How many times have you been given advice from someone who has not struggled with their weight? Sometimes I think everyone I knew had some advice.
Food was the most frequent topic of advice.
Put lemon in your water to lose weight.
Remove carbs from your diet.
Don’t eat after 6pm.
Don’t snack.
For years I tried them and had no success. In fact, I probably did more harm to myself than good.
I would wait as long as I could to eat, then be famished and ate something quick and unhealthy. Eating so fast that I would eat more than I needed.
I never lost the weight and just kept gaining. The more I gained the more advice I tried.
It went on and on. If I ate and someone made a comment about whether I really needed to eat it or would it not be better to cut back, I would start to starve myself. Eating less than my body needed to run.
After a few days I would start to feel terrible, until I had to eat. Then ate too much.
It was after surgery I found out that half a yogurt for breakfast, the filling from half a sandwich at lunch and either half a yogurt for dinner or half a cup of soup was not healthy, or enough to live on.
I was tired all the time, forced myself to keep going until I could not do it anymore.
My dietician said that that was not enough, I still did not listen until I went away on a business trip. She had said to start enjoy what I ate, and take some time off while away and sightsee.
I took her advice and ate regular meals, with small healthy snacks between. I did a walking tour of the town and took the weekend off to see the other sights.
Over 10 days I lost 10 pounds!
I was not hungry over those days and I foods that I really loved.
What did my trip teach me?
That food can help you lose weight. Not eating enough leaves you really tired, but eating too much of a bad thing is not good either.
I also realised that if I am really hungry I will eat more at the next meal, probably more than I need. My choice of food will not be as good either. So if I have a healthy snack between meals I will not be famished and will be able to make better food choices and eat a healthy amount.
Do you let yourself get so hungry that you overeat or make poor food choices? What snacks could you have that would help you with this?