Healthy eating. any advice from personal experience?

okay, i need help now lol ... i'm sixteen and i want to eat healthy and exercise more. whenever i resolve to eat healthily and cut out junk food, i manage it for a few days then i give into the cravings which come back so much stronger and find it hard to get back into my healthy eating. now i know some people will read this and think, ';oh just a teenage girl looking to be stick thin'; but that's not true. I'm happy with the way i am, i just want to eat better.





is it simply down to poor willpower? or is it because i'm cutting out junk food completely? any tips for repressing cravings?





thanksHealthy eating. any advice from personal experience?
I have the same problem, and we are almost the same age. I had a real problem with eating junk food, I got so lazy and stuff, I had to go to the doctors because my cholesterol was so high. I tried to go on a diet and boy was that a big mistake, I ended up sitting on the couch again with a bag of chips.





So I went back to my Doctor and he said it was because I was cutting out junk food completely, just a little bit each day would satisfy my cravings enough for me to each healthy. That's why they are called sometimes food.





When this happened my biggest problem was chocolate. I was addicted to it, and that's bad for my health, and for my acne. Anyways, because of this, my doctor said that I should use junk food in a healthy way, what he meant was, combine the two. Like a nice bowl of strawberries with some chocolate, again so I could satisfy my cravings enough to eat healthy.





When it comes to exercising, that was more difficult, I had to make it so that exercising became a habit. I started out with long walks around my neighborhood, then eventually came up towards running and biking. It was hard, but I just had to remember that I need to see it as a life style choice, not something that I hate and that I think will kill me.








Good luck and I hope I helped!Healthy eating. any advice from personal experience?
It is pretty much all about willpower. Just find something that motivates you. Maybe keeping your heart healthier, setting a good example for others such as kids (in the future, of course), or just keeping in mind the simple fact that eating healthier actually does make you feel better. When I switched to my healthy diet, after about 4 or 5 days I felt noticably happier, had more energy, and just felt better overall.
Trick is to no beat yourself up if you slip one day. In fact, bodybuilders work a ';cheat day'; in once a week to add calories %26amp; satisfy cravings.


Other tricks are to eat small meals every 2,3 hours, drink water often, more carbs AM, less PM...carbs (sugar) make you want more. Eat more protein. It satisfies more.
You most likely have a sugar addiction which is what most people have! It is really tough to break, especially when you may not even realize what is feeding your addiction! (And trust me I know how hard it is to not eat junk when you're 16!) What I have found from experience is to cut out all refined sugar and flours.(So NO white bread, white pasta, white anything. Read ingredients.. anything that has ';sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup';, etc don't eat it.) Don't even touch artificial sweeteners like Splenda, aspartame, sweet and low, whatever. These are just chemicals that have no place in your body. For a week or so, try just cutting out as much sugar as you can, 100% from fake/refined sources, and as little to no natural sugar as possible. (Maybe one fruit at day.) Stick with it for a week or two - it will be hard I won't lie. Your body is recovering from pretty much an addiction. But if you pull through, you will notice that junk food will not be appealing anymore, your cravings will be gone, and you can enjoy natural ';junk'; like fruit. You may also notice the natural sweetness in things you never though, like vegetables. I know that doesn't sound very fun haha! But if you can reprogram your taste buds to how nature intended, you will really not want junk food ever again and will really enjoy whole, natural foods. And believe me, they taste much better. (When I say ever again, obviously if you slip up once in a while that is natural. But when you eat it, you will most likely find it doesn't taste as good as you thought!)





One last thought - depending on what type of junk food you like, there are always ways to make it healthier and still taste amazing. You can make healthy desserts with better, healthier sweeteners like extra ripe bananas, yacon syrup, honey, maple syrup (although using these in moderation of course is very important.) You can make a burger from on whole wheat buns (try Ezekiel brand) and make your own ketchup. (Ketchup has a TON of sugar in it!) Yea, it's a little extra work. But 1) it tastes better. 2) it is SO worth it. You will feel and look 100x better I promise! :)





PS. I recommend seeing Food Inc if it's playing in your area... it may give you some incentive to cut out junk! :) Good luck.