I can't eat healthy

[Chumbimba]

I have tried and tried and tried again. Yesterday I HAD TWO POPEYES CHICKEN SANDWICHES. I tried to fast today and I broke it in 3 hours. I cant get over my cravings to sugar. Its a huge ego backlash because I cut out sugar and bad food and now I am back on it harder than ever. I dont know what to do. The gyms are closed in my area and I feel myself getting fat. 

Right when I was doing really good :'( 

[pluto]

Sure you can, pretend you have corona virus, watch your ass fly to the health food store in no time. People wait for an excuse to be healthy, most of the time then its too late. You posting this is evident in itself that you can do it now, all other points from here on are excuses and laziness.

If can't keep feeding your ego, be strong, will power. Sure it can be challenging but if you never try and push yourself you never going to know and after you break through a certain threshold, it only gets easier and easier because you start to feel better and better.

You can do it. You can replace all unhealthy things with healthy things that taste exactly the same if not better.

Get researching.

 

 

[Javfly33]

That because your brain uses food as an addition. You need to change additions into one more healthy.

Here's a timeline of my last 8 years of life and how have I been switching addictions

- Addicted to videogames/internet (8years ago)

- Quit videogames, starting smoking cigarettes (6years ago)

- Quit smoking, started using porn as an addiction (2-3 years ago)

- Quit porn use partially, started using Kratom (1 year ago)

- Quit porn totally, started using Kratom only occasionally (just recently)

- Started doing running and meditation more habitually to ease the mind, because since I no longer use porn, Kratom, or cigarettes to combat boredom or anxiety, there's an emptyness. This emptyness drives me to eat bad food sometimes, even if a I have a pretty good diet, but now I'm definitely switching to something healthy.

[Nahm]

@Chumbimba

You more deeply know what you want now. So you’re doing even better than when you were doing good. Zoom out a bit, see the bigger picture. I wouldn’t try to go from fast food to fasting. Being full and feeling good from what you ate, might be a much easier way to transition from fast food. I found It’s much less enticing if you’re not hungry, and feeling healthier from what you ate, and happier for having done so. In any case, you already know you are committed. You know what you want diet wise. You’ll ‘get there’. Really, this is you already ‘getting there’. This is a ‘part’ of that unfolding. 

Spend all your focus and attention, casually, on thoughts aligned with what you want. Have effortless conviction, at the level of thought. Get down to the brass tacks of it. Notice even “I can’t eat healthy” is a thought which doesn’t feel good, because it isn’t true about you. There’s often a loop between that kind of thinking & that kind of eating. Change whichever is easier. The other one will change indirectly, more easily. 

Also, there is intellectual motivation, of the mind if you will, thinking... “I gotta do it for or because of x, y , z”.  And there is non-intellect, or intellect-aside, inspiration, known only in feeling... “because this is actually what I want.”  “Because choosing what I want literally feels good, right now.”

 

[Applegarden]

Keep trying and persisting! One day it will break more and more.

[Chumbimba]

@Javfly33 The bad eating didnt come back until recently when I moved in with my mom. I am also impulsively spending and playing video games completely neglecting my good habits. Maybe that has something to do with. 

[pluto]

2 hours ago, Chumbimba said:

@Javfly33 The bad eating didnt come back until recently when I moved in with my mom. I am also impulsively spending and playing video games completely neglecting my good habits. Maybe that has something to do with. 

You, becoming aware of it, is the notion that you have already started to deal with it because once you are aware of something, you can change, stop and deal with it then and there. You have to learn to master the mind and not allow it to take control. Find your inner-stillness and deal with your challenges, if they do not serve your highest good and are creating suffering, then remove them. Think this through, spend some time in nature, in meditation, find where you can be quiet and remain there until more clarity and ease of flow comes to you. Or find someway to be more present, in day to day activities, the more you are doing things "in the moment", the more you are awareness/no-mind and in awareness you have true sight.

Minds sight is very limited, it only sees one angle.

True sight is infinite.

[Applegarden]

Just now, Chumbimba said:

@Javfly33 The bad eating didnt come back until recently when I moved in with my mom. I am also impulsively spending and playing video games completely neglecting my good habits. Maybe that has something to do with. 

Yes usually these habits go in a ritual, you want to do everything together to get the maximum intensity of those pleasures and complete frogetfulness. For example if you try to eat with no entertainment or try to play games without that extra junk food it will feel weird and empty.  And usually masturbating come after that with more coffee and at the end of the day you feel defeated. Sound familliar to you?

[Chumbimba]

@Applegarden Very familiar. Its like a slippery slope of low consciousness behaviors. This emptiness has been there most of my life. I am doing strong determination sit to face it. At least 1 hour a day. It is triggered by my swept under the rug life issues and fears. 

[Villager Albert]

@Chumbimba What helped me a lot was actually understanding how important your diet is. Not only for your longevity but also for energy. I have like 30% more energy than when I was eating junk.

Also, starting is hard and it's probably a good idea to start slow, eliminating one thing at a time and replacing them with healthy foods that you also like. Eggs, nuts, some fruits, you get the point.

It'll actually become pretty easy after a while cause you'll develop new taste buds and start loving healthy foods, I promise.

[CMacD]

I think it's more of a balance than just hating yourself for eating certain foods.  If I intermittent fast, only otherwise eat fruits, veggies, and clean carbs, stay physically active, what's wrong with eating a burger or omelette or chocolate bar, fried chicken, etc.. if you actually have the room for the calories? I am a big fan of "if it fits your macros" type dieting.

Oops, I missed that you already mentioned you try fasting... I had much success with it, I'm sorry that you'r having difficulty .I find caffeine can help you not get as hungry or irritable during a fast, btw. Of course that can get addicting if you rely on it every day, but I am happier a lean caffeine addict than a fat non addict.

To be honest the leanest I've ever been I still ate chocolate every 2nd day, if you count a cliff bar probably every day... cheese almost every day. I can show a picture if you want but I probably getting close to 10% bodyfat, depending on who you ask... but most people would say I seemed in pretty decent shape. (worked out a lot too)

I don't feel like there's anyone on earth that actually only eats fruit, vegetables, and boneless skinless chicken breasts, or whatever people's ideal "pure" diet is.


So yeah my advice is to get a rough feel for the macronutrients and calories in the food you eat, establish how many calories you need to be eating daily to be maintaining your goal weight, or losing weight... and enjoy whatever you're able to enjoy, just cut yourself off when you're going to go over your calories or specific macronutrients.

Tracking the exact amount of calories & macros you're taking in is a huge step, it's easy to lie to yourself that you're "kind of trying to watch what I'm eating" but you fuck up day after day because your day of food is untracked and unknown, just some vague bullshit. If you know that you need exactly 2000 calories a day and you weigh your food and look up how much calories it has, it's a lot easier to hold yourself back when you straight up can honestly recognize "hey, this extra meal IS going to make me gain weight, no question about it"  rather than  "Meh maybe I'm just a bit more hungry today, I need this"

Tracking your food might be daunting because you'll realize the amount you like to eat in one meal is like all of your day's calories... that's how it was for me. So I accepted intermittent fasting, I wait until the evening to eat one big satisfying meal, and then a smaller snack before bed.  

Edited March 26, 2020 by CMacD

[remember]

On 24.3.2020 at 0:00 AM, Chumbimba said:

I have tried and tried and tried again. Yesterday I HAD TWO POPEYES CHICKEN SANDWICHES. I tried to fast today and I broke it in 3 hours. I cant get over my cravings to sugar. Its a huge ego backlash because I cut out sugar and bad food and now I am back on it harder than ever. I dont know what to do. The gyms are closed in my area and I feel myself getting fat. 

Right when I was doing really good :'( 

first of all - sounds like you then buy the food somewhere where its not healthy. change that pattern, find places where they sell more healthy food and if anything buy there. also another thing possible is, then at least choose the most healthy food they sell instead of what you crave for. slowly changing that habit.

if you changed already to buy the healthiest food possible you can start to have some healthy food with you which is less expensive, like fruits for example. changing the diet does not work from one day to the next - its about patterns you havetrained yourself to act on for years it will take some weeks to change that.

if the gyms are closed, find some exercises on youtube - at least for the time being, so you don’t fall into that negative curve of feeling bad that you don’t at least do sth for your body.

it’s ok you‘ll find a way on how to change  your patterns slowly.

[Roy]

I don't know if you've experienced this yet, but once you're on a truly healthy diet and eating well, having trash junk food, fast food, and bad food in general will become disgusting to you. It may even make you feel sick.

My advice is to force yourself to go through that initial pain, and cross that threshold. Once you do it will be almost impossible to go back.

Edited March 27, 2020 by Roy

[Mada_]

I've experienced this. Breaking the fast after 3 hours, binging on junk food.

Be gentle with yourself, you don't really know exactly what you should be eating, you just have "better" ideas than your current situation.

 

I started doing Isha Angamardhana yoga everyday, contemplating and hour and meditating 20 minutes. Then joined an accountability group chat, and my craving for junk food just went away, I started to just feel when I was hungry and ask my body what it feels like.

You obviously want it, otherwise you wouldn't post about it. It is hard to accept that this process is really rocky, especially when that means you consume things that cause your body to deteriorate.

 

The other day I had these intense cravings to chow down on some of my mum's baking, it was 1am. If this corona stuff wasn't going on I would have willingly ordered McDonalds through Uber Eats. But I just sat there and watched it, I couldn't even be bother watching it tbh, I thought it was a huge inconvenience. But I watched it, and tbh it wasn't so bad.

 

 

[LfcCharlie4]

@Roy  This is so true, it's all about habits.

Once you start eating healthy and stop buying junk food it becomes normal, I feel stopping buying it is key, it's made to be addictive. Just like Porn, Gambling etc is, the food industry is incredibly corrupt and toxic. 

Unfortunately I don't think there's great margins on Tumeric and Ginger, whereas, there is on Coke and Sweets. 

Although, I feel we're getting closer and closer to a tipping point, health& fitness is everywhere you go these days, although I'm sure it'll be even more hijacked with shit like 'Keto Bars' and 'Vegan Bars' which contain shit instead of Whole Organic Foods which we are designed to eat. 

[ElenaO]

The only way to get rid of cravings is to push through and not give in. It's hardest the first time. The second time will be easier and so on. I have serious cravings, in fact I am a recovering binge eater and I know what these beasts are.

You got to understand that the cravings have no control over you. You can always stop yourself from eating crap. It may feel very uncomfortable and unpleasant to do so, but it's completely in your power. These urges that come, cannot make you eat sugary stuff. You may think they do, but they actually don't. It's totally up to you to decide to put that shit into your body. 
Yes, it's very unpleasant and uncomfortable, but to beat them you'll need to go through discomfort.

I am still fighting with a lot of it, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have a serious issue, I don't think you are in the same place fortunately.

[Raptorsin7]

@ElenaO  What kind of binge eating would you do?

I like eating junk food frequently too, but I don't know if i'm a binge eater.

Would like one meal from Wendy's every few days count as binge eating? Or does it need to be like 3 or 4 meals at once?

[ElenaO]

@Raptorsin7 By binge eating I mean when you seriously overeat even if you are not hungry. I'd eat thousands of calories just because I couldn't stop. It's a very strong urge.

Also overeating isn't necessarily binge eating. I tend to overeat most of the times, but it's still not binge eating. When I binge I lose any control, I just need to get my fix with food. Fortunately, I sort of got hold of it.

Eating junk doesn't necessarily mean that you binge. It depends how much of it you eat. Binge eaters eat so much that they are nauseous and then they go and purge that by exercising or vomiting. And believe me none of them want that, it's all the strong cravings that you feel that make you think it's you who wants to binge and that you really NEED it.  

[Raptorsin7]

@ElenaO Okay thanks for the insight I appreciate it

[ElenaO]

@Raptorsin7 No problem