She is a bit resistant to making an effort to become educated about nutrition and different approaches to weight loss. She just wants to know what is "good' and "bad" and gets mad when I won't labels things that way. Ally is like me, she is carb carb sensitive and more of an emotional eater. Unlike me, she has a limited palate. (Or perhaps she still needs to grow into it.) With her limited likes and stubborn nature, it is hard to direct her easily to a good weight loss plan.
We went through the grocery store aisle by aisle talking about options and choosing foods to buy and how to fit them into her schedule and not look weird at school and if she should try to count calories or cut out fat or carbs or what to do.
And she said to me "But eating this is not going to make me full, I am going to be hungry. So I am just going to have to be hungry all the time?" That made me think of those actresses who talk about being hungry all the time to stay thin. It made me feel so sad and helpless because, yes, we can alter our appetites. Our stomachs can "shrink" and we will feel full with less. I know that there is a difference between mouth hunger and stomach hunger. Between wanting to eat and needing to eat.
But really? During most of this year that I have been losing weight, I have been hungry. I have done things to distract myself because I don't think I should be hungry. I ignore the feeling. I try to embrace the feeling . But I am hungry.
So how do I tell my child she has to feel hungry to get healthy?
6 comments:
I have no advice for you. I am just very glad that I have only boys and that they are seemingly unaffected by all my yo-yo dieting years. Sigh.
I don't think my dieting has really had an effect on my kids. I have discussed this with my oldest daughter, in fact. She says ours was a very healthy household compared to her friends and that she got a pretty good sense of body image. I really made an effort not to attach too much good/bad importance to food. Not to make it too much of a reward and to offer up healthy things as snacks and well rounded meals.
I just think Ally is more like me genetically, and that makes it more of a struggle.
Oh goodness, that's a dilemma.
Part of my 'process' was learning to distinguish being hungry from feeling 'not full.' For me, they're two distinct sensations, and I suspect I still don't always get it right. But I do know I'm rarely hungry when it's not meal time. (Excluding, of course, that one "special" week each month.)
I am not hungry doing Weight Watcher's. I've also been losing weight while doing minimal exercise.
I think one reason is that I am eating an enormous amount of veggies. I roast two 9 x 13 pans of veggies a week and keep them in the fridge and add them to almost everything. I would say I'm eating a minimum of 8 servings a day. According to WW doctrine these foods are so much harder to digest that digesting them increases your metabolism.
I have found the more I exercise, the more calories I can consume and still lose weight. By having a personal trainer to change up my circuit, I have been staying motivated. Without her, I would have quit a long time ago. Her best advice to me has been to always be changing up my exercise. I have lost more inches that way. Hungry, no haven't been hungry, but I haven't lost the numbers like you have. But I have shaved off 13" and that does feel good. Good job with your progress... Best of luck for keep going.
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