a while back i wrote a post on my blog aboutdieting, or why not to diet, and i wrote it from experience- because i hadn’t thoughtabout my weight in years and i just ate whatever i felt i wanted, and i maintained and actuallysteadily lost weight. then a few months ago i went to india formy yoga teacher training and when i came back my metabolism was all out of whack, and igained weight. like 5 pounds. and at that
crash diets pinterest, point, instead of saying ok, that’s ok,i'll just get back into my natural rhythm, the weight will just gradually come off, i'llfind my balance again, everything i knew about weight loss and had written in that post wasout the window because of one little, beautiful, but painful, word: summer.
i was so mad at myself for letting this happen,i was dieting and exercising extra hard, i was stressed, i was putting pressure on myselfi ended up screwing up my metabolism even more and gaining even more weight. then iwas kicking myself again, now i have even less time to lose even more weight, and allthis time i had what i knew about weight loss in the back of my mind, but i was thinking,i don’t have time for that, i need to lose weight fast, now, because summer's coming.well, it turns out i did have time for that because if i had started just not trying tolose weight, it would have come off and i would be thinner now than when i gained theoriginal 5 pounds. so i decided, stop, relax, forget everything,forget summer, just go back to eating naturally.
literally the first day i stopped countingcalories, i was less hungry just because the pressure not to eat was gone. so since i stoppedtrying and pushing and stressing, i’ve lost 5 pounds. and they've gone silently, withoutmy noticing whatsoever. i’m much happier in the process and i'm free of these restrictionsand numbers and i just feel this weight lifted and i'm free to just go on and live my lifeagain. so the way i think about it is that countingcalories is a negative approach- focusing on what not to do, what’s not allowed, whatyou don’t want, things on you that you hate and want to get rid of, not eating too manycalories, not eating this and that, punishing yourself at the gym because you went overyour calories.
it makes you feel deprived and guilty andashamed, and it ultimately backfires eventually because it’s not a sustainable lifestyle.you can't continue living like that so even if you lose weight, you're going to gain itback when you start eating normally again or when you've just had enough of feelingso bad about yourself and about food. so if you take a positive approach and thinkabout all the things you wan to gain and add to your body- better health, vitamins, protein,endorphins, feeling better, feeling lighter, sleeping better, and the list goes on- youfocus on the things you want to gain and do good to your body rather than things you don’tlike about your body that you want to get rid of. you know what a healthy diet is, yourbody knows what it wants to eat. focus only
on those and forget the external pressureto look a certain way. you'll get there in the happiest way possible and you'll feelgreat in the process. some people say i need to count calories becauseif i listen to my body i overeat and then i gain weight. what that probably means isyou’re not really listening to your body or you haven’t tried for long enough. ifyou're listening to cravings or urges to binge eat, you're listening to your mind, not yourbody. they almost always stem from an emotional stressors. that's not how your body wantsto eat. that's the way your mind is responding to something totally different, not hunger. leading this healthy lifestyle means thatyou work on your body because you love it,
not because you hate it and you want to changeit. you eat food and you feel satisfied, not deprived.you exercise to improve your health and to feel good, not to punish yourself.you see food as nourishment and positive energy, not as a source of anxiety nor as a sourceof happiness. you live your life around important things,not food or looks. i hope you join me and i'd love to hear fromyou if you've had a similar experience fighting and fighting your body and then just realizingthat it works better when you accept it and take care of it. or just let me know what'sbeen a stressful part of dieting or trying to lose weight for you and how you're goingto take that pressure off of yourself.
be good to yourself, take care of yourself,love yourself, and everything else will fall into place, including a hot body or whateveryou want, but it's so much less important.
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