Better Late Than Never, I Suppose.
I think I just I had an epiphany.
In response to my last (whiny) post about not having enough time/energy to complete all the administrivia that seems associated with losing weight successfully, BikiniMe wrote “…the most important thing is the doing, not the logging.”
She’s right, of course, and that has been part of my ongoing frustration.
However, as someone who’s natural instinct it is to archive, document and analyze (I’m a librarian for goodness sake) another good chunk of my frustration lately has stemmed from just how little I seem to have learned from all this “busy work.” Honestly, I don’t mind archiving the details of this journey… in fact, I *want* to do it. Believe me, if I could figure out a way incorporate the dewey decimal system, I probably would. :) But what’s more, I just *really* want to learn something from the whole process otherwise, well.. it all seems more than a little pointless. Even if it does result in shed pounds, if I don’t LEARN something about myself and how I eat and what’s wrong with the way I eat then what’s to stop me from gaining all that weight back??
Then tonight, as I was posting my food diary, I noticed something.
A trend, if you will.
If you look at my daily food intake it’s easy to see that I eat the vast majority of my calories at dinner. I sometimes eat no breakfast at all, and when I do, it tends to be small — a piece of fruit, etc. Then a relatively small lunch and then nothing again until dinner, which is usually massive (compared to the day’s other meals anyway) and almost always accounts for over half of my day’s calories. Then I started thinking about the times (of day) that I eat.
Breakfast: between 6:00 - 7:00am (if at all)
Lunch: between 12:15 - 12:40
Dinner: between 6:00 - 7:00pm
And then it happened.
At first I thought the skies were parting above me and that beams of heavenly light were actually shining down as if from some divine spotlight… but then I realized it was just the light bulb going on over my head.
I need to eat more frequently.
I need to eat smaller meals.
*cue hallelujah chorus*
I need to eat smaller, more frequent meals.
Um… duh.
Here’s the thing… this ain’t rocket science, folks. I mean, eating smaller more frequent meals is a highly recommended approach to weight loss. In fact, even though I am loath to call this new way of living a “diet,” the truth is that most “diet” programs recommend a similar approach to eating… and a lot of people who have been successful and taking and keeping off large amounts of weight list smaller and more frequent meals as a key component in what finally worked for them… and yet, I just couldn’t see it. It took forcing myself to write it all down, day after day, for months and months and months (with admitted breaks here and there) before I finally *learned* something. I swear. Sometimes, I feel like I should be wearing the weight loss dunce cap, or something.
That’s not to say that eating smaller, more frequent meals is the right approach for everyone or even if it’s the right approach for me. However, given the data I’ve collected from months and months of logging my food choices, it does seem like it just *might* work. so… here’s what I’m going do:
Even though, officially, it’s too late for me to join Krissie’s 10 day challenge to “win” — I’m still going to participate. Starting tomorrow, and for 10 days, I’m going try to split up my eating into smaller, bite sized (har!) chunks. Instead of eating the traditional breakfast lunch and dinner, I’m going to aim for at least 5 mini meals per day. I’m still going to shoot for less than 1500 calories per day (and preferably more like 1200 - 1300), but I’m going to see if eating more frequently helps curb the afternoon/evening hunger that causes me to overeat at dinner time.
I figure, after 10 days I’ll have an idea about whether or not this is really a viable approach… plus, c’mon, I can commit to just about anything for 10 days, right?
And in the meantime I get to ride the wave of having actually discovered something about myself… in the hopes that, in the end, all this self-reflection will make me a stronger, better and *fingers crossed* thinner person. Besides, who knows what I might *learn* next! :)
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PS: I’ve mapped out my route for ScaleJunkie’s 5k In May challenge. Of course, I won’t add the badge to my sidebar until I’ve actually done it, but here’s a sneak peak at my route. If When I do finally walk this course it will be more than just a distance victory for me… but I’ll wait to talk about that when I finally do it. In the meantime, I’m excited because, c’mon… check out that badge! Plus, even though I’m so proud of my blogging buddies who’ve gotten up the gumption to actually run one (or more) 5k’s, (yes, Andrew and Marshmallow, I’m talking to you, among others) I’m always just a little bit jealous of those accomplishments. I look forward to the day when I’m no longer *just* cheering them on, but am also donning my own pair of running shoes, you know? But in the meantime, walking a 5k is a good start. And I’m excited about logging these steps and earning this cool new badge for my sidebar. Anyway, the walk is one I’ve done before minus the overlapping inset that pushes it over the 5k mark.
Anyway… Go me!
That sounds like a brilliant plan. I do that (sort of) and it works great for me. I always have a light dinner as well. And way to go on the walk!
Hurray! That’s the trouble with epiphanies, ya have to have them yourself even though the information is out there.
I had my eat-less-more-frequently epiphany in similar circumstances. I was looking at my food diary photos and seeing just how MUCH I was cramming onto my plate. I was embarrassed.
And then you wrote about calculated big portions. The next day I reorganised my plates and have been eating on smaller plates since then, sometimes every 2 hours. But many days, I still end up just eating three times a day and that’s fine too.
The downside is that you have to come up with things that are less than 300 calories (homemade fat-free soup is your friend) but the big upside is that my stomach has shrunk, I feel full much quicker.
Andrew: You’re my inspiration! :) I need a bracelet that reads “WWAD?” — What would Andrew do?? *wink*
j
Paola: All I can do is nod. I’m with you… it just takes me a (million) minutes to catch up. I hear things and think… “yeah, that’s a good idea,” but somehow it doesn’t translate to actually doing something to change my own behavior… I have to have the “a-ha! moments” before I realize “oh yeah, I need to do that” and sometimes it’s frustrating because, well… you know, I’m no schlub. I’m a genuine smart person. I can tie my own shoes and everything. :) That said, I wonder sometimes why it takes me *so* long see the light.
j
Wouldn’t it be great if we could have epiphanies FOR each other? This whole process would go so much more smoothly. :)
I hope this works for you, or if it doesn’t, that it points to something that works better.
5K in May! I haven’t done this, but I did join a walking challenge at work and by the end of the 6 weeks (assuming I follow through and survive) I’ll be averaging 5 miles a day. That would qualify me for some blingage right? :) Anyway, good for you for making the decision to do it.
Frequent small meals is a great idea and one that I should do as well! You go girl!
@J, I think it’s normal to have to figure some things out for yourself. There is so much diet info out there and much of it conflicting (alcohol is good vs. alcohol is bad) that, in the end we must go with what we believe works us.
I feel like we’re all trudging along a path to our thinner selves with moments of enlightenment along the way. Getting ONTO the path at all was a big deal for me. But, now having worked some things out, as Cammy said, one can nudge people a bit but the actual “aha!” has to come from within.
Cammie: Seriously, that *would* be great, huh?
Dottie: I’d say you definitely deserve some bling. You go for it, girl!
Paola: *nods* Plus, I’m more than a little stubborn which, I think, might make my “aha’s!” a bit less frequent.
Cheers!
j
I like the path. I’ve been up it, down it and off it. I’m on it again. But I can’t seem to find the courage to take a step. Which is why I’ve been surfing blogs and came upon yours.
I was also struck by your comment “I can do anything for 10 ten days”. I’ve been able to start journaling, but never able to keep it up. maybe by making a small goal of doing it for 10 days, will get me in the right habit. The smaller meals sounds like a good idea, good luck with trying something new!
Tracy: It’s tough to get started, but baby steps have a way of adding up, you know? I wish you tons of luck.
j
[...] 1200 - 1500 calories per day and start breaking them up into smaller, but more frequent meals. The plan was to eat at least 5 smaller meals per day in order to curb my hunger, speed up my metabolism, [...]