this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2023
114 points (90.1% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26980 readers
1387 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected]


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I am eating too much junk and processed food while watching movies and youtube videos. I want to stop as it affects my health. Any suggestions.

(page 2) 24 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

You have what is called an “addiction”. An addiction is a self-destructive behavior you can’t control. Or rather, that you can control but not with the normal ease at which you normally control your own actions.

There’s two ways out of an addiction. One is far more effective than the other.

The method that’s more effective short term, but less effective long term, is willpower. Just force yourself to hold off on those treats. Wait five minutes, then dig in. Next time, try waiting six minutes. Just brute force your way out of the behavior.

The method that is less immediately effective, but far more effective long term, is to heal your psychological trauma so that moment-to-moment consciousness is not painful. This will remove the base motivation for pleasure-seeking, making that junk food mildly attractive, but nothing more.

In my own experience with addiction, brute forcing an addiction merely leads to another addiction forming. The only lasting addiction relief I’ve gotten in my life is from deep psychotherapeutic work, with men’s groups, with zen training, with individual therapy, and with native american healing ceremonies.

If your addiction were to alcohol or crack or something else that debilitated you, I’d recommend starting with the brute force method just to get breathing room. But a junk food addiction is more subtle, and doesn’t immediately debilitate you, so my recommendation is to go for the trauma healing strategy.

However, if your job is at all in danger, then I recommend the brute force method to begin with, because the inflammation caused by junk food will affect your job performance and if there’s any danger of losing your job then you need to take immediate action to protect it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I still have some of it in my house, but over the past year I've cut down majorly, by refusing to snack during the day, and tracking my calories each day. Just being aware of what I ate made a huge difference. Also, instead of ice cream, I buy TruFru dark chocolate raspberries and just have a few each night. I've lost about 50 pounds since last January through diet and exercise.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

So many people still don't realize that weight loss comes down to 90% diet and 10% exercise.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'd say it's more like 70/30 personally. It also gives you some wiggle room with a low cal diet. But you definitely can't just do some running then go out for bucket of KFC all the time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Calories burned from running isn't that great of a return.

An estimate is that a 200 pound person burns 792 calories per hour running at 5mph (12min/mile, or 8kph) on a firm, level surface. A 140 pound person burns 555 calories in the same scenario.

Source: https://captaincalculator.com/health/calorie/calories-burned-running-calculator/

It's much simpler to not consume excess calories, if you maintain a caloric deficit and don't exercise at all you will lose weight.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

So yeah, with a 1500 calorie deficit diet, that's about a 3rd of what you eat for the day, so like 33%. That's a pretty big chunk, and easily allows you to snack on occasion and still hit your deficit. I'd say it's pretty helpful, but diet is still absolutely necessary for any results.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

After reading over the comments in this thread, it's plain to see a common theme:

Stop putting the bad food in your mouth.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

It can be tough to break from habitual behavior in the moment (i.e. when you're reaching for a snack). Instead try putting some effort on making it harder or more inconvenient to indulge in that habit, while also giving yourself alternatives so it doesn't feel too torturous and make you want to give up.

For example, I'm guessing it will be a lot less emotionally "painful" to resist buying those snacks when you're out grocery shopping than it will be to resist grabbing them when they are already in your pantry. Use that to your advantage and stop buying the worst ones and try replacing them with a few healthier alternatives so that when the urge to snack hits at least the worst options are not available to you.

I'm hardly the healthiest eater, but a good apple sliced up satisfies a lot of my urges to snack. Baby carrots with hummus also keep your mouth busy and fill you up with relatively few calories. Try a few fruit/veggie snacks to see if any scratch your itch to snack. You don't have to change 100%, if you can break the junk food habit even 1/4 of the time, that's a step.

Another thing that's worked for me is portion control. Instead of bringing the whole bag of chips with you, pour a bowl and leave the rest in the kitchen. You might go back for seconds sometimes, but it still creates a barrier to eating more.

I think the most important thing is don't try to make it all or nothing. That will just set you up for failure and frustration. Take steps that are meaningful but achievable. And when you have the motivation, try to think of ways to set yourself up for it to be easier to make good choices when you have less motivation. You got this 💪

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I stopped eating sweets by not buying them any more. It´s just takes a second to walk past a product in the store and when you don´t have them at home it´s easy to not eat them. This applies to any kind of food

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Don't buy it, or switch to things like nuts or popcorn that you can eat a lot of without it being too unhealthy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

This is just bad advice. Nuts are very calorie dense, so you can easily put yourself in a calorie surplus for the day.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Try to replace what you currently eat with something else that is snacky but healthy like carrots, nuts or grapes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago
  1. Make sure you don't have any mental disorders that you aren't aware of. Watch actual doctors (like Dr. K) on YouTube to figure this out. You'd be surprised how subtly a disorder can impact the rest of your life.

  2. Do something more fulfilling. A decent chunk of the stuff you watch isn't helpful and doesn't satisfy you, so it's probably better to watch some really good movies/videos/shows so that you give it your full attention. If that doesn't work, find hobbies that do capture your attention.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›