How do I change my relationship with food?
I'm kind of at the end of my tether with my eating habits. I wouldn't say I look particularly fat, but I certainly classify as overweight. I probably overate before I came to university, but since starting university last year I've noticeably gained weight, as a lot of people do. I think it's a combination of the fact that I've had the freedom of buying/cooking food for myself so I tend to treat myself more, plus uni life is very busy so I've developed bad eating habits and am finding it hard to get out of this rut.
I'm always thinking about food, even if I've recently eaten, and I think even though I cook myself homemade meals quite often, I'm still probably quite unhealthy. I'm hoping that in second year when I'm living in a house with friends, I'll have more time to cook myself healthy homemade dinners and also lunches to take with me to uni, rather than buying convenience food. I just can't seem to break out of the habit of eating treat/comfort foods and snacking unhealthily. It's a hard mindset to get out of... I feel like I have no self-control and whenever I'm trying to fight the urge to eat something unhealthy, I'll just cave in and disregard my own attempts to balance my diet.
I'm really fed up and would like to be a healthier person as well as losing some weight, without going on a drastic diet (which would probably lead to me losing weight and then putting it back on - I need to change my overall lifestyle and eating habits).
Any advice or tips would be really appreciated!
I'm always thinking about food, even if I've recently eaten, and I think even though I cook myself homemade meals quite often, I'm still probably quite unhealthy. I'm hoping that in second year when I'm living in a house with friends, I'll have more time to cook myself healthy homemade dinners and also lunches to take with me to uni, rather than buying convenience food. I just can't seem to break out of the habit of eating treat/comfort foods and snacking unhealthily. It's a hard mindset to get out of... I feel like I have no self-control and whenever I'm trying to fight the urge to eat something unhealthy, I'll just cave in and disregard my own attempts to balance my diet.
I'm really fed up and would like to be a healthier person as well as losing some weight, without going on a drastic diet (which would probably lead to me losing weight and then putting it back on - I need to change my overall lifestyle and eating habits).
Any advice or tips would be really appreciated!
Heya,
It sounds like you're taking a really sensible approach to this with some good, achievable goals. I think you're right in that a lot of people do gain weight at university for a combination of reasons.
Sometimes working from a basic 'meal plan' can help - it might be useful to plan your meals for the week in advance so that you buy in what you need and can prepare it in advance if necessary if you know you're going to be busy. When you cook yourself your homemade meals, can you cook in bulk and freeze some portions so that you've got good healthy meals just ready to be heated up when you need them?
Same with lunches - if you can prepare them in advance (e.g. the night before) it can save time in the morning and stop you from buying unhealthy convenience food. It's ok to snack, and like you say, it's far better than going out a drastic diet, trying to cut everything out and then regaining the weight! But it's worth thinking about and buying in some healthy snacks so that you have those to hand too - things like nuts and seeds, fruit, flapjack bars and Nakd bars are some of my favourite things personally.
When I was inpatient and saw a dietitian, one of the big things we focused on in Nutrition groups was the 'third/third/third' idea for meals - so having meals based on a third protein/fat portion, a third carbohydrate and a third fruits/vegetables. If you're already cooking homemade meals this might not be very useful, but it's a good basic guideline for healthy, balanced meals otherwise.
The other thing to think about if you're wanting a healthy lifestyle is exercise - are you getting regular exercise at the moment?
It sounds like you're taking a really sensible approach to this with some good, achievable goals. I think you're right in that a lot of people do gain weight at university for a combination of reasons.
Sometimes working from a basic 'meal plan' can help - it might be useful to plan your meals for the week in advance so that you buy in what you need and can prepare it in advance if necessary if you know you're going to be busy. When you cook yourself your homemade meals, can you cook in bulk and freeze some portions so that you've got good healthy meals just ready to be heated up when you need them?
Same with lunches - if you can prepare them in advance (e.g. the night before) it can save time in the morning and stop you from buying unhealthy convenience food. It's ok to snack, and like you say, it's far better than going out a drastic diet, trying to cut everything out and then regaining the weight! But it's worth thinking about and buying in some healthy snacks so that you have those to hand too - things like nuts and seeds, fruit, flapjack bars and Nakd bars are some of my favourite things personally.
When I was inpatient and saw a dietitian, one of the big things we focused on in Nutrition groups was the 'third/third/third' idea for meals - so having meals based on a third protein/fat portion, a third carbohydrate and a third fruits/vegetables. If you're already cooking homemade meals this might not be very useful, but it's a good basic guideline for healthy, balanced meals otherwise.
The other thing to think about if you're wanting a healthy lifestyle is exercise - are you getting regular exercise at the moment?
Hi there! I think I could give a lot of advice on this and give you some healthy, quick and cheap meals to make, so I thought I'd just say you can private message me if you like and we can chat! (No point me writing anything here if you never come back to this thread after posting it)
Hope you get in touch
Hope you get in touch
Thank you all for the advice! It's all really useful I think deciding what I want to eat and what I need to buy and prepare each week is a good idea, so I'm not tempted to just be lazy. I'm not getting regular exercise at the moment and I'm pretty unfit with poor stamina so that's something I'm hoping to work on. Once my exams are over I'm going to try running regularly to build up my stamina and improve my metabolism - obviously it won't be easy initially but it's definitely part of the health equation that I'm lacking right now. Again, I think this is because of university and feeling like I have no time on my hands.
I think deciding what I want to eat and what I need to buy and prepare each week is a good idea, so I'm not tempted to just be lazy. I'm not getting regular exercise at the moment and I'm pretty unfit with poor stamina so that's something I'm hoping to work on. Once my exams are over I'm going to try running regularly to build up my stamina and improve my metabolism - obviously it won't be easy initially but it's definitely part of the health equation that I'm lacking right now. Again, I think this is because of university and feeling like I have no time on my hands.i think the veg soup doesn't sound like a bad plan and i hate that everyone puts on weight at uni too 
( there's always other meals though like falafel (if you grill them) they're just to die for. you can make veg curry with literally veg and tinned tomatoes (so veg) + spices which just mixes it up a bit from the soup. for a healthy snack make popcorn with a tiny drizzle of olive oil in a pan and a pinch of salt on top, seriously you're mostly eating air. hope this helps and good luck
( there's always other meals though like falafel (if you grill them) they're just to die for. you can make veg curry with literally veg and tinned tomatoes (so veg) + spices which just mixes it up a bit from the soup. for a healthy snack make popcorn with a tiny drizzle of olive oil in a pan and a pinch of salt on top, seriously you're mostly eating air. hope this helps and good luck I used to be like this too, boredom eating and food was always on my mind. Honesty I started by not eating for a day, only one, just because I had actually forgotten what it felt like to be hungry as I was constantly thinking about food. After that I just swapped bad snacks for fruit by not having bad snacks in the house at all. Also I started working out a lot, I found that even working out a bit made me want to be more healthy and if I'd already made the effort to work out, then I wouldn't waste it on food. Another tip is to try eat less carbs, don't cut them out completely, if your working out a lot then it's fine, but if you have a particularly lazy day, or your just in your room studying then I would just have meat and veg as I don't really need the extra energy. Hope this helps a bit.
Posted from TSR Mobile
Posted from TSR Mobile
go on a protein diet for 2 weeks and it will reset your urges and addictions on all food.
here is a link that explains the protein:
http://humancure.com/stop-hormone-imbalance-naturally-and-surely/
the idea is that it starves your body from carbs, and forces it to use the fat, after 2 weeks, you overcome the urges you get and you can return to your normal diet and wont be able to eat as much junk as you would normally.
here is a link that explains the protein:
http://humancure.com/stop-hormone-imbalance-naturally-and-surely/
the idea is that it starves your body from carbs, and forces it to use the fat, after 2 weeks, you overcome the urges you get and you can return to your normal diet and wont be able to eat as much junk as you would normally.
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