This is not the best picture of Saturday night’s dinner in the North End, but trust me, it was fabulous 🙂
This picture illustrates me continuing to *practice* leaving a little space at the end of a meal. In other words, eating until I’m *just* satisfied – maybe even a little UN-satisfied…like I could’ve absolutely eaten more, but I know I would be way too stuffed.
Pushing my dish away with food still on it, got me thinking about how much I have changed. Years ago, going out to dinner typically meant feeling the need to finish everything that was on my plate because I always felt as if I was breaking the “rules” and would follow it up with some sort of ridiculously restrictive diet, “starting on Monday”.
Let’s take for example our trip to Italy in 2008. I had dieted all fall for a bikini competition. The show was the weekend before Thanksgiving and our trip to Italy was right before Christmas. Even though the show prep had ended, I continued to diet knowing that we would be eating and drinking for 10 days while on our trip….And eat and drink I did.
When I dieted for shows, I ate pre-portioned meals every 2.5 – 3 hours. Typically 6 small meals per day. I can’t say that I was hungry – just not very satisfied. Especially when it came closer to the shows and a lot of my meals were the same – white fish, green beans, maybe some grapefruit….
So when I didn’t have my “rules” to follow, I had NO clue how to control myself. I completely lost all sense of hunger, fullness and satisfaction. It was all or nothing at all times. I would either feel completely out of control and use excuses like, “when in Rome” (literally) or “I’m on vacation” to eat and drink anything and everything, or I was “dieting” for a show – which was really just my excuse to restrict and to put myself in this little box where I told myself I “couldn’t” have certain things….
What’s funny (or not) about this, was that looking back I was kind of miserable in both scenarios. I hated dieting for those shows….yet, no one was forcing me to do it! But it was what I told myself I “needed” to do to stay on track. I didn’t trust that I could get results without the “plan” or without having to prance around on stage in clear heels and a yard of material….
And I wasn’t completely happy when I was eating and drinking whatever and feeling like a stuffed sausage either. But I knew no in between.
The whole time I was on that Italy trip, I had plans to start my 12 week contest prep diet as soon as I got back. That was my excuse to eat and drink everything there. To “have fun” and “enjoy myself”. Let me tell you, 10 days of OVER eating pasta and OVER drinking wine was not enjoying myself. At all. I felt heavy, sluggish and blah the entire trip.
When I got back, I kept trying and trying to start my diet but I finally was at a point where enough was enough. I was sick of starting over, over gaining and losing the same 10 pounds over and over again.
I also knew I wanted to try to get pregnant at some point and the relationship I had going on with food was NOT a good one.
A client of mine recommended that I read “The Beck Diet Solution”. It wasn’t so much a “diet” book, but a book that really brought to the forefront your *thoughts* about why you eat. I’ve read a few other “mindset” type books about how to eat “intuitively” and I just never got it. This book was different…probably because I actually DID the work!
I finally started to realize that there really were no quick fixes. I could diet for 12 weeks and get light and lean, but what good was it if I was miserable and couldn’t maintain it?
It wasn’t a question of not knowing what to do or not having enough information to get started. It was the fact that I honestly thought that it HAD to suck to get results.
Take a look at these two pictures. The one on the left was taken at a show that I had dieting WEEKS for. The one on the right was last year on a random Thursday morning, no dieting, no tan, no restricting, no over-exercising and AFTER having twins. No shakes, no cleanse, no fixes, no magic, no giving up caffeine, dairy, alcohol, sugar blah blah blah – just consistently living a balanced life with pretty much the same results.
I’m sharing this because I know there are women out there, women just like me, who are too afraid to NOT diet. To NOT over-exercise. Women who don’t trust themselves to do it on their own. So they keep spending money on the SAME stuff over and over. They feel like they need something RIGHT NOW so they buy the expensive cleanse or 21 day “fix” and tell themselves that this time will be different. They feel so frustrated that they’ll do ANYTHING to get the weight off RIGHT NOW. Believe me, I totally get it, because I WAS that woman.
This week, I’m running a “Fundamentals of Fat Loss” video series in which I’m going over the EXACT tips and tools I’ve used over the past 8 or so years that have completely changed the way myself and my clients view our relationship with food and exercise.
By implementing what I’ll be sharing, I’ve been able to maintain the same weight for years without yo-yo-ing, restricting, spending money on expensive supplements or working out excessively. In fact, having my twin boys in 2010 *completely* changed the way I exercise – and I’ve had better results doing a TON less. And at 6 months pregnant right now, I’m SO glad that I’m not relying on an app, counting macros or calories, following a meal plan or relying on shakes or tupperwares to live my life because I’m *pretty sure* I’d be up shits creek.
I don’t have YOUR answers, and I don’t have a supplement that I’ll promise can “fix” you – but I do have some strategies that I know for a fact will help you to change your mindset if you’re ready to do the work!
It’s not too late to join us! Click here and I’ll get you in our private coaching group asap!Â