Re-Thinking Body Image
I need to start re-thinking my body image, and I need to get into a healthier headspace regarding food and weight.
Allow me to explain.
I’m a stress-eater. When I’m stressed, I eat. A lot. I’m not a busy-eater. When I’m just busy, I actually find it easier to make healthy choices, but when I’m stressed, I want salt, comfort, and fried things. So you can imagine what moving in with Tim in July an planning for a wedding in October did to me. I gained 7 pounds in two months. That isn’t a lot, sure, but it is pretty rapid weight gain which isn’t too good for you. Also, I had a wedding dress to “fit into.”
Yup. As much a I resisted it, the wedding weightloss mentality got to me.
So I started getting healthier and watching my calories. Turns out I was eating way more than I needed. No surprise there, I was a stressed-out stress-eater. I managed to get back to a place I felt good about for our wedding.
But the calorie-counting and the poking at myself in the mirror and the weighing myself daily hasn’t really stopped.
I used to be really good at just being healthy. Eating healthy food that made me feel good, going to the gym, living the active life my husband and I love. But somehow, between wedding-fever and new-fangled calorie counter programs for my iPhone, I lost the ability to just enjoy food in moderation and enjoy my life in full. It’s not really that I feel overwhelmed by calorie counting, but more that it’s time consuming and just takes the joy out of almost everything. Food is a big part of life!
So I need to re-think the way I deal with food and body image. I want to enjoy eating again but not over-do it. And I want to ditch the calorie number crunching!
Any suggestions?
(Cross posted at Deconstructing the Fairytale)
I gve up owning a scale quite a number of years ago and it made me very happy. So long as my clothes fit and I’m healthy, I have no need to know how much I weigh. I only get this information when I go for a physical, and even then I try to avoid learning a number unless my doctor has concerns. By not focusing on a number, I feel a lot freer to manage my health without expectations. It also gives me freedom to eat badly when it need/want to so I don’t overindulge on unhealthy foods. Everything in moderation.
I’ve been doing my clinical practicum this year at an eating disorders treatment facility, and they emphasize Intuitive Eating, which sounds kind of cheesy but is actually really cool and something that I’m trying to implement. It’s kind of about making peace with food, giving up your rules, and recognizing the role that food plays in your life.
http://www.intuitiveeating.org/
I just got married in September 2010 and it seems like I am still consumed with my weight. I have been feeling really down on myself, and I am so glad I found this. I just started keeping a journal. It isn’t a food journal to track what I’m eating, but more of a journal on how I feel. I started gaining weight the second we married it seems, and with stresses of being married, working,and looking for a house I have continued my bad eating habits. I just started the journal, but hopefully it will be what I need to motivate myself to live healthier.