Health and Weightloss

My favorite mortal enemies

Ice cream, chocolate and cake batter. They are fine in moderation, but I have not been eating them in moderation. I have a total inability to allow ice-cream to sit in the freezer uneaten. It must be eaten and it must be eaten NOW! I turn into the Ice-cream monster and I am not proud to say I have eaten an entire 2L tub of ice-cream and chocolate syrup in one afternoon of essay writing. (It was light so that makes it ok right?) Im no better with chocolate. Any chocolate, iv eaten chocolate for breakfast. My new vice however is cake batter. I love it! For the last week I have actually made my own cake batter to eat. That’s right, I made the batter and then ate the whole lot! Not once, not twice but seven times. So at the moment my body feels like shit, im down, feel flabby and I want to do something about it.

A little about me

I have never been over weight. I’m 152cm tall and weigh 52kg. (5 foot and 116lb) but I feel that I would be happier and more at home in my body at 45kg (100lb) but my body is very stubborn and does not want to move. So the next few months are an experiment into whether I am genetically set at 52kg, or is that part of my diet.

What has worked for me in the past?

There are many different diets which I have attempted to follow. Calorie restriction, eating 1500 cal a day I would say has been the most successful but the hardest to follow. I also enjoy following a plant based diet as it makes my body feel more alive and I function better. So I would like to try and follow both of these simultaneously over the next 3 months. I have several mini goals I want to try and accomplish day to day over the next bit to see what happens.

Mindful eating

What am i eating?

Mindful eating was introduced to by a Buddhist monk from a monastery from where I used to live in the country. He spoke to me and my friends at the time about how it could take him an hour to eat a sandwich. So what is mindful eating? It can be different for each person, but here is one way I suggest going about it;

1.    Sit alone with no distractions
2.   Take time to look at what you are eating, think about where it has come from
3.  When you take your first bite think about the textures and the flavors whilst you chew
4.  Then begin to focus on your body, relax your muscles, starting with your face and working down from your shoulders and down your back.
5. Think about how the foods makes you feel, both physically and mentally.

This is a form of meditation to do with food and you can do it as little or as often as you want. Paying attention to your food and your body can help stop overeating, as well as making the food more enjoyable. I’m going to attempt to do this at least once a day and see what happens.  

Plant based diet

As I said before, I really enjoy eating a plant based diet and how it makes me feel. I always allow myself exceptions. If I want some ice-cream or yogurt I will have it. If I am desperate for a steak, I will eat a steak. (I do admire vegan, but I find that sometimes my body needs some red meat or fish and I just listen to it). However I would like to start making less exceptions for unhealthy food and trying to get my body to an optimum.

Living without eggs, milk, and meat is nowhere near as difficult as it may seem. Making the transition is easy as long as you are not so hard on yourself. I learnt to love almond milk, carrots, hummus, lentils, chickpeas, soy, fruits, veggies, grains, ect. There is still a wide variety of food to explore. I will talk more about this in a later blog.

Exercise

I try and exercise every day in one form or another. I go to the gym or go for a walk. It’s really not an issue for me, but I what I say is that if you do not exercise it to focus on something you enjoy. Walking, swimming, cycling find something that you can do that makes you happy.

So I will keep updating over the next few months at find out whether I can lose weight and remain there or whether I will be stuck at 52kg forever.