Changing up support, as needed- in weight maintenance

Keeping the Train on the Tracks

I'll be back to more regular blogging soon. Just tying up some loose ends from my unplanned April & May events.  I'll finish my non-food emotional eating series. Parts 5, 6 and 7. Also, a blog post about staying mostly food sober on my cruise last year.

I'm keeping busy "Keeping the Train on the Tracks", so to speak.

Evacuations due to the fires, plumbing issues,  other house things that require my full attention. Yep! Just because I've lost weight and maintained doesn't mean that life is perfect. I just means I have to add a few more things to prioritize on the list. Stuff happens and I have to deal. I just choose to deal without my old food habits.

For 40 years, I dealt with life by "using food". It took and takes effort to maintain food sobriety. Support is a key element.

After my plumbing problems and during repairs, I had a super strong gut feeling to change up where I was getting my support with my emotional/binge eating. I'm an abstainer from 99% of processed sugar, all grains, legumes, dairy, and nuts. Abstaining helps me to eliminate emotional/binge eating AND to support my post auto-immune thyroid body.  Not as many people abstain, and it's not a popular path, but it works for me and it's MY path.

I'm old and wise enough not to ignore strong gut feelings. I had an intense gut feeling to seek out more abstinence based support. So I did. I keep the details of that support private. Please know I don't blog about any of the private details of the support here or anywhere else.

Moderation themes make me crabby!

 In seeking the support, I wound up finding some additional in real life friends who are also on my same path. I foresee additional job stress that will require that I keep my support system with others who abstain very current. 

Seeking support from "moderation" systems doesn't jive with what I need. In fact, I find "moderation" based support to be outdated with my goals. I tried and tried to make moderation part of my food system and long term weight maintenance.  Better late than never to figure out what works.

Anyhoo, I've got what I need now.  Getting back to the new normal routines. So loving my "gut feelings".  I never know where I'm going to go. It's beautiful finding out where that feeling is leading.  I use my gut feelings to find awesome photos, too.

That little voice that says, well... keep going up this hill. Head to a certain beach on a certain day.  That small voice or motivation lead me to find this small whale breaching off the coast of North County San Diego. It was the day before Mother's Day. What a gift!  I could go years and not see whales in this particular  area.  It was so close to shore and having  great time playing around.

Anyway, happy to report I'm staying on track , replacing some of the batch cooking, like chicken bone broth and lunches that I lost last week due to the power outage.  Being "tough" not moderate for the WIN!

I'll be back soon with more posts.

What's working now:
1. Paleo food template, lower carb, higher protein/fat
2. Abstinence from trigger foods (wheat, grains, most sugar and nuts)
3. Support that matches with items 1-2
4. Listening to my gut feelings.

What didn't work in the past:
1. High Carb, lower protein (too many points), lower fat (soooo afraid!)
2. Trying to moderate my trigger foods and work with calories in/calories out.
3. Support that matched moderation and keeping that when I knew it didn't work
4. Ignoring or not even being able to hear or feel my gut feelings.

Hibiscus near the Savory Spice Shop, Encintias, CA