First time poster! I have found a great community here reading through everyone’s posts. I wanted to share a tool that has completely changed my perspective on my snacking habits and has helped contribute to a 25lb weight loss.
Some background info: I (29F, 5’3”, SW: 185, CW: 159) have progressively gained weight throughout my 20s. As the years went by my mental health got worse (depression/anxiety/PTSD) and I turned to candy/chips and other generally high sugar and high fat foods for comfort. And as those years went by, I gained more and more weight. After not seeing extended family for the last two years, my partner and I took a trip to visit everyone and there were lots of family photos taken - it was my first realization of how out of control my emotional eating had gotten and how it was impacting me physically.
Throughout my 20s, I had tried (and failed) to make consistent changes to my diet and exercise routine. I’d try logging calories and stick with it for a few weeks, and life would seem to get busy and I’d stop (and the emotional eating/snacking would start again). It wasn’t until a family member shared the Yuka app with me that I was able to be successful in changing my eating habits.
The Yuka app is a barcode scanning app for food and cosmetic products. It informs you of any hazardous ingredients in said products, and offers recommendations for similar products that don’t have hazardous ingredients. It’s an independent app (companies don’t/can’t pay for sponsorship or have their products be classified as excellent if they aren’t), and it links to studies demonstrating why that ingredient is hazardous. For example, a scanned product could identify whether there are endocrine-disrupting ingredients, and link to studies demonstrating the research behind the health impacts of that ingredient.
Having this tool has completely changed my eating behaviours. I just can’t justify eating foods that are carcinogenic or are linked to other harmful health effects. Having the ability to see what is a better replacement has been huge. I did a mini experiment to see how I would feel making dietary changes to avoid foods that had any listed hazardous ingredients.
And, after a month of these changes, I felt great. I had more energy, and was able to incorporate more exercise into my day. I’ve lost 25 pounds in about 15 weeks by making better food choices to start & incorporating exercise after a month of diet changes (now doing 15 minutes of cardio before work 3-5x per week, and weight training for 30 minutes 4-5x per week when I get home). It started with the horrifying realization of how bad my food choices really were and why they were so bad. Once my eating improved, the rest (exercise and portion sizes) seemed to follow. I’ll try CICO to get to my goal weight, but the Yuka app is really what got me to where I am today.
I wanted to share, in the event anyone has struggled like I have!
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/z35pij/i_changed_my_eating_habits_because_i_learned_what/
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