I’m continuing with Overeaters Anonymous, and I’m continuing to lose the weight.
These days I’m dropping about 2-3 kilograms (about 6-8 pounds) a month.
It’s coming off easily, I’m not starving myself.
In fact, I’d say I’m eating better than I ever did before I started at OA.
Altogether, I’ve dropped from a size 20 down to a size 14 so far… and I think I’ve probably got a way to go yet.
As you’ll know if you’ve followed this blog for a while, I tried pretty much every diet there was before Overeaters Anonymous. None of them worked, because the problem wasn’t my body, it was my mind.
I didn’t realise that.
I had no idea that most of my habits were keeping me fat, such as:
- Eating a wide variety of foods. Variety encourages overeating. We humans manage our appetites better when we eat from a much smaller variety of foods, eating the same (or similar) foods over and over again for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
- Skipping meals, then snacking later in the day because I hadn’t eaten enough. This was common for me. Skip breakfast, then eat cookies at work. Skip lunch, and eat boxes of muesli bars the moment I got home because I was starving. Because I wasn’t giving myself three square meals a day I was hungry throughout the day, fixating on food and endlessly snacking on junky treats.
- Being ashamed to go to the gym because I was fat. Yeah, that doesn’t make sense at all! It took a lot of courage to return to the gym but you know what? What strangers think of you doesn’t matter. Your health and wellness matter. I sucked up the shame (and maybe sucked in my tummy wobbles a bit) and returned to the gym. Six months later I’m building muscle and strength, and my mental well-being is fantastic.
- Not understanding proper portion control. A proper portion is sometimes much, much less than we expect. I think one portion of Doritos is eleven chips! I mean, who eats eleven chips then puts the bag away? Nobody, that’s who! I’m learning that the size of my plate matters as much, maybe more, as what’s on the plate. I leave a space between items on my plate, I eat more slowly, and I find even though I’m eating much less it’s always enough.
- Not understanding PROTEIN v FAT v REAL CARBS. Protein fills you up and provides long-term satiety. Fat provides great mouth-feel and taste. Carbs provide bulk. So each meal I make sure I focus on high protein, a little bit of fat, and real carbs to help with fullness. By “real carbs” I mean vegetables and fruit, plus a bit of rice and oats. Bread isn’t food; it’s candy. And pasta is just junk. Both bread and pasta will fill your stomach, but they won’t keep you full. Plus, they’re addictive and you’ll crave them more. I avoid both.
It’s a learning curve! In my next post I’ll talk about what I’m eating day to day on a fairly tight budget, now I’m putting my health first.
fit, fed and fasted 