[flatiron]

You know I was thinking this morning about all the changes I have made since I have started this healthier life style in the WAY I eat.

Anybody used to have any bad habits that they have lost along the way?

For instance when I ate sandwiches I would sit at a table with the whole loaf of bread, jar or mayo or whatever, lettuce, cheese and meat and assemble my sandwiches as I ate them instead of making 1 or 2 sandwiches and putting them on a paper plate.

If I just got in and it was late and I was hungry I could easily demolish half the loaf of bread and a whole package of lunch meat.

Another really bad habit I had was that I would cook something and eat out of the pot I cooked it in. OR eat out of the package and never take a portion and put it on a plate or bowl.

Another very bad habit that I thankfully broke is eating in my car. Many times I would be in a hurry and I would stop at a fast food place and order a huge amount of food and eat it while I was driving. Usually food got all over me and the seats and the car.

But probably my biggest bad habit was eating WAY to fast! I eat faster than anyone I know.

I have learned from the nutritionalist at the VA Hospital to slow down. Chew your food and think about what you are eating.

One good thing about eating slower is that it has resulted in me not dribbling food on the front of my shirt.

Anybody who has a big stomach knows that we have a built in shelf when we sit down to eat which keeps us farther away from the table than someone with a small stomach and that catches everything that falls! LOL!

Since I eat slower I have been real careful about that!

Anybody else look back and realize that they have not only lost a few pounds (or a lot!) but also lost some really bad habits along the way too???

[Seeker]

I have a habit that probably isn't all that great.....I haven't really broken it yet. When I'm eating I always save the "best for last." Like I'll eat all the way around the sandwich or burger first because I think the middle is the best. Or when I'm eating off a plate I always have a few bites pushed off to the side of "the best" and save it for last. The reason this isn't so good? It encourages me to eat EVERYTHING on my plate to get to that "best."

[frieden]

I've stopped mentally setting food aside for myself. I used to think, "hmm, 12 muffins, four people, three of those are mine" and I always made sure to get "my fair share" before someone else ate it. Now, I realize trying to keep things "fair" wasn't all that fair to my future health.

I'd do the package thing too. It was so easy for me to absentmindedly eat way more than I planned if I wandered around with the entire bag instead of taking one serving, and putting the bag back in the pantry.

[corazonas]

the biggest bad habit i gave up was not eating meals. i could eat non-food junk all day long and never make myself a meal. i was hungry? great, eat this delicious ice cream cone... not done? there's some brownies that look good... still hungry? let's eat an ENTIRE bag of Ruffles with a WHOLE jar of ranch dip. and that was my day, on and on eating every crap thing in the house....

i make meals now! i decide what i want, i plan it, cook it, eat it. and i'm done.

[kaplods]

I caught myself doing the "best for last," or "worst first" might be a better description. Hubby and I had an Aldi frozen pizza for lunch (I love their cheap frozen pizza, their Mamma Cozzi brand super thin crust pizza). It was only 350 calories for 1/4 of a pizza (2 slices, the way we cut it) and I ate a side of brussel sprouts with it. So it wasn't the pizza that was bad, but the crust edges were a bit overbrown, so I was eating them first, and after the first piece I thought "now why am I eating the crusts at all, if I don't like them," and the thought that poppled into my head was even more ridiculous, since I had calculated the calories and exchanges - I felt like I needed to eat them because I had already counted them.

Ok, since I am using an exchange plan, if I take a small apple or half a larger apple and only eat one bite, I wouldn't count it as my fruit exchange or the full 60 calories or so of apple. But eating a slice of pizza and leaving less than 1/2 inch of crust? I could easily guesstimate and move on.

But hey, I didn't eat the crust edges in my second slice of pizza.

[ChefsGirl]

My bad habit that I officially consider broken.

Eating out all the time. We still eat out occasionally, but I used to eat out every single meal.

What's weird is you'd think that since I've stopped doing that I'd have more $$......hmmmmmm....

[moonkissed]

omg i think I did like all of that One big problem was eating straight out of the pan. I would make an entire box of pasta and then instead of getting out a serving and saving the rest, I would just take the entire pan and eat straight from it (yay no plate to wash sigh). And then I would entirely overeat because I had no concept of how much I was eating.

Another issue was not eating actual meals. Instead I would just eat like pasta and nothing else with it (except several slices of bread too). I always find that I am much fuller and satisfied when I eat several different things in a meal. It also led to the same as you corazonas, where I would kindof "graze" all day long instead of actually ever eating a meal.

Though sometmes instead of that I would just entirely not eat all day until I was starving. I broke the very bad habit of skipping meals. I would never eat breakfast and then usually skip lunch too. I would just get too busy and forget to eat until I was starving. Then totally pig out.

I also totally would save the best for last too. I would make a whole frozen pizza for myself and I would start out eating the smaller, crappier looking pieces and save the most yummy looking one. Which usually meant that I would eat it all!

And yep getting my "fair" share too! I come from a huge family and often we only had special treats or our favorite foods once a month if that. So if you were not fast you wouldn't get more then one lol. I think it is the hardest to unlearn. I just have to keep telling myself I am an adult I can go to the store and buy more when I want lol. and to really pay attention and enjoy that small serving now.

I am already breaking many of these and getting so much better I think the best part is getting myself a routine and sticking to it. Having to test my blood sugar and take the insulin helped a ton for sure lol.

[Fungramma]

My bad habit that I have broken was feeling like I always, and I mean always, had to have some kind of candy in the house. As soon as i had eaten a meal of any kind, I immediately felt like I had to have candy. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, it didn't matter it had to be followed up with candy. I had to buy a bag of candy almost everyday, because I would go through a big bag almost every day. That gets kind of expensive after awhile. I can remember at times when I didn't have any, I would be really restless, and keep going out into the kitchen,looking for anything I could eat that resembled candy. And yes, chocolate chips count as candy.

Thankfully, I have broken that habit. I no longer feel I need candy in the house, in fact, I haven't bought it in months and will probably never buy it again, I'm smart enough to know now what a trigger it is for me. I just shudder when I think of the 100's of 1000's of calories I consumed,just in candy.

[Sofia]

I used to eat as I and when I felt I was hungry.I wasn't much disciplined in my diet as well. I analyzed myself with self talk- something I had developed these days-- to get rid of the habit of eating many times and of course excessively. Now I consume my foods with regular timings with a great deal of discipline in my diet.

[Heffalump]

Originally Posted by kaplods

I thought "now why am I eating the crusts at all, if I don't like them," and the thought that poppled into my head was even more ridiculous, since I had calculated the calories and exchanges - I felt like I needed to eat them because I had already counted them.

OMG yes! That! I still catch myself doing that, but at least the awareness is there.

Other bad habits I haven't broken yet: eating too fast and eating while doing something else, like surfing the net or reading or... anything, really.

The most important bad habits I have broken:

1. Overrestricting calories. Like many other posters, I've skipped meals and let myself get too hungry, only to overcompensate later. Breaking the cycle of binging and restricting really was a key breakthrough for me. I was shocked how many calories I can eat and still lose weight, and how much better I feel when I'm not starving myself!

2. Perfectionism and impatience. The old all-or-nothing approach. I wanted everything to be perfect, and I wanted to lose all of the weight now, now, now! Setbacks, stalls, splurges would derail me for months. That is something I have gotten over, for the most part. I no longer beat myself up for not losing fast enough, for not working out enough, for occasionally overeating. I'm just treating myself more nicely now.

3. Related to this: I no longer set myself deadlines for weight loss. This is not a race, and nobody's chasing me. I do have a (tentative) goal weight, but no set date. Instead, my goals are action-based (eating and exercise) and geared towards improving my overall fitness and health.

[Glory87]

Always ordering the large. I always had the biggest. The venti latte at Starbucks, the "gotta have it" size at Cold Stone Creamery. If I were splitting a dessert with a friend, I angsted over who would get the most. If I broke a cookie in half, I took the biggest piece.

Now, I always order the smallest size.

[CountingDown]

• Pretending like vegetables weren't a food group, and thus not buying any.
• Eating out of the container
• Guessing at calorie counts instead of weighing/measuring
• Mindless/boredom eating
• Grabbing the biggest piece of anything - instead of the smallest
• Eating when no one was looking
• Not counting BLTs (bites, licks, tastes)
• Eating "free food" at work - just because it was there
• Pretending that an hour of exercise a month was enough
• Eating one meal a day (instead of the 6 I now eat)
• Drinking diet soda

[mystyblue85]

bad habits? Oh why did you have to ask? lol
But I have had many of the ones listed here and I am still struggling to break free of some of them:
-not eating all day then stuffing myself silly (usually after 10pm)
-not counting all the little bites and tastes of things my kids leave behind
-always taking the biggest piece or serving
-always ordering large instead of medium or small
-eating while driving or in my car
-eating while watching tv or on the net
-not allowing myself time to get full and getting seconds right after finishing the first helping
-getting seconds (lol)
-not counting calories properly
AND THE BIGGEST HABIT THAT I HAVE FINALLY OVERCOME:
being in denial about how much I eat in a 24 hour period

These are definitely habits I will NOT miss

[tkm256]

I no longer set myself deadlines for weight loss. This is not a race, and nobody's chasing me. I do have a (tentative) goal weight, but no set date. Instead, my goals are action-based (eating and exercise) and geared towards improving my overall fitness and health.

Good for you, Heffalump! (and any woozles about ) I used to have a bad habit of losing weight for a specific occasion, then letting go after it was over. Life insurance nurse is coming over...lose three pounds to lower the premium. Going home for Christmas at mom's...lose five pounds to kill the possibility of snide comments. Meh, don't have to see mom for another year, bring on the cookies. It's probably better if I do it for me instead.

One of the bad habits I haven't quite broken is eating more on exercise days than I've actually burned. "Free cake in the lounge? Well, I ran today, so what the heck." Problem: the cake would have like 500 calories thanks to frosting and creme filling, and I only burned 300 >.>

[ChefsGirl]

[/QUOTE]
3. Related to this: I no longer set myself deadlines for weight loss. This is not a race, and nobody's chasing me. I do have a (tentative) goal weight, but no set date. Instead, my goals are action-based (eating and exercise) and geared towards improving my overall fitness and health.[/QUOTE]

YES! This is totally what is keeping me on track this time around. I lose my weight in 2 pound increments, whether those 2 lbs takes a couple of days or a couple of weeks doesn't matter.......I'll get there when I get there. I used to always be "failing" b/c I wasn't hitting my deadlines. That sense of failure always caused me to give up and binge.

This is a great thread.