Thread: I feel like such a failure

Personally, I lost 40lbs on atkins about 3-4 yrs ago and it stayed off. It completely broke my addicition to sugars, even to this day. If you only like the sweets, it may be the diet for you. But it's a little rough in the beginning during the induction phase with absolutley no carbs.

If you are weight training then I wouldn't recommend this diet though. It worked for me since I was preparing to hit the weights again after a long layoff. Once I started back in the gym I had no energy (since little carbs) and off Atkins I went...

Keep focused on the long term goals. Set some short term goals to hit along the way. If you miss one, don't beat yourself up. Stay the course.
Try to change how you think about food. Try not to think that you're depriving yourself of your favorite foods. Rather, think of certain foods as high octane fuel for your body. After a while, you'll think of sweets as non-productive to your goals. That's not to say you can't have a cheat meal occasionally.

If you haven't done this... write out a meal plan. By having a set plan for what I will eat everyday it takes the decision part out of the equation. When it is time to eat I don't struggle with any decisions between healthy or unhealthy foods. Junk food is just not an option. Once you do this for awhile you'll condition yourself to not even think about junk food for the most part. You really have to get over this idea that it matters what you feel like eating. I drink straight olive oil. Does it taste good? It doesn't matter; it's part of my diet.

The positive side though, is that you start to crave food for the nutrition.

Originally Posted by ayanehime

...because I can never seem to stick to a diet.

...........

How do you guys manage to stay on a diet??

I read great article last night on leangains.com website (its a blog, apologies if im not supposed to link) regarding the marshmallow effect and how it applies to "diet", I wish I had read such an article a few years ago!

Basically states that you the more you focus and focus and obsess about being on a diet, it eventually gets to you and most inevitably break it, and big style.

You need to stop thinking in terms of being on a diet, and more in terms of a lifestyle change in your eating habits, i.e. something which you naturally do and incorporate in your everyday routine without really having to give your food intake excessive thought, think long term as chesty4 above rightly stated

I suggest you take a read of the article, explains it much much better than I ever could, hope this helps even if just a little!

We may not be strong, but we are not weak. Give it another try! Sometimes you have to take two steps back to take one step forward. It's a learning process and the more you practice, the better you'll get at. Promise!

Yeah, diet meals can be quite boring unless you spruce them up a bit. Try cooking your meals with extra virgin olive oil and fresh or dried herbs/ spices (garlic, wine and oregano is one of my favorites for chicken). I tend to stay away from spice mixtures, as they're usually high in sodium - if you care about that sort of thing. I also have a great selection of BBQ sauces for pork, beef, chicken and fish. Some are high in sugar, so read the labels (if that is a concern). For the egg whites, try a simple tomato salsa scramble with your favorite spices. Maybe consider picking up an eating light or healthy cook book. Also, plenty of recipes with calorie count on the internet.

Bonne Appetite & Good Luck!

Originally Posted by troubador

If you haven't done this... write out a meal plan. By having a set plan for what I will eat everyday it takes the decision part out of the equation. When it is time to eat I don't struggle with any decisions between healthy or unhealthy foods. Junk food is just not an option. Once you do this for awhile you'll condition yourself to not even think about junk food for the most part. You really have to get over this idea that it matters what you feel like eating. I drink straight olive oil. Does it taste good? It doesn't matter; it's part of my diet.

The positive side though, is that you start to crave food for the nutrition.

This is true...I completely view food as fuel now and the enjoyment of eating now is thinking of what goes in as fueling and building my body. Really works for me.

Also, and this may seem gay, but I have a pic of a ripped dude @roughly 6-8% body fat from waist to neck with no shirt on on my smart phone next to the MyFitPal App. Whenever I feel like straying from diet or eating something unclean or worthless to my goals, I look at the picture of abs and it keeps me focused.

Originally Posted by DIVINITUS

...

Also, and this may seem gay, but I have a pic of a ripped dude @roughly 6-8% body fat from waist to neck with no shirt on on my smart phone next to the MyFitPal App. Whenever I feel like straying from diet or eating something unclean or worthless to my goals, I look at the picture of abs and it keeps me focused.

Um yea that's gay....





haha just kidding

Wow what a homo.


Haha nah man whatever works, keep it up!