Hello everyone,
I'm having a crack at mindful eating. I've done the calorie counting/low fat diet thing.
My problem is emotional eating. I've put back on the significant amount of weight that I lost (which took two and a half years to lose) due to a near disastrous emigration followed by me being unemployed for up to a year at a time. The continual knock backs with or without interview mean my self esteem/self confidence can usually be found on the floor. So I bury my emotions under food and eating once again.
So, I just needed to find a diet and crack on. I've got Paul McKenna's weight loss hypnotherapy which I listen to. So, I'm learning to eat mindfully, stopping when I'm full up. Even he advocates the eating of fresh, natural food. I got this several years ago. Funny how we return to the things that have worked in the past.
I still observe the tenets of low fat i.e. I don't eat butter, mayonnaise, lard, or oil. I avoid fried food or things served with oil or melted butter.
I do weigh portions of rice or pasta or potatoes before cooking, for me it's just a good habit.
Exercise is really the only thing that is going to sort out my weight loss. I have heard it said you can't out exercise a poor diet. OK, guilty as charged.
I go to a 30 minute circuit training class twice a week. I also do a mini triathlon each week, just as a personal challenge, nothing formal. It's just eight lengths of our local 25metre pool followed by fifteen minutes on the static bike as our pool has a gym on the mezzanine overlooking the pool. I then jog or walk home.
I usually reward myself with food after a hard exercise session. OK, I am genuinely hungry but evolution kicks in and the diet goes out of the window. I eat healthily but plenty of it ! I admit to feeling entitled because I've exercised. This can be called, 'calorie compensation' a lot of people do it and it's counter productive !
I've read in a diet and fitness magazine this week that if you do an exercise you enjoy, you are unlikely to reward yourself with food.
So, atm I'm enjoying the circuit training as it's new to me and as it's only 30 mins I try to make the most of the time available.
My own mini triathlon that I do is interesting to me as I used to marshal at triathlons and marvel at how people could do 3 different exercises one after the other.
I will weigh myself on Sunday as it's the first of the month and I haven't weighed myself since New Year's Day. I'm hoping to weigh myself on the first of the month for the rest of this year to take the pressure off the weekly weigh in. When I lost a significant amount of weight I weighed myself monthly, just being pleased for whatever I'd lost not getting hung up on specific targets, save to say a loss is expected/earned.