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How do you stay on a diet when you crave food?
want to lose 20 pounds but every time I try I cheat on my diet. This summer I kept cheating and telling myself that Id just start my diet over the next day, but when the next day came I always ruined my diet. People around me are always eating junk and when I see it I have to have it and I over eat. How can I stop craving junk food?
If eat a small portion of something I crave then I will want
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Want to answer more questions in the Health & Fitness category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Fitness?
Just stop. You'll never lose weight until you eat less.
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Pook has awfully good advice on the eating end.
Part of the problem in the human psyche is that which we try to suppress (in your case, your need for food) will always express itself in some way, That is why thinking about baseball to try to hold off ejaculation during sex doesn't work. You have to clear your brain totally and relax.
Dieting, though, is a different animal. The best thing you can do is calorie control (as Pook has so well laid out) joined with hardcore exercise. 20 pounds will not take that long to drop (maybe two months with vigorous exercise). Exercise also builds strength and will help stave off things that tend to afflict folks in middle age such as back problems, for example.
The best exercise is swimming because it works every muscle in the body, is low impact and tends to taper the body very nicely. It also burns fat and calories like nobody's business. If you can't join a swim club or otherwise have access to a good sized pool (at least 25 meters), then you can run (thought jogging tends to be hard on the knees and back), walk or lift weights. The last one will result in you putting on a little muscle and muscle is heavier than fat, but it will tone you up, too, and you will NOT get real huge like guys can because you don't have the right amount of testosterone for it.
Also, if you have a toned body, child birth, when you are ready to begin having kids, is easier than it is for someone not in shape.
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There isn't some trick, it's will power, and if you can do it at least once you're helping yourself out a lot.
One way I overcome junk food or bad food is to really force myself not to have it. I stopped and thought about what I was going to eat. I said to myself, "do I really need this? I could eat a salad and ham sandwich instead and be just as satisfied but be digesting less calories." You need to tell yourself that you do not need junk food or bad food, because you don't. You want it and you're giving in too easily for it. You don't HAVE to have it, you WANT to have it, so you convince yourself that you need to eat it and give in.
Just go a day without eating bad food. Once you've managed to go through a day with your will power, you can do it any day.
"Diet" is a bad word because you shouldn't be limiting your food for a short amount of time until you lose weight, you should be eating healthier food and only eating junk food about once a month as a special occasion. This is the way eating should always be. Junk food is a special occasion and should only be treated as such.
You stop craving junk food by using your will power to stop eating it. Of course you're craving it, you've fallen into the habit of eating it all the time and your body is used to it. It's also used to the additives and preservatives that make your body addicted and reliant on bad food.
Always bring your food to work/school and make sure it's healthy. Don't bring money if you're just going to spend it on bad food. Take all the junk food out of your house and have only healthy food. During lunch, walk away from people that eat bad food, even just leaving the room, because being around junk food is only going to tempt you.
The best thing that's helped me with better eating is just thinking about what I'm eating. I used to eat so mindlessly and without thinking about the consequences, but now I stop and think about what I want to eat for lunch or dinner and how much of what food I should have. Sometimes I still get tempted by junk food, but I stop and think it's better to buy something healthier and make myself do that, even if I really want a burger instead. Remember that you can still enjoy yourself and eat junk food, but in moderation.
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There are a few things you can try:
- Make sure you are drinking enough water
- Fill up on vegetables
- Make sure you eat protein at every meal/snack
- Eat low G.I. carbs like rolled oats, sweet potatoes etc
- Avoid refined carbs and sugar
- Try to adjust your eating patterns so you don't get hungry, for example if you currently eat 3 meals a day, switch to 5-6 smaller meals/snack, and vice versa
- Make sure you have low calorie options on you so that when you see other people eating, you have can "join" them, but with a food that won't ruin your diet
- Allow yourself a "cheat" once a week (but don't go crazy obviously), one meal where you get to eat what you want
- Don't hang out with people who eat junk! Surround yourself with healthy eaters, or join an online support group where you can get motivation from others. Or ask a friend or relative to join you on your diet
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