Help! What small changes have you made to change your lifestyle?
When start a diet, I have a habit of going all in, trying to change EVERYTHING all at once and then failing within a few days. I'd like to start making some small changes that I will help me change my lifestyle, rather than focus on dieting. Something that will stick and help me to gradually get on track with losing weight.
I am type-2 diabetic (and in extreme denial for the last 3 years!). I know that I will have to be mindful of carbohydrates in my diet. I don't want to go super low on carbs, but I think 50 to 75 carbs per day is not too hard a goal to work towards. Other changes I can think of are:
- Stop drinking coffee, sodas and diet drinks
- Drink more water
- Stop using artificial sweeteners
- Eat less fast food
- Start exercising
I'm looking for more ideas that I can come up with, maybe some other things I haven't thought of. Can you share with me some of the changes you've made that helped make up your healthy lifestyle?
I cut out all quick-carb foods for 6 days a week and I have a cheat day on the 7th day. It keeps me from falling off the wagon. I drink more water, but I haven't given up my Diet Dr. Pepper. I exercise, but I'm not much of an exerciser, so I just try to walk briskly for 20 minutes a day. In the past, I was always an all-or-nothing thinker too. I was all in or all out, and finally with some concessions, like having a cheat day and keeping my diet soda, I think I finally found a formula that I can do long term.
I started with my diet and doing something outside that is "sporty" once a week. Hiking, kayaking, bicycling etc.
Then I added the gym and cardio, then weight training. Now that I have all of the pieces...I am upping the gym intensity, joined an actual gym with classes.
i'm kind of the same way, i need to go all in.
this time, i'm just focusing on the food aspect first. i'll work in exercise in a few weeks.
one of the biggest things i've changed is planning. i've made a rough draft of a meal plan for the week (breakfast, lunch dinner), and fill in whichever snacks i keep on hand (yogurt, string cheese, fruits, crackers, carrots and hummus, etc).
not knowing what i'm eating for dinner or lunch makes it too easy for me to make a bad decision.
also, i live alone, so i often make 2-3 portions of something to have for lunch or dinner later in the week...when i get home, i'm sometimes too exhausted to cook. knowing i have something on hand is a lifesaver.
i've never done this, but a friend of mine started losing weight by just eating half of what he normally would. he would by a breakfast sandwich, eat half, throw the rest out. he would do that for a week, then add something else, like drinking 1 can of soda per day vs several 20oz bottles...he would add something else every week. personally, i hate that he wasted soo much food, but it worked for him.
I first swapped to whole grains, but with little success. Then, I started exercising for 30 min/day. That helped a great deal with loosing inches and motivating me. Then I cut out bread, pasta, and rice, followed by fruit. I found I lose weight when under 80 g of carb/day. I currently tend to keep carbs below 100g for 5 days now and above for 2 days for maintaining weight loss and gaining muscle. I tried different levels of caloric intake and found that low carb and 1100-1200 calories works the best with a low-moderate level of exercise for 30 min. If I increase exercise intensity, I stay around 1300-1400 calories.
I lost my weight using prepackaged food for convenience. If you cook yourself, try to track everything for a while to get an idea of how much (or rather how little) you can eat.
Certainly not eating fast food helps keeping calories in check. Though it depends what kind of fast food you are eating. Also, if you eat 800-1000 calories worth of fast food a day, you will lose weight. But, it is certainly not the healthiest way of caloric intake. I do not use artificial sweeteners, but don't think they have a great influence if you do not overdo it. I am also not familiar with diabetes and whether certain sweeteners should be avoided. I use stevia, which is natural.
Other than that, if you can avoid taking the car or using elevators, you will burn calories without noticing.
No pop. Skim milk. No coffee, just tea. Little sugar and no artificial sweeteners. Daily journaling using MyFitnessPal app and calorie counting. I've stopped restricting diets and reached out for support to family and friends on Facebook and email. Stopped overwhelming myself with big goals and taking it 30 days at a time.
The biggest small change I am making is tracking on MyFitnessPal. It has been eye opening and much more motivating that I ever expected. I can now make better choices and have a better feel for their impact.
I'm not sure I'll have a lot of advice for you here because I tend to do everything cold turkey whenever possible. I get frustrated with slow changes and do better when I'm all in (to a reasonable extent). Except exercise. That I need to do gradually.
But some changes that have helped me are:
--Look up restaurants online and plan your meal before you go (so you won't fall back on old, unhealthy favorites)
--Don't get too hungry (bad decisions are made)
--Plan meals for the whole day if you have trouble going off track (then when you're hungry you know what to do and won't graze)
-- Also, have a substitute for whatever you're cutting out. For example, "Eat less fast food." Plan healthy meals (maybe try new, simple recipes) to replace them. Otherwise it's hard when you get hungry and have no plan.
--Don't buy more junk food once it's gone. This helps to slowly phase out old foods and introduce new ones.
Good luck!
Last edited by LiannaKole; 10-22-2013 at 11:06 PM.
When I was starting out I did small changes that became habits like parking farther away at the store, walking back out to the mailbox instead of stopping on the way in.
I used to travel during the day a lot for work, McDs was inevitable at times, so I printed out the nutritional info pages and figured out the points for a variety of things I might eat, there aren't a lot of great choices, but you can order small fries and work your way to no fries, I would order a happy meal with hamburger white milk and apple dippers.
I don't eat a lot of fast food anymore but used to get the garden burger with no mayo at BK.
When you're out you can ask for dressing on the side, no cheese on your salad or sandwich.
Take the stairs instead of escalators, adding in stairs is beneficial if your knees are up to it. There's quite a few where I work now, I take a route when I walk inside that makes me go up and down different flights of stairs.
Best of luck to you. You've got a great idea small changes you can incorporate for life.
Small changes:
* Eating a late lowish cal breakfast
* Eating a late lowish cal lunch
* No snacking or desserts (this may be the biggest factor in my weight loss)
* Using a luncheon-sized plate for dinner (eating what I like for dinner but watching portions)
* Not counting calories (I will burn out on dieting if I count everything)
* Exercise most days
* Try not to eat out much, but if I do then pick low cal items & don't eat everything
Why is everyone quitting coffee? As long as you don't load it with sugar and creme and artificial sweeteners why quit it? I only drink one cup per day and have no plans of quitting
These are not changes that I made all at once, they've taken years to take hold and become real habits! And I'm so proud of them!
- Quit artificial sweeteners (the hardest of all, and the best decision I ever made.)
- Weigh myself every Monday rain or shine
- Wear a pedometer every day
- walk to the market every day, walk everywhere, get off the subway a stop early and walk the rest of the way.
- If it's 1-2 floors take the stairs instead of elevator.
- NO ESCALATORS!
- Eat raw vegetables every single day
- If I want a treat at a restaurant I choose - appetizer, bread basket, or dessert. But only one of those.
- Eat a vegetable at breakfast (this one is recent)
- Nitrate-free cold cuts
- Skip the 4pm snack and deal with the hunger - it's not going to kill me!
- never finish anything on my plate (I was raised not to clean my plate so this one comes easy)
And I'm working on incorporating these right now:
- No television while eating (this one is sooooooo hard!)
- mindful eating
- No Snacking
Last edited by Palestrina; 10-23-2013 at 08:19 AM.
I started parking my car at the farthest point in the parking lot to get extra steps in.
I leave a 16 oz glass on my desk that I use for water and just started drinking it because it was there.... and now I crave water all day and only have a diet coke either at lunch or at dinner. This helps me get more steps because I'm constantly filling it up at the water cooler and going to the potty LOL.
I've cut my diet coke consumption down from about 6 or more a day to one or two, which for me was a huge change. The water drinking really helped with this. (I love diet coke and am not going to give it up completely.)
I didn't cut out coffee, but I did switch to sugar free or fat free creamer. I only have one cup a day and those extra calories aren't that much.
I started drinking two cups of green tea, not for the supposed weight loss hype around it, but for the other health benefits. I've found a really good wild blueberry blend that is awesome right by itself. It's helped curb my morning hunger and gives me an extra pick me up alongside the coffee.
I cut back on carbs a lot. I still have the occasional subway sandwich, but most days I eat less than 50 grams.
Eat more protein to feel full and good whole veggies with fiber to stay that way.
If I have to eat out, I make sure I know the calories of my choices before going so I can plan better.
I track everything, even on days that I am bad.
I got a fitbit which really makes me want to move more. I'm an achievement junky LOL
I didn't do all of these at one time, most of it was changes that just fell into place over the last few weeks.
Why is everyone quitting coffee? As long as you don't load it with sugar and creme and artificial sweeteners why quit it? I only drink one cup per day and have no plans of quitting
I'm not giving up coffee either, and I love that card!
One thing that helped me immensely in the beginning was meal planning. Well worth the time and effort in my opinion.
Yeah not giving up coffee at all. I even count the creamer and Splenda points for Weight Watchers. I will give up all kinds of things..but my cappuccino or coffee in the morning nope. nope. nope. LOL
Help! What small changes have you made to change your lifestyle?
Here is a handful of changes I've made that helped me out a lot:
Good luck to you, hope this helps in some way! 
