I know it’s a marathon, not a sprint, but somehow I feel like after three days of eating right and exercising, I should be skinny. I was starving the first two days, but today was much much easier. And I have lost two pounds, which means, 14.5 months later, that I am officially and for the first time at my pre-pregnancy weight, so hooray for that! I know weight loss slows down after that first initial burst of a diet, but I’ve been struggling with those two pounds almost a year, so a little taste of success is inspirational. I convinced Lily (my real life friend who found my blog!!) to join with me, and it helps to waste time IM’ing about points.
But I wanted to talk about something else today. I think a lot of people are familiar with feeling guilty about their food. I feel guilty about dieting.
I think a lot of this stems back to what I would call not so much an eating disorder, but disordered eating through much of high school and college. I never got too thin, sadly, but I never stopped thinking about and feeling badly about food and weight, either. And I was surrounded by so many girls with real eating disorders (including a couple of my housemates), that the rest of us refused to ever acknowledge diets.
I lost 20 pounds on Jenny Craig the summer I came back from London, when I was living at my U.S. university with 7 other girls. I remember my JC counselor asking if anybody had noticed or complimented me, and I said no, because my friends are not in the habit of commenting on weight for fear it will precipitate an eating disorder.
I think that dieting also feels like this big giant cliche, and, since that summer 11 years ago, I’ve prided myself on not being one of those women perpetually on a diet. It seems especially pathetic when you see the stats about how many diets fail, or how unlikely it is for people to keep the weight off.
Could you tell, in my last post, that I felt guilty about jumping on the diet bandwagon again? I mean jeez, I basically asked permission to aim for the number that would place me squarely in the middle of the healthy BMI range for my height. (And yes, I know BMI is not perfect, but I’m a fairly averagely built person so I think it works for me.) And the fact is that eating right and exercising and actually being thinner, in addition to giving me more cool clothes options and the possibility of finally being able to ditch my maternity underwear, is healthier.
I don’t yet feel the craziness I felt about food and dieting that I did in high school and college, probably in large part because I’m not around any girls/women with those crazies. I think I can do this, and do it normally.
You can do it.
Sounds like you are doing for all the right reasons too. Yah on the initial success! Weeee!
You can do it.
Sounds like you are doing for all the right reasons too. Yah on the initial success! Weeee!
Congrats on the weight loss–may there be more where that came from until you reach your goal!
I can’t wait to take this baby weight off (okay, so I’ve still got a tiny bit to wait but…). I got to within 7 lbs. of my pre-pregnancy weight before getting pg this time. This time, none of that “so close” bs for me. I’m on a mission
It will come off and I will be happier with my appearance (I so hear you on that one).
Congrats on the weight loss–may there be more where that came from until you reach your goal!
I can’t wait to take this baby weight off (okay, so I’ve still got a tiny bit to wait but…). I got to within 7 lbs. of my pre-pregnancy weight before getting pg this time. This time, none of that “so close” bs for me. I’m on a mission
It will come off and I will be happier with my appearance (I so hear you on that one).
I think you’re doing great! Congrats and keep it up!
You can totally do this. There’s no reason to feel guilty about doing something that’s good for your health and your self-esteem — especially now when you’re not surrounded by people with bigger problems to suck you down with them.
I guess I just don’t get the obsessing about 2lbs thing, though. I didn’t have a scale until last month, though I’m sure my weight swung back and forth 5 – 8 lbs either way, depending on whatever was going on in my life. Now that I have a scale, I can see that I bounce 3 lbs up or down depending on the time of day.
Don’t get too caught up with the number — though it’s good to have for a goal, I think you’ll know when you’ve reached where you want to be (and be your healthiest).
It is amazing that whether you have 8 lbs to lose or 30, like me, there is baggage that goes along with it.
It is amazing that whether you have 8 lbs to lose or 30, like me, there is baggage that goes along with it.
It is amazing that whether you have 8 lbs to lose or 30, like me, there is baggage that goes along with it.
I had the real, live eating disorder- a raging case of bulimia on & off for about 10 years. I am very comfortable saying now that I am 100% cured. I will never engage in that behavior again, and I’ve been able to find a healthy perspective to how my body looks and how that ties to who I am as a person. Even so, I totally get the “diet guilt thing.” One year out from being bulimia free, I can totally see using the fear of a relapse or the whole just be happy with the body you have idea as basically an excuse not to be as healthy as possible. Rationally I know there’s nothing wrong with “dieting”– when it’s eating healthy and exercising. It’s just easy to look for an excuse, because eating healthy and exercising can be hard!
I think for just about everyone, food and body weight tie heavily into self-image and emotional issues. You’ll probably do better on your “diet” if you continue to share how its affecting you emotionally– we’ll be here to listen!