Let's talk diets

Quite the offshoot of topics from the normal conversations here. 

I don't find myself to be out of shape, overweight, etc however I feel my diet could really use some work. I'm in the gym 5 days a week and exercise 6 days a week. 5 days of lifting, 6 days of cardio (split between running, swimming, biking, and rollerblading). 

My problem is I eat like E36 M3 and I'm having a hard time shaking the habits. Energy drinks, processed/refined sweets, and chips have a hard time of not finding their way into my pantry and it kills my meal prepping that I do. Going to the gym is the easy part. Eating completely clean is the hardest freakin thing on the planet. 

A normal meal schedule for me each day is:

Breakfast: Egg whites, oatmeal, and a piece of fruit

Mid morning snack: protein shake or fruit w/ some peanut butter

Lunch: Chicken or steak, rice or sweet potato, and greens. 

Mid afternoon snack: salad

Dinner: Chicken or steak, rice or sweet potato, and greens. 

The problem is mid-afternoon at work I'll always go grab an energy and a bag of chips or some other trash from the snack area at work or while on a road trip. It also tends to happen on the way to work. 

Does anyone out there have any good tips on breaking these bad habbits? Like I want to completely shake the caffeine/energy drink habbit and I think that'll help crush the other two things messing me up. 

The caffeine dependency is what always kills me for this.  The "withdrawal" headache usually hits me a day or two after I have my last caffeine and then once it starts nothing stops it or lessens it until I have something with caffeine or wait 36-48 hours for it to pass.  Thankfully I dont suffer from migraines, but going through that I get an inkling of what they are like.

I've done it once, maybe twice, and was able to stay off it for a month or three, but always ended up back.

Try bringing heal6snacky with you to work. Something you can graze on like grapes or berries, maybe nuts. It seems.like.you have a pretty good diet overall, just needs some fine tuning. Just need to start a new habit, good luck.

Find healthier ways to buck the caffeine habit while tapering it down. After over a year of working on it, I drink coffee maybe once a month now, down from essentially mainlining it all day. I drink a fair amount of strong tea, so still getting caffeine, but it's less and I make a batch in a thermos to last me all day as a way to control the daily portion. Find ways to step it down over time. This will take a while, but is easier than you realize if done that way. Also, nuun has drink tabs with a bit of caffeine, and vitamin water has a flavor with caffeine in it ("energy") that's not bad at all. Both help a lot with keeping the caffeine levels in check while traveling. You can keep a nuun tube with you and just drop a tab in a reusable water bottle.

I'm doing precision nutrition now. It's not a how much You should it its a what you should eat.   Worth the money. Down 20 lbs. 

It's not the caffeine that's killing your gains, it's the sugar in the energy drinks combined with the high sodium content in the chips.

Hit up the store and grab flavored water and some sort of trail mix or granola to stash in your desk to keep you from getting the mid-day munchies out of the vending machine.

A little bit of sweetness doesn't hurt for your snacks as you may end up binging bad one of these days if you were to try and drop them completely.
 

Diets are bad. Lifestyle. As for what to eat, everybody knows that: food, mostly (all if you can take it) plants, not too much. Everyone needs more green Leafys and more berries and more fiber. Sounds like you’ve got that figured out for yourself, just stick with the menu itself.

For the cravings, you probably need the caffeine now as you’re addicted. I am too. If you want to break it, it’ll take at least a month. If you don’t, you should try to swap the energy drinks for coffee, or black tea, then taper down to none (or don’t, I wouldn’t because you can take my coffee from my cold dead hands. It’s a plant, dammit, I’m not giving it up). 

However, I found that what helped me to replace beer was carbonated water (aka sparkling water aka seltzer). Turns out I like the fizz. So keep an open mind as to what it is your brain is looking for. 

Same thing with the salty snacks. Replace them with trail mix, dehydrated fruit, even raw veggies - maybe your brain is after the crunch. 

Most people don't eat nearly enough veggies.  I can make a meal out of a nice salad--a big, honking salad with boiled eggs and some chunks of cheddar.  Plenty of calories, plenty of veggies.

Stay active.

Don't eat anything for the last 4 or 5 hours of your day. 

Caffeine per se isn't a problem.  Coffee is a healthy beverage (as is tea), but if you load it up with fat and/or sugar, you're ruining it.  And energy drinks, well, what is that?  HFCS and caffeine?

Edit:  Also, give yourself time to make the transition.  Be happy with small steps, give yourself an occasional indulgence, forgive yourself if you fall off the wagon every once in a while.  With motivation and time, you will succeed.

Diet is a four letter word...

(also subscribed because I need to loose weight and eat better)

+1 one on mixed nuts. Planters has small bags of mixed nuts with banana chips and cranberries. It works really well for me. They have several kinds and mine is energy mix. 

Eat more vegetables and cut out sugar and carbohydrates. Bread and pasta are carbohydrates.  

 Especially cut out drinks with sugar like soft drinks, red bull, etc.  Don't put sugar in  your coffee, just milk.    And if you are hungry between meals drink a cup of water instead.   

And the evening beers don't help either.     Exercise regularly.

Everyone knows all this, they just don't do it.

Habits are hard to break but easy to replace!

Getting up mid afternoon for a bit of break from work is what you need, and what you end up doing is grabbing a snack. If instead you get up and grab a banana (or how about a walk around the outside of the building), you meet your main need while easily eliminating the bad habit. 

Replace replace replace.

I've been working on trying to eat better, which is slightly difficult when you live in a hotel room for most of the month.

I recently saw a video that pushed the concept of "Calorie Density" - which really pushes natural veggies and fruits as well as less processed carbs. 

I think you're doing pretty f'ing great. 5-6 days of exercise and the attempt at a better diet is what you need right? Stop being frustrated with yourself and eat that little bag of chips occasionally. That's the whole reason I exercise- the love of bread and beer. And for my heart and stuff, but yeah.

I lost 60 lbs over 2018 and kept it off, heres how I did it.  

#1: I agree with the "lifestyle not a diet" comment.  If you dont stick with it forever, the benefits won't stick around forever.  That means make changes you can live with forever, no crash dieting.  Then wait for the changes.  It took me all year to slowly lose the weight.  After the initial 10lb drop the first week, it was about 1lb per week. 

#2: drop the caffeinated energy drinks.  Switch to black coffee.  No sugar, but kept my headaches away.  Its not ideal, but I dont drink sugar water to prevent a headache anymore.  While I'm at it, drop liquid calories.  Eat calories, drink fluids.  Black coffee and water tasted like garbage for a while, but now u dont crave sweet beverages.  

#3: dont eat constantly.  I believe it can be called "intermittent fasting", but basically I skip breakfast, sometimes dinner.  No food before lunch or after dinner.  You can eat the same number of calories a week, just in fewer, larger meals.  I get lots more done, I lost weight.  It's good for you, too, look up "autophagy" and do some reading.  Like everything the internet is full of BS but some of it has proven true in my case.  

#4: cut out the refined carbs and sugars.  Replace it with something else you like.  Veggies are great, but if you like steak and eggs then eat that.  I convinced my dad to ditch all the processed sugars and breads but crank up the steak and onions.  He had no trouble adjusting and lost 30lbs, improved his arthritis, also.

#5: eat stuff you like.  If I had to drop the sugary stuff I liked and replace it with veggie crap I hated, it never would have worked for me.  But I eat stuff I like, just no mtn dew/pringles.  I look up recipes for "ketogenic" foods, though I dont exactly eat a ketogenic diet.  It's just a shortcut to find delicious food without processed carbs.  Add a bowl of fresh fruit and theres a healthy source of carbs with fiber.  Raspberries are awesome, too. 

I did this switch cold turkey one day. Never went back.  Felt so good in 3 days I never wanted to eat garbage again.  

Oh and another tip, if its meal time and the only option is junk food, I just skip that meal.  Not eating anything is better than eating junk.  Eat double next healthy meal.  

Everybody is different, YMMV, etc... but it worked wonders for me.  Same for my 72 year old dad.

In reply to Rufledt :

I'll just kind of tack on details to what he said- nursing school now requires us to understand proper diets and healthcare in general is pivoting to "Healthy lifestyles" REAL hard now that we have so many with heart disease.

1. Understand everyone is different when it comes to making changes. Some do so slowly with real steps- some do all at once. Do what is best for yourself.
2. To add onto #1, multipule meals work for people whom like them and work well with them. As long as you're eating enough varied foods and are healthy and content, you can eat as many variations of meals as you'd like. 2? 6? Doesn't matter at all. Do what's comfortable.
3. (and this is to myself, too) CALORIE COUNT. My gym lifts suck because I don't count my caloric intake and measure macros; I don't do it, because I don't wanna take the time.
4. Salt cravings can also be your body craving heavy metals like Magnesium and lithium, micro nutrients that are sometimes needed and are also salty. Bring nuts to work and eat some when you want salty things.
5. For sugars, bring your own! I snag little discounted sweets from a local grocery store with it's own bakery all the time, because it allows me to tailor the sugars I take in while still having a treat. FAR cheaper too.
6. Cut the energy drinks in any way you can, like through tea or something. Energy drinks are straight-out horrible, full of sugars with large doses of things like Guanine that we *kinda* know what it does. Hell, sometimes they have chemicals in them that have no real affect on health.
7. Don't make cooking more confusing than in needs to be. There's a great single-page cooking guide off of reddits "R/Coolguides" that shows basic spice and material mixtures for a dish type, like varying amounts of oregano/basil for Italian or what kind of peppers needed for southwestern. Find something like that for basic meals; you only need to make things as complicated as you want, like with engines.

I did a modified KETO/low carb diet for the last 8 months and lost 50 pounds. Went from 237 to 187 and I dare to say that it was "easy". Seriously, other than a bit more expensive to buy groceries, it isn't that hard to do. It needs to be a lifestyle change in order for it to stay off long term  and since I want to look like her fiancée and not her bodyguard,  I plan on keeping the weight off and losing a few more pounds. 175# here I come!
 

I cut out any and all following:

- processed sugars now = monk fruit sweetener

-  "all-purpose" flour now = almond flour

- Heinz ketchup now = sugar-free ketchup

- no more bread/bagels/wraps

- potatoes and rice now = cauliflower 

- pasta now = either zoodles(zucchini/squash.beet noodles) or shirataki noodles

LOTS of vegetables, but no "root" veggies.

- very few fruits and no orange or cranberry juice. That is a tough one!

YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT CAN BE MADE FROM CAULIFLOWER!!!! I make rice, mashed potatoes, Alfredo sauce, hash browns, tater tots, fritters, 

I did WW through for a while.  It is a great program if peer pressure works for you.

The support and meals were great but like most "diets" it boils down to self-control.

I am of the opinion that calories only tell a portion of whats happening. Yes, it is the energy stored in the food if you burn it, but no your body doesn't burn the food. Here are two examples:

1: Ever see something that is recognizable as not fecal matter in your poop? Like carrot bits or peanuts or corn kernels? Your body did not absorb the calories to which those foods are measured.

2. No one would ever argue eating 100 calories of cookies is the same thing as eating 100 calories of fresh fruit. Everyone will say those calories are not relatable not because they don't hold the same amount of energy, because they do, but because we all know there is something else going on with both of them.

I have  elevated cholesterol levels that I need to keep below needing drugs for the rest of my life (because once they put you on statins(sp?) they don't seem to want to take you off), so I have a pretty good motivation. The American Heart Association used to state 36 grams of added sugar for men and 28 grams for women. They have since increased that but I think they were "swayed". But I digress.

Baked beans, yogurt premixed with fruit, juice, soda, long shelf life breads,.... etc all have a ton of sugar. The only natural sugars are in milk and fruits or veggies. The trick is, other than dairy, the sugar is mixed in with the fiber of the plants and that gets carried through your digestive tract trapping the sugar. It keeps it from being fully digested. I am an engineer not a health person so I am just reiterating what I've been told by my personal doctor and documentaries and am probably getting things wrong.

Smaller dinner plates help with portions and try to stay to one serving or wait 10 minutes before seconds. I didn't stop eating sugar, I just make a concerted effort to use my allotted 36 grams to a dessert that's worth it and not baked beans or juice.

Your tastes will change. I used to drink multiple cans of soda a day, now I cant stand the stuff. Everyone is different. Set a numbered goal and stick with it. Mine was a lower LDL number. It corresponded to a loss of 30 lbs too.

Notice I didn't say anything about fats. Talk to a physician. 

For me, the answer is... Money.

I don't make a lot of money, and my schedule means it's rare that I get time to actually prepare a proper meal.  I have found that only keeping "good" food in the house is the best way.  For me (I very strongly limit carbs) that means keeping lots of protein around.  I have a freezer full of pork, venison, fish, and chicken, but that whole schedule thing bites me in the butt.  If I get a chicken breast out to thaw, sometimes I realize a week later than I have rotten meat in the fridge.

To solve my problem, I find that stopping at the store on the way home is the ticket.  On a night when I have time to cook, I stop and get everything fresh.  For the days I don't have time, that means keeping some Lara Bars, beef jerky, or other shelf-stable protein.  That's where the money comes in.  Finding healthy, shelf-stable stuff can be expensive.

The way I really break the habit is to not give myself access to junky foods.

Listening to NPR a few days ago I heard that a 12 ounce can of Coca Cola exceeds the maximum suggested input of sugar for the average person.  

I found that portion control is the big hurdle.  If you are a regular healthy person you might be able to eat almost anything if you can control the portions.  Not easy.  Because the portions look so small.

It takes like 26 minutes for your system to feel like it is satisfied.  Hell, most of us can goggle down 4,000 calories in 25 minutes while still driving to the next job.

I read a few years ago to slow down the eating cycle.  Simple things like putting down your fork with each bite.  Putting the Big Mac down with each bite.  Restaurants will fill up the plate with starches because they are so cheap.  And your mother told you to eat everything on the plate.  

My sister turned me on to this guy Bobby Parish, FlavCity (I guess Chicago is the city.)  I like his shopping videos.  He is not a shill for the stores.  They actually show him getting kicked out of stores.  He does not follow one discipline (Keto, Palio, Gluten Free) but he is mindful of all of them.  In general, he is just aiming for cleaner eating.    Less about theory and more about, "this is what is really in stores that works."   The he does recipes too that sort of ties much of it together.  In general, he makes it look easier and "tries" to keep the cost reasonable which is hard to do with some of these foods.  

Sample shopping video...

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ffacebook%2Fvideos%2F1303334919853748%2F&width=500&show_text=false&height=281

The closer the food looks like how it was grown (either on the stalk or the hoof) the better it will be for you. So brown rice is better than white rice is better than rice flour is better than rice cakes.

Shopping every day or two helps like Curtis said. Grab a slab of meat or two, some fresh in season veggies and fruit, and rice/noodle/potato. I have started to make bread because I was sick of missing out on the Baker Bob's "Bob's Bread" at the bakery at the local grocery store because it was the only white bread there that didnt have sugars in it. 

Shopping around the outside of the grocery store helps. The aisle are where most of the processes food is, skip as much as possible.

Instead of snacking on cookies, we rip though bags of baby carrots. Need a chocolate fix? Work your way up to 100% cacao. Or bakers chocolate. We are in the mid 90%s.

Heavy whipping cream can add some great dessert levels of awesome to some frozen fruit 

We make cold overnight oats instead of boxes cereals. Lots of variations but we've landed at 1/3 cup steel cup oats, 1/3 cup old fashioned rolled, pinch of salt, handful of fresh fruit, pour about 0.5 to 1 cup of milk. Cover and put in the fridge overnight. I like to pour a splash of heavy whipping cream in the morning. Or a bit of grapenuts for a bit of extra crunch. I have seen peanut butter and bananas on there too 

I love it and I am... no, was a cereal fiend.

So, this applies to me. A LOT. 

my diet is crap. I live in my car, and eat primarily drive through food.

Sounds like cutting back on carbs and refined sugar is the big thing.

How does that work with drive through food? I cant seem to wrap my brain around the problem.....

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Pack a lunch. 

For road snacks, Aldi has some great nut mixes. Try to choose the ones that don't have chocolates in the mix.

Keep this in mind...

• It won't be easy, but it won't kill you.
• It won't be cheap, but it won't kill you

Cheap, easy food and cheap food ingredients are just corporation's ways of killing you (slowly) for their financial gain.  It's not illegal for them to provide you with the E36 M3 that will kill you. Actually,  it's quite profitable.