Clarity of Process

Excellent read Mindful Eaters from my Eating Coach! Hugs and Happy Day!

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Clarity of Process Posted: 05 Oct 2011 03:10 AM PDT Clarity is a great thing.  It's so much easier to attack a problem if you know what you're trying to accomplish.  If your path is clear, it doesn't seem to take as much work to stay on the path.  If your path is clear, it's easier to see landmarks that allow you to mark your progress. I was just talking to some workmates about creating a clear path for our new fitness center members -- it's challenging enough to get yourself here -- the road from work to the FC is loaded with opportunities to turn the car toward home and never even get here.  If you can get yourself here, wouldn't it be great if you had a clarity about what you should be doing once you're through the doors?  That is one reason why lots of people think dieting is the way to lose weight.  You buy a book, a program, rent a video, join a group and viola!  Instant clarity.  You are going to be told what to do, what to eat, and what you should avoid.  And it works just well enough to keep you coming back. But then what happens?  You fall out of love with the "clarity in a box".  You want more choices than someone else's version of clarity allows.  You want to walk your own path. There are some positive things people learn from dieting.  Think about the last diet you were on.  Which part of it did you find easy to follow?  Take that and use it as part of your new found clarity.  Add bits and pieces you find almost-hardly-not-at-all-painful.  Create your newer, clearer vision for yourself. Clarity -- it's a wonderful thing but it takes work.  I can clean my windows in the spring -- but by this time of year, I dread accidentally ending up in the living room as the evening sun streaks through (or tries to anyway....they're really, really dirty!) Your clarity about your eating is the same way.  You create a clear vision -- but if you don't actively work on keeping your clarity, smudges happen.  Usually, most of them aren't very big but given enough time and they will add up to obscure your vision.  That's when you notice that you can't see anything. (that's also the time some of us avoid looking so we don't have to come face to face with just how obscured our vision has become). I can't promise you very many things -- but I think I can safely say -- just like I am always glad when I tackle the dirty windows and can walk through the living room and enjoy the view, I bet if you tackle your vision for your eating behaviours, you will be glad with your renewed clarity, too.

Great article. It is so nice after 25 years of 'dieting', I now know that with this surgery I have clarity in a  lifestyle to follow. I eat whatever I want, whenever I want, and make my choices clearly. It is an awesome feeling.

This morning I went to a friends house for breakfast. Knowing that I"ve done the low-fat, low-carb, Grapefruit...you get the idea...diets, she no longer has to ask "If I make XXX can you eat it?" This surgery has been such freedom, both physically and emotionally, that I literally feel like the weight of the world is off my shoulders.

Yep, clarity helps with what we need to do. We KNOW we should eat protein first but sometimes old habits kick in. Some people have an easy time with food choices and others don't .
Some are very rigid on never eating white carbs or sweets, others not.
The nice thing is we know our bodies best. We are all different.
At times I fight with my food demons. Sometimes food calls to me. I always reach for food to comfort me...and I know that's the wrong thing to do.
It's a good thing I exercise!

Oh yeah...food demons and emotional eating.  Two things I could live without, but now the 'voices in my stomach don't speak to the voices in my head, which USED TO BE in constant communication with the sarah lee cheesecake in the freezer'....know what I mean?? 

I really try to ask myself...."is it real hunger, head hunger or just a mouth that's lonely?"  The "lonely mouth" hunger is the worst problem for me.  If that's it I make sure I hit the eliptical before I eat anything.  Sort of a pennance before sin thing.  But it sure gets better and better every month. 

You have a good attitude gonersmom!
I usually go for a long walk when food is calling my name.
The emotional eating is still there but most of the time I have a handle on it.
I know that no amount of food will fill the emptiness that awakes my pouch when I am lonely.
When food sometimes is our best friend we have to kick that best friend to the curb and do something else right away!