Sunday 12 January 2014

Blows the dust off!!

Well not been about for six months, because... well thinks were ticking on nicely. I reached target weight in time for my 40th birthday and I then continued to maintain a healthy weight in a healthy way, so all was good :-)

As Christmas approached I felt confident that I would continue in this way with a few treats thrown in. Through Christmas I kept to my usual healthy breakfast, most meals were on plan and low syn. My downfall was the boxes of chocolates and nibbles around and about the place. At first I was fine but after about five days it all went to pot and I found myself picking food up as I walked past without paying attention. That's the bad bit you see, ever since I started this I have been mindful of what, when and how I eat. Not in an obsessive way just mindful. Eating without paying attention meant I few things - yes I put on a few lb (7 to be exact) but that's not the issue. What I did was pump my body full of more sugar and processed food than it had had in the previous 11 months and that felt awful. My energy dropped, I felt sluggish and generally rubbish and when I realised what I had done the old guilt kicked in.

For a few days I ate more as I figured the best way to get rid of all the unhealthy food in the house was to eat it all really quickly. A stupid mix of not wanting to be around it, but having been brought up to not waste food is an evil combination. But after two days sanity kicked in and I made a real effort to get back to my normal diet. I was horrified as to how hard it was to get back off the sugar roundabout as my energy dropped and I resorted or wanted to resort to a quick high of chocolate or something.

Rather than a cold turkey I have just slowly dropped off chocolate etc and upped fruit. I am now back to five bits of fruit a day. Now I have returned to healthy eating 2lb has gone the rest will follow, but I'm not bothered about the scales (still feels odd typing that!) Yes I weigh myself to keep an eye on things but that's it. Energy is much more important to me and it's getting better but not fully back yet. System still feels a little sluggish but again its getting there. I feel like I poisoned myself! I have many friends who talk about sugar being addictive and just how made it is for you but this is the first time I have physically felt it like this.

Not sure how I will balance it next Christmas but am determined to learn something from this as I really don't want to go through this again.  New Year doesn't mean a new start, just going back to what I did before because it works for me.