Weight Loss Challenges
If I’m not exercising, I have several challenges to weight management. That is a fact of life for me, and while I was on the mend from my last spill on the bike, I immediately saw my weight start increasing.
The Checklist Diet
When I initially lost this weight three years ago I read The Checklist Diet by Rebecca Clark. As the title implies, there is a checklist of ten items in the book, and some of the items applied to my circumstances, and some didn’t. So when I started gaining weight again, I asked Rebecca for advice. It turns out she’d gaining weight, too.
Rebecca said, she’s an emotional eater. “After my husband’s cancer diagnosis last year, I ate a LOT of my feelings. It seemed for every pound he lost, I gained. But rather than get upset with myself and hate what I saw in the mirror as I gained weight, I was kind to myself. Eating comfort food was how I coped. I knew I’d be ready to get back to a healthy diet eventually.”
But by the time she was ready to get back on track, she found she’d gotten so far out of the habit of healthy eating that she decided to take the advice she gives her clients. “Take two to three of your worst habits and work on those. For me, it’s eating when I’m not hungry, not drinking enough water, and eating too much added sugar,” Rebecca said.
After two weeks of working on those habits, Rebecca dropped five pounds. “I am starting to feel better. I know I’ll have setbacks because my husband’s struggle isn’t over yet (but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel!!!). I will continue being kind to myself and taking baby steps back to health,” Rebecca said.
Challenges
Taking Rebecca’s advice, I took a hard look at what my challenges were, and for me it’s eating when I’m hungry, stopping when I’m full, and stop eating after 8 p.m. So, I started focusing on those three steps.
I also had a couple of trigger foods that were fanning the flames of my eating issues, so I decided to stop eating them for the immediate future—tortilla chips and popcorn. I eliminated those two foods until I really wanted them. Within days I felt like my eating was back on track.
In the last ten days I dropped four pounds, but more importantly I started feeling better because I was eating a balanced diet again and not consuming everything in sight.
And now that my injuries are healed, I’m back to running and biking again, which makes my weight management much, much easier.
Do you have eating challenges? How do you manage them?