I threw up my hands in disgust over this weight loss business months ago, but I had started before that. College was so busy that I had little time to devote to my health. After I joined my local hospital’s physician-monitored weight loss program I started gaining weight. Knowing full well that I needed to see someone about why I ate, I attempted to schedule with the program’s psychologist. She was only available two hours during lunch on some days and I was a full time student, still am. The more I saw the dietician, who simply kept telling me not to eat so much, the more I ate. Join a weight loss center and gain weight.
Screw that! This summer my noontime schedule opened up. So I signed back up, making my first schedule with the psychologist. I am feeling much better and this go around is going better. I’m still gaining weight in the program, but I am making better choices. I’ve gained some muscle from walking 5 days a week, but I am unconcerned. I know that sounds weird, but I am making better food choices, making some progress, so I am keeping focused on that and not on what others do.
The work I am doing is easy and mostly common sense. It’s not easy in the sense that I just eat salads and don’t feel hungry, but it is not difficult to understand. I am taking baby steps, teeny tiny baby steps. I could wonder about what I am actually paying her for as she gives me mantras to say and things to think about. It seems silly at times, but the thing that I recognize, is that I keep an open mind and I am finding that her simple exercise actually work. So I let the silly feelings go and do what she asks me to do.
Mantra 1: I’m okay
Mantra 2: I can make healthy choices.
Before I ever go into a place to eat, or anytime I f eel hunger pangs, I recite these simple phrases to myself. I am okay. When I feel anxious or irritated or upset, which can happen if I get hungry, then I remind myself that I am okay. I will eat when I need to. Everything is okay.
Simple though it may be, it works and I am feeling like I am gaining some control over my eating. I still feel hungry, but I try to mantra’s and they sometimes work. Yesterday I had a salad and soup for lunch. It was good and I enjoyed it. Baby steps, my friends.
This week I am supposed to think about the difference between real hunger and psychological hunger. This is real chore for me as I struggle to differentiate between the two. They feel the same. I am allowing myself to feel hungry then reflecting on that hunger. Is it real or psychological? Am I really hungry? Is this what real hunger feels like?
Making progress.
Screw that! This summer my noontime schedule opened up. So I signed back up, making my first schedule with the psychologist. I am feeling much better and this go around is going better. I’m still gaining weight in the program, but I am making better choices. I’ve gained some muscle from walking 5 days a week, but I am unconcerned. I know that sounds weird, but I am making better food choices, making some progress, so I am keeping focused on that and not on what others do.
The work I am doing is easy and mostly common sense. It’s not easy in the sense that I just eat salads and don’t feel hungry, but it is not difficult to understand. I am taking baby steps, teeny tiny baby steps. I could wonder about what I am actually paying her for as she gives me mantras to say and things to think about. It seems silly at times, but the thing that I recognize, is that I keep an open mind and I am finding that her simple exercise actually work. So I let the silly feelings go and do what she asks me to do.
Mantra 1: I’m okay
Mantra 2: I can make healthy choices.
Before I ever go into a place to eat, or anytime I f eel hunger pangs, I recite these simple phrases to myself. I am okay. When I feel anxious or irritated or upset, which can happen if I get hungry, then I remind myself that I am okay. I will eat when I need to. Everything is okay.
Simple though it may be, it works and I am feeling like I am gaining some control over my eating. I still feel hungry, but I try to mantra’s and they sometimes work. Yesterday I had a salad and soup for lunch. It was good and I enjoyed it. Baby steps, my friends.
This week I am supposed to think about the difference between real hunger and psychological hunger. This is real chore for me as I struggle to differentiate between the two. They feel the same. I am allowing myself to feel hungry then reflecting on that hunger. Is it real or psychological? Am I really hungry? Is this what real hunger feels like?
Making progress.
1 comment:
Can I maybe recommend two books that stopped me comfort eating? "Its not about food" by Carol Emery Normandi and Laurelee Roark and Breaking Free from Emotional Eating by Geneen Roth
They might not be the best written or maybe not everything in them rings true, but their ideas are sound and they helped me learn to identify comfort eating and then control it. And I think that is better than any weight loss programe for people who are emotional readers
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