No junkfood May.

[Feops]

Anyone care to suffer through a month of "no junkfood" with me? I want co-sufferers to relate with!

I love junk. I admit it. Candies, chocolates, donuts, cookies, muffins, coffees, chips, pizzas, hamburgers, energy drinks, icecream, fried stuff, gimme gimme gimme! My only saving grace has been a resilient metabolism that puts up with it.

It'll be a neat experement. The effect on mood, sleep patterns, wakefullness, and general energy. Just, um, a painful adjustment for the first week.

 

[ThinkingAboutIt]

Anyone care to suffer through a month of "no junkfood" with me? I want co-sufferers to relate with!

I love junk. I admit it. Candies, chocolates, donuts, cookies, muffins, coffees, chips, pizzas, hamburgers, energy drinks, icecream, fried stuff, gimme gimme gimme! My only saving grace has been a resilient metabolism that puts up with it.

It'll be a neat experement. The effect on mood, sleep patterns, wakefullness, and general energy. Just, um, a painful adjustment for the first week.

Metabolism is one thing, good health is another. I rarely eat junk - typically organic, whole food, natural, etc. The easiest way to do it is to not to buy what you don't want to eat because you will eat it if it is there. You will feel a ton better getting rid of the processed foods in your diet. Can take a little bit though to get all the toxins out of your system. Might want to get a whole body cleanse from the health food store to speed that up if you want to see results quickly.

Really, unless you are making a lifestyle change, this is just torturing yourself. The best way is to incorporate better choices in your diet little by little. If you love bread, and usually eat white bread, start buying wheat bread or whole grain bread. If you love donuts, start buying the ones without glaze or sugar free. If you love chocolate ice cream, start buying chocolate yogurt.

As you make the change, keep in mind that you don't have to completely eliminate everything - I eat healthy, but will eat some bad things. However, it isn't often and I make myself wait for them...e.g. if I am craving chips, I will make myself wait a few days or even weeks. If it persists, then I will eat some. I also try to figure out why I am craving it - do I want something crunchy, salty, or is it taste? Then, I will try to find an alternative and have that on hand when those cravings come. Just experiment with 'alternative foods' to the things you eat regularly.

Good luck!

 

[nightning]

+1 to Thinking's comment, besides the organic business.

You don't really need organic food for a good diet, the non-organic stuff is fine. Fresh fruits and veggies are more nutritious though. For this reason, local produces are better because there's less shipping time.

There's no need for cutting out all junk food. A treat once in a while does you no harm. Just make sure you don't make meals out of them. For your regular meals, try to cut down on fat/oil and salts. Finally, lots of water. Both people (myself included) don't drink enough.

 

[scantilyclad]

oo i'll do it. i really don't eat a huge amount of junk food, but i don't eat healthy enough either. I'd like to cut out sodas.

 

[ptgatsby]

You don't really need organic food for a good diet, the non-organic stuff is fine. Fresh fruits and veggies are more nutritious though. For this reason, local produces are better because there's less shipping time.

Yup, although it doesn't need to be fresh. Local is certainly better, but failing having the markets around (easier here in Vancouver ), frozen tends to be healthier. The same goes for canned and the like. So long as it is relatively additive free (including salt and the like), it's about as healthy as fresh local vegetables... and better than most of the stuff people can actually get. (And even then, salt isn't really that dangerous until it gets fairly extreme.)

edit: OP - I would, but I'm not sure what I could cut out

 

[Feops]

Might want to get a whole body cleanse from the health food store to speed that up if you want to see results quickly.

Whole body cleanse?

 

[Moiety]

^usually consists of drinking a whole bottle of absinth.


And wait, is a whole month without eating junk food that much? Not to sound judging or anything but I guess this could in part be a cultural thing.

 

[Priori]

I'll join you.

 

[ring the bell]

I'm in.. 21 times make a habit. A month should be a good amount of time to start up some new healthy habits. I've been trying for a bit now, actually, ever since I read the book "In Defense of Food". Check it out if you are really interested in getting a factual view of how our food industry is corrupt.

 

[Feops]

^usually consists of drinking a whole bottle of absinth.

And wait, is a whole month without eating junk food that much? Not to sound judging or anything but I guess this could in part be a cultural thing.

Ew absinth.

I work in a downtown office, have a sweet tooth, and I'm not constrained by any sort of daily budgeting. It's not hard at all to substitute meals and snacks with crap.

So it's pretty easy to do the following: skip breakfast, go to work, pick up a donut + coffee, work, have a hamburger + pop for lunch, work, have a chocolate bar snack, go home, have a coffee, nuke some microwave noodles for "dinner", eat some chips, sleep.

Pretty crappy yes? Doing all those in one day would be a tad extreme but it gets the point across.

 

[Tiltyred]

I'm in.


The issue is convenience. I have the same situation -- no food budget, I'm downtown with all the restaurants, and on the way home there's nothing but junk food drive-throughs. Why should I shop and cook when there is so much right available to me with zero effort? So the solution for me has been to food shop and then cook all day one weekend day and portion everything out, so in the morning I know what I'm going to eat, I can grab something I made myself from of the refrigerator and bring it for lunch, along with some fruit for snacks (which would be, for example, grapes already picked off of the bunch and washed, or an orange already peeled and wrapped with a damp paper towel) -- just spend one day making it so I don't have to think about what I'm eating the rest of the week. That's what works for me.

It's just that I so hate the kitchen...but what must be done must be done.

 

[Feops]

So the solution for me has been to food shop and then cook all day one weekend day and portion everything out, so in the morning I know what I'm going to eat, I can grab something I made myself from of the refrigerator and bring it for lunch, along with some fruit for snacks (which would be, for example, grapes already picked off of the bunch and washed, or an orange already peeled and wrapped with a damp paper towel) -- just spend one day making it so I don't have to think about what I'm eating the rest of the week. That's what works for me.

I'm going to give this a go.

I'll muddle through friday somehow and go on a cooking spree on saturday. I already do this half-way by nature of being bachelor and favoring finger foods over things that require preparation. Then I'll just need to pick and choose which foods from which containers I care to eat on a given day...

 

[Tigerlily]

Anyone care to suffer through a month of "no junkfood" with me? I want co-sufferers to relate with!

I love junk. I admit it. Candies, chocolates, donuts, cookies, muffins, coffees, chips, pizzas, hamburgers, energy drinks, icecream, fried stuff, gimme gimme gimme! My only saving grace has been a resilient metabolism that puts up with it.

It'll be a neat experement. The effect on mood, sleep patterns, wakefullness, and general energy. Just, um, a painful adjustment for the first week.

God, me too! I love crap food but starting last thursday I've cut the crap food out and have been eating healthy and outside of my morning cup of joe, I've been drinking water only.

Instead of fattening artery clogging food, I am eating Medifast snacks in between meals to keep from falling off the wagon. Their chocolate pudding is super yummy and soy crisps are enough to keep me from eating a grilled stuffed burrito or anything from McDonalds.

Of course all this is brought on my the fact that I'll be 40 next week and my body is telling me to knock the shit off or else!

I'd recommend not starving yourself and finding good substitutes for your cravings. I had the medifast food in the pantry from last year (joined didn't finish) so I am implementing them with healthier eating habits. It's a lifestyle change not a diet. Don't torture yourself and if you want a cookie get the small packs of 100 calorie oreo's or similar instead of the regular oreo pack for example.

I had some lettuce with flavored tuna, balsamic vinegar, mushrooms and some low fat crispy things for lunch today and it was good! Retrain your brain is what I am calling this. After 7 days it's easy.

edit: having just reread the op, the above is more for people who want to lose and keep weight off. ;P

 

[Mitzy]

same here. im gonna go on vacation ina month so i need to diet and exercise asap :x
no more delicious mexican food or fries :[

 

[Night]

No deal.

 

[prplchknz]

Nah, I don't want to live too long, but you guys have fun.

 

[Feops]

I'd recommend not starving yourself and finding good substitutes for your cravings. I had the medifast food in the pantry from last year (joined didn't finish) so I am implementing them with healthier eating habits. It's a lifestyle change not a diet. Don't torture yourself and if you want a cookie get the small packs of 100 calorie oreo's or similar instead of the regular oreo pack for example.

I had some lettuce with flavored tuna, balsamic vinegar, mushrooms and some low fat crispy things for lunch today and it was good! Retrain your brain is what I am calling this. After 7 days it's easy.

edit: having just reread the op, the above is more for people who want to lose and keep weight off. ;P

Yeah, I'm not doing this for rapid weight loss, but more to observe the effects on mood, energy, and cost. Eating healthy is more expensive than eating junk, but eating out is more expensive than eating healthy, so I think this will be a net gain.

About a week is what I'm consistantly hearing as the adjustment phase. I think the largest challenge won't be the meals but the snacks, as it's only natural for the body to desire the cheap sugar rush of a candy.

Tonight is shopping night! I've made a point of letting my kitchen basically run out of food, so this should be a good start.

 

[Feops]

This is difficult.

Society is conspiring to keep me full of junk foods even if I'm not the one buying them.

Weekend was perhaps not the best time to start. Redoubling efforts starting.. now.

 

[ring the bell]

I hear you Feops.. I'm traveling, and it's actually so incredibly difficult to not grab a bag of chips in the store when we stop for gas or grabbing some fast food for lunch. It's going good though I think there will be a good reward at the end.

 

[Atomic Fiend]

I don't eat junk food anyways, I stopped sometime early last summer.


So I'll join you.