I recently had issues with my stomach and while I am now feeling somewhat better, I am taking this time to re-evaluate my relationship with food and my eating habits. Since I was a child, I have relied on food for boosting my mood and providing comfort when life challenged me. Slowly I gained more and more weight, finally topping out at more than 250 lbs. Surprisingly, no matter how poorly I ate, I never went higher than that, but I discovered that I was beginning to have trouble doing the things I loved. Something had to change. Just after the beginning of the year, I started having stomach issues, and I have reworked my habits.
While I have not fully changed my cravings, I have gone without drinking soda, and due to my stomach, have been living off soft foods and protein shakes. At first, I wasn’t sure how I could survive on the recommended caloric intake various sites suggested to me. 1200 calories doesn’t seem like much especially after tracking my food prior to the start of this and discovering that I was eating close to 3000 calories each day. No wonder I have a weight problem.
So I’m starting to figure out what triggers me to eat emotionally and watching when I actually feel hungry versus other emotions. Happily, this has helped me to drop almost 10 lbs. I downloaded a few apps to my phone to help with tracking food (My Fitness Pal), one to track my movement throughout the day (Moves), and finally one to help with some exercise (BodBot). It’ll be interesting to see how much I move around while at work and how much I actually walk each day. I work at a standing desk, and am generally moving around quite a bit. I am using the free version of BodBot, and depending on the results, I may upgrade to the paid version for more detailed analysis of my exercise.
In the past, I have used other services, but I find that thus far, My Fitness Pal has had everything I eat in their database, and so tracking is super simple with just a barcode scan. Moves is doing a decent job of tracking my movement, and I think once I start doing the body weight exercises assigned by BodBot, I will have a good group of apps to help me track and stay on track the most important aspects of my journey.
As I discover more about what makes me want to eat, I am discovering ways to motivate myself to stay on this journey no matter how it can suck at times. One thing I am tremendously grateful for is my fiancée. He loves me just the way I am, but he also understands why I need to do this. He’s been helpful when I’ve struggled with stomach pain as well as acted like a conscience reminding me that something probably isn’t a good choice.