Food suggestions, dieting help
I'm trying to change some nasty habits at the moment. My year's theme is self control, and beating addictions is a large part of it.
The symptoms I've been trying to fight off since last year: Snacking often, eating portions too large, eating past hunger/always finishing my plate even if I feel full, craving greasy fast food, craving sweets/sugar.
Progress is mixed. I'm trying a lot of things; I've reintroduced a 20:4 IF routine (my body is naturally somewhere around 16:8 - I never have breakfast) but I've had a lot of trouble obeying it for more than a few days.
I'm realizing, today, that one thing I have not really been looking at is the cravings. This HN thread is what clicked for me. I know that on a "healthier" diet, I crave very different things.
I'm looking at options on what I can introduce (gradually) to start getting my gut used to different classes of foods. I don't intend to switch to being vegan/vegetarian, I'm just looking to stop craving fat, salt, and sugar.
Or rather, not necessarily crave, but "if I see it I want it" kind of thing. I want to be able to look at a packet of crisps and think "blergh" by default, even if I'm hungry.
What advice I am looking for: Suggestions on snack replacements, juices, various tasty meals etc; things I can actually go for from day 1. I am not looking to do any large swaps. I am also not looking for extra effort; right now, a 99 percent of my meals are either store-bought, microwaved, or restaurant/takeout. I don't cook because I don't enjoy it nor usually have the time.
Example: I've decided to introduce ginger shots to my diet, see if it'll help. I'm also going to try having carrots on-hand more often as I really like those.
Note 1: I am considering giving Hello Fresh a shot next month, since I've never actually tried it, but I'm lukewarm on what'll happen.
Note 2: Allergic to bell pepper; dislike eggplant, celery, zucchini.
Your story is a lot like mine. I have tried losing weight for years and haven’t had more than temporary luck. My weight is so bad it is causing me medical issues now. So I am going to try to improve things in one very specific way:
I’m going to stop pretending to be a diet expert. And I’m going to stop listening to advice from anyone who isn’t. I’m going to talk to real medical professionals who specialize in this - ones who work in hospitals, not their own quack clinics.
I’ve only done an introduction class so far and I was surprised to learn that some things I have been told by so-called experts have not been true. Have you heard about eating 5-6 small meals throughout the day so you aren’t hungry as much? They don’t recommend that because it messes up your body’s production of insulin.
More importantly, the programs that they are offering are a whole lot more holistic than any advice anyone can ever give you. They understand that what you eat is affected by stress and emotions and they will make sure you have tools to deal with that. They even have physical therapists to help you customize a personal fitness routine.
Best of all, this costs nothing. It’s basically 100% covered by insurance. They know that this is going to save them a ton of money in much more expensive healthcare operations, which means that it will save you from them and all the financial and emotional pain associated with them. So I would recommend checking if you have access to such a program.
Sounds like a good program to me. The holistic approach is critical IMO. There are a lot of ways our mind+body will adjust to a change in stimuli. Like if you start exercising more to lose weight without any thought to diet you'll probably just eat more food to compensate. Which makes sense, you burned more calories so you're more hungry than normal!
I was actually really surprised when I started to look into what they did because at first it seemed like it was just an education program that could be boiled down to "Eat your vegetables". But they offer this program to everyone regardless of your weight and health status at no charge so long as you're insured through them. Not only that but I'm lucky to be living in the area I am in because they also offer a vegetarian/vegan focused version and a pilot program that's supposed to be more intense and involves doctors trained in the somewhat newage-sounding field of lifestyle medicine.
When I lost my first significant amount of weight here is what worked for me. Take what you can from it.
I didn't do all of these at once but added them over time and as I found out what worked for me.
Don't eat just because the clock says so.
The less sugar you eat the easier this will be.
Get rid of bad snack so they are not an option.
This helped me understand my natural weight fluctuations and not get concerned over being a pound or two up for one or two days. Your looking for long-term trends and a sense of accomplishments. Putting together a string of 4 or 5 days where I did well made me less likely to want to break that trend.
Doing this I went from 240 to 170 over the time frame of about a year and a half. It was slooow going at first but eventually the weight started coming off and I hit weeks at a time when I plateaued but I stayed with it.
I hope this helps. Good luck. You can do it.
Woof. I feel every single word of this.
2 from me:
is more due to the fact that apples are high in fiber than any nutritional value they have. Also there are some good comments in the link above that go into other ways of getting fiber if you don't like the idea of the video.
+1 on the smaller plates idea too. I do that as well, it really helps control portion sizes.
Kinda forgot about the second part of the post.
What are your easy fiber recommendations? I like apples but not in large quantities.
I am already following your "nuts & dried fruits" strategy: I've started eating muesli-mix (w/o milk, just as-is) again. I like it a lot, and it lasts forever which is a big thing for me (I hate wasting food, so I stay away from having too much fresh stuff on hand).
I want to follow up on nuts: they're healthy and high in protein and fats which provide long-lasting energy and satiation. But they're extremely easy to overeat in one sitting since they're small and calorie-dense.
For fiber:
Guilty of this so often. I have no idea how to control myself correctly with them.
But they can outright replace a meal for me if I have a good amount of them. In fact, they often have to, because otherwise I'd explode.
Something like Metamucil (aka Psyllium Husk) or its store brand equivalent would be the easiest way to go for fiber. Add to the recommended serving size of ice water, shake 'er up, and you're good to go.
I'm reminded of the best dieting advice I've ever heard: A diet is no good if you can't stick with it. Sustainability is more important than perfection. Nothing should be forbidden, but portion control and frequency are important. Nerd Fitness has a lot of great info.
One tip in particular was, especially with intermittant fasting, eat 2 big meals. One medium-large when you break your fast, and the largest as your last one. Being in that habit mitigates both the 'finish your plate' problem and reduces snack cravings due to being 'stuffed' between meals.
The bad news is that those are the most delicious flavors. The good news is imparting them on healthier foods mitigates a lot of problems, as processed foods tend to have the trifecta as the primary ingredients. So having a cheese/fruit/nut plate as a meal (dipping apples in peanut butter) can mitigate lots of cravings.
I also have better luck eating healthy if I start with healthy food first thing in the day. Kicking the soda habit took awhile, but now that I have drinking more than one every few days makes me feel ill.
Some snack ideas though:
It sucks that they're all cliche, but they're cliche for a reason. They're simple so you van just grab and eat, which lowers the barrier opposed to having to prep.
Another tip I recently found out about: Attach a Tamagotchi to a water bottle. Drink every time it demands attention. Staying hydrated keeps your body from confusing thirst and hunger.
By the way, I completely agree with it on "it's no good if you can't stick with it". That is why I want to retrain my gut. I know it's possible because I have in fact been there before, and moving gradually to healthier foods worked. I came back to junk food after the death of my partner, and it kind of stuck because I haven't skated since.
I clearly see the difference in my metabolism before/after. But I think I should be able to tackle "food" without having to tackle sports at the same time.
In short, I am separating the goals of "getting fit" and "breaking the addiction" and here I'm focusing on the latter.
Tis a good strategy. I dropped the link more for anyone passing through, as you were using terms that suggest you've already been down that path.
I'll add some more food ideas soon. I can tell you that the meal kits like HelloFresh are great, they simplify cooking, but they still require cooking. It's a great step if you're looking to kick the takeout habit, but might be a phase 2 kinda thing.
Part of my problem with takeout is, even here in Belgium, the portions still tend to be too large. Even a small kebab from my local turkish place, chicken/no sauce/no fries/salad only, feels larger than the portions I usually have.
The way I see it: If my girlfriend can't finish it, it's probably larger than the portions I should ideally have. I like splitting meals with her, it's a good way of getting around that problem.
Maybe buy single meals with the deliberate intention to split what you get across two meals (i.e. leftovers).
I find that my soda habit (coke zero) is actually not that bad. I can down 10 cans in a day, but I can also have none for ages - in fact, I've had none for over a week now, and I don't feel a particular urge to go back to it. When I do go back to it, it tends to be kind of purposeful: I am drinking this because I want to stave off hunger.
I think coffee works better for that. I'm just thankful to not feel addicted to any of it.
I ended up getting a soda stream and it has helped almost eliminate normal/diet soda for me. The fizz and natural slight acidity from carbonation is satisfying enough that it generally works as a replacement. A splash of lemon juice or whatever helps if you need some flavor. Plus, it works out cheaper than the nice no sugar “barely a whisper of the memory of a fruit” soda water cans.
Yeah good point. I got a sodastream for exactly that reason but never ended up using it …
One thing that can help and is easy to implement is to do light exercise right after you eat, which is proven to help reduce blood sugar spikes and should both prevent foodcomas and keep you satiated for longer.
If you're eating primarily premade food it can be rough to do any specific planning since it tends to be a crapshoot. I'd just say try to make sure the food has some amount of fiber, and relatively less carbohydrates.
I wouldn't go for HelloFresh if that's the case. It's really about saving on grocery shopping and planning. You still have to cook all the food.
I think one "hack" if you're into caffeinated products is that caffeine is very good at eliminating hunger. So (black) coffee when you're hungry, or sipping tea the entire day, can take the place of snacks.
Personally I just don't buy snacks. If you have to go out to buy them, or prepare them yourself, you probably just won't bother instead.
Drinking any kind of juice is probably just a bad idea, even if they have no added sugar. Fruits have high sugar content, it's just buoyed by their fiber, which is mostly not present when juiced. Coffee, tea, and water instead.
It may not be super applicable if you don't cook, but it can still help with picking out premade food. I think it can be fallacious to avoid oils and sugars at all costs. You just have to be smart about it. Sometimes people go too hard and make food that just tastes awful and then they fall off because their food tastes like ass. Oil is fine in moderation, and it definitely has a mechanical purpose in cooking - you can't just not have oil and have the same food, but with less oil. Sugar, too, can elevate savoury food. A nutritionally insignificant amount of sugar can have a big impact in something like a soup. You're just adding more dimensions, here, not trying to make a desert, so the amount of sugar is vastly different.
In that respect, make good black coffee and good tea. Good, specialty black coffee prepared correctly should not be bitter at all. Tea is more forgiving, but avoid tea bags.
Technically, protein is the most "filling" category of food. It is so hard to digest it requires additional calories to process. Not sure if it'd make that much of a difference in the end, though.
Totally agree! Michael Pollen has a famous diet tip: "Eat anything you want. Just cook it yourself." Ignore the awkward generic b-roll footage, but this snippet from one of his lectures is really interesting!
For snacks, definitely a fan of nuts, dried fruit, and dark chocolate. You can get some dried fruit without added sugar (often cherries or blueberries), but you need to look around.
I second the popcorn as well. I air pop it and sprinkle some salt on it.
For fresh fruit, buy quality produce/cultivars. If you have to force yourself to eat a crummy Red Delicious apple, you won’t want to eat apples often.
I like popcorn but I feel guilty when eating it. Should I not?
Unseasoned popcorn is quite literally a whole grain. It's fine. Not the best thing you can eat per se but better than other traditional snacks. As a whole grain, it's relatively dense with fiber and by itself does not contain that many calories, while also being relatively filling.
Buuuttt, the "unseasoned" part is pretty important. Eating butter with popcorn on the side is not particularly healthy. Nor is eating caramel with a side of popcorn particularly healthy.
The closer to completely unseasoned, the more healthy. There's quite a few brands of "healthy" popcorn these days, though. You can consider trying flavors that are strong but not naturally caloric (e.g acidic flavors like lime and salt, or spicy)
Another vote for popcorn. I buy a big bag of dry kernels. Something like 1/4 cup of kernels, a tiny bit of oil, and a tiny bit of salt in a paper bag and into the microwave for a few minutes. Perfect, fast, and practically no cleanup.
I've been having trouble keeping my popcorn crunchy. For some reason, it's always chewy. Have no idea why.
Chewy popcorn indicates too much moisture. You could try using different kernels, using less oil, or fluffing your popcorn before serving (as /u/DrStone mentioned). If you're making popcorn in a sealed vessel (e.g., over the stove or in a microwaved bag), then it's essential that you dump your popcorn into a serving bowl as soon as it's ready -- you need to separate the evaporated water from the popped corn asap. That said, I'm not sure which of those variables is the most important.
Nevertheless, I'll second /u/nukeman's recommendation for an air popper (something like this, though they're usually cheaper), which pretty much ameliorates all those issues. In addition to being dead simple, it has an open design (allowing moisture to escape out the sides) and it requires no oil (though I usually add a bit afterward so that my seasonings adhere better).
If you can't tell, I'm a big fan of my air popper. Best single-purpose kitchen gadget I own.
Tried with less oil and less kernels: definitely an improvement ;)
Great! :D
Yeah, it’s tough. I live in a high humidity area and if the popcorn isn’t eaten very soon after cooking, it gets chewy. Fluffing it frequently while it cools might help by releasing any trapped steam, but I haven’t tried that yet.
Sounds like a great tact to take! I have 3 thoughts:
First, I used to snack a lot when I was high and I used to get high a lot, particularly during college. I often found myself staring into the fridge and cupboards and even if I bought healthier things, I never found myself eating them. Salad takes Prep. Almonds/dried apricots take prep. Even yogurt with jam takes prep. So I'd grab chips or bao buns or whatever snack I could just chuck into my mouth. Now there is a key difference, the getting high, but I think it may still help. I started prepping snack before I got high, not with the intent of eating them right then, but knowing for the next 8 hours I'd have stuff prepped and ready to go. No need to wander around the kitchen deciding. And it mostly worked. There were still days when I found chips or something, but by and large I'd walk into the kitchen and go "Oh, yeah! Thanks old me!!!" and grab the yogurt/jam mixture and walk away. Again, it's not a direct proxy, but I think a lot of how we eat is dictated by what is easily accessible and presented to us. Also, if you're making the snacks for later you get to decide portions. You mixed up the yogurt and jam or tossed the salad so when you reach the end of it and still want more, you might take just enough time for your stomach to catch up with the fact that you're full and say "fuck it, I don't actually want more". For this small plates are nice. They look like you have a ton of food, rather than a big plate with a small portion which can look a little sad and cue your brain that you should get a second helping.
My second thought echos some of whats been said here. Stuff that takes up room in your stomach and takes a while to digest. Fiber is definitely good, so even if an apple is the same amount of calories as a candy bar, it'll take longer to digest and just takes up more room in your stomach. The other great side effect is that it'll make your number 2s much more consistent and comfortable. Big up to fiber. The other one I suggest is yogurt. It's high in protein and fats so it doesn't spike your blood sugar like other carbohydrate snacks might. I find myself pretty well satiated after I eat it and if I add a jam I like (blackberry or rhubarb) it feels like I'm eating a dessert!
Lastly, I pound a lot of water or herbal tea, particularly at night. Sometimes our body is just thirsty and it materializes as hunger. After about 9pm I switch over to chamomile and might knock back 2-5 mugs before bed. Big caveat being that if you don't drain your bladder before you sleep you will wake up feeling like you're absolutely going to burst in the morning.
Good luck!
I’ve got two suggestions, though I am working through on my own weight as well, so take what I say with a healthy dash of salt.
Anyway, a snack suggestion: sugar-free Jell-O. This has become my go-to snack now and it has done pretty well with stopping my cravings. You can guiltlessly eat as much of that shit as you want.
I also saw that you have too much on your plate (literally), and I’ll suggest smaller plates. It may seem obvious, but I no longer use large plates at all, and it definitely seems to help with portioning.
Fun suggestion. I don't normally like jell-o, but I'll think about it and give it a shot at some point. Thank you!
I hate shopping for clothing. Some number of years ago I noticed I was nearly unable to fit in my pants, so my lazy ass figured "welp, better lose some weight if you don't want to go clothes shopping!" I've been able to lose about 20kg or 44lbs. Every year I regain a few and then do a maintenance diet for about 6 weeks to go back to target (I love eating too much to just never eat the tasty stuff).
This is what worked for me. There is going to be some repetition from everyone else's posts. (I will not mention the vegetables you can't or won't eat, but it's a little unfortunate as those are excellent diet stuff.)
Popcorn is god's perfect snack. It takes a lot of space and for how much space it takes and how filling it is it's lower calorie than many alternatives. You can make good popcorn with a simple pot in a few minutes and it's ridiculously easy to eat. Use fresh kernels. No sugar. No butter.
Lettuce has basically no calories, so consider eating a lot of salad. You can fill up on that stuff multiple times a day. It's very easy to whip up a salad with fresh lettuce and other greens, a couple extra ingredients and some sort of dressing. Avoid high carb bottled dressings, no pasta, no croutons, those are really defeating the point. I also avoided corn on salads.
Others have suggested dried fruit. I'm a big fan of raisins (another salad ingredient!) and dried apricot! Nuts, too, but don't overdo it.
Vegetable soups are very filling and a great vehicle for stuff like cabbage, cauliflower, green beans, carrots, etc. They're really quite easy to make. You just throw stuff in a pot with water, possibly puree it? It's really low effort. Avoid potatos (this is easier with zucchini, but you can still make soup bases with cauliflower or carrot, or just broths).
NO SODA, EVER! Eat a piece of fruit instead! Also no alcoholic drinks. You can drink a lot of water or tea.
Avoid carbs during meals to compensate for eating a few carbs between meals (such as toast in the morning or sugar in coffee). Add more protein to your meal instead. So instead of rice or pasta, eat more fish and, uh, lettuce.
DO snack lightly between meals. I recommend yoghurt with oats added to it, sliced ham or cheese, nuts, etc. Avoid carbs/sugar.
No breakfast cereal. I also recommend cutting milk if you drink it. Milk is tasty, but it's also really easy to cut.
I've had good results with relying more on olive oil for calories instead of sugars/starches, take that for what it's worth. Also, olive oil is tasty. So are olives, in fact. You can put them in your salads!
Definitely let yourself feel a little hunger at first. Even eating until you stop feeling hungry is likely too much if you think you have a problem. The hunger should go away in roughly a couple of weeks.
I always had one regular meal per week, possibly use that for an outing with friends. During that meal you can eat anything, however do not eat second helpings during any meals. As others have said, use the size of the plate to help control yourself. No cheating by using oversized plates.
I avoided checking my weight, as that can be disappointing. Note that during the initial stage of your diet, if you're doing it right, you can appear to lose a lot of weight as your adipose cells empty, then it will appear to stagnate, but it didn't. That's when the real diet begins. Just keep it up.
(EDIT) Be extremely skeptical of anything labelled "light", "no fat", "healthy" when it's a type of food you feel isn't healthy, etc. Check the nutrition tables. Opt for the simplest possible foods or raw ingredients you know have no sugar added.
Note: If you can lose the weight and stay on target for maybe a couple years, it will become way, way easier to stay on target after that, because your adipose will die out and not be replaced (until you start binge eating again). I'm saying these things but it's all stuff I googled back in the day, so I hope they're accurate ;)
One thing that helps me avoid snacking is brushing my teeth more often. It's probably at least partially psychological: I'm conditioned from a young age to not eat anything for at least a few hours after brushing my teeth. But the minty freshness also somehow seems to reduce cravings, and even makes some snacks taste less good. As a not insignificant bonus, it will reduce your chance of experiencing toothaches, and probably reduce your dentistry costs.
Keep a bottle of mouthwash around too, both at home and at work. It's somewhat less effective (at least for me), but it's quicker and easier than brushing your teeth, and doesn't require running water, just somewhere you can spit.
Interesting that you bring this up! You're not imagining it.
Toothpaste has a foaming agent (called sodium lauryl sulfate — the name I didn't know offhand) that temporarily suppresses taste receptors for sweetness.
It's why you get a very unpleasant aftertaste when you drink orange juice then brush with toothpaste, which is what I experienced often as a child. (I was weird: I liked occasionally drinking orange juice right before bed.)
I can recommend Hello Fresh, at the very least for exploration. For me it was going plant based (i.e. significantly less meat, and less dairy) for eco reasons. Hello Fresh makes it easy to filter for foods that fit your criteria, and makes the mental labor of learning a new recipe a lot easier. You just decide "do I want to eat that?" when selecting meals. "Shopping" for it, picking out a recipe, all that is taken care of. The box arrives, you cook it. If you like it and want to cook it again, this time doing the shopping yourself: You already know that you can handle the cooking part, you've got a working recipe, all you need to do is shop for stuff. I've introduced a whole bunch of new recipes or ideas to my "heavy rotation" this way; things that had I seen a recipe, or a recipe video, or a suggestion online, I never would have tried, because there's so many steps involved in the first iteration of "idea to plate" that just make me not want to bother. Hello Fresh makes it one simple decision, and then you're committed to a relatively straightforward trajectory.
Old thread: did you end up trying Hello Fresh?
If so, How was the quality of the meals, and your thoughts on the value of them?
If not, what other alternatives did you look into?
I didn't end up trying it but it's still in the back of my mind. Truthfully my current lifestyle doesn't allow me to really use it. I might try it in 2024.
The "self-control" theme was my first failed theme... In fact, I changed it early during the year as it was clear to me I didn't have the proper tools to go with that theme.
In my well-being theme this coming year, I'm planning to work on introducing those tools and still work on self-control a little bit.
I think @vektor will be able to help you a bit more.
thank you :)
I wish you every success and felicity in the coming year of well-being ~
I have been summoned to this thread, and had to read up on what it was even all about. I believe Adys refers to this comment of mine.
I imagine this can shift from region to region, as HF sources at least the bulk of their ingredients locally; so in the interest of transparency, this relates to the German market, YMMV. Generally speaking the quality of HF's meals is pretty good. I haven't had many misses with them; very occasionally they'll mispackage and you'll lack one ingredient. In another case it was more my own fault as one of the ingredients was already chopped and thus had lower shelf-life than I expected, but following straightforward instructions ("cook this on day 1") would've helped. The instructions are usually structured well to make cooking simple, and while their instructions suffer from "ready to serve in 10 minutes" syndrome a bit, they're at least consistently underestimating cook times by a bit - or I'm just slow.
The dishes themselves are what you see on their website when you order, so no surprises there. They're as bland or as imaginative as you're willing to select. I've had everything from "mac n cheese with chicken nuggets, but with some amount of greens so Hello Fresh is actually Fresh" to completely wild ideas from continents away with ingredients I couldn't even pronounce much less procure.
As for value, that's a different thing. For groceries, they're a bit on the pricy side of things, while for takeout they're pretty cheap, but you can get pretty big discounts too. On a good day, it might be cheaper than the grocery store. How much you value your time is up to you, but at least for me it's worth it at least occasionally. Doesn't hurt that HF keeps feeding you "miss me yet"-coupons if you have your subscription on hold.
If you maintain your subscription for extended periods, they also occasionally give "You've been cooking up a storm!" discounts too. I just got another one for $10 off a few days ago.
I've been using Hello Fresh on and off here in Canada for over 2 years now. And your experiences/review closely matches my own, even the pre-chopped ingredients warning part. Which is why, whenever I get Hello Fresh now, I make sure to open all the bags to see what's inside, and cook the recipes with pre-chopped vegetables first since they tend to go bad more quickly... especially cabbage, which dries out and goes brown within a few days.
They used to give you a quarter/half chunk of cabbage, or onion, or whole garlic cloves, etc... which lasted way longer, but now it mostly all comes pre-chopped. :( I have complained about that multiple times, to no avail. But that's a pretty minor issue, all things considered, since it does save time when cooking. And overall I have greatly enjoyed Hello Fresh. In 2+ years of ordering meal packs from them, usually every other week, there has only been one meal I didn't enjoy.
p.s. I am also subscribed to MakeGoodFood, a Canadian only service, which generally has better quality ingredients, fancier recipes, and higher-end proteins (like duck, black cod, jumbo shrimp, etc), but also way less variety. I usually alternated between them and Hello Fresh, depending on what meals pique my interest the most every week. However, I actually haven't ordered from GoodFood in quite a while, basically ever since Hello Fresh started to offer similar higher-end proteins and dishes too.
And TBH, I might end up cancelling my GoodFood sub entirely now, due to Hello Fresh also recently revamping their site to allow you to substitute almost every protein with other options, which is essential for me, since I don't eat red meat. And as a result of that I used to be locked out of a ton of meals on both services, due to them being red meat only. But that isn't the case with Hello Fresh anymore, since now I can simply substitute out any red meat for some other protein, even vegetarian ones (like Seitan strips, or Beyond Meat).
p.p.s. If you want to give Hello Fresh (or GoodFood) a try, @chocobean, let me know. I have plenty of free box credits for both that I can send out to others.
Oh man, I'm sorry to hear that you didn't get the results you wanted last year. I was really hoping you'd have success!
Working on yourself is really hard; it's an investment that takes so much more out of you than time and money. Just know that the dividends you get from those investments are absolutely worth it.
Some resources that I found useful in overcoming some bad habits and addictions are Atomic Habits / Tiny Habits and SMART Recovery. SMART Recovery is more focused on eating disorders and other addictions than on dieting / overeating, but I reckon the tools used to overcome the former are also useful to deal with the latter. They were in my case, at least, when dealing with bad soda-drinking and social media habits.
I lost a bunch of weight in college. From 240 down to around 180. I was raised in a house of strict ethics. When I was 10 I was straight up told that I should leave the country and never return if compelled to fight in a war, and that my parents would be sad they'd see me less but it would be the right thing. So for me I was able to repurpose my strong sense of ethics for weight loss. I told myself that eating less and exercising more was the ethically right thing to do to my body. You need to live and suffer by your sense of right and wrong, and that's how transitioning to a different relationship with your body can feel. But at that point I knew there was no other option. I needed to do what was right and it was just a matter of pushing myself through to the destination.
Is it connected to any mental health struggles?
Nope, just plain old bad habits and addiction.
i mean this with complete seriousness (as a tool and not a complete solution): hypnotherapy
my partner practices it professionally and i gratefully ask her to practice on me. it's like a nudge to push you in the right direction, but it's still your job to snowball downhill. it can have varying degrees of success. it has helped me kick habits, compulsive thoughts and behavior, even forget a whitney houston song that was stuck in my head for two weeks.