(If you are new around here, you should know that I religiously tracked my calories on a phone app for years and years, and before that I used to track them in a little notebook, and I thought it was the only way I could maintain my weight. Earlier this year, I realized that it wasn't sustainable if I wanted to have a full and healthy life. I was obsessing over everything I put in my mouth and obsessing over writing it down, obsessing over the math and the science and my weight and my food. So I sought out some professional help and went to a few therapy sessions, and I read a few books, and I decided it was time to stop.)
So, what is the result of almost half a year of not tracking my calories?
Well, I have successfully maintained my weight between 122 and 124 pounds (A little more towards the 124 range since I've gotten my desk job, Haha, sedentisn!!).
But, I am so happy. I cannot believe it is possible for me to maintain this weight without obsessing! I was talking to my husband about it last night, and overall, in our life, there's a lot less obsessing over weight and food and things like that. It's just not the first thing on my mind all the time.
In the past, every single bite that I took had to be thought about and recorded. It made eating a much bigger thing than it had to be.
It was so important to do the mental work. To get my brain truly healthy. It wasn't until my brain got on track that I could get my physical health truly on track, too.
Now I know when I'm truly hungry, not emotionally hungry. Now I trust my body. Now I trust myself. I've learned a lot in the past few years and I feel like this is the first year that I've truly put it all into practice. Eating well because it's good for me, exercising because it makes me feel amazing, being active because it is simply the way that I live, taking care of my mind, body, and spirit because this is the only life I'm going to get it, and I'm going to protect it.
I was so scared to give up counting calories. I was so scared for the change, because I didn't know any other way. And now, on the other side of it, I can't believe I wasted so many years being so obsessive! But it took doing those things to make me who I am today. Maybe I wouldnt have learned how to truly eat well if I hadn't forced myself to learn about it for so long. It's instinctual now, and it didn't used to be.
Anyway, I thought it was time for an update, to let you all know that my weight basically hasn't changed, even though I changed a really big thing about how I approach my health.
Off for my lunch time walk!!!
Fantastic, and congrats!!!
ReplyDeleteYou are doing great
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
That's awesome. I look forward to getting there myself but for still far far far away.
ReplyDeleteSo happy for you :)
ReplyDeleteI love to read how well you are doing Jeanette and you sound so happy. It sounds like a dream to me right now, that one day I could be in a place where I don't need to count calories and be so attuned to what nutrition and how much my body needs. Great job maintaining your weight and learning to have a healthy relationship with food.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that you are still stocking your kitchen with the same foods that you ate when you were tracking. And you are eating roughly the same combinations. So you learned during all those tracking years. Correct?
ReplyDelete