Thank you Heather!
I asked a question a little while ago about managing desserts without binging. I took your advice and have a treat every day. I go outside of the house and buy a single serving and binging has reduced drastically! These foods no longer have that special appeal now that I have them on a regular basis. I prioritize protein, take a fiber supplement and a multivitamin daily. I know my diet is not the healthiest but I will work on adding more vegetables as time goes on. Thank you for all that you do! Debra.
How to determine your weight goal
Hi Heather, Over the last year I’ve lost the most weight I’ve ever lost (50lbs) through gradual lifestyle and habit change. I am mindful of calories and track them at the end of the day, but I do not have a calorie goal that I work to. I have found that the more flexible I am with myself and less restrictive, the more ‘normal’ I eat naturally. I find if I have a specific calorie goal, I will focus on it all day and it flares up my lower brain and I will rebel. I will also ignore signs from my body and get frustrated if my body is not doing exactly what I think it should be doing (I.e. being more or less hungry than I think it should be). Instead, I focus on my food habits and remain interested at where the day has taken me calorie-wise. I am losing, on average, about 4 pounds a month and I am also quite active; I play netball once a week and run or do HIIT 5 times a week- not for weight loss but for the mental health benefits and energy it gives me. I would like to continue to eat and live my life in this way. As a side note, I’m also breastfeeding still but I do not count that in my calories as it fluctuates so much and I have no idea what it would convert to in calories. My question is that I often see people have a weight number goal in mind or know how much more they want to lose, but I feel a bit lost as to where I should be aiming for. I had a goal of a healthy BMI, which I am about 2lbs away from. Ideally, I would like to keep my way of eating/living that I’m doing now and my body naturally plateau where I can maintain that weight, or is that wishful thinking? Do I need to actively plan where I want to be or the range I want to be in? How do people know where in their weight loss journey it’s time to maintain going forward? Before this I’ve always been overweight most of my life, crash dieting, not being able to keep up with the restrictive program then gaining it back so I’ve never got to the point of knowing what weight I could live my life at. Hope this doesn’t sound silly! Thank you for all you do and all your content, it’s incredible. Dee
Cancer treatment and weight loss
I have been undergoing some cancer treatments, and those involve taking Letrozole, which has as a side effect “weight changes”, which seemingly can include either gain or loss. I’m trying hard to eat at a deficit because I know that excess fat increases estrogen, which can affect breast cancer cells. How can I structure a diet so that it doesn’t have to be super restrictive (because I will sabotage that) and yet is healthy and at the same time low calorie? My maintenance calories are probably about 1500. I am finding it hard to reconcile all the things I “should” be doing. Any suggestions as to how I might best approach this for the long term? Thanks.
"coach sarah" question about pre-planning but logging calories later
I think I missed something, or maybe I'm trying to understand something... Sarah is logging calories later (the next day) rather than in the moment because it's too triggering. I get that. But when she is doing her planning/paper pencil journal, is she also pre-logging those calories to try to plan her days at maintenance or below, and then logging changes to her planned calories later... or is she just planning with the paper/pencil journal, trying to collect stars, and seeing where the calories fall later?