Anonymous wrote:Exercise.

You need to be power walking an hour a day -- seriously. As in, power walking four miles around your greater neighborhood, trails, whatever works. It can't be only food management. You need exercise every single day. Start small. That's why walking is so effective. Buy yourself a great pair of running shoes and hit the pavement. Invest in an exercise tracker like a FitBit. You have to put 13,000+ steps on it every single day. No excuses.

That's what it will take. It's not just eating differently.

OP here. I have three young children. With summer coming up, I unfortunately won't have time to walk! I teach in the early AM. I could probably do an evening walk. I will probably try to commit to a Beachbody video in the morning while my baby sleeps and the older kids play.

Inspect all the labels, as someone said.
The other day I was buying a vegan sour crème (as much as that makes no sense) and one brand was cheaper so I was about the swap the one I got for the cheaper one.
I have to look at ingredients due to allergies. But, the cheaper brand had 80 calories per 2 tablespoons. The more expensive one has 40 per 2 tablespoons!

Anonymous wrote:I love Costco for a ton of stuff but NEVER buy sweets at Costco -- just skip that section entirely (unless you're legit having party for 30+). There's just zero reason to have 10 pounds of delicious decadent brownie or chocolate cake in your house -- even if it was only $12.99

And don't drink calories.

It's more the chocolate covered coconut almond, bark thins...

Exercise.

You need to be power walking an hour a day -- seriously. As in, power walking four miles around your greater neighborhood, trails, whatever works. It can't be only food management. You need exercise every single day. Start small. That's why walking is so effective. Buy yourself a great pair of running shoes and hit the pavement. Invest in an exercise tracker like a FitBit. You have to put 13,000+ steps on it every single day. No excuses.

That's what it will take. It's not just eating differently.

Anonymous wrote:For me, I don't buy packaged sweets. On Sundays, we bake something sweet and eat it the same day. If we don't make it ourselves, I don't eat it. I don't find that all or nothing mentality helpful. I can't say "I'm not going to eat this type of food from here on out." I can say, though, that I'm going to eat this on Sundays only.

I also struggle with eating in the late evenings. I'm trying to replace that need with something else, like a hot tea, an orange, or maybe even some sugarless gum. I'd say it works about 90% of the time, which is a huge improvement.

Not OP but love this. Helps make sweets “special” by making them a nice, rare, family treat, but keeps them minimal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was an Au Pair long ago. Couldn't believe Americans have a cookie jar (sugary cereal and pop tarts,) and kids are only allowed to play in their back yards. If you have a cookie jar full of cookies available 24/7, you better allow the kids to roam the whole town with their friends on bikes 10 hours a day. Can you imagine what all the sugar does to grown-ups.
I have no idea what they put in the food here, but as I'm eating, I'm thinking about my next meal. Not the case when I go back home. I get full and stay full.
Start walking up the hills and cut out processed food. Most fruits are very sweet if you need sugar fix.

I've heard this several times before. I wonder what it is, as well. It must be something.

Because I have a weird food allergy, I don't eat most processed foods. If I do slip something in, it triggers me to want more food. It's strange.

For further reading on this topic, try: Sugar, Fat, Salt. Title kind of says it all. It's not strange and it's not an accident; it's deliberate manipulation of your body's signals by food scientists.

I love Costco for a ton of stuff but NEVER buy sweets at Costco -- just skip that section entirely (unless you're legit having party for 30+). There's just zero reason to have 10 pounds of delicious decadent brownie or chocolate cake in your house -- even if it was only $12.99

And don't drink calories.

I'm one of the healthy fat posters who already posted. I've made these few changes the last few weeks and it's been helpful: 1/2 tablespoon of coconut butter in am latte, 1/2 cup whole milk kefir in afternoon, added in tablespoon of nut butter. These changes as well as whole grain substitutions from white flour. Now no pm carb/caffeine cravings.

Just try it.

Yes - get rid of junk in house of course. More and more information out there about how addictive processed food is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was an Au Pair long ago. Couldn't believe Americans have a cookie jar (sugary cereal and pop tarts,) and kids are only allowed to play in their back yards. If you have a cookie jar full of cookies available 24/7, you better allow the kids to roam the whole town with their friends on bikes 10 hours a day. Can you imagine what all the sugar does to grown-ups.
I have no idea what they put in the food here, but as I'm eating, I'm thinking about my next meal. Not the case when I go back home. I get full and stay full.
Start walking up the hills and cut out processed food. Most fruits are very sweet if you need sugar fix.

I've heard this several times before. I wonder what it is, as well. It must be something.

Because I have a weird food allergy, I don't eat most processed foods. If I do slip something in, it triggers me to want more food. It's strange.

Sugar. And fat.
More you eat, more hungry you are all the time. Sometimes I take a day where I overate the day before and then I will wait to eat till 3pm. Hunger is nuts on that day. But, this ishow fast we adapt to change, the next day, I will not be hungry till much later in the day!

It must be sugar plus something else. Fat makes me feel full. Perhaps its a synthetic fat taste replacement.

Sugar. And flavor enhancers aka natural flavors whatever that is.
Inspect ingredient list of the food you eat for breakfast - really important to cut sugar completely from the first meal of the day. If you do toast - make sure there is no added sugar in it.

Hi, OP. I stopped having junk in the house. I didn't do it to lose weight for myself, I did it because my son (who is thin) is a serious athlete, and I did not want his eating so much processed crap. But not having junk available has helped me lose 5lbs in a month, which is a great start.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was an Au Pair long ago. Couldn't believe Americans have a cookie jar (sugary cereal and pop tarts,) and kids are only allowed to play in their back yards. If you have a cookie jar full of cookies available 24/7, you better allow the kids to roam the whole town with their friends on bikes 10 hours a day. Can you imagine what all the sugar does to grown-ups.
I have no idea what they put in the food here, but as I'm eating, I'm thinking about my next meal. Not the case when I go back home. I get full and stay full.
Start walking up the hills and cut out processed food. Most fruits are very sweet if you need sugar fix.

I've heard this several times before. I wonder what it is, as well. It must be something.

Because I have a weird food allergy, I don't eat most processed foods. If I do slip something in, it triggers me to want more food. It's strange.

Sugar. And fat.
More you eat, more hungry you are all the time. Sometimes I take a day where I overate the day before and then I will wait to eat till 3pm. Hunger is nuts on that day. But, this ishow fast we adapt to change, the next day, I will not be hungry till much later in the day!

It must be sugar plus something else. Fat makes me feel full. Perhaps its a synthetic fat taste replacement.

Anonymous wrote:Thank you all.

PP: I am nursing, so I probably can’t take Rx. I wish!

I think it’s interesting so many of you can’t have sugar in the house or you bake the stuff yourself. I just have to stop buying the delicious treats at Costco.

And PP you’re right. Maybe the motivation will come in a few weeks when we return from the beach house. I think a week of physical activity and limited food options will help!

An idea - use Instacart to get your Costco order. That way, you have no temptation to buy junk because you are not in the store. You only get what you order. Use the time you saved by not going to the store to exercise.

Thank you all.

PP: I am nursing, so I probably can’t take Rx. I wish!

I think it’s interesting so many of you can’t have sugar in the house or you bake the stuff yourself. I just have to stop buying the delicious treats at Costco.

And PP you’re right. Maybe the motivation will come in a few weeks when we return from the beach house. I think a week of physical activity and limited food options will help!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was an Au Pair long ago. Couldn't believe Americans have a cookie jar (sugary cereal and pop tarts,) and kids are only allowed to play in their back yards. If you have a cookie jar full of cookies available 24/7, you better allow the kids to roam the whole town with their friends on bikes 10 hours a day. Can you imagine what all the sugar does to grown-ups.
I have no idea what they put in the food here, but as I'm eating, I'm thinking about my next meal. Not the case when I go back home. I get full and stay full.
Start walking up the hills and cut out processed food. Most fruits are very sweet if you need sugar fix.

I've heard this several times before. I wonder what it is, as well. It must be something.

Because I have a weird food allergy, I don't eat most processed foods. If I do slip something in, it triggers me to want more food. It's strange.

Sugar. And fat.
More you eat, more hungry you are all the time. Sometimes I take a day where I overate the day before and then I will wait to eat till 3pm. Hunger is nuts on that day. But, this ishow fast we adapt to change, the next day, I will not be hungry till much later in the day!

Motivation comes when you get results. To start you just need to do what you need to do. I am rarely motivated to eat healthy. I would much rather eat ice cream for dinner than chicken and broccoli. However, i also know that to get to my goal weight I need to make the better choice.

So just start. Count calories, make good choices once you sees some results it will push you to keep going but even the you will have days when you aren't motivated. These are the days when it is more important that ever to do what you need to do even when you don't feel like it.