I have a confession

So ... I kinda cheated today and weighed myself.  Okay, fine!  There's no kinda about it at all -- I did cheat and weigh myself when I had previously decided that I would not weigh again for a whole month.

But I can explain!

You see, in the past I have used Intuitive Eating principles to help me control the effects of my ED. Eating intuitively is about checking in with your body and listening to hunger cues, giving your body the respect it deserves, and being ok with food -- all food.  From the website:

Intuitive eating is an approach that teaches you how to create a healthy relationship with your food, mind, and body--where you ultimately become the expert of your own body.   You learn how to distinguish between physical and emotional feelings, and gain a sense of body wisdom.   It's also a process of making peace with food---so that you no longer have constant "food worry" thoughts.  It's knowing that your health and your worth as a person do not change, because you ate a food that you had labeled as "bad" or "fattening”.  

This is a popular therapeutic method to help people with EDs overcome their disorder.  And while it doesn't focus on weight loss per se, the fact of the matter is that once you make peace with food and yourself, your body will settle into the weight that it is supposed to be.  I have had success with eating intuitively in the past and what has sent me back into disordered eating patterns is becoming too focused on weight loss and being a certain size.

I had been using Weight Watchers Points Plus system since January and it has worked well-- I can't deny this fact.  But I think part of the reason for that is because WW does not deem any food bad.  You can have what you want, just in moderation.  So while it seems like less of a diet to me, the structure is something I did need to get myself in gear.   When I said in the previous post that I wanted to stop weighing in every week, what I didn't say is that I was going to switch from the Points Plus plan to Weight Watchers' Simply Filling plan.  The Simply Filling plan is different in that you do not track daily Points Plus values, but eat freely from the Power Foods list (.pdf warning) plus a few more items, but only enough so that you feel satisfied, hence the name Simply Filling.  If you want to indulge and eat something that is not on the Power Foods list, then you subtract the Points Plus value of that food from your weekly allotment of 49 Points Plus and any activity points that you have earned through exercise.

I did.  I combined what I knew about Intuitive Eating with what I am learning from Weight Watchers' Simply Filling plan. And you know what?  I lost weight.  I weighed this morning and I am down an additional 8.2 lbs. since I said I was going to stop weighing (Feb 21st)  bringing my total to 58.2!

So yes, no matter how you work it ... Weight Watchers works!  I think I am going to stick with the Simply Filling plan because there is no demand to meet your set weight and age-based Points Plus values (which WW encourages you to meet if you're tracking Points Plus) and it allows me to let my body be in the driver seat.

To be able to eat only when I am hungry is so very empowering for me.  To entrust my body to take care of me and to let it get to the weight that it wants to be is the highest form of self love.