Choose Health: Fail for Success Series, 1
SHADOW BOXING
Fighting Myself for Myself: Failing Within Boundaries
I am in the middle of several back-to-back travel experiences that make it difficult to keep a health routine. And, I am in the busy season in a new job that I am still learning. This is a recipe for failing grandly.
I have a history of failing grandly in times like this. The details were different, but the feeling was the same. To stay successful, I have had to let some things go and keep my eye on the big things for long-term success. And, I have fallen off my usual game – within boundaries of short-term failures that make long-term successes possible.
I Wanted to Change the Trajectory of My Life
Finding My Golden Center
People often ask why I made the decision to lose weight. At the golden center of it was my health and wellness. For years, I knew what I should be doing, but I didn’t know how to do it and sustain it. Because this is such a hard process, people need to find a why, a golden center for making the change.
My golden center comes into focus most profoundly between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am, when I no longer live in fear about what my choices were doing to me, when I feel freedom from a lifelong conflict around food. I knew nutrition and health facts as well as anyone, if not better than most. But, I could not find a way to act on what I knew.
Eat When Hungry: My Journey into Shadows, Episode 2
Mindset is everything and nothing.
Mindset and the mental processes around my personal changes are shadows of my transformation.
Mindset plays a starring role in every change I have made. Yet, mindset alone would never be enough to succeed in losing half my weight.
Foreshadows of My Shadows: I Felt “Fat” First
My Hunger Drive and Childhood: Feeling the Force of Addictive Foods
Weight has been a lifelong struggle for me, starting in my childhood. Third grade is my first memory of obesity — even if obesity was not yet part of my reality. This was the year that foreshadowed my future struggle with weight.
Because of the way food in the standard American diet makes me feel, I felt obese before I was obese.
In childhood, this feeling was closely connected with eating potato chips, candy, and pizza without being unable to stop. In truth, I could list hundreds of foods that have caused me problems.
Healthy Eating Royalty: Purple Cabbage
Purple Cabbage: A Quiet and Underrated Leader
In the plant-based world, leafy greens get a lot of attention for their health benefits. Most certainly, I have heard that message over the past few years. I eat leafy greens daily.
Mentally, I aways include purple cabbage as part of the leafy green family, even though neither “leafy” or “green” applies to purple cabbage. But, cabbage is used in similar ways as leafy greens, and purple cabbage embodies quiet strength in this world from a health perspective.
Self-Talk and Strategies for Work-Life Balance
Lose a Few Battles to Win the War: Navigating Life’s Busy times
Life gets crazy, and there are times when the battle to maintain a work-life balance feels impossible around my overall goal: Eat When Hungry.
For most of my life, I have thrown in the towel during times of work-life business. To be clear, I ate too many unhealthy foods in too high of quantities.
I Was Not Broken and I Am Not Fixed: The Food Is the Problem
Moderation Was Never Going to Work: Processed Foods Are the Problem
In mainstream society, there are many misconceptions around weight, weight loss, obesity, and morbid obesity. One of the central misconceptions is that obesity is caused by personal shortcomings.
Understanding the role of processed foods in my weight has helped me see myself and my weight differently. Years and years of failing at moderation taught me that moderation was never going to be the answer.
Rebalance with Ready-to-Eat Foods after a Long Weekend
Rebalance with Ready-to-Eat Greens and Fruits
Despite my best intentions, my meals got sloppy over the long weekend. My balance of the foods got off, and I had too much fruit and too many higher calorie density foods, such as nuts.
This is a normal part of getting off balance for me. Today, I am readjusting. When I went to the store, I prioritized fresh greens and fresh fruits that are ready to eat, so I can find a sense of balance again.
Living Under Seige: Winning the Battle
Living Under Siege: Face Failure
The battle to center my own health and wellness has been a lifelong one. For years, I failed against the pull of rich, unhealthy foods. No matter how much I wanted to live a healthy life, I was living under siege and could not find a way out of this battle.
Facing failure has meant acknowledging how deeply these foods impact me. I had to reject society's messages of moderation around these foods and had to leave them behind altogether.