As some of you may have noticed, I haven't had a whole lot to say lately. Most of my effort has been going into re-adjusting my "diet" and attitude since I stopped counting calories. It has been an interesting two weeks since I stopped.
When I decided to stop counting my calories I was thinking that I had been doing this "diet" since November and I ought to have a pretty good idea on what I'm eating. Sure I still had days where I ate a little over, but I usually made up for those days with extra exercise. I was sure that the experiment would be a success.
At the end of the first week I had gained a pound. I know, it's not much to be worried about, but I had spiked higher than that during the week. It was enough to know I could more than likely maintain without counting, but what about losing? I still wanted to get rid of a lot of weight. I decided to give it one more week.
During this week, I was concerned as my weight climbed to almost four lbs over my last recorded loss. I felt terrible, this wasn't going to work at all. Not only could I not get rid of my weight without counting my calories, I was even failing at maintaining.
Instead of giving up, I stepped back and thought about where I might have gone wrong over the last week and a bit. Had I allowed old habits of eating to sneak back into my current life? Maybe it was just a simple case of underestimating my calorie intake? Whatever it was, I was determined to figure it out and fix it.
I came to the realization, that even though I had altered what I was eating to fit my calorie count, I hadn't actually altered my eating habits. I am a snacker. If food is in front of me, I will eat it - even if I'm not hungry. When I'm hungry - I'm hungry and I feel like I need to eat now, so once again, I'd snack. Even right before a meal.
All of this was behaviour that was reduced through the guilt of not wanting to go over my calorie count or the fact that I'd leave an open bag of celery on my desk for the afternoon. I managed it because of the calorie counting, but I hadn't actually dealt with it.
So I spent some time looking up ways to stop my "hunger" cravings that really had nothing to do with hunger. Or at least, things that held my actual hunger off for a few minutes while I prepared a healthier meal. I needed to cut those extra calories that I had unknowingly added to my diet.
The suggestions I decided to go with was more water and more fibre. I already drank about 2 litres a day, but a bit more couldn't hurt. I could definitely use more fibre in my diet, so that was something that I should probably add anyway. So I started with taking a couple of fibre pills between meal time and snack time. I doubled my water intake and sure enough, the weight started dropping.
It was an interesting experiment and one that I am going to continue with for another week at least. I even have another good suggestion to help with the hunger cravings when I'm not actually hungry. Vegetable broth. 20 calories per cup (give or take) and it could be a nice pre-dinner snack.
I may still be snacking, but at least I am more aware of the issue and I am finding ways that I can take care of it. I'm also trying to take more time to think "am I really hungry?". The answer isn't always yet, but taking that time to think about it is one of the things that is helping the most and will continue to help in the future.
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