My Body, a Science Experiment

Part of calming the emotional charge around food has changed my focus about my weight and body to more of a scientific approach. I am confident about my ability to change the numbers on the scale, if I want to, more than ever. The scale provides data. Not judgement. Not self worth. Not failure. Just a number.

I always tell people that when you weigh yourself, and you weigh more than yesterday, you ate too much, and if you weigh less than yesterday, you ate less. Adjust it accordingly. I know easier said than done, especially when you have so much emotion driving hunger, or what you perceive as hunger. So how do you calm the emotional charge?

I don't know the answer for everyone, but I do suspect that everyone that finds themselves out of control with food has anxiety at that moment. For me my "all or nothing" attitude takes over and in my mind I've already lost control, so I keep going with the attitude that if I can't be perfect (on my diet) then I'm going to completely blow it. That type of thinking feeds (no pun intended) the anxiety, not calms it.

So, for me, calming the anxiety is key to being able to make reasonable, rational desicions about food. Some of the mind games I use are questions I ask myself like;

"Is it going to kill you not to have that piece of candy (or cookie or whatever)?"
"Are you going to die while waiting 15 minutes to make a salad?"
"Do you really need to eat 5 prunes or do you just need something in your mouth and 1 will do?"
"What if you were having surgery at 2:00pm and you couldn't eat?"
"You could probably live off your fat for a couple of days!"
"What if chocolate was never invented?"
"Is this (food) going to make your life better? I mean really, will your life be better? And you do want to make your life better, don't you?"

There is probably not one day that goes by when I don't ask myself one of these questions, or something similar. And everytime I put things in perspective this way, it gets easier to keep things in perspective.

So now I'm calm, and I see a number on the scale I don't like, now what? Since the number is just data, I have to compare it to the other data in my training/food journal. What were my workouts the previous day and what time of day did I workout? What did I eat that was different and when (again what time of day)? How much did I eat (volume as well as calories, a pound of salad does weigh a pound!)? Was I "regular" that day or the day before (yes, did I poop? LOL)? Etc.. The answers to these types of questions is the data you need to make different desicions or choices, if you want.

I know it's not easy, it's taken me 2 years to get to this point. But being able to see this type of progress, scientifically, adds to my calm. I never thought that my body would turn into a science experiment!