Hi. I’m new. Does anyone have any tips about eating less junk? Topic

JBisdabest 08/18/23
Hi everyone. I’m very new to this app and I was wondering if anyone has any tips to how to avoid fast food places and quick junk snacks. Thanks!

U1194639649 08/18/23
I always plan meals out for the week so that I don’t feel tempted to eat out and to stick to my original meal plans. Another big tip for snacking on junk is not to buy it! I stopped buying things that I constantly binged on, now I have no junk to feel guilty eating. Of course it’s ok to treat yourself so don’t be too strict on yourself: especially at the beginning of your weight loss journey! (Hope this helped)

U1196405917 08/18/23
The best thing to do is track your food. Make sure you’ve calculated your macros depending on what your goals are and the calorie intake you will need. When you track your food especially fast food, you will see how incredibly fast you hit your daily calories with just one fast food meal on top of how many carbs and saturated fats and bad stuff you’re truly eating. The more aware you are of these things the easier it’ll be to say no to junk food. Also, it is good to restrict yourself because you have to build discipline, you can’t be soft and allow your mind to win you over saying (it’s okay it’s only one chest meal, or, it’s okay I’m just starting). No! Set your goals hit your macros especially your protein and calories and you will see results. For me, I started seeing results from week 1, losing 5lbs of fat already, it hasn’t been easy to say no but, you have to suck it up, feel that pain in your mind and in your gut and just push through. Remember diets don’t have to be boring and restrictive, if you want to loose weight really all you need is to watch your caloric intake but keep in mind if that food is coming from processed foods and fast food then you’re probably not gonna feel the best and you may develop other health related issues due to the bad foods you eat. Best advice there is don’t have it around you, if you can see it or smell it then you can be tempted by it. Best of luck!

U1194550133 08/19/23
Simple, don’t buy junk unless you’re bulking, instead by protein and carbs, they keep you full with less

SpotSite 08/19/23
This may help, or it may not…

Before I started tracking calories I used plastic / glass containers that were fridge/ freezer safe and depending on what was going in to them ether oven or microwave safe.

I plan my meals as below but in a morning I eat the breakfast I planned for the night before the lunch I planned after breakfast and the dinner I planned after lunch. (I find planning my next meal juts after eating helps me not to over do it as I am already full and I can focus on getting 5+ F&V and sticking within the calorie range per meal.

Plan a smaller breakfast but high fibre weetabix/ porridge.
Drink lots of liquids I like black coffee but has taken a while to get used to the sweetener.
Don’t over do the high cal foods and add fruit to it.

“This morning I had 3 weetabix 200ml whole (blue top) milk 1/4 spoon sugar and an apple. I was full up to dinner”

I had a sandwich for lunch ham salad, I can’t seem to get a portion cucumber, tomato, lettuce on the sandwich so I add some to the sandwich and the rest as a side salad.

Dinner I will be having steak in onion gravy with sweetcorn, peas, carrots and a couple of roast potatoes.

This will total around 1600 cal for the day but each meal will be in between 400-700 cal

If I went out I would try and wait until I get home before eating or only eat something under 700 cal.

If you are out for the day working etc maybe take a healthy lunch with you (stuff you already eat) and make a flask of coffee or sugar free cold drinks.

If you search the internet there will be 100’s of 1000’s of ideas but just take what you like even if that’s a ham sandwich with a bottle of water.

But don’t try and do it over night make a sandwich after breakfast tomorrow morning if you are going out drive past the Golden Arches and have a sandwich best to make small changes and work on them rather that trying to do everything over night. I am still trying :)

Good luck and stick to foods you know are healthy and that you like.

Weigh everything that passes your lips and log it. Seeing the numbers for each meal is a big help in deciding what to eat.

Try to get closer to 10 F&V a day more veg than fruit and higher fibre foods seem to work well.

JBisdabest 08/19/23
Thanks! I will take all this advice and put it to work!! Thanks everyone!

Salvatore 08/20/23
Hey
I think that the beauty of this app is that you carry with you, so when weekly shopping you can scan things and check out the calories and the fats, proteins and carbs! So I agree with food planning

Marleneesimmons 11/26/23
I went nuts on sugar around halloween. Luckily this an anomaly in my usual diet but even overeating sugar treats for a short time left me with unwanted cravings. What I do is make up a jug (1.5 litres) of lemon and ginger infusion. I use organic both if I can get them. What I find is having this sour liver cleanser on hand to drink has cured me of sugar cravings and overeating generally. My usual go to junk are salty snacks, generally potato chips. I find that I can sub pistachios or home roasted raw almonds. I know part of what I want from this is a fat hit, not just the salt so these two healthy nut choices are far better and tend towards the lower calorie side as opposed to peanuts. I once added honey into the lemon ginger infusion but now I don't add any sugar at all because I also use it to support my intermittent fast program (I eat for 8 hours and fast for 16). So the recipe for the lemon ginger drink is _
1.5 litres of water, add 1 to 2 inches of fresh ginger finely chopped and put it on to boil. Meanwhile juice two (if possible organic) lemons, set the juice aside. Chop the two lemon rinds up and add them to the water. Bring the whole thing to boil. Let boil for 20 minutes (covered) and when that is done, turn heat off and let steep for another 20 minutes. Strain the mixture into a jug with a lid (or cover with cloth.) If you can't handle sour add in one wooden spoon full of honey, or some amount of agave, stevia, maple syrup. The mixture should taste predominantly sour and ginger-y. Drink that over the course of the day (since I fast most mornings until 11 am I drink it in the am). This will cleanse your liver daily and gently as well as support you avoiding sugar cravings. For the almonds - I take a cast Iron pan and smear it with 1 tsp or less of extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil. Spread it with a paper towel or some utensil. It should just create a non stick surface on the pan. Pour in 1 to 2 tablespoons of raw, unflavoured almonds. Bring up the heat to medium and let them brown. While heating add some of your favourite spices to it - I like to use lebanese five spice, greek spice or steak spice. Sprinkle some on and continue to toss the almonds in the pan. Don't let the pan overheat. Turn down the heat once they start to brown. They should be finished in less than five minutes but you can tell when they are because they smell nutty. Remove to a serving dish and let cool. Enjoy as an additive to salad or as a side snack whenever you get salt cravings! Hope this helps.

Marleneesimmons 11/26/23 replied to Marleneesimmons
oh yeah I forgot to mention that you need to add in the lemon juice once the drink is strained (and cooled significantly so as not to kill the vitamins in the juice.) Then sweeten if you want but barely. Thanks!

Hi. I’m new. Does anyone have any tips about eating less junk?