Epiphany

Ok, epiphany time...  I find it easier to lose weight when I'm NOT working out but controlling my food intake.  When I work out, I hardly lose anything.  I think it's because I am still figuring out how to balance the increased calorie needs with the increased calorie burn that comes with working out.  My body goes into starvation mode pretty easily.  Is that because I was always too thin in my teens through the birth of my first child?

When I think back over time, food and my weight has been a touchy subject all my life.  When I get busy, pre-occupied or anxious, I quit eating.  Literally, I forget to be hungry.  Now, that sounds crazy but it really is true.  My mother was forever checking my collar-bones and grilling me about what I'd eaten.  I was always very thin - sometimes to the point of concern.  I never tried to be thin.

Then, somewhere in college, food became something else.  It was almost a weapon I would use against myself if I was unhappy.  (this conclusion was made upon looking back; when I was doing it, I was not aware of what I was doing.)  This, combined with the party lifestyle I adopted, brought my weight to near dangerous levels.  When I moved home to start UMHB, I was a size 4.  I'm nearly six foot tall.  In nobody's book is that considered healthy.

Then, as tends to happen, my metabolism slowed down in my mid-20s and I began to gain weight.  Since the birth of my first child, I've hovered around the same weight.  While I was working at the CAC, the workload, single parenthood and life, in general, triggered that no-eating cycle.  I suffered terrible stomach pain - I thought I might have an ulcer.  Everything I ate (besides ramen or salad) would hurt so I began to eat less and less.  I got down to a 10; the smallest I'd been since college.

I didn't stay that small, of course.  I started eating again eventually and didn't work out.  Then, comes the second baby and that brings us to now.

My conclusions:

• I do not know how to lose weight in a healthy way.


• I have a love/hate relationship with food.


• I am not a stress eater.  (thankfully)


• I am a stress-starver.


• I have a lot of stress in my life (even good stress is still stress; as my mother says).

What I'd like to do is lose the weight in a way I know how to lose it (control food intake) and then incorporate fitness to keep it off.  But I know all my fitness friends are already shaking their heads and saying, "you must balance fitness and nutrition at the same time in order to achieve long-term goals."  How I break this cycle and get to the weight I want without starving myself is the question of the year. I haven't had that epiphany yet. LOL