Skip to main content

Writing Prompt 2: Famine Logic

From the book:

If you’d been in a famine, how long do you think it would take to refeed yourself? A few months? A year? What feels right based on how long you had been restricting? And when would you know things were back to normal?

This is a tough one. If I were in a real famine, one beyond my control, I would say at least a one to one recovery period...like a month for a month. But since my "famines" have all been self imposed, and I've always had open access to food (i.e. binges) between the moments of self-imposed famine, it's harder to say.

I've actually been, at least mostly, in recovery for a little over a year now. I have been through three or four refeeding phases in that time, as I would occasionally dip back into diet mode for a day or two, or half a day. And then psychologically/emotionally, I would feel the need to refeed. I went through a refeeding process after my husband died. During those times, I was always hungry. Not always physically hungry; a lot of it was emotional eating, but that's okay too. I ate a lot of sugar and white flour, and pasta. A lot of pasta. Thank god my kids like pasta!

I've dieted, off and on, for about 30-32 years now. I don't think it's unreasonable to say this process will take me a while. Maybe a couple of years, even.... And how would I know when things are back to normal? I think when I don't think a diet will fix things, or I'm not planning out food hours/days in advance (besides regular menu planning). I am starting to feel what I would consider normal. I'm not sneaking candy surreptitiously at work. I am not obsessed with calories, grams of protein, huge amounts of water, or anything like that. I east meals on a regular basis. I eat more if I'm hungrier, and less if I am not. I don't feel like I have to finish the food on my plate, but it is also okay to go back for more. I plan meals around what sounds good (to me or the kids), or what came in our Imperfect Produce box, or what is on sale at the grocery store (I am on a budget, after all), instead of trying to make it all match some magical ratio of macronutrients.

I don't have indigestion anymore. I am sleeping at night. I am not falling asleep at my desk mid-afternoon. I don't feel sick from overeating. My digestive system seems to be working well and regularly. I get some form of exercise every day (mostly walking, more on that later). I think that all feels pretty darn normal, and I am loving it!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Writing Prompt 3: Your Relationship to Hunger

What is my relationship to hunger? What do I think, fear, wish, judge about hunger? What do I believe about hunger? How do I try to manipulate hunger? Write anything that comes to mind. My relationship status with hunger is "it's complicated." It has been complicated for a long, long time, though I suppose it wasn't always that way. I think I remember just being hungry or happily full as a child, but it's a little hazy. In the years between now and then, I've starved and then filled myself to what I feared was the point of popping. I've been all over the place with my appetite, how I view it, and what I have thought is acceptable. I think, now, that being hungry, or full, or even overfull, are all normal on the appetite spectrum, or at least, I understand that logically these feelings are on the appetite spectrum. I still have days where I wished I wasn't so hungry, and days when I ignore my empty/full cues, and either skip meals or just shove foo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Writing Prompt 1: Considering Weight Neutrality

Might as well get going while I have a moment. So the first writing prompt has to do with weight neutrality. I'll put all the prompts in Courier so they can be spotted more easily... Make a list of at least 5 reasons it may not matter what you weigh. For example, ‘My aunt has always been fat, and she is everyone’s favorite and a famous painter.” “My health was better before I started dieting.” “My weight was not a question on the bar exam, so it must not affect my ability to do my job.” “The happiest relationship of my life was when I was fatter.” These are just examples. My aunt is not really a famous painter. You can take from your real life or from this book. Go for even more than five if you can. 1. My job, which I really love, does not depend on me being a certain weight. 2. I have a great relationship with both my teenagers, again despite my weight. 3. My health markers are all really good -- cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar, cervical cancer screening,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Oopsy Daisy

Well, to be honest, I guess no one said this intuitive eating/f*ck it eating lifestyle would be easy. I've been tempted by the wolf in sheep's clothing of diets more than once.  It is not easy to undo nearly half a century of programming. And let me tell you, I have been really, really tempted by diets, even going so far as to plan them in my head. I haven't done any of them, mind you, because it's just so much work, and I like food, and I don't like restriction. I did not make a New Year's resolution to lose weight. What I did do was decide that I might like to feel healthier and more balanced, so I'll work toward that. What that looks like is this: I am making three micro-resolutions each month, one for home, one for health, one for other. Focusing on small steps for a month at a time makes it much more manageable, much more doable. "They" say it takes 21 days to build a new habit, so by giving these micro-resolutions a month,  I should be...
Post a Comment
Read more