So I've hit the 40 day mark on My Fitness Pal. Previous to this I was using a paper diary to write down all my food. Which has helped immensely but I wasn't restricting calories. I had decided some time last year that it was pointless to restrict due to my hormones being nuts. In July my doctor and I found out that my full thyroid panel came back completely normal after being on Levothyroxine for a about 3 months. I decided it was time to go ahead and start again. Try to reclaim my life and be the active person I was. So I started using MFP to track not only calories but micro nutrients such as sodium and protein. I noticed in the first few weeks that my sodium intake was entirely too high and my protein intake entirely too low. So I adjusted, started making some small changes and making sure that my portions weren't crazy. I bought a food scale to really get a good idea. This is what I've learned in 40 days:
*I actually have a spot on eye when it comes to portions. I attribute this to the fact that I started trying to be healthier when my 7 year old was 6 months old. My portions actually have never been out of control. I've always used the hand method for measuring: a portion of meat is the size of your palm, portion of pasta/ rice the size of a fist, portion of veggies is your hand out with all five fingers spread. My food scale has since confirmed this is a pretty accurate way of measuring.
*More protein in the AM means less snacking later. At least for me. I wake up ravenous on the days that I work. Like I could eat my horse ravenous. Having a bigger protein meal in the AM helps tremendously.
*Speaking of: my coffee and tea in the mornings have more protein than I would have thought. Then I was like "duh, they have milk in them!".
*17lbs seems like a lot, but I can't tell the difference in the mirror. I still see pretty lady that I've always been in my mind. My mirror is not an accurate portrayal of myself. Probably because I've always tried to be body positive. I have a pretty good idea that a tight ass dress isn't going to look good on me, but my eye sees a pretty good picture when I look at my reflection.
*I can tell how big (or small) my body has been the longest by the jeans (or lack thereof) I have in any particular size. 12's and 14's are prolific in my closet. I have quite a few 8's and 10's and 22's as well. Up until yesterday I had 1 size 18 and 1 size 16. I remember when I bought those 22's. I had been wearing sweat pants and leggings for 2 months because my 14's didn't fit. I was actually shocked when the number was in the 20's. Let me put that in prospective for you, I had jumped 4 pants sizes in 2 months. Even totally overeating this would have signaled, to anyone with a brain, that something was very. very. very wrong. I am still upset that it has taken me over a year to get my hormones back on track because the doctors in this area don't know what the flying fuck they are doing.
*I unintentionally intermittently fast on the weekends. While I wake up starving on week days, I tend to sleep in on the weekends and I'm not as hungry (or can distract myself better) on the weekends. For example, yesterday even though I was awake at 6 to get the kids off to school I didn't eat until lunch time. Sitting at my desk is obviously a trigger to eat for me. Makes for a more satisfying dinner, ha!
*I learned that I've been doing a lot of things right all along. Especially after trying to solicit help on MFP forums, I was in the mindset going in that "Well, maybe I AM over eating and fucking myself over." Nope. I'm not eating that much less than I was previous. I've made very small changes to my habits, and I'm paying closer attention to my macros. That is it.
BTW, You can find my diary open on MFP. I'm, of course FattyMcRunnerPants.
No comments:
Post a Comment