The Quest for Balance

Hello there! I hope that you are having a good week… it’s Friday!!!!!! I am SO glad, I am wiped. I haven’t been sleeping great this week, and it’s really starting to take it’s toll on me… I spilled hot chili on my hand after making dinner yesterday and instead of doing anything about it, I just cried. Hahaha. I think that pretty much sums it up!

I done with part one of Naturally Thin, and the rules have gotten me thinking a lot about hunger. I think that sometimes people’s struggles with weight stem from hunger, and hunger misconceptions.

Sometimes people who want to loose weight don’t realize that in order to do so, you might have to be hungry from time to time, but not by ANY means starving. A lot of time “hunger” is triggered by external cues, and we completely lose touch of weather or not we are really, truly in need of nutrition.

I read in Runner’s World once in a story about runners gaining weight and there was a quote something along the lines of “sometimes to lose weight you need to be hungry for a bit.” Now please, please, PLEASE understand that I am not talking about disordered eating, and I 100% subscribe to the philosophy that you need to nourish your body properly in order to reach any sort of goal, and you should always talk to a medical professional before making any changes to your diet.

My point is, our society is all about instant gratification and oversized portions; we are constantly bombarded external cues that we suddenly can’t tell the difference between what our body wants and what it needs. The honest truth is that maybe if you need to lose weight, it’s time to take a look at your habits and be honest to yourself. I know that’s what I needed, and what I continue to do every day. 

I personally have lost touch with my body’s hunger cues. Years of binging, crash dieting, and other abuses; my body is just down right confused. I don’t usually get just hungry by normal standards, I go from fine to I-am-about-to-hurt-someone-if-I-don’t get-food-now. But now that I am tuning into what my body needs vs. what I want, and I am beginning to tell the difference.

I had been writing this post for a while, and finally got the courage to finish and post it because of Julie’s recent post “Sometimes Healthy Living Means Saying No” on her blog Peanut Butter Fingers (I read it every day, love her blog, and she has been a huge inspiration for me finally starting my own). Her post talked about how, while every healthy lifestyle has room for indulgences, it’s also about saying no sometimes. I loved this post and it’s honesty.

I know that I am not exactly a poster child, I am still going down this health and weight loss goal, but one of the most important things I am realizing is that life is constantly about balance. Realizing this and also realizing that it’s OK to be hungry sometimes has seriously revolutionized my life. It didn’t happen overnight. But suddenly I am seeing these changes in my everyday behaviors that I know are going to pay off big in the long run.

For example, the other day at work, at 12 everyone in my office suite went to lunch, and I realized, I wasn’t hungry. I waited and worked until my stomach told me, helllooooooo nourish me please! I had a bunch of cut veggies and a veggie burger and ate until I was satisfied—not stuffed and that was that. The best part was that it just kind of happened. I didn’t force myself to do anything, I think that for once my body is starting to understand balance.

How do you deal with balance when it comes to your diet or healthy living lifestyle?