To improve my physical and mental condition, I decided to work on changing my habits. I started with 45 minutes of Zumba 5 times a week, and then I gradually added additional requirements such as sleeping, water intake, a short daily meditation, muscle training, and calorie restriction. I checked my weight every morning to monitor my progress.
This round, I started with reading a book, Intuitive eating, introduced in the course, “Designing Your Personal Weight Loss Plan” from Coursera. I have done four diets that failed. When the professor pointed out the triggers for emotional eating, I felt the need to find out the root cause of my problems. I wanted to make peace with my body. I also added Yoga to work as part of my muscle training, and I removed Ring fit adventure for now. I thought I could also work on my flexibility with Yoga.
Intuitive Eating
After reading the book “Intuitive Eating,” I changed my approach to dealing with my eating, and I started listening to my body. According to Tribole and Resch (2020), many people failed to maintain weight after dieting because they tend to overeat once they relax their control eating. The mere contemplation of restricting foods pushes you to crave the forbidden foods resulting in your cravings escalating until you cannot resist them. The trigger of losing control often starts for many because they are too focused on the outcome of their dieting. Upon quitting a diet, many of us ended up binge-eating and feeling guilty (pp.642-658). I felt like they just described my situation. The recent study established a motivational trait of regaining weight after strict dietary restraints as “Disinhibition” (Bellisle, 2008). Disinhibition can cause not only psychological damage but also increase the risks of hypertension and diabetes. In other words, repeatedly failing diets is mentally and physically unhealthy.
I had to think about what triggers me to lose control of my eating. I am always on a diet. I maintain my weight pretty well because I exercise regularly. When my husband became ill, I lost control of my eating. I could not think about anything other than my husband’s health condition at the time. I stopped exercising altogether. I guess I always have emotional eating problems, but I completely lost control of eating this time. Two years after, I managed to lose all the weight with running and calorie restriction. I lost control of eating again because I was too busy with my work. This time, I gained back about half of the lost weight over six months when I started working again. It was high time to look into the cause of disinhibition to fix it somehow.
I seem to fit the following two eater styles from the book: chaotic unconscious eater and unconscious emotional eater. I actively overscheduled my life. So, I usually gobble my meals whenever I have time. Sometimes, I work or read while eating to save time. I am also an unconscious emotional eater. I tend to overeat when I am anxious, stressed, or sad.
Instead of starving myself, I decided to develop trust with food again by honoring my hunger. In the beginning, I was unsure of the sense of fullness. So, I started eating slower so that I could listen to my body. I also stop multi-tasking while I eat. Instead, I focused more on flavors or textures of food while I am eating. Gradually, I began to recognize satiety.
Now I can eat anything I want as long as I listen to the needs of my body. I ate foods I had previously forbidden. Suddenly, a cookie is no longer as attractive. I also recognize my body wants more vegetables. I tried some vegetable recipes. When I am satisfied with foods, I do not have to eat as much.
Yoga – 2 sets of Sun Salutation
I started two sets of Sun Saltation every morning. It will be better if I do some yoga because my body is inflexible. I was investigating YouTube or Prime Videos for yoga programs. Eventually, my husband suggested adding a few sets of Sun Saltation every morning to start.
It was pretty hard at the beginning, and I had to do a modified version. My first modification was of Alligator Pose after the plank. I had to lower my knees to ease the weight from my triceps. My second modification was to take baby steps back to the forward fold (2) position as it was not possible to step one foot and then the other to the forward fold (2) position.
Sun Salutation Routine
Namaste Prayer -> Upward Salute -> Forward Fold -> Left Leg Lunge -> Plank -> Alligator Pose -> Staff Pose -> Cobra -> Downward Dog -> Right Leg Lunge -> Forward Fold (2) ->Gratitude
Since I hardly do muscle training, I had muscle aches from doing this baby yoga routine initially. After one week, my muscle aches ceased. I do not want to compromise my form, so I am still using a modified version.
Challenges
2nd COVID Vaccination
Planning my meal is crucial for losing weight; however, this did not work out as I planned. We held a small family gathering for my husband’s birthday. Since I knew that my husband would request a lasagna for the meal, I decided to restrict calories by 100-150 calories per day and add a 15-minutes exercise three days before the birthday party. Unfortunately, three days before the gathering, I became ill from the 2nd COIVD Vaccination. I had a slight fever, tiredness, and endometriosis symptoms. I could not exercise for two whole days, and I could not eat well. I ate a small piece of lasagna and a lemon cake. At least I was able to exercise mindful eating still. The day after the party, I felt better, and I was starving. So, I ate slowly until I gained satiety.
Overscheduling Problems
I still forget to exercise intuitive eating when I get busy. I overate three times in 4 weeks, which still made me feel guilty. There is absolutely no reason to feel guilty about overeating. So, I calmed down, and I thought about what caused me to forget to practice intuitive eating. I was under time pressure on all these three days because I overscheduled.
Knowing when to Stop Eating
I still failed to feel satiety from eating. I suspected that I am frequently stressed out because I tend to overschedule my day. When I am not sure whether I am full or not, I stop eating for fear of over-eating.
Discussion
This round, I lost 2.6 lb. The biggest reason I lost less this time was figuring out how to trust my body. I exceeded the 1,500 calorie restriction a few times. It is all right. At least, I am working on the root cause of the actual problems.
The key lesson I learned from this round was to work on identifying the triggers that cause me to overeat. I started to journal a stress score in my Fitbit so that I could monitor my stress levels. From my observation, When I am stressed, I become anxious. So, I overeat—most of my stress comes from my packed schedule. To work on this problem, I need to work on my overscheduling problem next.
I am thinking of getting into Yoga more seriously because I am gaining mental and physical benefits. I did my yoga session every day, and my body was loving it. I feel that I am getting more flexible, and it is becoming easier to maintain each pose. At the end of each yoga session, I thank that I start a new day. This little ritual made me calmer and filled with energy.
References
Bellisle, F. (2009). [Assessing various aspects of the motivation to eat that can affect food intake and body weight control]. L’Encephale, 35(2), 182–185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.encep.2008.03.009
Tribole& Resch (2020). Intuitive Eating, 4th Edition: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach. [Kindle edition]. St. Martin’s Publishing Group.