... that most overweight people I know are afraid of food? Well, I can only speak for myself but... I've been trying to figure out how many calories I should be eating and how much should be carbs and how much should be protein and yadda yadda yadda. But here it is, nearly 2 in the afternoon and I've had a total of around 900 calories.
Now I KNOW, from doing research and talking to folks on this board and just the general knowledge I've gleaned over the past few years, that I could and should eat close to a thousand more calories today to encourage slow, healthy weight loss. Even if I were to be aiming for 1600 a day (and I'm beginning to think that's too low, btw), I'd have like 700 calories left. But when I went to FitDay and saw that 900 number, I panicked. I reverted to my old "the only way to lose weight is to starve yourself" mode and started trying to figure out how to survive the rest of the day on only 100 more calories. I looked back over what I ate and tried to see where I could have eaten less and started that old thinking "man, how could you have eaten so much already...you big fat loser." When all I really had was some fruit, a yogurt, some lean pork and fresh beets with a pat of butter. Certainly not a food orgy.
I know now that my fear of eating can sabatoge my weight-loss efforts and cause me to hold on to this extra weight just as surely as my out-of-control and thoughtless eating got me here in the first place.
Luckily, and due in large part to the support and advice I've gotten here over the past few days, I stopped that negative thinking and assured myself that food is an essential part of living and that it can be healthy. I've always been one to celebrate food, and I think that I couldn't stick to many programs in the past because they required me to turn food into an enemy.
Well, no more. I know now that in order for me to work this new lifestyle and grow (not to mention "shrink") from it, I have to be able to embrace food and all of its delightful nuances; distinguish healthful choices from unhealthful; rejoice in making the right choice; savor the "bad" choices I make but recognize them and try to avoid them in the future; choose not to waste precious calories on stuff that doesn't make my body and / or soul feel good. Eating healthfully is about balance, giving all kinds of foods their rightful place and due respect; it's about careful, THOUGHT-FULL eating. Caring about what I need and giving it to myself. My excess weight is the result of not feeding myself well, not nurturing myself, not ...caring ...enough ...about ...me. Food is not my enemy; APATHY is.