Saturday, August 19, 2017

August 19th, 2017 My Best Teacher

August 19th, 2017 My Best Teacher

Today: I maintained the integrity of my maintenance calorie budget, I remained refined sugar-free, I exceeded my daily water goal, and I stayed well connected with great support.

I made the decision to reintroduce natural peanut butter back into my food plan. I feel like I might have over-reacted when I made the initial decision. I shared my intent with a couple of good support contacts. It's a good source of calories for my plan and I'm confident it's a good thing to put it back into the "my food" category.

Being up so incredibly late last night tilted my day today. I'll be doing my best to correct with tonight's rest and an earlier start tomorrow.

I enjoyed a late (or 2nd meal-since it was really beyond any definition of "lunch time" for me!) lunch with my oldest daughter. We stopped and visited with mom afterward. It was a good evening!

Carrie posted a question on Facebook:
"Hi Sean, sometimes I have questions for you and I'm never really sure where to ask so I'm going to ask you here. Last night I was flipping through your book and got to wondering, you wrote your book some years ago and if you were to do it again, how much of your food/diet advice would you change or would you keep it the same as what you originally wrote? It seems like the way and what you eat now is different than when you first wrote your book. Thanks"

Carrie, my food plan has certainly evolved. Even still, I stand behind the approach I took because it was the path I needed to get started- getting honest, setting boundaries, embracing accountability, and allowing a natural evolution of my personal food plan, were all solid elements of my initial weight loss chronicled in that book.

The mental/emotional dynamics- embracing the truths of my behaviors with food, all of these things and how they were described in the book, are still valid. The thing is, for some, the "all things in moderation" approach works. For me, as I learned, it wasn't going to work long-term.

It did work for me during my initial weight loss because I propped it up with an incredibly high accountability/support plan- and the daily writing- and when I started letting go of those "pillars" holding up my daily plan, that's when the truth and depth of my food addiction were revealed.

Suddenly, (well, not exactly "suddenly,") after a 164 pound regain, it was clear that "all things in moderation" wasn't a long term sustainable plan for me.

I wanted it to be. 

It took that relapse/regain period to convince me to let go of the stubbornness and embrace my personal truth. I wouldn't be here today without that relapse/regain experience. It was my best teacher. And I wouldn't have reached that point in the first place without the foundation of the initial approach- it just took me awhile to accept and embrace the fact that the "foundation" of the initial approach, for me, was extremely vulnerable in key areas.

There's a 2nd book in me and it's waiting patiently for me to write.

But one thing is certain, I've learned that this deal is a daily practice- it's a constantly evolving practice, too. It's an approach that isn't about dieting, it's about living in harmony and working a personal style of eating that better fits my personal truths with food.

It just takes awhile to learn and most importantly, embrace, certain truths.

Once surrendered, accepted, and embraced- it's a whole new world.

And the learning- never stops. I don't know it all. I'm a student of the process.

In conclusion- the initial approach as described in my book- yes, I stand behind the fundamentals of it and what it allowed me and others to do- because it simplified the approach and made it possible for consistency to develop, and that consistency allowed for progress, and most importantly, growth. 

Thank you for your question!

Today's Accountability Tweets:


























Thank you for reading and your continued support,
Strength,
Sean
at

1 comment:

  1. KarenAugust 20, 2017 at 8:17 PM

    Your body/brain will tell you if peanut butter is a binge trigger or not. I thought I could re-introduce nuts- macadamias and I had 1/8 of a serving- 3.5 grams and blammo. Binge urges for 2-3 weeks.

    Ugh! Here's to your own self experimentation. Onward with your eyes wide open.

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