Tracking food honestly
I was tracking, for the most part. Admittedly, I had days and even weeks when I failed at tracking, but i was open and transparent about that! I am talking about honesty in what I was tracking. And when I think about it, I honestly think I was being pretty honest. I think my issue would be with the fact that when I would look for something on myfitnesspal I would play and find the ‘best possible option’ for me. There is a huge database on my fitness pal (which is one of the reasons that I have stuck with that app versus switching to something else). With that huge database comes multiple options for your searches! I can look up something like mashed potatoes and find hundreds of options! Where I went wrong is that I found the lowest mashed potato option and used that! I have changed and gotten honest with myself. If the item in question is more subjective, I am finding the middle of the road option. For example, if I found mashed potatoes with calories ranging from 200 calories to 600 calories, I am not estimating the 200 calories in my count but rather the 400 average! I am also taking the time to once again enter my recipes to get an exact calorie count. Thus, I am being much more honest with my tracking!
Acceptance of my body and my limitations
Another big change is that I have finally not just admitted but more importantly accepted that my body does not lose weight at anything over 1400 calories. I’ve accepted the fact that for me to lose weight I can’t eat my earned exercise calories. I’ve been admitting this for a while but I didn’t want to accept it!!! I didn’t want to restrict myself down to 1200-1300 calories! So I resisted. There were some weeks that I did great with that and kept my calories low. (and lost). But then the next week I would eat 1500 calories on most days of that week and boom my weight would simply maintain my weight or worse, I would gain! Then I would say ‘but by the numbers, I should be losing weight. And then I would cry and whine about it a bitZ. I wasn’t being honest with myself and my bodies particular weight loss idiosyncrasies! I had to not just admit that for my body and method that I chose to lose weight that I have to keep my calories lower....I had to accept it!
Limitations of Sweet Treats
I have been saying for months ok probably years. ‘I refuse to give up my sweet treats. And that is all good and fine. I am whole heartedly still behind that statement! I can’t give up everything and live a life of total restriction! However, I was indulging in the sweet treats more than once a week. I am ashamed to admit it! But I was! Oh it was tracked....but that sweet treat frequently took my calorie count (which as I already mentioned was Most likely estimated way too low) way over my daily goal (which as I previously said was not a good goal for my body!). Being honest with myself, I had to admit and accept that my sweet treats really need to be more restricted! So cakes, chocolate, cookies...whatever I chose to indulge in, is much more limited. I did indulge once in the last week and I felt ok with it! Even better, I haven’t seen any adverse affect on the scale!!! I am not counting occasional snack of a banana in the evening toward that ‘limited food’ even though I add some chocolate syrup! A banana is healthy! The chocolate syrup is sweet but minimal!
I had to get really honest with myself in order for my weight loss efforts to really take off. I had to stop trying to stretch things as far as I could while still being ‘healthy’. The dishonesty wasn’t hurting anyone but myself!!! Luckily, I have opened my eyes and I see where I was wrong. I can’t go back and take the past away. But, I can move forward and operate with totally honesty to myself!