I Eat Real Food

For as long as I can remember I have been on a diet.  It has been a whole lot of counting, measuring, weighing, and good and bad foods.  It has been a lot of restricting and worrying about what I can and cannot eat.

To be honest, it has been a whole lot of needless misery and anxiety.

One of the hardest things about Intuitive Eating has been changing my long standing mindset of good and bad foods, of attaching a moral value to food.  It has been very difficult to change.  For so long I have been constantly worried about what I am eating.  In that diet mentality life, I cannot even remember the last time I had butter on my toast!

Intuitive Eating has brought so much freedom into my life.

I have toast with butter...and jam!  The anxiety surrounding food and meal times has slowly decreased.  I cannot describe what a HUGE blessing that has been.  Shopping is so much easier.  I buy food I enjoy.  I no longer hang out in the reduced fat, reduced calorie, health food junkie aisle.

I eat real food.

I am not caught up in the latest health food trend.  If that is what you are looking for, sorry.  After all, they will change next week anyway.  I eat what I like.  Usually that is fresh fruits and vegetables, but I eat pie and ice cream too!  (Lest you think I ONLY eat fruits and veggies, I assure you, I do not.)  And I don't feel guilty!

These days there is more variety in what I eat.  I ENJOY eating!  I eat food that tastes good!  At first I thought it was too good to be true.  Is it possible to eat food, real food, that tastes good and lose weight?  Is it possible to lose weight without really focusing on losing weight?  Yet, that is what is happening for me.   My body is feeling so good!

It has been very hard work, but it has been so worth it. 

Below are some of the meals and things I eat.  Yes, there is butter on my toast, I had syrup with my french toast, and I eat rice and bread.  I love it!  I love that this is working for me.  I am grateful for the people in my life who help and support me in this.  What an incredible journey this has been.

I Am Losing Weight...Eating Anything I Want

I recognize I have not been incredibly on-the-ball in updating the blog as of late.  What can I say?  It's been busy.  This changing your life stuff is hard work!

In a previous post  I talked about a book called "Intuitive Eating."  I loved the book.  For the first time something finally felt right on my journey to a physically and mentally healthier me.  No more gimmicks.  No more fad diets.  No more restricting.  No quick-fix.

This is all about changing my relationship with food.  

I eat what I want, when I am hungry, and I stop when I am satisfied.  Yup, it's that simple.  I know what you are thinking.  I was skeptical too.  Let's be honest, I cannot remember a time I was not on a diet, so no bad foods?  No rules?  No counting - something!  Everything is allowed?  That is crazy talk, right?  But, the whole thing resonated with something inside of me and I decided to give it a chance, despite my fears.

The tricky part is this approach is not about weight and numbers.  No stepping on the scale, no counting calories and carbs.  Everything really is OK.  This approach has to be all about you and your health.

This is about how you feel and how your body feels.

It sounds simple, but for me it has been incredibly difficult.  I had forgotten what it feels like to be hungry and full.  My satiety cues have been messed up for a quite some time.  How do you decide, in the middle of a meal, that you are "satisfied?"  (I'll post the answer to this later)    How do you tell if you are really hungry and not just tired and/or emotional?  It is hard.  Really hard.  If you decide to read the book and try this approach I recommend you surround yourself with a great support system whether that is family members, friends, or professionals.  (Preferably all of the above!)  I have some amazing people in my life right now that have helped me and taught me so much as I have struggled through this experience.  I also pray every single day (more than once) for help as I fight this battle.

Without God and the great people in my life this would not be possible.

This is not an overnight, lose-10-pounds-in-a-week, quick-fix.  I cannot begin to tell you how many people have approached with some diet or weight loss product they want to sell me.  I am sure it works great for them, but I am on a different journey.  This is MY journey and I am doing what feels right for ME.  This is a slow, arduous, uphill process.  I am learning to listen to my body.  I am starting to feel hunger and fullness again.  My mindset is shifting away from having off-limits foods.  Food is just food.  It is not good nor bad.  It is just food and it gives my body the energy it needs to function.  With everything being OK I have found I no longer crave the foods I used to crave like chocolate, pizza, and ice cream.  I know they are there and I can have them if I want.  I no longer clean my plate.  I find I am usually satisfied long before all the food on my plate is gone.  I do eat a lot of fruits and vegetables because that is usually what sounds good to me.  Don't worry, I eat ice cream too.  I exercise because it makes me feel good.

My body feels good.

Yes, I am losing weight.  Someone else weighs me every so often.  I never see the number.  They tell me my average weight loss is about one pound per week, sometimes a little more.  I think that is great, but it is not about the numbers for me.  It is about how I feel.

And I feel better than I have in a long time.