Listen to your body. It's smarter than you.

Weigh-In Wednesday: March 13, 2024

Photo by Franco Antonio Giovanella on Unsplash

Every personal growth journey includes a moment when you smack yourself on the forehead and say, “How could I have been so dumb?” and question whether you should be allowed to make adult decisions at all.

Hmmm. Maybe I HAVE BEEN acting in haste when hanging up on those car warranty robocalls. 

I had a smack-my-forehead moment last week during an email exchange with a friend. She’s a fan of the newsletter, and we were discussing when we eat during the day. I thought fasting through breakfast was helping me but recently began to wonder if maybe it was doing more harm than good.

One of my favorite things about this newsletter is how someone will reach out and say something that opens my eyes at the exact right moment.

My friend wrote: “I think I was afraid to use all my calories and be starved at night. Like I would die or something. I flipped recently and now I eat most of my calories before 3 pm. Then for dinner I’m not that hungry, and I haven’t been restricting myself all day. I literally just started listening to my body, and so far so good.” 

I bolded the part I needed to hear. 

This is a body project, and I have mostly been ordering my body around but not really listening to it. I don’t mean in the indulgent sense like – “Hey, your body really wants cannoli right now. So, make with the cannoli, paisan.” I mean listen to it like we’re partners in this thing – “OK, I will help you lose weight, but we have to work together. Can we make breakfast a thing again?”

I started eating breakfast again this week. I dropped a pound. I have newfound energy at the end of the day. I don’t think this is a coincidence.

Drum roll, please...

Starting weight: 187

Last week: 178

This week: 177

Goal: 170

Feeling: Proud to have hit the 10-pound mark. Pro tip: If you lose 10 pounds, pick up a 10-pound weight and realize what an accomplishment it is. Ten pounds isn’t nothing.

Shoutouts…

Holly wrote: Let us know how the mealtime adjustment goes. I starve every day until about 10 am and end it all by 6:30 pm. Normal right? That’s fine…right??

Holly – If it works for you, it’s fine. Personally, I don’t trust anyone who says all people should do the same thing to get the same results. When you hear someone who says they have all the answers for everyone, in the long run they tend to be proved wrong or end up starting WWII. Important decisions like breakfast time are best left to the people. 

Doug wrote: I've read that eating most calories earlier in the day can be helpful. Also seems less like torture. 😉

Doug – Confirmed.  

Ed wrote in response to my shopping woes: I enjoy reading these and wish you luck in your continued journey. I buy clothes (always look for sales) but are on the high-end of fitness styles. It gives me motivation to work out more and look like I know what I’m doing. In order to look swaggy, I gotta eat and be fit.

Instead of weight, I’m facing the fear of taking a cholesterol test to avoid medications. It’s more likely hereditary, but I didn’t like it when I was on it before, so I started doing much more exercise and eating less Kobe beef haha. It worked. A lot. Just not quite down enough.

Hey Ed – This jives with what I have read about diet being able to affect various health issues. Hope you get that cholesterol all the way down.

On the topic of swaggy, I have never committed to swaggy as a lifestyle choice because it involves a lot of shopping (see this Sideshow Bob steps on rakes GIF) but it’s something to which to aspire. If you could pass along some notes on how to be properly swaggy, I’d appreciate it. I might get there someday.

Laura wrote: I actually lost a pound this week, but it hasn't been easy. I have found that stress, and skipping a meal because of it, helps with weight loss. But that is not how I want to do it. I am trying to look at this, not as a diet, but as a way to eat for the rest of my life....and who wants stress? I have also discovered that skipping breakfast, or even not eating it until noon, does not help me. It is the eating later in the day that causes me to either gain or not lose. In an ideal world I would skip dinner, but I know that won't happen very often.

Laura – Sounds like you are listening to your body. That seems to be the theme this week. Our bodies are talking to us, and we should listen. Thanks for sharing and congrats on the pound!