As someone who has struggled with excess weight for most of my adult life, I’m exhausted with the thought of eating in a particular manner anymore.
What does that even mean?
I remember my very first weight loss attempt, which was actually quite successful.
I was 19 years old and needed to lose maybe 25 pounds. My mother and I went together for B12 shots, ate extremely lean protein, and green beans every day.
Of course, the weight loss didn’t stick once I went back to my bad habits. I worked in a convenience store, and trust me, all the snacks and crap food were certainly convenient.
I’ve never eaten like that before, and here it was in front of me for 8, 12, 16 hours a day. It certainly didn’t help!
Coming Out of Rock Bottom
Fast-forward to about 10 years ago when I was in the worst shape of my life.
Extremely overweight, sedentary, and not even consuming “nutritious“ foods. I was miserable, but I did very well eating low-carb, high-protein. Even today, I still eat that same way because my body feels so much better with it.
Even though I’ve lost weight multiple times through my life, it always finds me again, and I’m just exhausted by trying to find “the answer“.
Why Can I Not Lose the Weight
Now there are so many different reasons that are popping up for people like myself: PCOS, lipodema, high cortisol.
The end of the story is no matter what the reason your body is holding onto excess weight, it all comes down to two things, I think: lack of movement and too much food.
We’re bombarded with eating high protein. We hear, “eat 60, 80, 100 g of protein a day”. But we have to remember that protein usually has high calories that go along with it.
And if movement is an issue, then your body is going to be stagnant. Yes, you’re putting nutritious foods in your body, but maybe you’re not moving enough to affect the weight loss.
This Makes Sense
I’ve been following this young woman on Instagram, and she actually makes a hell of a lot of sense.
There are so many people talking in our heads about counting calories, walking 10,000 steps. Do this. Do that. Eat this, Eat that. It’s exhausting.
Years ago, when Dolly Parton was a little bit thick, if you will, I’ll never forget an interview where she said something like, I love food, and I realized that I could eat anything I wanted if I just ate less.
That has always stuck with me, and I always wanted to be able to do that, but I didn’t know how to read my body and listen to when it was truly full.
This is where the girl on Instagram comes in.
She teaches how she learned to eat by watching and interviewing her naturally thin friends. She has tapped into what she calls her “calorie calculator“ and that is understanding, sensing, and listening to when your body is telling you it’s truly hungry and when it is satisfied.
My Healthy Changes for Midlife Success
That is the key right there – to being able to turn off all of the freaking healthy eating diet noise and to focus on what God has given us already.
I truly want to turn off the diet noise and be able to enjoy food that is healthy and nutritious. I don’t normally eat a lot of crap anymore. I’m so much better at eating healthy, nutritious foods, so I’m not worried about the nutrition. It’s the amount of food and understanding that my body can be satisfied with less food.
Scientists tell us it takes our body about 20 minutes for the fullness signal to go from our stomach to our brain and tell us we’re full. But maybe, if we’re in tune with our actual stomach organ, it can sense when it is satisfied, which probably happens faster than 20 minutes. I can consume a lot of food in 20 minutes.
So what am I talking about here?
I’ve been working rather intently on restructuring how I eat, and it’s taking quite a bit of practice and restarts, I have to admit. But when I am focused, I’m actually seeing results.
Here’s what I’m doing
- Trying to eat only when I’m hungry.
- Looking and listening for subtle signs. My stomach is full, such as yawning and sighing and actually feeling my stomach.
- Eating protein, which I love
- Also including fruit. I need the fiber, and I think the fruit is working better for me than focusing on veggies, so adding fruit to at least two meals a day.
- Adding beans to my meals because of the fiber. Higher fiber is helping me. There are three or four brands of beans in flavors that I love, so I’ll open a can and eat it with my meal & save half for my next meal.
So I’m sharing this with you to keep myself accountable as I create healthy changes for midlife postmenopause success.
I’m forging my own plan here because I truly believe that if I turn off all the noise from every freaking expert as to what you should eat, maybe I can finally find my way.
I have so much information in my brain now; I just need to carve my own path and do what works best for me.
Eat healthy, listen to my body when it tells me I’m full, and move more. We all started with that in the beginning anyway!
I would love to hear your thoughts about this and what you are struggling with in menopause and midlife!
Hi! I’m Chris! Just a Midlife Wife sharing about life’s journey; screaming and kicking through it while supposedly aging gracefully…
Focusing on healthy living, low carb & keto, things I am loving right now, and life in general.