Lose the weight!

I have always heard these strange tales of women who lost weight when they quit worrying about it so much. How could you not worry about having gained 15-20 pounds or more? I certainly worried this past year when my pants got tighter and tighter. In fact, I got a nice little wake up call in the form of a video for the Leadership Institute I graduated from. They had done an alumni video featuring a handful of us and I was one of the lucky ones. I saw the video a couple of months ago and about fell out of my chair. I couldn't believe how puffy my stomach looked and I don't want to tell you how big my rearend looked. I realized that the stress of graduate school and premature triplet nieces had really gotten to my wasitline over the past year!

I knew by the video that I had gained more than I had expected, but I decided it really wasn't necessary to worry about it. I just needed to get back to working out and eating better and that is exactly what I did. I didn't really expect to see any difference and I didn't weigh myself. I decided to let it go and see what happened. Well, my pants now fit again and I stepped on the scale for the first time the other day only to find that I was about 10 pounds lighter than I had thought I would be. I still had in my head that I would be at my higher weight. It still hadn't registered that my pants were fitting better because I had lost about 10 pounds. Shocking.

So there it is. The strange and mystical tales of women who had lost weight even though they weren't weighing themselves incessantly and carefully recording every morsel that went into their mouth is true.

Due to all of the crash diets of the past 40 years, our society has come to hold the belief that you cannot lose weight without severly restricting calories and exercising like a mad fiend. I have always known that the more I deprive myself of the foods that I love, the more that I want them. When I decided to just eat them when I felt like it, I didn't crave them as much anymore. It's also interesting to see how much less our bodies demand or crave when we feed it properly. A doctor of natural medicine told me that we crave salt when our bodies need vegetables and we crave sugar when our bodies need fruit. Instead of waiting until we crave these things, feed your body on a regular basis. You will cut your cravings and keep hunger at bay.

I want to also reiterate yesterday's post about listening to our bodies. One of the reasons I have lost some weight is because I started feeding it properly. I have been eating more vegetables, fruit and protein. I have been eating less grains because I believe gluten may have a negative impact on my stomach. Dairy is also a source of serious discomfort, but I am working on that.

Listen to your body and stop obsessing over every morsel that enters your mouth. Enjoy the foods that you love even if they are considered "bad" foods just eat them in moderation. If you are feeling full after every single meal, then you need to assess how much you are eating and eat a little less. Stop eating when you feel satiated and do not go too long in between meals. Let's see how much weight you lose when you stop dieting.