Saturday, March 29, 2014

An honor and privilege to find your food template in weight maintenance



I woke up this morning full of it   full of gratitude.  It’s been such an honor and a privilege to experiment with my food template in weight maintenance. It's down right REQUIRED, I've decided.

Two or more paths!
There is  NO one way to do this,  except the one that works for yourself. Right here, right now! No one food, no one template. Each month more of weight maintenance really brings me to this place. Even in my own 2 years in weight maintenance, my food template has changed drastically.  Going from a packaged food diet for weight loss (it worked for me) , to a low-inflammatory whole foods  diet in weight maintenance (it worked, for me). Fine tuning the food template over two years.(Yep, yep.... working on it!) 

There are as many paths as there are people.

The further I go, the more I realize that food is both fuel and medicine for me. Getting the food template in line has provided me with a better life over all.  Better relationships because I’m not numbing out with food emotionally. Better health, because I can maintain my weight and not yo-yo. More energy for living life’s up’s and downs. No migraine headaches!  (Yeah!) A lot less physical and mental pain. High nutrient food gives me a lot of clarity, too.
3 years of weight data

Life happens. Emotional eating (age 6-46), auto-immune thyroid disease (1997), Pregnancy (2000),menopause (2013). Life and health changes up physically. I’m just glad I got my mind set  in the experimental mode early in this attempt at both weight loss and weight maintenance.

Just high-fiving myself this morning that I had the strength and the courage to plow through
    Conventional wisdom around food advice based on bad science.
     Big food- besides the grocery stores , newspapers , magazines,and TV, big foods has found it’s way in fund raisers, schools, doctors offices,brand bloggers paid by big food, the health care industry, hospitals, weight loss programs partnered with big food.
      My own mind telling me outdated information.

I often ask my daughter when something positive or negative occurs: “What do you attribute that outcome?”  So, what do I attribute my positive out come of long term weight maintenance this time around?


What’s working
  1.  Having an open mind set to my food template and health outcomes ( told no one but my doctor who said "If it's working for you, do it")
  2.  Taking time to experiment with my food template and health outcomes
  3.   The courage to be different from the mainstream
What didn’t’ work in past attempts
  1. Using one weight loss program and the same weight maintenance program (different processes = different tools! different template!)
  2. Believing what I was seeing from Big food, packaged health claims. Not so much for me. Moderate junk/processed food
  3. The unwillingness of my own mind to switch fast when things weren’t working.
So, what do you attribute to your positives and negatives?  Food template wins? Any high-fiving  yourself on positive outcomes? Discuss!  It can be a tough road with all the mis-information out there. Here's to the courage and wisdom to experiment. It can take a lot of strength to overcome. 

Both paths lead to the same place


Hmmm. Hope this post wasn't too, Woo-Woo. Back to usual posts tomorrow! Sometimes brain dumping is good....


9 comments:

  1. Hello! I came across your blog recently and especially loved this post. I couldn't agree more. Thank you for saying these words outloud. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
    Kim Harrington
    Buffalo NY

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    1. Thanks, Kim!!! Glad you found the blog. :)

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  2. I like this "woo-woo" post! I love your attitude about letting folks find what works for them and going with it, just as you did for yourself. I love that you give sound advice with the thought of "try it and see if it works for you, and if it doesn't, keep searching". *high five* for finding what works for you in this world of information overload, some good, some not. You are a rock star in my eyes for sure!!

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    1. Thanks, Becca! High five to you, too. :) Not easy to keep going day in and day out, but essential.

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  3. I enjoyed this post Karen.

    In recent years I have found five simple health tips that work well for me, your readers may have already seen them .....
    1) eat low carb foods
    2) eat high fat foods
    3) eat moderate protein foods
    4) take regular exercise
    5) establish a good sleep pattern

    As Hippocrates once said "Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food."

    Eat real food, and stay away from the 'modern' processed foods - it's our health, it's our life and we deserve to treat our bodies healthily.

    Hope the week ahead is a good one

    Take Care

    All the best Jan

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    1. Jan, I love this! Life changes so much when real food and the essentials are top priority. Thank you so much for your list.

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  4. EVERYTHING Jan said, is what I would've said. :)

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  5. I love the "what didn't work" sections..very inspiring and thought provoking for me Thanks!!

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