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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   2303 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for November 15, 2023

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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I'm about 20-25% body fat and really need to lose some weight. I love all kinds of unhealthy food and crave them often. I just started intermittent fasting again.

Does The Motte have any tips to share for successfully making permanent diet changes? Psychological/mental advice is especially welcome.

I had great success with this method last year, but haven't been able to keep it up this year as work has gotten impossibly stressful. So I'll say this before even starting : "you cannot build new habits if you don't have some extra juice left in you by the end of the week."

That being said, here is what works for me (as the ADHDiest person you know)

Detailed tracking is impossible. So focus on broad rules that have an impact.

Here were my broad rules for diet:

  • No liquid calories. Especially on weekdays. (Alcohol, Lemonade, Soda, Tea, Sweet Coffee)
  • No deep fried things
  • No oil-based sauces. (Yogurt based sauces are a great substitute)
  • Smaller servings of rice & wheat

Generally speaking, if I keep this up, I just end up eating lower calorie meals without thinking about it too much. I also allows me to eat fairly delicious foods, so none of this feels like sacrifice. I love cooking, so to me this almost feels like an exciting challenge than a struggle.

Portion control is obviously important, so here were my broad rules for that:

  • No breakfast except coffee. If I must, then it it is unflavored (full fat) Greek yogurt with berries. I don't explicitly intermittently fast, but this basically facilitated the same thing.
  • No snacking outside meals. If I am craving something sweet, then it is fibrous fruits. (Plums, Pears, Pineapples, Musk Melons, etc). More importantly, never bring snacks back to the house. If I am really craving them, buy and eat them at the grocery store.
  • Promote food waste. (jk). Sometimes I am only craving the first bite of something. I am human, I break my rules. I normalized throwing away the rest of the dish after the novelty of the first bite had run out. Total gratification stays the same, calories are much lower.

For working out, I pick a hobby I love : Soccer, climbing. But I don't enforce much other than:

  • Put dumb bells / pull bar in a highly trafficked area in the house. If you touch them, you must do 2 sets.
  • Cycle when possible

I was down to around 16-17% late last year, but I too have climbed up to 22-24% now. I have been in the midst of massive life change the last year, so I have been kind to myself. But, things are finally stabilizing. So, the target for the next 6 months is to be back to the 17% target before mid-next year.

LMK if you want suggestions for delicious low-calorie meals that still have decent amounts of protein.

What's the reasoning for no oil based sauces? Isn't is as easy to consume the same amount of fat with butter or cream based sauces?

I rarely eat oil based stuff so it doesn't really affect me but I'm curious now that both you and @orthoxerox mentioned it.

Most of my sauces are greek yogurt based. Starches also help create low calories sauces.

I hate what i call 'non satiating calories'. You could go throigh a pot full of mayo dip withour realizing that is a 1000 calories by itself. On the otherhand, the yogurt based dip is 200 calories and no one notices the difference. (Very important to use full fat yogurt.)

Since oil and butter are the same word in Russian I implicitly meant all fat-based sauces. The reasoning is liquid calories again.

LMK if you want suggestions for delicious low-calorie meals that still have decent amounts of protein.

I'm always on the lookout for more delicious low-cal meals. Have you tried gently roasted sea perch fillets with tomatoes, onions and black pepper?

This is fantastic and exactly what I was looking for.

LMK if you want suggestions for delicious low-calorie meals that still have decent amounts of protein

Yes please, I'm always looking for new ideas!

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