Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Finding my own style... my "eating personalities"

I have issues with aspiring to eat like other people.  Not necessarily real people, either.  This probably comes from reading so many food blogs and watching way too much TV. 

I struggle between wanting to eat like the Gilmore Girls and wanting to eat like Angela from Oh She Glows.

Two extremely different eating styles. 

On the one hand, if I could eat like Lorelai or Rory Gilmore, I could eat copious amounts of fast, frozen, and/or junk food any time I was hungry for it and stay healthy and beautiful.



On the other hand, if I could eat like Angela Liddon, I could cook all of my meals and snacks from scratch and eat it any time I was hungry for it and stay healthy and beautiful.



These are my two different eating personalities.  And yes, I do think that when it comes to eating, I have multiple personalities.  And my eating personalities can change a few times a day sometimes.

Mostly though, I want to be able to eat whatever I want and still stay healthy and beautiful.  That seems to be the only simularity between the two styles.

I still love eating junk food.  I eat chips, snack cakes, and pizza often.  "Food".

But I also LOVE eating healthy food!  I love to cook!  I love to experiment in the kitchen!  I love it when I discover new healthy and whole foods that I enjoy.

It is my belief that the only way that I can continue on this combined path (junk food PLUS healthy home-cooked food) without gaining weight is to track my calorie intake. 

The only problem with this scenario is that I want to some day be an intuitive eater, meaning that I eat ONLY when actually hungry and stop when satisfied and never track my calories.

Which means that one day I will no longer eat junk food regularly, thus saying goodbye to my Gilmore Girls eating personality entirely. 

For now, the eating style that I choose is all my own.  I am eating junk food daily, plus cooking healthy meals regularly and eating it daily.  I track my calories on My Fitness Pal.  I try to only eat when actually hungry, but still have issues stopping when satisfied.

And I'm healthy!  And I'm happy with myself.  And I'm strong.  And I'm losing weight and inches (weighing in monthly or less, because it's not about the scale anymore).  And this is working for me.

I hope that I can stop trying to eat like someone who I am not...  I'm Leah, and I eat like Leah, and that's a pretty cool person to eat like.

3 comments:

RescuingLisa said...

Wow - just found your blog - super congrats on your WL success! Also, I have similar eating personalities too... my guilty one take out (just like they do on the big bang theory) and junk food (like Tina Fey in 30 Rock)... too much media feeding this impressionable little brain of mine!

Cheers,
Lisa

Mariebop said...

Stopping when you're satisfied takes some practice. I am slowly getting there myself. I'm a boredom eater. I'm trying to find things to do to keep busy so I'm not thinking about what I'm going to eat next. Therefore, I'm reading alot more because watching TV is when I do most of my munching.

Also when it comes to snacking (I'm a grazer by nature), I take a small amount of what I want. Then, I ask myself if I'm satisfied (not if I want more. I have to be very specific with the question I ask myself)

I think you can eat intuitively and still track calories as long as you're not restricting. I'm too strict when I count calories. However, I like to know how much I eat and when to see what my natural body rhythms are. So I keep a very casual food diary.

Robyn said...

Oh this sounds just like me! I go through phases for sure with my eating style, I have times where all I want is to eat healthy, fruits and veggies and feel good and then sometimes I turn into the dark side of me and all I want is candy and junk food :) I struggle with that for sure