I'm curious about eating habits after getting into the "fitness lifestyle"

[FitFossil]

OK, I don't compete, but I do like to look good...

For me, it works best to have a small treat every day that's built into my diet. That way I never obsess or worry about bingeing.

There is no food I tell myself I "can't" have. So, when I do find myself wanting something that's not quite "clean", I'll have it. I'm actually satisfied with smaller portions since I know nothing's forbidden. If I told myself "just this once but never again...", I'd eat the whole thing and then some.

I know I could make better use of those less-than-clean calories, but I'm in this for the long haul. I like to look good, but I like food too (and my husband is a gourmet cook), so I compromise. I'd rather look sort of close-to-contest all the time than contest-ready for a few days (except maybe my next HS reunion ). Even the competitors only stay contest-ready for a very short period. I think following a strict contest diet would really screw w/my eating disorder history, and I don't want to go back down that road.

 

[Arioch]

One thing that my wife does that seems to work well for her is to use some sort of candy that is composed of primarily dextrose, such as Sweet Tarts, as part of her post-workout carb-up. It seems to work well for her as she does not have the fastest metabolism in the world and will often spend a fair amount of time dieting.

 

[FitFossil]

Re: Re: OK, I don't compete, but I do like to look good...

can u explain a little more about how ur small treat per day works? like by giving an example of how you work it in?

p60,

Everything I've done has pretty much been trial and error over the past 3 years. My diet to start was crappy w/capital C. Most all calories from sugar, chocolate, etc. I ate maybe 1 decent meal every few DAYS. All other calories were sweets. I was able to stay remarkably thin because of youth and active lifestyle, but I felt horrible most of the time. Once I hit my 30's the party was over, and here came the fat, regardless of how hard I worked in the gym.

Bit by bit I started cleaning up my diet. First w/ protein shake for breakfast. Then I began having a clean dinner with protein and veg. (used to skip dinner and just eat dessert). Then I cleaned up lunch. Then I broke my 3 meals into 6 smaller meals, always trying to get some protein in each. This made the biggest difference in my energy. My body really started to change in the gym too. With improved nutrition, I did not crave sweets as much as I used to, and weaned myself down to once a day.

All of this has taken nearly 3 years, but looking back it doesn't seem that long because I made progress all along the way. I tried doing the sweets every other day, but that backfired. I don't count calories, keep a food log or anything like that. I judge my progress by my strength in the gym and the mirror. If something's not working, I make one small change and wait it out. Being too drastic screws me up. Usually this involves slightly increasing or decreasing portion sizes of whatever I eat. It seems to work better for me to have only a very slight calorie deficit. By eating every 2-3 hours, I'm much less aware of it. I'm also a fan of high intensity cardio. I'd rather have to exercise more and be able to eat a little more. Not sure if this is pychological or physiological.