Wherein I have talked myself into something
So I’m kind of on a “healthy eating initiative in an attempt to effect weight loss,” which is to say I’m on what some people might call a “diet,” but I refuse to do because the whole “diet” concept is toxic and is generally linked to scary moralizing about food wherein eating more is “bad” and eating less is “good” and people’s weights somehow become indicators of their health or work ethic or moral fortitude or attractiveness or whatever, none of which I think is the case, intellectually.
Which is to say, I am on a diet, but I am somewhat ambivalent about it.
Because of my mistrust of diets, and the fact that I didn’t really eat that badly before, I am basically restricting my dietary efforts to eating less cheese, less bread and pasta, less sugar (though not much, because it’s physically impossible), and more vegetables and fish and vegetarian sources of protein (beans, nuts, tofu, etc.). Oh, and I am drinking more water. Ideally I will start doing more exercising at some point in the future, but I don’t want to be all “new regime!” about it because I am pretty sure that putting pressure on myself to make a whole bunch of lifestyle changes at once right now (while I am writing THE THESIS) is a bad idea and will result in me just giving up completely. Plus I am lazy.
My “diet” can be differentiated from a diet without quotes in that I am not actually weighing myself or counting calories and I value enjoying food more than I value getting my dress size back down to the single digits.
Basically what brought this about was talking to my mom, who’s lost a fair amount of weight in the last few years through healthy eating and running half marathons and stuff, and she talked about how she gained her weight gradually over the course of years. A little bit of weight every year doesn’t seem like a big deal, she said, but multiply it by ten. Given my family has a history of cholesterol problems and the fact that if I really just ate whatever I wanted, I would eat pizza for dinner four nights a week, guacamole on the fifth night, and butter chicken on the sixth and seventh, I decided I need to get this shit under control.
I haven’t really been on my “healthy eating initiative” long enough for there to be any effects at all, except that I am constantly thinking about food. That is for sure the worst part because I am finding it hard to gauge if I’m hungry or just thinking about what I should eat when I am.
5 Responses to “Wherein I have talked myself into something”
Rach on 13 Mar 2008 at 9:28 pm #
Aside from the “detox” phase, your “diet” sounds an awful lot like my “diet” – this recent detox came after a slow, winter-long descent into unhealthy habits (i.e. a winter diet of sugary-creamy coffee for breakfast, bagels for lunch, and whatever I made for dinner which likely did not include much vegetables), compounded by a February of unemployment, dating (chocolate, and eating and drinking out a lot) and treating my mild depression with Pizza Pizza whilst spending my days in bed or on the couch. I thought I needed a bit of a kick start to actively re-orient my habits into an uber-healthy zone. But yeah, I don’t ‘count’ calories beyond stopping to think “perhaps I should go for skim or 2% in my latte instead of whole.” Though, I admit, the whole milk wins out sometimes. You only live once, amirite?
Jen on 14 Mar 2008 at 7:07 am #
Your non-diet is following rules of healthy eating which is a great start. If you’re willing to put an iota more effort into the shebang you can move that up to ’supportive eating’ which is trying to eat foods in a balanced way so as to best kickstart your metabolism and fat-burning processes… If you’d like, I can send you some easy lists of suggested meals. I don’t follow it rigorously, but understanding the concept that your body can only break down certain food groups (like carbs) when it has consumed other food groups (like lean proteins), makes it easy to WANT to follow it! (carbs and sugars on their own = instant fat. even fruit! eat fruit with a piece of cheese, or some peanut butter etc). Let me know if you’re interested, and I’ll email.
Jaya on 14 Mar 2008 at 7:34 am #
Congrats on the initiative! This is a very good post. I still havent been able to lose my Marg Add weight! I truly believe that you cant be happy unless youre eating what you want. In moderation, of course. I think as long as youre eating less calories than before, and slightly upping physical activity (like walking, stairs instead of elevators), it all adds up and you will lose weight. I am very skeptical of complicated diet claims, and seriously it all boils down to calories in
brenda on 14 Mar 2008 at 8:19 am #
Definitely a milder version of same. I’m not giving up beer — that’s just non-negotiable. I am willing to switch to less calorie-heavy wine on occasion, but that is often not an option. It’s important to not feel deprived if you’re trying to make permanent changes, you know?
brenda on 14 Mar 2008 at 8:31 am #
Oh man, two comments appeared while I took like an hour to compose my response to Rachel. I got sidetracked!
Jen: I actually knew the thing about not eating carbs on their own! My mom’s doing some kind of South Beach low-carb deal with the help of a nutritionist, which sounds fairly similar to the kind of thing you’re talking about. I’m not being super-anal about it, because I am really unwilling to stick to any, like, plan, though.
Jaya: Yeah, that’s kind of where I’m at. It’s tough with the physical activity because I have to spend so much time either reading or watching movies, but I am doing what I can.