Learning to Balance

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I love this picture

So, I've been losing weight recently. Hallelujah. It hasn't melted off, but it's been fairly steady, and that's healthy and longer-lasting, right? It's all been through the way I'm eating* since I haven't taken time to throw exercise into the mix. I'm hoping I can make that change soon since I just feel better when I'm exercising. I was telling a friend the other day that the minute I exercise, I feel like I'm thinner. Exercise is like magic in that way.

Anyway, back to how I'm eating, and balance...

I've been eating mostly raw and/or whole foods. Lots of salads, fruit, beans, etc. I feel a lot better when I'm eating better things (go figure) but what I'm trying to figure out is amounts. Based on my weight watchers training, there's a certain amount of 'points food' we should eat a day. When I tried that equation it worked great for me. So I'm still keeping that in my mind as I'm working to lose weight. But, most the foods I'm eating are zero points. All vegetables - with the exception of corn, potatoes, etc. (really starchy veggies) are zero points, and all fruits - with the exception of avocados (I think that's the only exception) are zero points too. My daily points target right now - according to weight watchers - is 32. So... if I'm eating mostly zero point foods, I'm having a hard time meeting that target. Beans are not zero points - a can of black beans is 8, and a can of kidney beans is 9, etc. - so when I eat those, I'm getting something. I also will eat 9-grain bread from bountiful baskets that is amazing - and also not zero points.

Here's the problem. I'm eating so well, but I don't know that I'm eating enough. I've noticed that on days where I've eaten more non-zero point food than I thought I should I've actually dropped more weight than on days where I'm restricting so much what I eat and sticking to almost all zero-point food.

Obviously there's a balance in there somewhere that I need to find. Since I've started this internship I've had to bring food to work with me. The first month+ it was because they didn't have any kind of cafeteria or vending machines to eat from. Which was probably a good thing. Now, I'm in a building with a cafeteria but I'm still bringing my food since it's so much better.

I try to space out my meals so I'm not eating everything at once, but I'll have my salad or fruit sometime between 11:30 and noon, and then another part of meal around 1 or so... but I've noticed that when I feel hungry and I haven't 'scheduled' my eating, I ignore it until I want to eat. I'm not sure that this is the best approach. Especially when I'm eating all good things**, then it probably really doesn't matter if I'm eating when I think I should as opposed to eating when my body needs to.

I hope this makes sense. I'm still trying to work it out in my head, but I think I'm on the right track.

*I've focused on 'Eating to Live' before and had amazing results. Good things happen when you eat good foods!
**I don't want to deceive anyone into thinking that I'm eating 100% healthy, all the time, because that's not true. But I must say I'm eating pretty blasted well these days.