I’ve gotten several questions lately about what I’ve been doing in regards to weight loss so I thought I’d do a post on it.
It’s taken me years to find out what works for me. In fact, I’m still learning and quite frankly, I believe that this is a life long learning experience. Following schedules and programs to an exact science does not work for me. At all. As soon as I stray slightly off track, it’s a failure and I will use it as an excuse to let unhealthy food behaviours appear.
About a month ago I decided not any more. I knew that I was in this for the long haul but I had to fine tune my lifestyle so that I could lose weight, not feel deprived and not want to binge.
The main things that I’ve been doing are:
- Listening to my body – When I serve supper, I put a portion a on my plate and tell myself that if I’m still hungry I can have more. The food is there and it’s not going anywhere. Most of the time I’m satisfied with the initial amount. The other thing that I have made real progress on is leaving food. Today at lunch I had a honey crisp apple for dessert, but I was quite full from my leftover soup so it sat on my desk until I was actually hungry again. I am really trying to work on my relationship with food, seeing it as fuel for my body and breaking the emotional eating connection.
- Tracking – Whether it’s calories or points, is important. I know there are people who can lose weight without tracking but not me. I have the most success when I’m accountable for everything that goes in my mouth. Even if I’m over my allotted calories. Keeping a food journal also allows me to see exactly what I’m eating and to see what areas I’m deficient in. Sometimes its hard not to get too wrapped up in it all and there is a definitely a fine line between healthy and obsessed. I have walked both sides of the line. Having food as your main focus in life just isn’t healthy. I’ve found that blogging all my meals hindered the healthy mind set. I was constantly thinking about food and cooking. I needed to take a step back, so I did. For the record I’m currently tracking my calories on My Fitness Pal, I have set a daily allowance of 1500 and have the option to eat the extra calories I burned from exercise. We had a late night on Tuesday that included eating out. I tried to make good choices but I didn’t have a chance to work out so I was over my calories. I tracked it and then moved on. For so long I would dwell on something like that. But I’ve come to realize that it’s just not worth it.
- Being Active – I spent all Summer with my butt firmly planted on the couch. After the half training, I pretty much stopped exercising. There were half-hearted attempts here and there but they never lasted. So, right now my only priority is to move, most days of the week. There’s usually a couple of gym trips followed by several walks with hubby. This makes me happy. I feel great when I’m active.
- Temporarily Ditching The Scale – The numbers on the scale affect me. They mess with my head and only bring me down. So I decided to ditch the scale until my birthday. Doing so has alleviated so much stress.
Gaining some weight back has been difficult but I also believe that there is a silver lining. It’s shown me that I need to step back and go with the flow, keep making good choices and enjoy life. I guess I really won’t know how this works until December, but I’m willing to bet that I’ll see a difference.
