- My Food Chronicles
My confessions….
This has been my crux of the problem throughout the entire journey! I would rather do 100 burpees combined with 500 kettle bell swings at once every day than follow a meal plan! I recall the very first time I was put on a meal plan, after weighing my food; I called my coach to double check if he had sent me the right meal plan (sigh). “This man must be crazy to think that these are the portions I shall be eating going forward”- I said to myself after he confirmed. To jog your memory, I was still used to my generous ‘Ugandan’ portions and variety. I struggled and cheated severally until it dawned on me that I was only cheating myself.
The human body is naturally very adaptive, most changes you acclimatize it to, it will most probably survive. Human biological adaptability indicates that our bodies readily respond to changing environmental stresses in a variety of biological and cultural ways and this includes nutritional adaptation.
A month into faithfully following my meal plan, it struck me that the portions had nothing on me. It was my big stomach capacity sucking life out of me all along! I was now used to the portions I was mad at before. I remember pondering why I had been eating that much before, actually all my life! It’s like scales had fallen off my eyes! The human stomach is capable of alterations in size and shape. As you eat, your stomach fills with food/drink. If you continue eating even after the stomach is full, it will stretch – more like a balloon to make room for the additional food. Many times, you even feel the discomfort if your stomach is stretched beyond its normal volume. Although the stomach may typically return to its regular size after digestion, it will expand more easily if you keep on overeating consistently.
Even after learning all this, the struggles were persistent. My guilty pleasures couldn’t let me be! I love cake (carrot and fruit cake to be more specific) and Ugandan pancakes! My close friends and family will tell you that I can’t stay put if there is either of those in the house. I am the kind that will pace, make several trips to the fridge until it’s ALL done! Then there was snacking…. Ever picked several snacks as you tell yourself they are for visitors while in the grocery store?? Only for them not to see the dawn of the next day! And you have no record of any visitor? I was that person….
Despite faithfully showing up and doing my workouts, I was moving one step forward and another in the opposite direction – it was a vicious cycle with my weight loss. By then, I knew the root cause of the stagnation- I was the Judas Iscariot jeopardizing my own progress. I wasn’t eating clean. People lie but numbers don’t. I would reminisce about every little junk I had put in my mouth each time the weighing scale moved in the clockwise direction. The lethargy and guilt of ‘it wasn’t even worth it’ was rather devastating, particularly in moments when my coach screamed “Squat lower”, “Jump higher” as I tussled. I learn’t that even my energy levels during my workouts were directly correlated to the food I had eaten the previous hours/day. Garbage in garbage out- on days I had eaten unclean, I would struggle to workout.
I eventually put on my big girl pants. Being self-aware and having understood my weaknesses and triggers, I strategized and came up with a practical plan to counteract these. I tweaked and aligned my food shopping list to strictly have foods that matched my meal plan. I stopped buying unhealthy snacks under the disguise of being a good host. I cleaned house, let go of every food, snack or ingredient that would give me the slightest thought of eating unclean. I also got into the habit of being more intentional about researching or reading about ingredients of any spice or food labels (including comparing calorie and fat contents) before purchase. Before, I would just buy these based on appeal or emotion; I was that reckless! I took precaution and became more conscious about having prior knowledge on whatever I put in my body. I cook most my meals and try as much to eat home-cooked food. This way, I am in control of and sure of what I eat.
Knowing what I know now, do I faithfully eat clean? Absolutely not! I am a realist-I live a very practical and balanced life. I have a meal plan I follow but once in a while I have cheat meals (not cheat days!) especially ever since I hit my target weight. I have to put a disclaimer here though- what I share here isn’t the rule of thumb! It’s just my personal approach and preference. I implore you to find what works for you as an individual. It’s more of the discipline, lifestyle and mindset change that you ought to focus on. I mindfully screen everything I put in my mouth and subconsciously track my macros throughout the day, sometimes without necessarily using a kitchen scale. I can adapt to any setting in case what I had planned to eat is unavailable including knowing what to substitute it with from the available options. Managing food has become a part of my lifestyle.
As a matter of fact, you can’t out work a bad diet! You eat food to either fuel or silently kill your body.
What are you eating today?
What’s your food guilty pleasure? How do you manage it? Am curious to learn from you….
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