a party.