To preface this, I've been losing weight for two years, almost 3. I'm very short, & hate excersize, which makes my progress very slow. I've recently been so frustrated with my slow progress that I started to derail & I needed something to give me a break from my constant & incredibly low TDEE count. I decided I would test myself to see if my healthy eating habits have stuck & would try to maintain my current weight for one month armed with nothing but my knowledge from these last two years. This is what I've learned.
1.) I can do it!!! - I have learned that I can in fact eat without weighing anything & still make good choices & stop when I should so that I don't gain. This is incredibly important because during this time I didn't eat like a person trying to lose weight - I ate like a normal person. I occasionally had a slice of pie, or a burger, or a milkshake. Some days I literally ate an entire family sized bag of hot cheetos (in my defense I was high & this is all I ate that evening, don't worry it's legal where I live) and that to me proves that I really have changed the way I eat. Which leads me to my next point.
2.) I know when to stop! - I seriously NEVER thought I'd be here. I thought I'd be weighing my potato chips for the rest of my life because I couldn't control myself. Turns out, I can! I was able to be conscious about my food choices & realize when "I had pasta for lunch, so maybe just a soup & some toast for dinner?". I also /felt/ my stomach filling up while eating. Which I guess I've always felt but always ignored? Possibly because I just wanted to taste tasty things. But now I'm able to feel my stomach getting full & think "I don't need the rest of these mashed potatoes". I can ACTUALLY leave food on my plate now! Which, like many others, is odd for me because I was raised being praised when I finished everything on my plate. The feeling of knowing when to stop is honestly liberating.
3.) Sometimes you need a break - As I said in the beginning, I've been doing CICO for almost three years. I knew I was tired of counting. I knew I wanted to be done. But I wanted to actually lose the weight more. I would recommend this to anyone who has been doing CICO for a substantial amount of time & is getting tired. Remember, this isn't an excuse to eat whatever you want. This is a test to see if you know how to eat when it's time to put the scale away. And sometimes the scale IS what makes you hungry!!! I used to think I wasn't getting anywhere with this, because I was constantly looking at my calories left over for the day, like some sort of budget. Trying to fit in a brownie or a taco. Being that mindful of every component of everything you eat for so long can't be good on your mental state. When you're counting you don't get to see what you're actually learning - it's too rigid.
I wish I could share my entire mental state with you guys, like some sort of database, because I feel like I've finally learned the most important secret to losing weight & keeping it off. I'm there. It's real. And honestly I'm in disbelief. I thought I'd be fighting the chip isle forever. Now I know I don't have to fight it, because even if I have chips, I know when to stop.
For now, it's time to bring the notepad back into the kitchen because my test is over & it's time to return to CICO, but I feel hopeful & renewed.
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