I am tired of not sticking to my diet. Help me stay the course. - JP Fitness Forums

tossedup · 11-16-2006, 04:55 PM

What tricks do you all have for sticking to your diets? I do really well for a couple of days then blow it by eating crap. I am trying to follow Adam's diet but it is more difficult to do when you are the only one in the house that is attempting to eat right. Any pointers anybody has that helps them stick to it while you are flying solo on your goals? I mean it is tuff to durn down homemade porkchops and dressing ya know?

Lost Dog · 11-16-2006, 05:13 PM

I tell the other people what I'm not eating. That way I feel stupid when I eat it and they see me.

VanceMac · 11-16-2006, 05:29 PM

Here are a few things I have used:

1. Portion control: I pretend that a have an ice cream scoop and that is the full amount I can have of any one item, unless it is clean, then I can eat more of that.

2. I get all the junk out of the house as much as possible. You can't avoid the dinners, but have your family keep any snack foods they like out of sight for you.

3. I don't carry cash around, that way I am not tempted to grab junk food (although with the ease of debit cards, this one is getting less handy).

4. Eat your six meals a day, so that by the time dinner comes along, you are not starving. Also this means you are in control of 5 out of 6 of your meals, and that one will have less of an impact on your calorie and nutrient totals.

5. Get a good computer program, like CalorieKing, to keep track of your calories and nutrient counts throughout the day. This makes it like a game or a competition with yourself to see if you can hit your numbers. Kind of addiction after a bit.

I lost 55 pounds in 5 months doing these types of things. It is never easy, but it made it easiER at least.

Ogedei · 11-16-2006, 06:26 PM

In the end tricks may help, but if you decide to not keep up with it, they are not really going to do much.

If you are going to give-up cause you stray a few times, you are done before you start.

You need to realize that eating really good 80% of the time is probably better than you are now and better than 99% of the population.

Start small, work up. Fall off. Start over.

Lost Dog said each meal stands alone. Ie if you blow lunch it is not an excuse to blow dinner.

Og.

tossedup · 11-16-2006, 07:34 PM

Good advice guys. I get that way sometimes OG hell I blew lunch why not dinner. I will just start over again tomorrow. I ate really really well for 2 years straight when I had a desk job and brought my lunch/snacks everyday but now that I am in sales and on the road alot I tend to eat out more than I should. Vance good idea about the icecream scooper. Great job on the weight loss also. I don't have a hell of a lot of weight to lose about 15 pounds but it has been the hardest 15 pounds to shake as of yet. Thanks for the help guys.

Lost Dog · 11-16-2006, 08:02 PM

Four years ago, I was fat. I'd tried to shed the weight many times before. Never, ever got far. One day, I knew I was done and started to lose the weight. Never looked back. I just wanted it. I still want it. If I knew what it was, I'd market it.

I've stumbled, but only for a day, here and there. But, even when I got frustrated at a plateau, the worst that ever happened was that i didn't get leaner for a while. There was never going back up. Never getting fat again.

I'm lean now. I can't imagine, sometimes, that I was fat. It must have been work to eat that much. I can't remember.

Find why you want it. Once you do, you'll get it.

Cynic · 11-16-2006, 11:43 PM

My problem is not what I eat, but when.

On my days off, I tend to not eat or drink.

However, I simply don't keep crap in the apartment and I don't eat out. I eat before going over to my mom's.

Like Vance, I tend to not carry cash and when I look at something (cookies, candy bar) I know I shouldn't. If I do, I'll have 1-2 cookies or one small candy bar and throw the rest out or give it to someone else.

VanceMac · 11-17-2006, 09:17 AM

On the 'one meal will not damage you' side of things, remember that it takes 3,500 calories just to gain a single pound of fat. It would be difficult to eat that much over your maintenance calories in a whole day, much less a single meal. So, no matter HOW bad the meal is, even an entire day, you will not likely have gained even a single pound. It is the cumulative effort of daily bad eating that will do it. So, if you have one bad meal, don't toss in the towel and definitely do not eat half as much the next day to make up for it.

Lost Dog · 11-17-2006, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VanceMac

On the 'one meal will not damage you' side of things, remember that it takes 3,500 calories just to gain a single pound of fat. It would be difficult to eat that much over your maintenance calories in a whole day, much less a single meal. So, no matter HOW bad the meal is, even an entire day, you will not likely have gained even a single pound. It is the cumulative effort of daily bad eating that will do it. So, if you have one bad meal, don't toss in the towel and definitely do not eat half as much the next day to make up for it.

Exactly! Eating less the next day is just self punishment. It fixes nothing. In fact, it can make things worse, as by the end of the day, you'll be freakin' starving and ready to binge again (repeat until you're fat again).

Your body is constantly in a state of caloric surplus or deficit. Eat too much, and 6 hours later the surplus is over. You still need to be concerned with today. By the time tomorrow rolls around, all the damage is old hat.

The concept that we have of x number of calories in a day is just a concept that our little minds can grasp. If I told you to eat 150 calories an hour over the sixteen hours of your awake time (2400 calories per day), how would you manage that? It would be too hard.

As Ogedei said, earlier, each meal stands alone. Granted, you eat a huge pig out style meal, you'll likely be able to wait longer than 3 hours before needing to eat again. But, by and large, get back on track over the next meal or two.

BFG · 11-20-2006, 08:54 AM

hey just rermind thm of your focussed goals. Just because you have a dream a vision others may not relate to the importance of that. But if you remind them of your passion and what you are doing it for they should soon start to respect and support you

Lost Dog · 11-20-2006, 09:28 AM

Remember that it's hard for the people around you to understand, particularly if they are thin and fit. My family was all thin and fit, they ate porkchops, dressing (stuffing), potatoes, etc. I didn't. I think it might have made them confused and guilty.

Confused, because they didn't get why I thought it made me fat. Obviously, it wasn't the food, itself.

Guilty, because they got to eat something delicious, that I didn't.

Guilty again, because my not eating it, implied (to them) that those foods are crappy and unhealthy, yet they wanted to eat them.

I explained two things to my family:

1. I have little self control. I can eat the porkchop, but not the dressing or potatoes, as those types of foods will cause me to crave more and more food, so I'll be miserable.

2. Since I'm losing weight, I have to eat less than my body needs. I have to pick and choose what items to ditch. As much as I love those things, those foods cause me problems with willpower. Eating basic foods keeps me on track. I asked them "Do you ever see me saying 'God, I need some chicken!' around midnight?" But, too many taters and you'll catch me sneeking down to the kitchen for a midnight snack of cookies and milk, no doubt.

Sort of a twist on "it's not you, it's me."

RobLL · 11-20-2006, 11:20 AM

a big wedge of cabbage - believe it or not its nice to get hooked on these

a slice of bad water added cooked ham with my favorite mustard, how thick, depends on how much urge

a handful of pork rinds

a glass of how carb chocolate milk (used to be called carb countdown)

whatever good leftovers are in the fridge

So far it takes only one or two of the above.

Lost Dog · 11-20-2006, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobLL

a slice of bad water added cooked ham with my favorite mustard, how thick, depends on how much urge

This is like those bad SPAM emails I keep getting. You could have a future in mass emailing...

roadrunner · 11-20-2006, 04:36 PM

Keep in mind the words LIFESTYLE CHANGE. When one goes "on" a diet, one will eventually "go off" of a diet, thus the YO YO syndrome. Learn to eat a lot of fruits and vegies, and good ways to enjoy them, as well as whole grains and non-processed foods... you will learn little tricks that you will like to use.... for instance, I had soup for lunch. Previously I would have put a whole sleeve of soda crackers in it, as I like my soup thick. Now, I put OATMEAL ( plain of course- 100% rolled oats ) in it, instead...sounds weird, but is actually pretty good. Stuff like that......good luck....RR

Lost Dog · 11-20-2006, 04:41 PM

If you make all your food ahead of time and pack it so you have it ready, you really have to go out of your way to eat the bad stuff. And, if you don't you end up throwing it away, going into debt, then bankruptcy, and then living on the street, where, ironically, you'll sit and wallow with all the other fat homeless people.

tossedup · 11-29-2006, 08:45 PM

Thanks for all of the tips guys. My wife finally got on board with the lifestyle change because we never ate the same thing and she saw that I was losing some of the pudge and decided to give it all she has got to stick to it. Thanks for all of your help. She is now cooking low carb meals and eating oatmeal and fruit again.

Blackjack · 12-01-2006, 09:23 AM

I've been hearing a lot lately about the Velocity Diet that Chris Shugart designed over at T-Nation. Basically, it's 28-days of just drinking protein shakes and having one solid meal per week. One of the more interesting results from the diet is that most are reporting a much better taste for healthy foods after coming off the diet and much less tendency to eat junk. That's very appealing to me as I suffer from similar issues of eating junk here and there. This particularly affects me on the weekends when I don't plan my meals as well as I do during the week at work.

I actually may look into doing this diet after the holidays just for this type of an effect. Seeing my abs would be a bonus in my mind.