Starting Over, Take 1,847

May I ask a question with no judgment intended at all? In 2009, did you feel that you ate certain foods a little too freely that you want to avoid to lose more weight or do you feel your portions were not small enough?

I’m asking mainly because I want to understand how someone can eat so healthily (I’ve read through a lot of your blog and you eat admirably well) and still not lose much weight. What changes do you want to make in 2010?

I’ve read a lot of your posts on 3 Fat Chicks, and you are definitely one of the best informed and most reasoned voices I’ve ever read. My best wishes to you and good luck in your endeavors in the coming months!

It’s an excellent question, though a complicated one (or maybe several easy questions would be a better description).

If I were eating the way I am now, in my 20’s, I would be losing 10 lbs a week (and I often did).  So, even I often wonder why I’m not losing more on my current WOE (way of eating).

I think that eating too many off-plan foods, and eating too-large portions is still an issue, as to the fact that I must always remember that I can’t define portion-size based on my past-self (coming to terms with the fact that what is today a “too-large portion,” may have been a “too-small portion” only a few years ago).

My portion sizes are usually pretty good.  In fact, it would be rather difficult for me to reduce the size of my portions.  I try never to eat more than 3/4 to 1 cup of food at any meal, and don’t fail at that very often.  Frequency of portions, is an issue.  Controlled grazing, can become out-of-controlled eating very easily.  Small mini-meals do seem to work best for me.  That doesn’t mean constant eating though, and I have to be aware of the cumulative amount of food as well. 

As for, off-plan foods, I’ve eliminated most traditional junk food, but there’s plenty of healthy food that is too high in carbs and calories.  For Christmas, my family brought my husband and I an assortment of food-gifts from a new Health Food Store in their area.  Many of the choices were very diet-friendly, but I’ve been eating too much of the dried fruit and nut mixed.   

My main game-plan change for 2010 is to stick to my exchange plan, and journal every day.  When I don’t journal, I’m more likely to eat more servings of the higher carb foods that increase hunger (and if I’m not paying attention increase the likelihood that I’ll eat too much or too frequently, or less-than-healthy choices).

Another factor to address, is activity level.  With my health issues, and those of my husband, we’ve both dropped our activity level considerably.  I seem to be much like my cat in this regard.

When we adopted ChubChub, she weighed nearly 20 lbs.  We managed to get a few pounds off of her - but the less we fed her, the less she moved.  Attempts to get her interested in a game of chase the string, or any other activity, were mostly useless.    She sat by her empty food dish and cried and complained all of the time, trying to persuade us to feed her. 

Unlike my cat, I understand that I need to stay active (yet it doesn’t seem any easier), and I have full choice over what to eat, how much, and how frequently.

Documentation, I think really is the key.  I can’t stress enough how important journal writing is to my success (and yet it’s the easiest thing for me to get lazy about and neglect).

I’ve rambled quite a bit, so to summarize

The biggest change I believe I need to make for 2010 is much more thorough documentation.  Writing down exactly what, when, and how much I eat -  and staying within my exchange plan boundaries.  Limiting carbs helps me control hunger (though my exchange plan already figures that in - all I have to do is check of the boxes), so that will be important to - and adding in activity more consistently.