Finding My Way

So now what? The HCG diet officially ended for me last Friday. We went to the lake with friends and it was such a different experience than other times. We actually ate healthy. Moderately healthy anyway. I really don't even know what healthy is. I tend to be very strict when it comes to being healthy which really isn't a healthy mind set at all. I didn't eat any sweets (well except for a few bites of Amish peanut butter - I won't even tell you what's in it). I did eat mindlessly some of the time. It's all so confusing to me.

I really am trying to be kind to myself when it comes to understanding how I relate to food and what causes me to over eat or abuse food. It really is One Day At A Time at this point. Now that I'm not restricted on how many calories I can eat (only 500 on the HCG diet) I'm lost as to what to eat. I do much better when I have a set plan. I can succeed on a set plan. But a set plan at least one as strict as HCG can't be maintained for a long period of time. I need to learn how to listen to my body and eat when I'm hungry and NOT when I'm not hungry.

Ok so all that being said I am trying something new. I mean you didn't think I wouldn't be trying something new did you? I am always trying something new. I'm finding my way.

So my sister Laura is a physical therapist and she was here a few weeks ago and looked amazing. She is following this FASTing philosophy where she fasts for 24 hours once a week. She said it made all the difference in her losing the last stubborn 15 lbs. So Chris and I decided to try it. It's based on a book called EatStopEat by Brad Pilon. It's an ebook. We fasted from dinner Sunday night to dinner Monday night. And I must say it was much easier than I thought it would be. Laura said it was easy because it was new and I was excited to try it. Fine by me. So we'll do it again next week. It's only once a week.

I'm reading another ebook I found while reading EatStopEat called the AnythingGoesDiet. The premise is that you shouldn't label foods as "good" or "bad". When we do this it just causes us to over eat those foods we've labeled as "bad". One exercise in the book was to make 3 lists which I did as follows:

List 1 -  Hot Button Foods - These are foods that I find impossible to eat just one.
Nutella
Pizza
French Fries

List 2 - "Can" do Without - These are foods or situations I can do without
Cereal at night
Sweets at night

List 3 - "Can't" do Without - These are foods or situations I can't do without
Coffee with cream
Gum
Eating out with friends

So basically the concept is that if you can stay within these guidelines and within your calorie intake for your weight and height you should be able to lose weight without giving up the foods you love. Interesting concept that I am willing to try. There is a lot more information in the book but this is what I've taken away so far. More to come as I finish the book.

The obsession I have with food hasn't been lifted (I think about food all the time) but I have been able to not binge in over 30 days. That's huge for a person like me. As I continue on this journey I hope it gets better and that my relationship with food normalizes.