The gist of the weight loss path I have chosen is this: Connect with your body. Sounds odd, doesn’t it. Listening to what my body really needs. Realizing when it is truly full. This is hard work for those of us who have tuned out our body’s messages in favor of our emotions, or the visual cues around us. It takes time and a lot of emotional effort.
I have been using the hunger scale (a way to tune in) for about a month. With some success, I must add. I am truly eating less with no diet/deprivation back lash. So when the task of journaling my food came up in If I’m So Smart, Why Can’t I Lose Weight I thought it would be no problem. Let me digress here and explain the food journaling. It is not a how much/calorie counter journal. It is a how-hungry-was-I-when-I-started and a how-full-was-I-when-I-finished journal. In other words, it’s a record of how connected I was at this particular meal. Well, I found that while I am MUCH more connected, I still really have no idea of where I am on the hunger scale. Especially with how hungry I was when I began. So, I have really paid attention the last two meals, and I want even less food than I thought. I am interested to see if this stays this way. It really seems amazing that wanting less food could ever be applied to me in any situation!
As far a tracking my weight: We don’t keep a scale in the house so I plan to weigh myself every month or so at the doctor’s office or on someone else’s scale. The doctor’s office scale will be the ‘official’ scale. Any scale will give me an idea if this eating management plan needs tweaking. Yesterday I got my cast off (Yea!) and weighed. I am on the right path! Down five pounds. This feedback gave me two things, validation that this is the right path for me, and (crazily enough) another problem to work on. Rationally, I am very pleased. I stopped my gaining trend and lost some weight while eating what I wanted. How cool is that? Irrationally, I wanted bigger results, and became afraid that I will give up. So, here’s to rational thinking, eating what my body really wants, and choosing to use the emotional energy to stay connected!