Oh my gosh thank you so much! I needed this because i feel like I either get super obsessive about this or just don’t care and have nothing in the fridge 🙄
I’ve found a helpful tip for me is to write a list of all the protein, carb fat vegan/fruits and desserts I like to have or are in season. Then I buy some of them when grocery shopping so that when I come home from work I can make a quick yummy balanced meal presto!
My gosh I can’t describe how much you’ve helped me. I’ve been watching you for so long and it’s been a wild wild WILD ride. Counting calories is just INGRAINED into my brain and it’s so annoying and I just want to stop automatically seeing the numbers, and it’s so hard not to let the number on the scale and the way I look in the mirrors and photos rule me. You have helped so much, no other you tubers can demonstrate healthy eating the way you and as authentically as you do. By “healthy” I mean with a healthy mindset and listening to the body you (and many other things) have taught knows what it needs best depending on the situation. Sometimes it’s hard to trust myself, but I believe God made us with bodies that can give their own intuition to help it have enough energy, and he gave us the joys of wonderful tasting food we can eat and enjoy. Leaving the food rules, the calorie counting and the picking at my weight and every photo I see of myself all to the dust behind me is something I really want to put emphasize on. I’ve tried to tell myself “well I’m fine now that I’m at a healthy weight and not exactly restricting...” but it’s the little mindset habits I have that still have me binging sometimes, mindlessly eating, always thinking about food, having fear or stress at every meal, worrying about every photo taken of myself, constantly comparing myself to other people and what they eat, watching food/what I eat in a day vids, mental Tetris with my food...ugh I’m surely not done healing yet. It’s been a year and a half, but the damage done to my body will heal after as long as it needs to. Having ADD also doesn’t help, because my dopamine deficient brain is constantly seeking stimulation, and when I haven’t taken my medicine food can be a convenient source of stimulation. Even with my medicine, food can be the most appealing stimulant, but sometimes my stomach doesn’t agree and I just know it’s good for my body or brain to have food my source of dopamine all the time, so I have that on top of my disordered thinking. Just know (after this giant essay of a comment) that you really do help. It’s worth it, and it helps.
I could have written this exact story. You are not alone. I just stopped calorie counting like a week or two ago and I have been doing it for so long for so many years it is so hard to stop seeing the numbers and just naturally adding them up in my head to see how many calories iPad because I mainly fear that I’m eating too little not that I’m eating too much even though I have weight to lose. When I can’t see the calories in an app to track them I naturally find myself eating less to make sure that I don’t over eat which leaves me under eating and the cycle of that is brutal. Plus I have mini food intolerances as well as gluten intolerant and I have to watch what I eat to avoid triggering my IBS and that alone is restrictive so it’s very hard to find food freedom when you’re still restricting because of health issues
You’ve inspired me to eat cottage cheese again…I overdosed on it when dieting and thought I hated it because of the diet connections…but turns out I love it! I add some ranch flavours (dried dill and chives, garlic and onion powder) and dip crackers in it as you suggested. I also now have it with berries and granola (the sweeter, clusters more delicious kind!) and it’s become one of my fave brekkies.
Just want to say thank you so much for this, been watching back through all your vids and blog post and its been very interesting and given me alot of self realization towards my relationship with food, please never stop
I love the "themed meals of the week" idea. I haven't done it in a very long time. I tend to get decision fatigue and obsess over meals and ingredients, etc. I am working on that. My boyfriend and I live together but I have to eat gluten free and he does not so most of the time we eat separate meals and cook separately. I tend to eat healthier, more whole food meals and we also both work at different hours and don't see each other until the evenings and he is a late dinner person and I am an early dinner person so we just buy our groceries separately and cook separately. It's what we are used to plus he has 3 children to feed as well and they don't eat what I eat so I kind of just do my own thing in the house lol. That being said, I just did this meal plan for when I go shopping on Saturday and for 7 dinners (2 servings each, leftovers will be lunch the following day) plus breakfast, and a few small snacks, my total grocery bill is $98. That is for one person for one week. Now, I budget $100 per week for myself in groceries because I know that my gluten-free foods and short cuts are more expensive than standard food but I can imagine that would seem a bit high for most people to do this. It kind of makes me wonder how people with smaller budgets and a family are able to do it. There were just a few ingredients in my plan that will last more than just the week and I hate waste as well. I use ALL of my food no matter what and I freeze leftovers and make sure I eat them within a couple of weeks. Anyone else run into this? Just curious.
I love that you are making these videos. I am a bariatric patient that I struggle with good addictions. I get treatment for this but they are pushing initiative eating and meal planning. Any additional discussion you have around that would be great!
Two theory questions, if you ever want to address them. One: Many times (especially on THC) I think I’m hungry when I’m actually full. It’s like my brain confuses fullness for hunger. Two: I like calorie density, but many times, the more, say, popcorn I eat (no butter, no salt), I feel like this makes me addicted to that fuller feeling and I can put on a few pounds of other foods over time because my body wants more food to achieve that full feeling?
