It seems I haven't gotten myself 'stuck' on calorie counting.
Sometimes I just have to take a step back and see where I might be going wrong. I know calorie counting works, I just haven't been able to get it to work for me because of the perceived effort it takes. In reality it doesn't take that much effort.
I have this fantasy of being able to eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full and just have that equal weight loss until I'm at a normal weight. It seems lovely but the fact is it probably won't happen that way for me. Left to my own devices I overeat, even when I feel like I'm not.
You don't get to be almost 300 pounds if you're good at stopping when you've had enough calories. :P
I don't dislike counting calories. I'll just have to get it together and try to make a habit of it. I've made a habit of working out at least twice a week, which is good. I'll start making it a habit of just counting my breakfast calories. Maybe I'm taking on too much at once.
I'm also working on meditation. Maybe finding ways to calm my mind will help when things get stressful. I don't think I'm particularly bad at worrying or over thinking but I do have a tendency to drop new habits when things get stressful even a little bit, like school starting or having trouble at work.
Ultimately I'm still young and I'm still growing into the kind of person I want to be. Spiritually, mentally, physically, habitually...I'm not quite there yet and I don't know many 22 year olds who have it all together. :P I've been giving some long thoughts to where I am in life and where I want to be when I graduate school. I spent a lot of time using drugs and alcohol and I think it stunted personal growth. I'm kind of making up for lost time here. Maybe that's why I have so much difficulty sticking to new habits. I'm not used to it. It's pretty new for me.
It's a process for everyone, and very few people of any age have it "all" together.
I think we're also taught/conditioned to think of food counting and journal-ing as strange, excessive, difficult, compulsive..... just because we rarely see anyone else do it.
We don't usually see strangers brushing their teeth, either, but we tend to assume that most people do. We don't question or comment on others hygeine, but people sometimes will comment if the see you in the act of journaling.
For me, it helps to see my food logs as no different than showering or brushing my teeth or hair. If I forget to do any of those things, I do them as soon as I remember. I don't think about how hard or annoying it will be to do these things forever. It's just part of a daily schedule.
Maybe some day, there'll be an "an easier" alternative tooth brushing, maybe a cleansing chewing gum, but I don't think about how great it would be to not have to brush my teeth.
What I'm trying to say is we do a lot of things every day that are more difficult and complicated than food jounal-ing, but we don't think about it, because those are things seem normal to us.
No one thinks you're obsessive if you brush your teeth every day, or pay your bills on time or balance your checkbook.
Our upstairs neighbor vacuums every day, sometimes twice a day. We don't. Both are ok. I think it's important to see food self-monitoring as normal, because it stops feeling hard, when it feels normal.
Calorie counting largely got me to where I am today, but the last 20 or so came off by following my nutritionist's advice of three meals and two snacks/day, with the meals consisting of a protein, a carb/grain, and fruit or veg. No calorie counting, just portion control.
Now I'm trying to be an intuitive eater ("Intuitive Eating" was a life-altering book for me). I have my hunger cues down pat, but I do still struggle with the fullness cues. But the nutritionist's advice on portion sizes have helped me figure out how I should feel, fullness-wise, after an appropriately portioned meal.
I have come to the conclusion that I'll have to calorie count for the rest of my life, and that's ok with me. It's the only thing that works for me. I tried intuitive eating, and it just wasn't for me. I gained weight. And then there were times when I wasn't really sure if I was hungry or not, so I wouldn't eat. Then I got a tremendous headache and fatigue (which I'm sure was low blood sugar), but I didn't eat because I wasn't truly hungry.
Calorie counting is as hard or easy as I make it. I don't even have to be exact. Just knowing how to figure portion size by visuals (like Weight Watchers taught me a while back) works.
I'm thinking of switching back to Weight Watchers, because points is just an easier way of counting calories.
I wouldn't make it without counting calories. The only way I can reliably tell if I'm hungry is if my stomach is growling, and then I stop eating when it stops growling. That doesn't seem right to me, so I count calories instead.
Counting calories got a lot easier for me when I got a kitchen scale. Now, instead of guestimating 'well, that looks like a medium banana....and half of maybe a large sweet potato...' I can just plop whatever I'm eating on the scale and plug it's weight into fitday.com and all the calculating is done for me. I also don't eat anything that's difficult to find the calorie count for. Which is fine, because those foods are usually high calorie anyway.
If you like complicated foods like that, you could try the weight watchers frozen meals - they have calories listed on the back, and taste great.
