Diet - Help me stop eating junk

[leth]

I have to disagree with Tapeworm, if you're anything like myself, those nuts will be gone before the end of the day.

Have you ever actually tried this? If so, you must have an iron digestive system. Anything more than a couple of handfuls of nuts and my stomach gets deeply unhappy. Or maybe my stomach just sucks.

no starchy vegetables or legumes (potatoes, rice, wheat, corn, beans, etc)

Screw you, carbs are awesome. My diet today was: Carbs for breakfast. Carbs for lunch #1. Carbs for lunch 2. Carbs for dinner. Post dinner snack carbs.

OP: eating so much sugary crap has probably screwed your tastebuds. I'd look for some non-sugary snacks you can keep around while you kick the sugar - might take a few weeks/months for your tastebuds to adjust. Do things one step at a time, making a a series of little changes is way easier than one giant one.

[James_London]

no starchy vegetables or legumes (potatoes, rice, wheat, corn, beans, etc)

Screw you, carbs are awesome. My diet today was: Carbs for breakfast. Carbs for lunch #1. Carbs for lunch 2. Carbs for dinner. Post dinner snack carbs.

Ha ha... Starchy vegetables are a subset of carbs. Screw you back!

[kevinkalis]

I have to disagree with Tapeworm, if you're anything like myself, those nuts will be gone before the end of the day.

Have you ever actually tried this? If so, you must have an iron digestive system. Anything more than a couple of handfuls of nuts and my stomach gets deeply unhappy. Or maybe my stomach just sucks.

Have I tried this? Many times my pedigree chum. I can get through about 300g of peanuts/cashews/almonds (~1800kcal) before my tastebuds get bored and I move onto something sweeter.

EDIT: I should add as well, I try not to do this any more as it turns into a vicious circle, overeat one day, then try to undo the damage over the next few days. That's how eating disorders start.

[Bvb45]

Willie, the good news is you know and acknowledge a problem here.

You can try and replace the chocolate with bananas?..sweet and satifying and only 130calories a piece, so they are alright.

If you like things that tastes "smokey" in general from the BBQ etc, then try Carob Chocolate. Its basically Cocoabutter, Carob and salt, thats it. Its like chocolate, but tastes kinda light smokey and isnt really sweet. Same calories but at least alot more healthy(no sugar and Carob is basically a special flour) and it contains superhigh amounts of fibre so it satisfies REALLY good. My last plate of it, had 17g/fibre pr.100g which is twice of what rolled oats has pr.100g(8-9g).

Another trick, eat a big breakfast, and not the "egg and stuff" one. Oatmeal, rolled oats or some muslivariant of that with milk and yoghurt. If its not tasty enough, grab 50g of chocolate and grate it over the mix, it'll still be alot healthier and taste sort of like chocolate.

I know there are harder and more efficient ways to solve your problem, like the guys have already written about, but for it to work YOU need to believe it and YOU need to be able to realize the plan from now on and 40yrs ahead maybe. Its a lifestyle change and not a diet you need. Thats why I provided you with a "light" version of the change here, where you keep the chocolate taste in your plan, but the nutrition value and quality goes up by a mile, hope it works for ya

[principiamacb]

Could someone suggest something that weighs the same as fat? I say this because I found I completely stopped drinking Coke after I weighed out the amount of sugar that was in a 500ml bottle. It was undeliverable to see the pile! If the same thing could be done with fat it might put you off!

[kevinkalis]

Could someone suggest something that weighs the same as fat? I say this because I found I completely stopped drinking Coke after I weighed out the amount of sugar that was in a 500ml bottle. It was undeliverable to see the pile! If the same thing could be done with fat it might put you off!

Butter, margarine, lard

Although don't be fooled into thinking fat's the enemy. Calorie surplus is.

[WillieSkelly]

Just thought I'd give the first week update.

I've done as advised here and been keeping a food diary and tried not to cut out the chocolate, but cut it down. The main thing I conscentrated on was trying to make it a lifestyle change and look at chocolate and sugar as the enemy, as opposed to my best mate.

I also decided that I could get down to 10 1/2st by loosing excess body fat without getting into the difficult area of low percentages and eating half a prune for dinner . When I get to 10.5st I'll buy myself a Garmin Edge.

This week has been fantastic. At the start I was really, struggling with cravings. My wife started making me a couple of extra chicken sandwiches and a wee (50g) bag of brazil nuts, so when I started getting my 10am starving session I just wolfed a sandwich into me and a few of the nuts. By mid week that kept me ticking over to lunchtime without any chocolate bars. At lunch then I ate the rest of the sandwiches, nuts (Bag is only 50g) and a yogurt. I found that it got me through to mid/late afternoon without any sugary kak.

In my bag of chocolate & sweetie goodies sitting at my desk, which is hardly touched since monday, I've bags of sweets. If I could really not take it any longer in the afternoon I'd open a bag and share them out amongst the office so I only got a few.

I know it seems so petty and simple to you guys, but having spent so long just shovelling sugar into me, this week was a revelation. I've realised I can do without it and am getting a kick from not taking it. Going to bed hungry helps my appetite in the morning too.

Still lots of hard work to go but I'm determined to keep at it and kick the habit...not to mention get my Garmin Edge.

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement...it's working so far

[Tapeworm]

Have I tried this? Many times my pedigree chum. I can get through about 300g of peanuts/cashews/almonds (~1800kcal) before my tastebuds get bored and I move onto something sweeter.

EDIT: I should add as well, I try not to do this any more as it turns into a vicious circle, overeat one day, then try to undo the damage over the next few days. That's how eating disorders start.

Apart from the amazing feat of being able to eat 300 grams of nuts in one sitting I don't see the negative. Certainly better than 300grams of chocolate.

[kevinkalis]

Have I tried this? Many times my pedigree chum. I can get through about 300g of peanuts/cashews/almonds (~1800kcal) before my tastebuds get bored and I move onto something sweeter.

EDIT: I should add as well, I try not to do this any more as it turns into a vicious circle, overeat one day, then try to undo the damage over the next few days. That's how eating disorders start.

Apart from the amazing feat of being able to eat 300 grams of nuts in one sitting I don't see the negative. Certainly better than 300grams of chocolate.

Not gonna argue that the nuts are better than the chocolate.

I am a bit surprised at how everyone thinks 300g of nuts is a lot though.

[mattyb]

I've done as advised here and been keeping a food diary and tried not to cut out the chocolate, but cut it down. The main thing I conscentrated on was trying to make it a lifestyle change and look at chocolate and sugar as the enemy, as opposed to my best mate.

Just be careful with this sort of mindset. Negative thoughts about eating is not a path I think is worth going down.
I know it's a small thing now but you don't want to feel guilty for eating. Use positive thoughts ... 'I am going to eat this instead of that because it makes me feel good' instead of 'it is bad if I eat this' which can lead to 'I am a bad person because I ate this'. That is where downward spirals start

[aadamcycle]

I have read a paper on dieting and psychological issues and in this paper the underlying statement was that overeating under eating are most always caused by a psychological issue. Solve the psychological issue and you will fix the reason you eat chocolate all the time.

I find gum works well for reducing the urge to eat as it provide something for your mouth to do reducing boredom and the flavor provides stimulation for your mind. Now I like to have 3 or 4 flavors to mix it up a bit as chewing one type of gum can get old.

[MattSoutherden]

Forgive me Father, for I have eaten a whole packet of chocolate-covered rasins.



</shame>

[cnbky]

I've got a suggestion that works pretty well for me, many will argue against it but it suits me as im a zero or hero kinda guy.

I have periods where I really don't give a f and do whatever I want, typically exam period or thesis period so that kinda times (in the past)...My weight doesn't fluctuate for some reason despite having 2 extremes more often than what can be accepted as tolerable....worth adding that I always train, not as hard always but always do..

anyway, what works for me is giving a %100 dedicated 2 weeks or so to kick-start a routine...cold turkey everything, super hard training, 100% measured eating, the whole works....by doing this i see my performance shoooot up and this becomes very very motivational for me..it becomes a driving factor and the routine and momentum of the feel good becomes the fuel to the fire...sure i fall of it at times and when i do i do it big because personally to me there is no satisfaction for 1 sprite and 15 pieces of chips to go with a movie on the couch - i wanna have a bag with the sour cream dip and several drinks and maybe some ice-cream afterwards...the whole 3 steps forward 1 step back doesnt do it...i like 10 steps forward and 5 back so to speak....that at least truly satisfies me...

oh and also yes, food is an emotional thing, so is training hard for me....if this method works for you, you will slowly see that emotional gaps can be closed with hard painful late night tranings (at least for me)

so finally,
1) spend 1 full day preparing a diet plan, calculate what you need daily
2) break that into 3-4 meals (lets be honest not everyone can eat 5 times a day we got shit to do)
calculate what each meal equals to ie, 1 bowl of pasta with x sauce or 2 chicken cheese very lowfat mayo sandwiches (be clever here because if ur you work in an environment where your lunches cant be prepared, think of alternatives, for example 1 avocado pret sandwich + 1 cadbury bar and a water/juice......point is, have a nice variety of meals prepared in your mind..like an easy/small cook book. when you get used to this youll know okay its lunch time on a work day, here are my options that are within the allowed calories/fats etc for a lunch on a work day....today ill got with x etc.
3) The day you chose to start this routine, find something that motivates you! this is where you gotta let ur imagination run, when i was smaller I used to play in an amateur basketbal league and id watch space jam or scenes of it - THAT for some reason would get me pumped up....(mind you i was very young)....as i got a little older and started taking undergraduate physics and math, i used to watch (gona sound hella geeky) cool youtube videos of mathematicians working or interviews. A week before an incredibly important/hard economics based interview i used to watch TED videos or presidential speeches or the apprentice (the older US ones not the crap celebrity ones)...motivation is a wierd peronal thing that sets something off in your mind and use that to drive you/or look to discover it....dedicate yourself for 2 weeks, see where that gets u.

btw, this motivational pump-up has worked so well for me that 3 years ago(when i had the time), i got so in the zone that i went from london to utah to a camp called gym jones to train with the biggest fitness nuts in the world. and to them i owe that i dont feel much pain in my legs anymore.

[MattSoutherden]

That's the sort of regime that a lot of pro footballers, boxers, etc fall in to. Train hard and look after yourself, then binge in downtime.

There is a big downside to it however - Have you seen what most retired boxers and footballers look like?

[cnbky]

yes precisely (!) but the difference is my weight doesn't fluctuate as you would expect in a yo-yo diet..165lbs and %9 fat atm and im not on my hard regime...but clearly the results of this method is different for everyone...if youre a heavy fella to start with, this may not be a good way (however the motivational factors don't change)