I don't know what to tell you about the not wanting to think about food all the time thing - I am a MINDFUL eater, the intuitive eating thing just doesn't work for me. I do think about food a lot. But you know, when I was heavy, I spent an awful lot of futile, wasted time THINKING and DREAMING and WISHING and LONGING to be thin, now that was a lot of wasted brain power. I think about what I need to get at the store and think about packing lunches and think about finding a new fun recipe for dinner - but it is all very productive thinking, it actually accomplishes something - a healthy, slender me.
In my opinion, I MUST plan my meals, because it is nearly impossible to eat well by accident in our grab-and-go, convenience food culture. If I don't PLAN (think about it, go to the store and buy it and pack it in my lunch) to have a tangelo and I get hungry at 3:00 at work, what is there to eat? Well, luckily, today there was an enormous leftover frosted cake in the break room - I could have eaten that! Or some processed, carby snack out of the snack machine. Nothing good or wholesome, if I got hungry enough, I would have eaten something that wouldn't help me achieve my goals. If I don't have a plan for dinner, and I stay too long at work and get tired, ordering pizza or picking up fast food start to sound SO appealing. What are my fast healthy options? Very few. I would much rather know that at home I have some salmon fillets, broccoli crowns and a pack of Trader Joe's microwaveable brown rice ready for me. When I start cooking, dinner will be ready in 25 minutes - nearly as fast as ordering a pizza and such a better option.
Sometimes, I do get tired of it all, but then I catch sight of myself in a mirror, or a candid photo or I pull a tiny little shirt out of the dryer to fold and I am again overwhelmed and grateful for all the changes in my life that help me to stay happy and thin and just feel great about myself.
That is it. That's just it - to a "T". Once again Glory you have summed it all up so nice and neat. Gosh, I wish I would have written those paragraphs. But actually it's better and incredibly cool to have someone write out exactly what I'm feeling. You do it so often too.
I don't know what to tell you about the not wanting to think about food all the time thing - I am a MINDFUL eater, the intuitive eating thing just doesn't work for me. I do think about food a lot. But you know, when I was heavy, I spent an awful lot of futile, wasted time THINKING and DREAMING and WISHING and LONGING to be thin, now that was a lot of wasted brain power. I think about what I need to get at the store and think about packing lunches and think about finding a new fun recipe for dinner - but it is all very productive thinking, it actually accomplishes something - a healthy, slender me.
yes, Yes, YES! It's all about mindset. You can think you're wasting energy by thinking about food all the time, or you can see that it's actually beneficial. Just like with some people who binge, they say they feel wasteful for throwing away junk food. I argue that you've ALREADY wasted the money by buying it at all, so whether you eat it or throw it away is a waste of the food either way because neither situation will yeild good results. It's all in how you look at things
I couldn't agree with Glory any more. Everyday that I'm successfully on plan is a day that I have planned. Everyday that I'm not on plan is due to lack of planning. It's just that simple.
I'm a strong, smart woman at 5am and I can think through the day and grab everything I'm going to need to eat while I'm away from home. If I do that, I eat on plan everytime. By 8am with nothing healthy in my bag, the vending machine calls my name or (worse yet) the cafeterial beckons.
Planning is the reason I weight 60 pounds less now than I did a year ago. Fiber one bars, yogurt, roasted veggies, good running shoes, and a plan.
I will tell you - we have some smart smart women on here and thank goodness after they have worked so hard to reach and maintain their goals they still dedicate so much of their time to write on here and help to teach and inspire all of us still working at it. I look back over the winter and I have not lost any weight. 5 months - gone. BUT - I also have not gained any of the 30 pounds I lost last summer back. I am not losing as fast as I would like, but I not taking steps back either. I will get there - I just hope you ladies know how much your time and effort writing on here is appreciated.
Everyone's so different, and what works for people is as varied as a rainbow!
Speaking only for myself (duh!) I'm one of those people that just can't snack at night. No way. I have a piece of fruit as a snack in the afternoon and that's it. My little routine is to have a nice healthy substantial dinner, and after doing dishes and tidying house etc., I make a cup of tea and have a little desserty type thing (my personal fav is organic ginger snaps, 5 cookies for 140 cals! yay!) and once that's done (usually by 8 p.m) the kitchen is CLOSED. For me, snacking was my alcoholism. I can't have a little, I can only do NONE ~ and I don't miss it I have to say. I was always so stressed and anxious that I had enough CRAP in the house to feed constant snacking (enough diet coke to wash it down too) and once i gave it up (ha, that sounds like it was EASY! ummm not so much!! a week or two of ****) I felt an odd sense of freedom, like I gained control over something I never thought I'd tame, it feels amazing
I'm jealous of the snackers! I just know myself, and I know (for now, maybe forever) that one healthy snack would quickly turn into...oh well a little bowl of cereal won't hurt...maybe a piece of fruit now....oh well, might as well have some cheese & crackers! you get my point
And for those few nights a month that i feel genuinely hungry, a little twinge in the tummy, I always think "this is the week I'll lose weight" and I always do!
