Healthy Habits

Want to make a list of healthy habits. Lets share and be inspired for a better tomorrow to a lifetime with habits that shape the quality of our lives.

Example: Brush my teeth morning and night. When my teeth is cleaned I don't want to eat and thus save calories for the next day.

Glass of water before a meal: I'm half full already so I'm not tempted to eat too much or binge.

Every morning yoga stretch: Get ready for the day and get energized so I wouldn't eat anything bad in the morning.

I'm desperate for some better habits. I binge/ snack on desserts like cookies and brownies too much and need help in counteracting the trigger foods. Appreciate the participation!

Get rid of the cookies and the brownies. Also, you could pop a breath mint or a hard candy whenever you get a sweet craving.

My #1 best healthy habit personally?

I put on my jogging clothes and shoes BEFORE I feed the cats. That way when I take their litter trash out, I can get the dog and go for my jog!!!   : D

#2  --   do a chore before a snack.  if I think I want one, I have to (empty the dishawasher, fold a load of laundry, fill in the blank) before I can have one.

#3  --  drink water (as little soda as possible), little sodium, more fruit and veggies, less processed

#4  --  eat a snack at 10AM.

#5  --- STAY BUSY!  it is when I plop on the couch that I think, what is there to snack on.....???? 

I like this post already.   ( ;

1.  Don't buy trigger foods.  Make it easier to eat well than to eat badly

2.  Plan plenty of variety into your food.  A boring, repetitive diet will have you craving something more interesting

3.  Plan meals ahead....   Makes shopping more effiicient, you waste less food and you don't send out for pizza because there's 'nothing in the house to eat'.

4.  Make your weight-loss programme an enjoyable and sustainable part of your life rather than trying to shoe-horn your life around someone else's weight-loss programme.   Don't embark on anything to 'lose weight' that you can't see yourself happily doing for the rest of your life.

cool! I love the breath mint, keeping busy, and variety. Another habit I came up with is some yoga stretching in the morning? Anyone tried that before?

Cool... hope this post keeps going and more people share!

=D

me too!   ( :

Plan meals ahead.... Makes shopping more effiicient

Deffinately agree with that one. Also, don't go shopping when you're hungry!!

I had a really bad habbit of picking up things to 'eat for now'.. or just random snacks because I was hungry when I went shopping.

I am also a member of the 'see it, want it' club.. so I really had to retrain myself not to pick up something in the supermarket just because:

a) Oh! it's shiny
b) mmm.. it's tasty looking
c) Ooh.. Novelty packaging
d) On special offer!
d) ..all of the above

So planning ahead with a shopping list and a clear head really helped that out.

Also.. getting out of the 'waste not, want not' frame of mind. If there was food left over from dinner or cookies left in the jar or other unhealthy food lying about I had a real urge to finish it off so it wasnt wasted. I just had to remind myself.. while the food wasnt wasted, it was certainly waisted!!

I find the addition of a garbage disposal helped greatly in the arena, jef.  ( :   I was so excited when we bought our first house last summer to finally have my own!  (blush)

I do the same thing IF I am hungry shopping.  And having a list is key. 

Smart people posting here. 

hehe, I was my own personal garbage disposal.

I've always wondered why we dont have them over here (Scotland). Probably because of the amount of crap we'd throw in them. Pets, furniture etc. :p

Something that's helped me is to have a schedule. Not a strict schedule, but a general one that I can alter slightly at will. That way, instead of constantly wondering what I can eat next, I'll already know that I have a snack of fruit (or whatever) planned for 3 PM. So after lunch, I don't dwell on food.

I love these smart, helpful, and entirely upbeat posts!

Washing my produce immediately upon getting it home and getting at least 5 days worth of vegetables and fruits cut and sorted into plastic containers for easy access.

Boiling and peeling eggs and seperating the yolks and whites for a few days worth.

Making a large batch of salad every week  that keeps for days and is filling and nearly a meal in itself. Such as a bulgur based Tabbouleh or Pasta and vegetable. Olive oil and fresh squeezed lemon as dressing.

Move my body for at least 30 minutes every single day even if it means while doing dishes or the laundry marching in place.

Not ever letting  the kitchen be without healthy better choices in fridge or cupboard.

Try and go to bed at the same time every night, since i've been doing this my body has got into a routine where I can find it easier to eat the same time every day and therefore I'm snacking a lot less. I just feel a whole lot better.

I had a night out a couple a week ago and didn't get to bed until around 3am (I usually go at 10 - 10.30pm) - I didn't get up the next day until 1pm! I know the odd night out is allowed but it threw my whole sleep cycle out and I felt awful for days, really couldn't sleep at night and found it impossible to get up for work the next day!

 

Try thinking of exercise as a permanent routine for life rather than just an additional way to lose weight. Our bodies need exercise so once you lose the weight, just cut back a little but still aim for 30 min a day

allowing myself a treat every once in a while really helps... if something is forbidden then I'll eat a package of them when I get a chance.. if I give into my craving with just a couple bites, I'm ok

garbluv- I do the same thing with salads!!

i do a couple of things that really help me out

1. after i cook a meal, i put away the leftovers before i eat my dinner. That way i dont pick at the food while i put it away or go back for seconds.

2. i bought those reusable divided containers. i measure out meals and label the lid with masking tape so i know the portions for cc. This way i have my own "lean cuisine" pre-packaged meals. I get more calories for portion size and usually less sodium. Plus i know i like what's in them. I'm a picky eater.

3. I know some people frown on this but i weigh myself about a billion times a day. I like knowing that my weight can fluctuate when i havent done anything. That way i don't worry about every pound. If i'm up a pound or 2, i just chalk it up to water or too much sodium or the phases of the moon :P. Plus i have the scale in the kitchen so i have to step over it to get to the refridgerator. That usually prompts me to weigh myself. then i remember how well i'm doing so i pick a healthy snack like a clementine.

4. i try to have clementines on hand all the time. They are great and only 23 calories. Plus they are a fidgety food. you have to peel them and you can seperate the parts to eat them. And they are just yummy. For those that don't know, clementines are similar tangerines only very sweet.

just little tricks but they work for me! 27.5 pounds down so far. 116 more to go!

I find it helps to plug all the foods into my tracker at the beginning of the day.

Also, eating contiously.  Taking the time to actually taste and enjoy what i'm eating.

I used to just eat whatever, whenever... then I would feel full and bloated afterwards. Now I just think more, I think when I'm about to eat a handfull of some high calorie snack that I really didn't need. I think when I'm about to go on a late night binge, I log in to this site and check out my calorie intake for the day - once I see that I've already taken in enough for the day, it stops me from eating all those extra cals that I didn't need.

 

I try to be more active and I cut out the nonsense snacks. I eat more fruit.

Original Post by princess_abigail:

     I log in to this site and check out my calorie intake for the day - once I see that I've already taken in enough for the day, it stops me from eating all those extra cals that I didn't need.

 

 

 This is probably one of the all time in my life big changes on trying to get healthier habits! Nothing else in the past was quite so helpful. Eventually it will be something I don't have to do but it sure helps now!

ok I am a non sense binger... been totalling 2,400 daily which is ridiculous.

Hey when you guys are bored what do you do to counter act the eat craving? That's something that's been bugging me.

Garbluv you're very positive and I like the fact that you pre cut your veggies... like fsunshine  measuring meals and prepackaging them.  That's so smart.

Ok how do you pre-log meals when you really don't know what you're going to eat the next day. Should I just log it in before I even eat it? You know what that's what I'll do. Whenever I get an urge for food and I'm at the house I'll pre-log.

I don't know about you guys... but I always eat the most when I'm in the house alone with absolutely nothing to do.

thanks for the tips! I'm definitley inspired... but I really don't know how to make a good salad. I'll look online and make salads for the week. That is one habit I am DEFINITLEY taking.

One more question... what do you guys do when you've binged and ate so much in one day? Like if you've been doing it for a LOOOOOOOOOOONG time and you want to break the cycle. That's what I need right now...

-HB

Thanks hananabanana! Staying positive is key for me. I had a problem with getting bored with nothing to do but  bingeing on food  wasn't the big problem, I drank too much wine. Gave me the same results as too many cookies and brownies. Made me 60 lbs. over weight. Well that and an addiction to whoppers! :P

I still get bored with nothing to occupy my time some days  so now I turn on the radio or stereo and dance my exercise into my day. It takes no equipment, no expertise or trainer. No one can see me and so no embarrassment. The results? I don't feel like ruining that effort with binge drinking or eating. I wait a half hour and eat a healthy snack. I tell myself everyday, I can wait two more hours, it won't kill me until I eat the next meal. Keeping it smaller portions. I wrote everything down religiously the first three weeks, then logged it on here. Now I just log the end of the day what I ate. I have memorized most of what I eat and have it all tagged for easy access in my account. I love this site so much! Other people here have talked about their cheat day or free day once a week or so. I do that on weekends. Thats when I'll have a glass or two of wine. I don't like whoppers anymore but I still go out for stuff I love to eat. Its something that I look forward to and it works for me. My weight is going down slowly but steadily. The best benefit of  this? Feeling so good about it working once and for all. My health is actually improving along with the smaller size clothes.

If you change just a few things a week on how you usually did things it gets easier. Sure, you'll have bad days but we all do. So many people here are going to encourage you not to give up. This is a place where you will find people that truly do understand how you feel. :)

exactly-it is great to find likeminded folks here

my best healthy eating habit? i don't bring the stuff i know i love to binge on into the house. at all. i'm not a huge fan of sweets, so there are plenty of cookies, candies, ice cream et cetera in my house that sit there forever without being touched. but a bag of chips would be gone in a day if i bought it. the solution? i don't buy it!!!