So Frustrated with myself!!

[ladytorch101]

I am definitely a stress eater. After a long day at school, all I crave is some McDonalds. I'm pretty sure I have an addiction to McDonalds!! Seriously. I drove home from school knowing that I shouldn't go there, and that I had plenty of food at home that I could eat instead, but for some reason, I find myself sitting in the McDonalds drive through, ordering some chicken nuggets and french fries! And the weird thing is that I know how disgusting it is, but I still crave it!

I live on my own, so I have nobody to remind me to eat healthy (which I usually do when I'm not eating McDonalds all the time!!). Whenever I'm stressed out, I usually gain a lot of wait! And at the moment, I just can't seem to motivate myself to work out. sigh. It's just so frustrating!! I need motivation

 

[JCH]

I am definitely a stress eater. After a long day at school, all I crave is some McDonalds. I'm pretty sure I have an addiction to McDonalds!! Seriously. I drove home from school knowing that I shouldn't go there, and that I had plenty of food at home that I could eat instead, but for some reason, I find myself sitting in the McDonalds drive through, ordering some chicken nuggets and french fries! And the weird thing is that I know how disgusting it is, but I still crave it!

I live on my own, so I have nobody to remind me to eat healthy (which I usually do when I'm not eating McDonalds all the time!!). Whenever I'm stressed out, I usually gain a lot of wait! And at the moment, I just can't seem to motivate myself to work out. sigh. It's just so frustrating!! I need motivation

I feel your pain. I've been doing weight watchers for about 8 months and sometimes just need some junk food. Luckily the flexibility of WW allows that to happen without totally derailing my diet (6 piece nugget and small fry = 13 pts). I find even when craving junk, if I know what everything is calorie wise, I at least don't binge. I'll look at the menu and say..this is okay, I can have a single cheeseburger and fix the craving, I don't need a Big Mac. If you never let yourself have the thing you crave, you will end up binging. If you let yourself have a *small* reward, eventually you will end up not wanting it anymore once your body gets used to healthy food.

As for working out, sign up for a Disney 5k! I would not even think about the gym, then once I signed up and told people, I felt I had to because I could fail at this. I feel great after two months of training! 11 days to the race

 

[ohMom]

ladytorch! so glad you found us and now you never have to feel as though you are alone in this! you have made the hardest step in acknowledging that changes need to be made in order to be healthier!

start with small changes, ones that don't feel so overwhelming and as they become routine then you make another change. there are several groups on WISH for support and accountability....please feel free to check them out and join in anytime you are ready!

 

[moonbill2002]

I took a much more radical approach for my addiction to Coca-Cola and McDonald's (it was bad...I was eating McDonald's at least 3-5 times a week and drank 4-5 Cokes a day...regular ones!). I decided I was done eating foods with preservatives, artificial colors, flavors, etc. Very drastic, yes. And it takes a LOT of reading ingredient list and I can't shop in regular grocery stores for a lot of my foods. My food bill also went up some but that was offset by the fact we were no longer eating out at restaurants, ordering pizza, or stopping at fast foods places. I haven't eaten fast food since March 30, 2011 and the only soda I've drank was Zevia, which is sweetened with Stevia and uses natural ingredients (it actually tastes really good).

It was a little difficult at first but what I've found is the longer I go without all of that stuff, the more my taste buds have acclimated to natural foods. Fruits and veggies taste better and I don't need a ton of salt and stuff. I'm eating about 6-7 servings of fruit and veggies a day now, where before, I was lucky to squeeze a piece of fruit. I drink water, with the occasional glass of coconut milk (mixed with a squirt of Midnight Moo for yummy chocolate milk). I treat myself to a square of 72% dark chocolate EVERY day to keep my sweet tooth satisfied and on the weekends, I make homemade ice cream. If we have a hankering for french fries, I make them from scratch. I think they taste better than McDonald's anyways and if I have to make them from scratch, we will eat less of them because they are a pain in the butt to make! We eat hamburgers at least once a week but it's from grass fed beef and we treat ourselves to pizza but again, it's homemade and paired with a big salad. I realize this isn't feasible for everyone and it does take a lot of work. There are nights when I get home from work, all 3 kids are being a pain in the butt and it's tempting to just go grab some fast food. But it's just as fast to make some homemade chicken quesadillas with all natural ingredients, toss a big salad or cut up some fruit, and I know what they are eating.

I've gone from 188lbs to 148 since March and most of that was just from the change in my diet. I've only recently started running/working out in the past month or so. The best part is that I'm not tempted to eat most foods I would have before because when I read the ingredient list and see it contains something like carnuba wax (uh, isn't that used for your car?) or some other chemical I can't pronounce, I'm no longer interested in eating it. Reading Michael Pollan's books The Omnivore's Dilemma also helped me change my diet without too much hassle = )

Also, look into a program like Body for Life. Their eating program is really simple to follow, you get to eat 6 times a day, there are no counting calories, and you get a Free Day to eat what you want. So if you still want that Mcdonald's you can have it on your Free Day. I used that years ago and went from a size 12 to a size 6 in about 3 months....dropped about 6% bodyfat and it wasn't a difficult program to follow (as in complicated). I loved it! I also found that when I am working out, I'm less tempted to eat stuff I know isn't healthy. On my off days, it's a little harder for me to resist temptation....lol. For me, there is definitely a direct correlation between getting exercise and my diet being healthy/unhealthy!

 

[Dreamer2012]

I have been trying to really watch my diet since decideing to try to do the Princess 1/2 Marathon in February 2012. The first thing I did was pledge to not visit my beloved McDonalds/ Burger King/ KFC etc... (I still go to Wendy's for the chili - a small is not too bad calorie wise and is full of satisfying protein!) - I also decided to stop drinking diet soda - which I had about a 2 liter a day habit of! However I only liked it from a fountain - no can/bottles etc for me - there really is a big difference. After the 5 day long brain tumor headache from caffeine withdrawl subsided I vowed to pick myslf up, dust myself off and stop taking away things and add something good for me - excercise! I would like to lose approx 30 lbs by the race - my girlfriend who is joining me (no husbands/no kids!) for the race is approx 100lbs over weight and is joining me has started "training" (very loose terminology for what we are doing!) We are now walking @ 4.0 for 3 mins and the jogging(?) @ 5.0 for 1 min. for a total of 30 mins 2x a week and a long - fast walk on Saturdays. I am happy to say i have not had diet soda in over a month (or been to the fast food joints either!) and feel sooo much better and so proud of myself. I worry a lot about the "sweeper" at the upcomming race - but have 5 more months to continue trying to get faster and go further.... I no longer miss the diet soda and with out it I think my cravings are much less intense for the wrong things. Keep up the goow work girls - together we can do ANYTHING!! I am glad to be a part of this!

 

[jaci-h]

I cleanse every 3 months and it helps SOOOOO much with my fat and sugar cravings. Also, make sure you're drinking TONS of water. When you start craving fat, eat good fats- avocado, olives, almonds. Also, taking fish oil supplements help your body not crave fat so much (your body can't tell the difference between good fats and bad fats, so fill those gaps in with omega3s from fishies!). I'm a health and wellness consultant as my job and I sell supplements. These are all the amazing things I've learned

 

[disneyismyname]

I feel your pain. After my first day of Surgical classes, I was so stressed out that I went straight to Taco Bell! Not the best thing to do. But I do it anyways and always feel like crap afterwards.

 

[ladytorch101]

I cleanse every 3 months and it helps SOOOOO much with my fat and sugar cravings. Also, make sure you're drinking TONS of water. When you start craving fat, eat good fats- avocado, olives, almonds. Also, taking fish oil supplements help your body not crave fat so much (your body can't tell the difference between good fats and bad fats, so fill those gaps in with omega3s from fishies!). I'm a health and wellness consultant as my job and I sell supplements. These are all the amazing things I've learned

Thank you everybody for the support! I am currently....2 days without eating McDonalds!! Like you, moonbill2002, I usually eat McDonalds 2-3 times a week. And I know how bad it is for me! But it's just so hard to fight the cravings!

Thanks for the tips, jaci-h! I do drink plenty of water. Probably more than the recommended 8 glasses a day. Maybe I should start keeping olives and almonds on hand! Does that really help?! And I've never heard of supplementing with fish oil to keep my body from craving fatty food. I'll have to try it!

Thanks everyone!

 

[moonbill2002]

I also supplement with fish oil (not to help with cravings but maybe that helped as well!). I take it to help with my arthritis and my mood. The psychiatrist I work alongside often prescribes it to help with depression and since I'm not too keen on taking a lot of modern medicine, I decided to add it to my regimen after also doing some research on how it helps with chronic inflammation (I have rheumatoid arthritis). I now take two 1400mg capsules a day of high quality fish oil a day and not only has it helped my pain but my mood has greatly improved (and I'm guessing it's helped my cravings subside as well!). As for nuts, I also eat 1.5oz of nuts each and every day, usually almonds. My mid-morning snack is usually almonds and a piece of fruit. Keeps me satisfied until lunch. I also use almond milk in my smoothie. I have noticed since doing this months ago, my skin has changed dramatically, for the better.

I think healthy fats have so many benefits and my recently labwork shows this. My HDL increased drastically and I can only think it's due to the change in my diet because I hadn't really started exercising that much yet. Keep up the good work because the longer you go without all that crap food, the easier it gets to go without it