I took a picture of myself yesterday and I feel like I'm a little bit fuller in the face. I think I could be hitting a plateau in weight loss, so in attempt to quell that, I have decided that I need to keep a food journal. I need to know how much I'm eating and what type of food it is, especially in comparison to serving sizes. I bought a new planner that includes a page for the month (a traditional calendar) and followed by a few pages that, each of which covers a week, so there is plenty of space to write. I only seem to write family events on the calendar page, so the food journal can use the weekly pages. I can also use it to figure out how much time I devote to exercising.
I know things will get better once the weather is nice again. Then I can take the girls outside more often, which always helps me lose some weight in the spring/summer.
I hope this effort will lead me in the right direction.
There is another theory from a nutritionist that I am trying out to see if it works. I had always been told that if I drink a glass of water about twenty minutes before I ate it would make me eat less food. Well, if you have no will power, that doesn't really work. Thankfully, I do so it's not that bad. However, this doctor theorizes that a lot of idle eating or eating out of boredom is because people confuse hunger for thirst. The brain does not recognize that the body is calling for fluids, not food, so they eat without purpose. So far, every time I feel hungry, I start by drinking something. I also remember that hunger is not a crisis (which I discussed in another entry). I actually think that combining these two thoughts has led me to eat less food. I'm not starving myself by any means. I eat when I'm hungry, but I make sure it's when I'm actually hungry.
Another thing that I was discussing with my mother is how much society has us programmed to eat. Our society is structured on a time schedule because of the work/school day. For this reason, we eat when we were taught to, whether or not you are actually hungry. As I've gotten older, I realized that I stretch that schedule, but there are some people who I am around daily that start getting antsy because it's 11:30. When I asked this person what the problem was, they replied that it was lunch time so they needed to eat. I asked that person if they were actually hungry and after thinking for a minute, they replied that they weren't and were surprised by it.
Just something to think about.
