self control

Many times throughout the past three years on this "journey" I have gotten weary. I have wanted to stop and "just eat like a normal person",  I would say.  What did I really want? To just eat and not worry or think about how much I was eating or what I was eating, I wanted to be "free" of that but also be able to do that and not gain weight.

So lately I have been thinking about that, especially as I took the majority of my summer off from tracking and weighing and I've been able to examine my eating habits after two and a half years. My thoughts may be all over the place but hopefully you can get an idea of where I'm coming from.

Self control is the key. People who are dieting are successful because they are controlling their intake of food. They have self control. People who do not track or "diet" and just eat (without gaining) also have self control. They do not go crazy and eat everything in sight. They find a balance in their diets and exhibit self control by not over eating, therefore allowing themselves to be able to "just eat" and not gain weight. They have self control.

Therefore, there is no such thing truly, as eating completely freely for anyone. Just because I want to eat 10 oreos with milk every day does not mean I can or should, and this is true for every single person alive whether you are 100 pounds or 500 pounds (unless you are TRYING to gain weight, of course).  We cannot do and eat however we feel, because in doing that it leads to where? Where almost everyone who reads this blog is or has been: overweight, battling food addictions and trying to lose weight.

The same goes for so many other things in life. You cannot do whatever you want because you want to or because you feel like it. Yes, there will come a time when your calories can go up a bit more and you can train a little less and maintain your weight. Will there ever be a time where you can eat anything all day for weeks and expect not to gain? No, most likely not, and this is even MORE true for anyone who has been obese and lost a large amount of weight (another post on that to come). You will always have to live with self control, whether you are tracking and trying to lose or just maintaining your weight.

So get into practice that this, being in control of your food choices, is lifelong. It is TRULY a lifestyle, there is no end. If you do end it and you lose that control you are going to go back to where you were.

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