Free Yourself from Calories!
I remember being over 200 pounds and desperate. I had tried everything and nothing was working. So one day feeling very low I humbly joined a weight loss club. I was so excited! I remember buying all of the books, weighing in at the meetings and joining my group members weekly to discuss our weight loss issues. My instructor often brought us free “weight loss club” snacks that were very low in calories but very delicious. I signed the dotted line and thought I had found my people! It was comforting to be able to discuss my late night binges, or the really BAD weekends of throwing caution to the wind; those people understood. There was an unsaid “Eating-fat -while-trying-to-be-skinny” mentality that existed in my club. Weekly we shared our low calories food finds. For example; “ABC Company makes this delicious dessert that is only 10 calories” or “XYZ brands makes this yummy cheese spread that is only 15 calories.” I remember one night eating 5 of those 100 calories snack pack cookies and thinking; this can’t be healthy, but at least it was only 500 calories. I finally came to the end of my 6 month weight loss club membership only having lost 7 pounds; I knew then there had to be a better way.
The problem was the weight loss club’s reasoning for my future weight loss success was based on a math equation (factoring in no variables). They told me I could still eat the horrible bad food that got me overweight BUT they were just going to replace it with a lower calorie, chemically altered, extra processed replacement; instead of teaching me how to reprogram my relationship with unhealthy food. Yes for some this works for a while. We eat the lower calorie cookie instead of the really bad cookie or we eat the extra thin pizza instead of the doughy pizza; thinking all the while this will last. Well the process is doomed from the start. The focus is on what we can’t have instead of what we can. We are constantly reminded of the really good versions of the stuff that makes us obese, and before long we are back to buying the same foods that made us overweight in the first place. It is a vicious cycle.
But there is a better way! The process I went through to lose weight was all about retraining my taste buds and focusing nutrition. Most yummy horrible foods today are packed with flavor but low on nutrition; this is why you can still feel hungry after eating a big Mac with fries. I used to go into a deep depression after eating 3 slices of pizza and still having room for dessert, but it was all about the nutrition. I learned to like highly nutritious foods. The process of learning I went through was juice fasting (My juicing video), during this time my body was flushed of all toxins and my cravings for bad foods disappeared. While I fasted I researched nutritious foods that I planned on eating like: Kale, lentils, quinoa, squash and many more. The cool thing about fasting is it also makes you appreciate food, and so when I began eating healthy it was easy!
I encourage you to free yourself from calorie counting! Don’t get caught up in hype of calories in and calories out. While it is important to watch portions; the real focus should be on the nutritional content of the food you eat. Retrain your taste buds, get rid of the junk and become the healthy person you always wanted to be!
How was your experience in a weight loss club? How have you learned to eat healthy? Share your thoughts comments and questions below.
Paparoxi | tagged food, healthy living, juice fasting, juicing, nutrition, relationships, weight loss 
