What is your biggest annoyance with staying on track?

[agm1984]

I'm trying to help my gf get into the shape she wants to, and I'm curious what everyone's biggest issue is or issues are with losing fat and staying on track.

Is it tracking calories? (why?)
Is it finding which meals to make? (why?)
Is it knowing which foods are good/bad? (why?)
Is it staying in the new habit? (why?)
Is it exercising regularly on top of everything else? (why?)
Is it knowing what exercises to do and when? (why?)

I especially want to hear from everyone going through this right now. Help me find new ways to make life easier for my gf. What are your problem spots? I've been doing this for many years, so I have trouble relating sometimes.

Tell me about your pitfalls and how you avoid them.

Keep up the good work everyone. It is so incredibly satisfying to reach your goals with this fitness stuff. Forgive my crazy questions. I am a scientist, so I like to collect sample data and use it to help her as much as possible.

[Partyrocking]

The hardest part is changing your relationship with food. I don't know your girlfriend's situation, but I know my own.

At my worst, I was 95lbs overweight and you don't do that by accident. That's years of neglect brought on by abusing food. Eat when you're celebrating. Eat when you're depressed. Eat when you're drunk. Everything you do for some reason needs food.

Eating less is simple. Disassociating everything that you've once paired with food is hard.

[spradish]

For me it is probably spur-of-the-moment stuff that messes up my workout schedule or meal plan. I try to stay flexible about it but there has to be a limit.

[gcjager]

I like food.

[Tourden]

Family outing. As much as I like to eat food, spend time with my family and stay on my meal plan there are few occasions (birthday, wedding etc) that makes me look like an ******* if I don't participate.

I have a buffet that I have to go with my family so I'll limit my intake for rest of the week in order to compensate for sudden increase in calories (also slowed progress) but it also helps me mentally as well.

[Gneejack]

The biggest annoyance is the difficulties of eating at restaurants or meals that I have not prepared myself because it is damn near impossible to track the calories and macros in those instances.

[TheTh0rnWithin]

As some of the other posters have mentioned, eating out.
Every time someone in my family has a birthday, anniversary, etc, we go out to a cafe and get lunch.

I always get the same salad or chicken schnitty, but there's no way to track the macros. I know the salad is pretty healthy because I ask for dressing on the side and it's mostly chicken and greens with some avocado, but nigh on impossible to track the crumbed chicken schnitzel and chips (I rarely get this, don't feel like getting salad 24/7)

Other than that, it's eating at certain times.
I'll forget to grab lunch sometimes so I have it late at like 2pm which pushes my dinner back to 6pm.

The joys of weight loss, am I right?

[ComeOnFFS]

The hardest part is changing your relationship with food.

....

Eating less is simple. Disassociating everything that you've once paired with food is hard.

This is the cruxt of the issue and going hit the nail on the head for most people. It is also why it is so simple in theory and so difficult in practise. There are a lot of long-forged neural connections that are going to be hard to break.

Another thing is ....

"Spontaneity is the esscence of pleasure." Germaine Greer

A life where every meal is planned, accounted for and proportionate to your bodily needs is going to be a bit grim.

Some people probably get more overall pleasure by ruling their desires with an iron fist than they did from eating for pleasure with a measure of abandon and excess thrown in. But I suspect that is never going to be me.

For me I've realised my only chance of success is being one of those people who simply have to pay their debts in full and on time. If I'm going to demolish a Dominoes and a few beers with a friend in a totally unplanned move then the next day my only option may be an impromtu fast day to "atone." It is not the heathliest approach by far and admits of lots of potential for wagon-falling-off but it's my best shot for now.

[agm1984]

Thanks for the replies; I'm noticing 3 things so far, which of course I offend all the time myself (I can relate now)
1) illegal snacks
2) times when haste is involved
3) times when laziness is involved (especially when gym is involved and better things to do, but I've always noted the "oh crap im hungry must eat now" is a huge problem with beginning the new habit)

Anyone have other reasons they encounter?

We can combat those above ones by preparing meals and portioning them out in the fridge; then, when you're hungry, you can pop one in the microwave and be eating in 3-4 minutes. It's hard to keep up though, prepping big batches every Sunday and Wednesday night have always been key for me. I like to freeze food also, but we have none around in my house right now, so I see one thing I can do to help a lot.

You can also carry legal snacks on hand 24/7, like nuts (but be careful calories secretly adding up), and especially vegetables and a respectable dip (no one eats dry vegetables except psychopaths, ok maybe not quite, but white coloured dips lead to bad news).

Are there any other things that blow up in your face? Give me your struggles so I can spin them into analogies for my gf

[forcasa]

Dealing with other people who don't understand your decisions or goals, whether it's a partner/family members/friends, and having to deal with them being frustrated or annoyed at your decisions if they're not supportive, or if it impacts the social things you do. For many - food is a way of celebrating life - not something to be carefully measured. You'll find you have to justify yourself to others a lot.

[EjnarKolinkar]

Disassociating everything that you've once paired with food is hard.

Yep, and eventually it goes on to include re-associate a lot of it again in a reasonable fashion IMO. You know we took 20-30-40 years to get out of control, and I think sometimes we are not patient enough with ourselves in the process of adapting to new methods. Not that that is the same for everyone. I get so impatient with it all.

Once you become an elite diet master losing weight is easy. You make the plan for macros, put the food on the scale, you use the will not to eat more. Coping with day to day life without blowing up the progress in the lifetime after the diet takes a lot of work lol.

Well, for me OP the biggest annoyance is impatience and perfectionism. I robbed myself of a lot of progress chasing those. But I've always been a more is better guy, and had an all or nothing mentality. Like Kimsquit said better is better.

[agm1984]

I hear you guys; believe it or not, its pretty much the exact same issues whether you are trying to bulk up or slim down.

I have some friends that are skinny and I ride them fairly hard to eat more, but they have trouble. I think it's the habit forming thing EjnarKolinkar just mentioned. Instead of 'cant stop eating,' its 'cant start eating'. Just as painful if you are there. I can confirm because I am 6'3" but I used to be 145 lbs. Then, I rage quit on that because I hated people calling me lanky and every other word, so I started force feeding 24/7 and carrying junk food with me 24/7. Fast forward 7 years and now I'm 190-200 lbs. I went through times where I gained too fast and felt like poo, times where I couldnt eat enough and stalled (and that made me feel like mentally poo). Consistency is key though. If you miss a day, jump back on, do extra exercise sessions.

I find getting friends involved helps a lot. They bite your ankles when you are slacking. They notice. I used to carry around tubs of peanut butter and gallons of milk everywhere I went, and had a huge stash of garbage food at work. I know your knee jerk reaction is "what a bastard", but let me tell you, its just as bad from the other side of the fence. You have to establish the new habit. It is a lifestyle change.

I'm seeing some amazing secret tips in here. Keep them coming. Join some fitness groups on ******** also. The memes keep you in the game, and talking with like-minded people helps you stay motivated and you will feel like an under-performing outcast if you aren't right with them 24/7. That works great for me anyway.

[agm1984]

The motto I live by is, be better this week than you were last week. Be better next week than you were this week. It doesnt matter if you are bulking or cutting, a gain is a gain.

I dont care what you look like or what your goals are. If you are living by that rule, I respect you hugely. You cant change the past, but you can affect the future. Always give it 110% in the gym or exercising/running elsewhere and dont stop until your brain says "ok enough", and then do that extra 10%. Your body will radically change in a few months, trust me. The sooner you start to enjoy tricking your brain and torturing yourself for 60 minute periods, the sooner you will always feel fantastic when you look in the mirror.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder also. Dont care what other people think. People have all kinds of wild subjective preferences that mean nothing to anyone else. Do you for you. Stop and slow down when you are happy. Start and kick ass when you feel you need to. Call it a mind set. Remember, better this week than you were last week. If you feel you under performed, kick it up a notch for a day or two. Try that out.

[ComeOnFFS]

Well, for me OP the biggest annoyance is impatience and perfectionism. I robbed myself of a lot of progress chasing those. But I've always been a more is better guy, and had an all or nothing mentality. Like Kimsquit said better is better.

'Don't let the best be the enemy of the good.'

[pablosavagee]

Mine is when the scale doesn't budge.

Mine hasn't changed since last Thursday and it's annoying. I feel like binging. But I wont.

I'm scared to eat anything non-healthy now because the water retention due to high sodium also discourages me.

I'm going to cut my calories down a bit this week and hope for the best.

It's too early for me to plateau.

Also...eating out is hard. I always get chicken and vegetables though.

[th3pwn3r]

The biggest issue with staying on track is when people annoy you by trying to either A. Feed you food you don't want or B. Say you only eat healthy when that's not even true.

Basically, other people's influence is a big deal when it comes to dieting. For me it doesn't really bother me, I've been at this game long enough to know my head from my anus and how to block out the stupid stuff people say