This seems like a good primer on how to look at food differently. The problem with diets is that people relapse due to the fact that dieting is done through force of will and willpower is limited. For long lasting change, you need to reshape your relationship with food and be content with what and how you eat. Understanding some of the things in this article can be a good place to start.
Ego depletion (limited willpower) turns out not to be true [0]. It could not be replicated and is no longer considered how willpower works.
> Results from the current multilab registered replication of the ego-depletion effect provide evidence that, if there is any effect, it is close to zero. [1]
> Taken all together, experiments conducted at 24 different labs showed no signs whatsoever of Baumeister and Tice’s original effect. [2]
It's a really interesting result because the concept of limited willpower - over extended periods of time (years) - fits my lived experience very well.
Modern food is kinda weird in how high-energy and very energy-dense food is the default and cheap, and it somehow is more expensive to buy less calories.
A reservoir of easy to store for long periods of time food source is a national security issue for every state, so it tends to be subsidized everywhere.
Stable foods can be shipped and stored more cheaply.
This coupled with the native desire for salty/sweet/fat puts the modern human at a terrible disadvantage in our current environment.
its exhausting to do that. Im switching my diet up a little to bit to reduce cholesterol and some liver enzyme thing lately and Im starting to get tired of thinking so much before every meal and shopping trip. wish it was easier to not fall in to unhealthy traps. so many labels, and so much meal planning.
I've hit this before as well, and have come to the conclusion that, at least for me, detailed meal planning is not sustainable in the long run.
This is one reason why I think that dieting advice that is simple and straightforward has the most success. Some examples:
1. Cut out all sugar-sweetened beverages. This is a pretty easy rule to follow, and even if you find yourself missing a soda or something, my recommendation is to buy something like unsweetened iced tea and then add a couple sugar cubes - you'll be likely to add much less sugar than if you buy sweetened tea.
2. Cut out any refined carbohydrates. This was certainly harder for me, but since the rule is so simple and easy to follow, whenever I got hungry for carbs I had to make due with fruits or vegetables, so I ended up eating a lot fewer calories in any case, got more of other nutrients, and eventually just got "bored" with trying to find a snack and stopped eating until my next mealtime.
carbs is actually where im struggling the most. I defaulted to just making sides of white rice with everything for so long. I at least switched to brown rice, quinoa and couscous to make it a little easier but learning new sides to go with proteins is tedious. I struggle with feeling full too.
This is just what worked for me, but if you're struggling with feeling full, don't cut out starchy vegetables: potatoes, sweet potatoes, and legumes (things like lentils, black or pinto beans, butter beans, peas, etc.) satisfied my carb cravings, and I found I was still eating fewer calories because those carbs are much less "snackable", and they have a ton more fiber. That is, it's trivially easy to snack on chips, pretzels, cereal or bread, but I'm not just going to grab a sweet potato and start chomping.
If you have had the luxury to learn to cook with simple ingredients, you'd not need to read labels.
Here's a shopping list for three meals, see if you can guess what they are?
1 kg apples,
1 kg other fruit in season,
White unsweetened yogurt,
Unsweetened granola,
Garlic,
1 can diced tomato (no salt, no sweetener, just tomatoes),
1 onion,
Olive oil,
150 gr dry pasta (bonus points for "integral pasta" -- don't know the translation, "pasta integrale" in Italian),
Baby spinach leaves,
Cherry tomatoes,
Risotto rice,
White wine,
Broth in powder,
Butter
The last step of cooking risotto is to add an acorn sized bit of butter. It helps the gloss and texture. Good (for you) food needs to be good for your eyes and tongue too!
For protein, tomorrow buy a can of chickpeas, one of tomatoes, some spices and some basmati and make "chana masala".
What worked for me was starting simply. I started with one meal that I got really good at making, and then introduced another (and when I make it I make plenty extra to cover later laziness). I know roughly how many calories it is, so I barely have to think about anymore.
>I know roughly how many calories it is, so I barely have to think about anymore.
This is key for me. My wife loves variety and so she struggles with counting calories.
I prefer simple and known-to-be-delicious, and so I know about how much each of my meals is going to affect me. I came to hate calorie counting pretty quickly, and with that I came to hate eating out, because it's the hardest to count. And I'm not yet convinced that I've ever actually counted enough calories for any meal when eating out. There's so much self-deception involved, both my own and the people who are supposedly reporting the calories, both officially and unofficially.
>My wife loves variety and so she struggles with counting calories. //
I can't be bothered with all that, intermediate fasting (ie having a limited window of time in which you allow yourself to eat) seems to be a great workaround that leads to calorie restriction with less of the fuss.
IME, the trick to healthy long-term eating is to mix and match from a common palette of healthy foods/meals you enjoy.
After a few months, you’ll know the macros in everything without having to check labels, and the shopping/meal prep becomes easy because you know the right ratios of the things you buy and you’ve cooked them many times before. If a reframing might help, consider it an investment in yourself that pays off for life.
Yeah for this reason a mix of cardio and weight training is essential. Or at least time your runs. When I eat poorly I can still do my usual 5K with no trouble, and I often don’t even feel any slower, but the timer doesn’t lie…
I noticed that when Im not working out I have poor food choices and when I eat like crap I avoid training or it’s a lot more unpleasant than it should be.
Also training results in physiological changes that help losing fat and be generally healthy. Just make sure you’re not losing too much muscle size with the fat.
