No Motivation
 

I am nineteen, 5'8, and 175 pds. I love chocolate and chips : ) That's all I ever want to eat nowadays. I work at a fast food place making sandwiches so it's tempting to eat there because of our 50% off discounts. Health food can be so expensive! So, I feel like I need to eat off the dollar menu at fast food restaurants half the time! It's so hard for me to stay motivated. What are good foods to eat? I don't have any exercise equipment.. what are the most effective workouts at home? I need some help :confused:

Look through grocery store fliers and see what is on sale and base your meals around that. A lot of grocery stores have day old areas for fruits and vegetables and breads.

As for workout I use WiiFit. It's around $100 and all you need is the space in which to exercise. I bought a couple video games/workout that were on sale.
Hope this helps.

If you live where it is safe to walk outside, starting with something as simple as 10 minutes of walking every day might help. Use the time to breathe, pray, and enjoy nature. Drink a glass of water. Notice how you feel. Good? Repeat.

HI,
Jaime is right walking is a great way to jump start your metabolism and as you start to feel better your motivation will pick up. Give it a try for one month and see how you feel. Chocolate and chips are very short energy so they can kill motivation. Drinking lots of water also is very important. Hope this helps good luck

Yes, specially marketed "health food" can be expensive, but often "real food" is not as expensive as eating at a restaurant. As others have said, watch the sales. Spend some time in the grocery store finding some "go to" things that are a reasonable price and also give you the most nutrition for your money.

A general rule is that the less processed something is, the better it is for you. Fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins (chicken, fish, turkey, lean meat occasionally), and healthy fats (nuts, nut butters, avocado, olive oil) are good building blocks to form your eating choices around. Make sure to get enough fiber. Buy fresh things in season and they're much cheaper; for fruits and vegetables, frozen is also a good (and often cheaper) option.

It does take a while to break bad eating habits, but if you can tough it out for a while, you will notice your body start to want healthy foods instead of the junk foods.

I've read that diet is about 80% of the battle, but it's important to get some exercise in, too. Calories matter most (IMO), but the balance of calories between protein, carbs, and fat matters also.

For motivation, check out the Motivational Thread in the Women's Corner. We check in regularly and keep each other motivated. It's kind of quiet there this weekend, but it will be rocking on Monday!

You can pick up chicken breasts pretty cheap. Tuna is cheap also.
Bananas, apples, etc. are not that expensive either.
You can do body weight exercises.
Push-ups, body weight squats, crunches, dips, etc.
Google "body weight exercises" and make a routine up.
Good luck.
Robb

I have found that when I do have a binge out on the high fat things like chips and chocolate it does have a completely disproportionate effect on my motivation. I feel lethargic and I crave more of it and then want to do less and I spiral down.

My rule of thumb is that the more packaging it has the less healthy it is really meaning the more processed it is the more unhealthy it is. Try to get a third of your plate as fruit and veg, another third of carbs like bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, the final third of your plate should be divided into protein (non dairy) and milk/dairy foods. Foods high in fat or sugar should be avoided or very limited.

As for starting to exercise walking is a great start and then start to add in some functional exercise like squats, planks, crunches. There are lots of exercises you can do without spending any money, check out the videos on youtube.

A good place to start: where you work. Work with what you have. You have food all around you. If you work at McD's, have the happy meal (fewer calories, plus the fruit, plus the skim milk = not bad!) and have a salad when you feel like you absolutely have to have something to eat between meals. Vary what you eat but have a calorie budget (McD's lists calories and nutrition info on the box). Find a fresh fruit that you really love and bring some cut up fruit to work in an insulated lunch bag with an ice pack.

Fast food - yum! It has its place. There aren't BAD foods - and good foods, you can eat at home, in moderation. Just keep track of your calories.

Definately agree, for most people there are no bad foods just foods to be limited. Unless you have medical issues such as diabetes or allergies there are no bad foods at all.

Eating healthier foods doesn't have to be more expensive, start comparing the price of a chocolate bar to a piece of fruit that is in season, I look for what is cheapest, shop when the sales are on and keep an eye out for things that can be frozen like lean meats and chicken. sugar, salt and all the flavourings in junk food is addictive IMO and it can be difficult at first to realise that your body runs much better on healthier alternatives. Frozen vegies are often cheaper too and they are just as nutritious. Canned tuna is my best friend, I buy both the plain in spring water, and the low fat flavoured versions. I eat eggs a couple of times a week, I only drink water, tea and coffee (with fat free milk). Start small and build up, I began by cutting out soft drinks, then I moved to adding more vegies and eating some fruit each day. Over time I adjusted more and more until I felt ready to really take the plunge and make some bigger changes. Good luck!

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