Friend of Julie: Pushing Through

These past few weeks, I am hungry all the time. As weird as this sounds, I believe this hunger is because I'm always cold. You see, feeling cold is new to me. When I was a size 30/32, I was never cold. With this kind of hunger happening on a daily basis, I'm asking myself this question: how do I know if I need to push through the hunger or just put on a sweater?

Brrr, I'm cold all the time! Photo by Theresa.

I started to answer this question about a month ago, when cold weather crept in and I started wearing vests and layering my clothes. When I first came to Western Mass, in 1996, a friend told me the best way to survive winter is by wearing vests and layering clothes. That Christmas, she gave me a vest from L.L.Bean, but after trying it on, I exchanged it for something else. It felt too bulky, too warm, and was it not the fashion statement I wanted to make. Layering clothes was something I could not understand, because I was always hot, even in the dead of winter. All that changed this winter, when I began to feel cold even indoors. My friend was right: wearing vests and layering clothes are the best way to survive winters in Western Mass. And guess what? I love wearing vests and layers of clothing!

Hmm, is this a non-scale victory: being cold like normal people? Yes it is!

To help push through my hunger, I did a lot of tapping (mentally pushing thoughts away) and a lot of meal planning. I made more new dishes last week than I have in any month (or two) of the 3 years I've been following this program. I've been mindful to vary my menus. I fed my hunger beast lots of meat and seafood. I cooked foods rich in flavors and spices. I made hearty soups.

This isn't enough, I need to do more. I need to push through this hunger in a way that allows me to drop another size and to reach my goal size. If I want to reach my goal, I must evolve my program, to follow the rules closer than ever before, as if my life depends on it - because it does!

The next step in my evolution is to become more mindful of what I'm eating. Julie teaches us to eat when we're hungry and to stop when we're full. She also teaches us an average portion of protein is about the size of the palm of our hand and to eat veggies bite for bite to our protein. Fat is allowed on this program. We can have mayo and butter. We can even have deep fried foods and blue-cheese dressing. We are asked to be mindful of these concepts when we eat and to remember our goals.

Yes, we can have mayo, butter, fried foods, etc., but we must be mindful of how much fat we're eating, as too much will in fact slow down our weight loss. Too much food will result in weight gain.

The hunger I've felt these past few weeks has made me realize, I have not been mindful enough of my portions or the amount of fat I eat. This changes right this moment.

It's time for me to learn how to listen to my body, to understand the difference between hunger and cold, to be mindful of what I'm eating, and to remember my goal. It's time for me to remember to visualize my goal size.

It's also time to get back to the gym. Exercise isn't about the routine of exercise, it's about giving our bodies a workout so we feel better today, tomorrow, and for years to come.

How about you? Are you ready to push through your hunger? What can you do today to strengthen your resolve to reach your goal size?

This TedTalk video (Sandra Aamodt: Why Dieting Doesn't Usually Work) speaks of mindful eating, and supports much of what Julie teaches. Sandra encourages us to learn to understand our bodies' signals, so that we eat when we're hungry and stop when we're full, and to avoid distractions while we eat, so we can let our body decide when we should be done eating.

Sound familiar?

I found this video inspirational and I hope you do as well.