Why eating the "healthy" versions of bad food may not always be helpful in long term weight loss

I think one of the bigger barriers to eating healthy as a lifestyle after losing weight is that we are always looking for healthier versions of bad food. The healthy cookie. The healthy burger. The healthy chips. The healthy mac and cheese. And I get it. We are so used to our way of life that a big change from that is hard to get used to and accept. Perhaps we need to get out of that mindset though and simplify things. As an example, why make a dark chocolate avocado cookie? Why not just eat and learn to appreciate some avocado and dark chocolate separately? What it does is keep our brain focused, even subconsciously, on things that we shouldn't be eating or eat too much of habitually. Sure you may have a great healthy doughnut recipe, but next time you pass a doughnut store and you dont have your healthy doughnut on you I feel like you're more likely to stop at the doughnut store. These things are all fine and good for helping with the transition to a new diet, but at some point you just gotta work on eating more whole foods and putting down the bagged "veggie chips".

This is something I am going to start working on myself I think.

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Unmotivated due to slow progress

Last June I began my weight loss journey. In 7 months I lose 20 pounds very, very slowly. I did this by cutting down on calories and working out at the gym doing cardio and weights. I was really proud of my progress but now I'm losing steam.

I have about 40 more pounds and I have lost all motivation to get back at it. Since December I haven't been able to get back to tracking my food or going to the gym.

I also have this terrible habit of comparing myself to other people's progress. I see people losing 20 pounds in 2 months and I get down on myself.

How can I get over this hurdle? I want to continue to lose weight but don't want to be upset at my slow progress. I need a way to get motivated again so I get rid of that extra weight.

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I've lost more hope than weight.

I feel like giving up on myself. On everything.

I used to be fit. Not crazy fit, but enough. I ran 4km 4-5 days a week, played badminton and swam fairly regularly in college.

I stopped everything because I was studying for an exam that would determine the course of my life. In 6 months I gained 15kg. It's all my fault, I stress ate like crazy and sat in one place to study all day. Also, depression and anxiety got me on SSRIs and that just made it worse. And PCOS, yay. I had a BMI of 23-24 throughout college, now I'm at 29.5. Doesn't help that I'm short.

I've had weight gain before but I've always lost it. Now for the first time I've been fat for more than 6 months and I'm not being able to lose it.

My clothes don't fit, all I can wear is leggings. I still have another super important exam that I'm stressed for and need to study for, so I'm not being able to focus on weight loss. I spend all day craving my stress foods and I get depressed and cranky when I don't allow myself to eat them. I feel like my whole day is consumed by worrying about my weight and my appearance. I've joined a gym and I'm trying to control what I eat, but everything is making me miserable. I want to stress eat so bad but I don't let myself. I'm just miserable.

I hate my body and I don't know what to do. It's my 24th birthday in two weeks. The dress I wanted to wear doesn't fit.

Sorry for the depressing post. I apologize if it violates the rules. I just didn't know where else to put this.

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BLT mini Tostadas Recipe

Hello! I have a delicious recipe to share that’s super easy and a crowd pleaser! It’s a BLT Tostadito – or a bacon, lettuce, tomato mini tostada. So you can make this as an appetizer or quick dinner. And it’s a lighter way to enjoy this dish because we’re baking the bacon and the tostada shells. (I’m convinced making bacon in the oven is the best way to get it super crispy and it’s amazing!)

PLUS it’s a family friendly option because a.) everyone likes bacon and b.) we’re using mini-tortillas  – so it’s easy for little kid hands to pick up and eat!

BLT Tostadas Recipe

Ingredients:

12 oz. Farmer John bacon

16-20 corn tortillas – street taco size

1.5 c guacamole

5 medium tomatoes (thinly sliced)

8 oz. shredded lettuce

10 oz. cotija cheese (crumbled)

Note: You’ll need an oven safe wire wrack if you’re going to make the bacon in the oven.

 

 

But before we build our BLTs… we need to make the bacon and tostada shells!

How to Bake Tostada Shells

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Spray baking sheet with non-stick oil.

Place tortillas on baking sheet – spaced so they are not touching.

Bake in oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Flip them halfway through.

Remove when they are getting crispy and set aside to cool.

Note: These temperatures and times are based on street taco sized corn tortillas. Watch them as they get close to being done.

How to Make Bacon in the Oven

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with foil.

Place wire rack on top of foil in baking sheet. Place bacon on rack in a single layer.

Bake for about 20 – 25 minutes. Flip it over halfway through cooking.

The longer you bake it – the crispier the bacon will come out.

When it’s cooked to your desired crispiness – place bacon on a plate lined with paper towels to soak up any extra fat.

Once cool – chop bacon in bite size pieces.

 

Note: Be very careful when removing pan from oven.

A lot of the fat will drip from the wire rack onto the pan – so there will be hot oil sloshing around the bottom of the pan. It can burn or start a fire if it drips into the hot oven. (I know this from a Thanksgiving turkey situation I witnessed a few years back!)

Now that we have the bacon and tostada shells… we can build our BLT Tostaditos!!

To make BLT Tostaditos – layer the following in this order:

tostada shell

guacamole

tomato

lettuce

bacon

cotija cheese

optional: hot sauce

And now you have a BLT Tostada piled high with great flavors and textures.

Enjoy!

And you know how I love when Running and Eating intersect in a perfect pairing…

This weekend is the Chinatown Firecracker Run/Walk & Kidding Run in LA!

It’s an event that  promotes health, fitness and cultural awareness in the greater Los Angeles community. (Farmer John started in Southern California in 1931!) And reps from Farmer John will be serving up their delicious new breakfast sausage links at the finish line! It’s Feb 17th – so check it out if you’re in the area!

For more information and to register, visit Firecracker10k.org.

 

Farmer John products are available at local grocery stores including Smart & Final, Stater Brothers, Albertsons, Ralphs and Northgate.

For more product information and recipe inspiration, visit www.FarmerJohn.com.

Question: Have you made bacon in the oven before?

 

This post is sponsored by Farmer John. Opinions on this site and accompanying social media are based on my own experience.

The post BLT mini Tostadas Recipe appeared first on Run Eat Repeat.

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Is anyone else discouraged when they see other people's progress pics?

I don't mean to be negative in a sub that's so heavily geared towards body positivity, I kind of just want to know how I can change my mindset on this.

I've started dieting and working out over the last couple of weeks, hoping to ideally get rid of anywhere from 30 to 70lbs by May since I'm marching DCI this summer and really need to be in shape before spring training. Well since I'm subscribed here, Reddit clearly knows that I'm trying to lose weight so it's been recommending subs for weight loss, which is totally fine. But today I stumbled on one called r/progresspics, which is exactly what it sounds like: a place for people to post their before and after pics of them dieting.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love that such a sub exists and that everyone there is so much happier with themselves now that they've lost however much weight they want to lose. I couldn't be happier for them. But as I scrolled through the sub it just got me really down and discouraged, like these people all have something I never will, be that self confidence, a body they can be proud of, or the very ability to see visible progress. It's just really hard to imagine ever having a) enough noticeable progress to be able to post a progress pic, or b) having enough self confidence for it to matter, because before I got to the weight I'm at I already had issues with how I look.

Again, I think it's wonderful that those people have achieved their goals and want to share that with the internet. I just can't help feeling anything but discouraged when I see such drastic changes in people, knowing how much time and effort and (probably) discomfort went into achieving those results. How can I change my mindset on this and turn it into something motivating, instead of something disheartening?

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I have created a new lifestyle change to start my weight loss, can /loseit help me?

[Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/u0S1VNj.png)

Look at pic above please. I did some research on the foods and used calculators, here are my calculations
Current weight (36% Body Fat): 290lb
Lowest weight I got to before (28% Body Fat) 258lb
Goal weight: 210lb
I believe 210lb will be between 15% - 20% body fat due to 290 - 258 = 32 which in my case is 8% (36% to 28%) so losing another 8% should make my weight 226lb at 20% body fat when I reach that weight.
I will be eating between 1300 - 1500 calories per day however if you have seen pic related you can see the issue.
Another issue is the macros, can anyone check my workings please?

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I'm a trash panda with a swole bf. How do I get him to ease up his help? Or am I just lazy?

Hi guys! Quick two-part disclaimer! I wasn't sure what the right place was for this; r/relationships, r/offmychest; or r/loseit, and in the end kind of settled on this place because it has so many layers to it and I feel like the main heart of it is my weight loss journey. Please forgive me if this was the wrong place to post because I really truly wrestled with it! I also have a problem with being wordy, so I'm hoping i can make up for that with nice formatting? Maybe?

CONTEXT

I started my weight loss journey on 3/20/18 at 255 lbs (~115.66 kg) as a 5'8" (~173 cm) woman. I'm 26. I've struggled with anxiety, depression, OCD, my weight, and basic coordination my whole life. I started an antidepressant which has helped me in every way imaginable and put me in a place where I could start making my weight a priority. Thanks in part to subreddits like this one, I had lost about 65 lbs/~ 29.5 kg and was down to 190 lbs when I met my current boyfriend just after Thanksgiving in November, who I'll just call "BF."

• BF: He's a swole, full-course meal. He has muscle on muscle on muscle. He knows a lot about fitness, lifting, nutrition, etc. He eats low carb, doesn't really touch white flour or sugar, is at the gym for an hour plus three days a week with more determined consistency than the US Postal service, etc. He works in software development, and he's a pretty analytical, no-nonsense, self-motivated, stoic dude. While I'm not saying lifting weights or fitness is easy for him, he's been an active person all his life and has never experienced being more than a few pounds overweight without a hefty amount of muscle to go with it. He's at the stage of his life where he's been doing it for a long time, and most of his healthy choices are reflex. He feels dissatisfied and restless if he misses a day of gym due to illness. It's critical to note that he moved to the US from a former Soviet republic in his teenage years and while he now speaks English fluently, we sometimes have language barrier problems or cultural miscommunications we have to patiently negotiate.
• ME: In contrast, I'm emotional and lazy and sugar-addicted. I have been using MyFitnessPal and guesstimation to calorie count my way out of obesity. Calorie counting has gradually turned into eating more veggies, eating less carbs and sugar, increasing my water intake, being conscious of fiber and protein, etc., all in tiny delicate baby steps that feel wonderfully and shockingly sustainable long-term. But really, as long as I can stay in my daily calorie allowance and drag my body slug-style forwards towards my goals, I'm fine with Scrooge McDuck-style diving into piles of sugar because I know I will keep improving my habits over time. Really, my weight loss journey really has been a combination of me slowly building up healthy habits and also just slowly replacing my *shittiest* habits with *slightly less shitty* habits. As anecdotal reference, up until recently I was eating frozen PB&J sandwiches straight from the freezer (why wait for them to thaw?) every night like a fucking monster until I realized they were a binge trigger and stopped buying them, and that was like, a huge, parade-worthy realization that made me feel totally fitness woke. I love hiking in the spring, summer, and fall and going for walks, but besides that, the gym and working out is the farthest thing from my mind.

Context Section TL;DR: BF is a ripped fitness monk, I'm an anxious overweight trash-panda.

RECENTLY

BF and I got serious pretty quickly. He's so different from me, but we complement each other well. I told him about my weight loss on our first date, which I initially meant to keep private. He was really complimentary and supportive. After talking about how dedicated I was as well as describing much more gently everything I just told you about me above, he started getting involved in my fitness journey a few weeks later.

He writes up workouts for me on post-it notes. He works out three days a week consistently on the same days and around the same time, and he started contacting me after his work outs to make sure I did them too. I have skipped a day twice, and he always reacts with some light-hearted shaming. He calls me "sneaky" and uses the goofy pet name he uses for me.

I complained once about not losing weight for a week (probably because I suddenly started rigorously working out, or was on my period, or I forgot my weekly goat sacrifice). He reassured me, and has since started checking in on my weight loss every Saturday to get an update.

He'll make little remarks about if I eat bread at dinner, or take too much rice, etc. I don't want to be in a controlling relationship, and sometimes when it feels like he's being too overbearing, I'll push back and say that if I want x, if I have the calories for it, I'll eat x. Of course it still makes me feel guilty and self-conscious and like an out-of-control brat, and part of me appreciates his insistence because it helps remind me not to binge and be aware of my carb or sugar intake.

He has bought me fitness-related gifts, like fitness bands, a supplement, and just yesterday for Valentine's Day, a heart-rate monitor for when I run. He had told me about his intentions to get me a heart-monitor before, and I told him I didn't think I'd use one or necessarily want one, but I wouldn't not use it if he got it for me.

I'm now down a few more pounds since I met him, 179 lbs/~81.2 kg, which he thinks is great. He'll tell me he can notice a difference since he met me, and he'll add that I'll look even better if I keep at it.

Problem Section TL;DR: BF is helping me with my diet and fitness in ways I didn't necessarily ask for or want.

THOUGHTS / HELP?

He just texted me again joking asking if I'm excited for my work out tonight (he knows I don't enjoy it) and I'm just dreading it. To be honest I'm kind of at a loss.

I am so grateful for his support and help. I've never dated someone with this level of fitness, expertise, or concern about my health. I do really want to get better. Ideally I'll get down to my first goal weight of 160 lbs, hopefully my final goal weight of 145 lbs... I'd like to work out consistently every week, eat better, be more healthy. I do want to work out more. I just don't know if I want to work out three days a week for an hour plus each time. My knees are fucked up after my high weight and an injury, and they've been really bothering me the last week when I work out. I just feel so avoidant and frustrated. Part of me just wants to go back to happily calorie counting and my small improvements over time.

His constant weight check-ins motivate me, but they also make me consistently worry that he's not into me physically. He's "not into super skinny girls," which is a direct quote. He occasionally compliments my appearance. He's just super stoic, and I know I have issues with anxiety and self-confidence. He could stop helping me with fitness and text me hourly love notes and I'm worried I'm crazy enough it still wouldn't be enough.

Weight loss and fitness is such a big part of our relationship now, and sometimes it makes me feel distant from him.

I feel overwhelmingly guilty when I don't meet his expectations. I just don't know what's healthy or real. Am I just avoiding working out because I'm lazy? Why would I ask him to let up when I'm basically getting free personal training? I said I would love his help, and in his super fit, kind, analytical brain, he put A and B together and is giving me C, where he helps me with fitness in the way he knows will get me the results I want. I really do think he's doing this to be kind to me. He researches all kinds of things for me and sends me videos when we're apart demonstrating exercises he wants me to try.

Fitness is something he is confident about and experienced in. It's a HUGE part of his life that he enjoys sharing with me. How do I ask him to step back kindly while not making him feel like I'm rejecting him or ungrateful? Do I even ask him to step back at all? If I eventually want to get more into fitness once I lose weight, why wouldn't I just do it now? How do I suck it up?

Weight loss is hard. I'm having to renegotiate so many things in my life. It has been so worth it. This just is a new problem life has thrown at me that I'm trying to work through and don't necessarily immediately know how to deal with.

Thanks for listening to me. I'm really grateful.

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