Motivated to exercise but not stick to eating well

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11/25/12 9:27 A

Hi Laura,

As you so wisely pointed out, tracking our nutrition is what gets the scale moving. While exercise is an important component to healthy living, if you are eating more calories than your body needs, you will gain weight.

Let's face it we are bombarded with food on a daily basis. From the fast food restaurants we drive by every day to the commercials showing ooey gooey treats, even many of our family celebrations are centered around food. However, whenever we are beginning to make changes it does seem as though we are a tad obsessed. The reason, we have to unlearn years and years of unhealthy habits and replace them with new healthier option.

My running coach once told me..."In order to break a habit and replace it with a new one, you must constantly make yourself aware of everything that you do, until one day you no longer have to think you just do."

This is why planning is so crucial when it comes to embracing a healthy lifestyle and more importantly healthy eating. It truly takes the guess work out of what you are going to eat for that day as you have already prepared your menus. But I will admit it will take some commitment on your part. In other words, you are going to have to sit down once or twice a week and work out a menu...plan your meals ahead of time and allow for some give and take. Remember you don't have to live a perfect life to achieve a healthy lifestyle.

Hang in there Coach Nancy

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11/25/12 7:05 A

You sound just like me. My diet sucks. I just can't seem to work that part out and forget tracking calories. Just cannot bring myself to do it. The fact that cooking and eating are two of my favorite things is trouble, too.

One thing that I found to help me, small changes. I started with drinking more water. Cut back on soda. Smaller portions. Sometimes, I have to tell myself to just stop before the plate is clean. Eventually I found myself unable to consume as much food as I used to be able to put away. Promised myself more fruit and veggies. Worked on getting them in. Eating less bread, pasta, crackers: don't care for how large amounts make me feel, but still consume these things daily (with the exception of pasta - doesn't seem to agree with me anymore). Those extra few bites at each meal can add up.

I have worked on this for about two years now. My diet still sucks, but it is much better than it was back then. I am able to maintain my weight loss through these small changes that add up over time. I worked in some healthy habits and actually look forward to a lot of them.

I get my calories in vs calories out mostly through portion sizes and avoiding liquid calories with strength training and cardio. I am learning that I don't need nearly as much food and I thought I needed to "survive". I just needed to teach my stomach that.

Edited by: STEPHANIE138 at: 11/25/2012 (07:06)

current weight: 115.0

158 147.25 136.5 125.75

115

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11/25/12 4:41 A

Hi All,

I posted a similar message in the nutrition forum and am unable to delete/move it here as (assuming) I am posting from my phone. Anyways to cut a long spiel short, I seem to have a lot of motivation to exercise but very little to stick to a healthy diet. I've lost 15kgs since April and have another 15kgs to lose before I'm considered "healthy". I'm a nurse and I often don't get breaks due to the fact that I'm usually the only nurse on site, I've tried to take protein shakes nuts etc to snack on when can but it never seems to be enough. IAlso in addition to my irregular hours and eating pattern I have chronic fatigue. I never feel very rested after sleeping and my concerntration isn't as good as it could be. I realize diet can play a big part in helping and I really do try. You'd think that this alone would keep me motivated to "stay on track" but it doesn't. I've tried many different diets incl WW, paleo, counting calories, weight loss blogs, changing my mindset to being healthy not weight loss and the 80/20 rule. However I just find myself always gorging on food when I get a chance, eating things I don't need and beating myself up over it.

Like I said Im motivated to exercise, it's my stress relief. I exercise most days doing a combination of weights HIIT and cardio training. I just can't quite seem to figure out if this a "calories in vs calories out" thing, I'm emotionally eating, I'm eating cause I'm tired/not satisfied or I'm just hungry. Has anyone got any suggestions that may remedy this? (P.s I hope this makes sense)
Thanks