eat when hungry: What it takes

My journey to lose weight has been a complex process of learning, reflecting, succeeding, failing, and acting. This chart maps my journey in pulling together all the pieces that made that weight loss possible.

A healthy weight is about eating when hungry. All too often in my life, other parts of the process became the areas of my focus — foods and numbers — distractions from the real issue at hand. Eat when hungry. So easy to say. So hard to do.

Finding my hunger drive has challenged me in ways that nothing else has. This process has been anything but simple, and I am still learning. Sometimes, I am more successful than others. I know enough about myself to know this will be a lifelong struggle.

This Venn diagram makes the complex struggles of my journey visible in ways that pictures and words cannot. Teacher Me is overwhelmed and humbled by how many difficult mental tasks are part of this process. (Teacher Me also loves using a Venn diagram to illustrate these ideas.)

Each one of these areas is a formidable and challenging mental task in and of itself. No wonder those of us who lose weight have only a 3% success rate for sustaining long-term weight loss. When I look what this journey takes, I am surprised that anyone succeeds.

If I am able to join the 3%, it will be because I drilled down to understand what it means for me to eat when hungry. This knowledge gives a fighting chance for long-term success. And, this knowledge shows the uphill challenges that I face.

I share this visual representation of my journey to bring some light to the shadows that some of us face. This light may validate some of your own struggles or build empathy for the struggles of others, especially those you love.

While the specifics of our journeys may be different, the complexities of our shared struggles connect us to each other as we work to transform our personal shadows, no matter where we are in the journey.