No food rules
When we were at the movies last night, I thought about this time I was being über healthy and instead of having popcorn at the movies, I brought a bag of grapes to have. Like, wtf, Kim. Ha.
I always get popcorn now, YOLO
It was my junior year of college (fall of 2004). That previous summer, Steven and I put ourselves on “Operation Tub Tub” (OTT, for short). We ate between 1200-1500 calories a day, and both lost a lot of weight that summer (we needed to)! I wanted to see how long I could keep the weight off, hence the grapes. Hint: not long. School was hella stressful, and I ate my emotions then, something I still work on NOT doing now.
OTT wasn’t bad – we ate a variety of healthy foods, and felt good. (I didn’t exercise then, like I do now – that wouldn’t work on that low calorie count.) But it left little room for error, and no room for flexibility! It required counting calories and so much planning. And it definitely required (for me) the support of doing it with another person.
Gawd, what is the point of this long intro? To tell you that having food “rules”* (“eat this amount of calories or less a day!”) has NEVER worked for me, and never will. Not in the long run.
But these food rules are NEVER going to go away! Gah, I see these headlines/articles all the time now (that’s what inspired this post). “I’ve lost weight and kept it off because”:
- I limit myself to two full fat treats a week!
- I never have any added sugar!
- I don’t eat after 8:00 pm!
- I only eat between the hours of noon and 6:00 pm!
- I eat these exact macros!
- I don’t enjoy food! (ha)
Props if it works for someone to be that diligent and controlled, day after day. Really! I’m impressed. But I do NOT have it in me. I want to eat things I enjoy, in moderation. I want to have a bit of chocolate each day. I want to go out to eat a few times a month. I want to have popcorn at the movies!
And yes, I want to eat a mostly healthy diet, but the minute I start giving myself food rules, is the minute it becomes unsustainable for me.
I highly recommend following Jillian Michaels on Instagram!
*Yeah, I don’t count my vegan lifestyle as food rules. That’s just my lifestyle.
Themocracy
I’m 100% with you on this. And LOL at “Operation Tub Tub.” I was SUPER restrictive about food around that time too (2003-2004), and yep, lost a ton of weight thanks to an extremely low calorie intake. And then, predictably, gained it all back and repeated that cycle for another decade or so. It just doesn’t work for me. If I’m not “allowed” to eat something, inevitably I’m going to break down and eat it and go way overboard, which is worse than just letting myself have stuff like that every now and then.
Grapes at the movies makes me sad lol. My cousin and I used to sneak our own snacks in to save money (and I’m sure no one noticed the sound of pop cans opening lol) but healthy movie snacks? Ick, no.
I wonder if that (not being “allowed” things) works for ANYONE! Everything I read says that if you say something’s off limits, you are eventually going to go overboard on it and feel horrible! Yet, I know a lot of people who have these kind of rules 🙁 I’d be so miserable.
It IS sad! Ha! I still bring my own sugary snacks (skittles, sour patch kids) when I want them, cause the movie theater stuff is so $$$
Have you seen this article? http://www.grubstreet.com/2018/03/ultimate-conversation-on-healthy-eating-and-nutrition.html It was floating around the internet last week, and I LOVED IT. I think you will, too, based on what you’ve said here. I thought it was a really level-headed, realistic article on what it takes to eat healthy (and, consequently, be healthy, at least from a diet standpoint.) and really enjoyed the read (even though it is a bit on the long side).
Yes! I actually read very early Saturday am when I couldn’t sleep! I did like it and also think it’s realistic. I was actually going to quote Bittman in this post but decided not to (his famous “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”). He’s a great source for this topic!!!
Ha, I just read some preachy article about how “grapes are just little bags of sugar” and not all that good for you. (Remember that article several years ago in RW that said you should have tomatoes over grapes because of marginally less sugar? Eye roll.)
I think it’s super great that you know that about yourself; it’s so easy to get sucked into the latest calorie-restriction fad otherwise. I’m curious–without having any sorts of rules, what works best for you with managing your eating (especially when you’re looking to drop some weight for a race)?
OMFG. Those sorts of articles make me bonkers. BONKERS!!! Geesh. It makes me want to throw my hands up in the air and eat a REAL bag of sugar (Skittles). I do remember that RW article. Sigh. They have some really disordered food advice.
What works best for me is trying to figure out if I really am hungry when I feel like eating, and then stopping when I am full. So it requires a lot of thinking and truth (and I sometimes lie to myself 😉 ). Before, habits of mine included eating as many sweets as I wanted, after a meal, and having scoop and scoop of dinner until my stomach hurt. Now I ask if I truly am hungry (for more dinner) or just want to put something in my mouth, and I grab one cookie or chocolate or whatever I want instead of the whole bag, so if I want more, I have to get up. One is usually enough, but I had to get used to less sugar, since I was eating so much more, previously! (These sound like rules, I realize – no seconds, and only one treat – but I don’t feel like they are, cause I don’t do that every day, and don’t feel bad when I have more.).
I’m 100% with you on this – the minute I try to be super restrictive about food, the next minute I’m rebounding all over the place, breaking my own rules! I aim for a reasonable, healthy diet, and three squares a day with an afternoon snack. That’s the path to food sanity for me.
That sounds like a really good plan. I’d like to get to something more like that (maybe three squares and two snacks to start) cause I do feel like my snacking is all over the place at times, and I’d like to get my body in to more of a rhythm!
I hear you about food rules. I’ve lost (and kept off) more than a few pounds from my top weight 20 years ago which I credit indirectly to running. That is, the fact that I want to be fit for running motivates me to make better food choices. Maybe it means turning down the constant stream of cookies and bagels at work, or snacking on sunflower seeds instead of a candy bar (which I used to do). I do eat dessert after dinner (usually chocolate related like you) pretty much every day though – so I don’t feel like I’m depriving myself of anything. Nutrition and weight loss is such an individual thing, I think people should figure out what works best for them and not feel guilty if they don’t eat 100% like the so-called “experts” recommend!
Good for you for keeping it off! When you see that stuff at work do you ever even think about taking something, or is it mostly second nature not to? I have to remind myself still, to focus on my running and race goals 😉
I agree – something different works for everyone. It’s okay to share ideas, but some ideas are just plain BAD. Ha!
I’ve followed very strict food rules from time to time (hello, whole30) and have had good results but yeah that kind of restriction doesn’t work for me all the time. I do have one food rule I still follow and that is I won’t eat healthy foods just because they are “good for you” if they don’t taste good. If they taste good though–fair game.
That is a GREAT rule! 😉 Gawd, and what a way to be miserable – eating healthy foods that you find icky, all the time.
I brought a bag of cherries to the movies once when I was in my super healthy weight-loss phase (side note…cherries have pits so I was spitting them into my bag, gross). But I’m more for normalcy and balance, and if eating popcorn at the movies is your normal, than by golly, eat the damn popcorn! I really hate the food police and their rules.
Ha! Classy! But I obviously get it 😉
Yes for normalcy and balance! It’s not like we’re Olympians who need to watch our diets THAT closely.