It is 5 am and I have been awake since 2 am obsessing about my calories, my macros, my carbs, my fats, my proteins, the fact that I am gaining. I just can't stop thinking and obsessing. This can't be healthy!

Three years ago when I lost 60 pounds in 6 months the only thing I did was count carbs and the only goal I had was to stay under 50 carbs a day. I didn't count anything else. Nothing. I was never this obsessed except when it came time to weight myself once a week. But that is because my goal was to get thinner and I always wanted to see a loss of 10 pounds per week. But I never got depressed when it turned out to be 1 pound. My attitude was "oh well, better luck next week!"

Now, I am trying to follow all the ketogenic macros, all the different diet plans, fasting, not fasting, and it is making me absolutely nuts! I am reading, analyzing, changing things up and just completely obsessing. I am feeling so stressed out right now that I am almost in tears. Again, this can't be healthy!

So here is the changes I am making going forward. Not so much to lose weight, but more to do with keeping my sanity so I don't lose it with my six kids, whom deserve more than a mom that is stressed out about her weight now more than she was when she was a carb addict and way heavier.

1. NO MORE WEIGHING MYSELF EVERYDAY. And to do this, I am going to have Amy hide the scale when she wakes up and only give it back to me on Monday mornings for a weekly weigh in. Then she will hide it again until the next Monday. Amy is my wonderful teenage daughter that has enough attitude to leave the scale in her locker at school. Man, I love that kid!
2. I WILL ONLY BE COUNTING CARBS. I have changed the settings on the diet program I use so that it only shows me carbs. No calories, no fibre, no fat, no protein. Just like I did three years ago.
3. I will continue to eat when I am hungry and stop when I fell satisfied. If that means I eat 6 times a day or only once a day, then so be it. Each day will be different and I know that, but I am forgetting that with all this tracking macros and calories, etc.
4. I will only be writing in my journal once a week, or when something happens like I eat something to makes me bloated, etc. just so that I have a record.
5. I am going to put away all the books and stop reading the different diet websites and then obsess that I am not doing something correctly. I am going to read a mystery or a drama or even a trashy romance novel with a pirate on the cover! Anything that is not related to food.

Since I am not tracking and obsessing about the rest of this shit, I am going to enjoy the health aspect, the more energy, the less pain I have carrying around all that weight, and the fact that I am not hungry and thinking about my next meal like other diets I have tried in the past.

SO HERE IS TO MY MENTAL HEALTH ALONG WITH MY PHYSICAL HEALTH

I this post! Great decision Leslie,
Anyone with six kids has her fill of stress and doesn't need any more.
Enjoy that bodice-ripper

Good for you.

"Paralysis by analysis." It really is simple: eat meat, fat, eggs and veggies. Eat when you're hungry, don't if you're not. That's when it becomes the lifestyle. Letting a spreadsheet tell you what and how to eat... that's dieting.

It only needs to become complicated if you're in a long stall or you have a medical condition that makes weight loss difficult.

A moment of true Enlightenment. Perhaps this should be a Sticky.

Or Netflix movies with cute dogs and happy endings.

Best wishes.

Thanks ladies! After getting the kids off to school, I had a nap. Am feeling much more at peace with everything.

Ummmm...couldn't find a pirate on the cover but did find a lusty scot! Even better!

Once again, thanks for letting me vent

Good for you! I avoid daily tracking of all I eat as in the past I've got like that too. I plug in what I've eaten occasionally and check the weightcarbs of things sporadically. I'm rarely more than 20% out on my guesses of weights and carbs. I try to stay below 20g, Sometimes it's 12g, but even if I'm wrong on a 'carby day' it's unlikely to be above 25-30g. I love to document, chart, analyse, but the draw of numbers can be a bit too powerful sometimes!

Congrats on the lusty Scot also

Kristine, you are so right in the fact that I made it complicated. When I started all this obsessing I was still losing, just not as fast as I wanted. Then I started to fidget with everything and have gained and lost the same 2 pounds for the past month! Making the obsessing even worse.

And I love the "paralysis by analysis". I think I might cross stitch that on a pillow.

Girl, you are living my novel! Lucky you!!!!

I so feel you Jakz!!! Last year I let that obsessive compulsive behaviour send me into a year long tailspin. (Details in my journal if you're interested). Now I'm back and DETERMINED to make this about feeling good for life. I will not get overwhelmed with tracking and weighing and slow losses. I made my husband hide my scale this morning 😜
You've got this!!!!!!

This is an absolutely excellent post! Very sane plan!!!

SO SMART!! Go you, Leslie!

When I first decided to up my fats, I started looking for fat bombs recipes, and found a good one on reddit. I was cross-eyed, though, at all the work that woman went through to do exactly what I was doing: eating low carb, high fat, and enjoying her food.

Some people don't have an off switch for their appetites, and I feel for them. But for most of us, eating, as you say, when hungry, and stopping when full, will be enough.

SUCH a good post!

Good for you. You do you. It's easy to get too caught up in all this stuff when the truth is, it has to be sustainable and livable. Obsessing isn't mentally or emotionally sustainable. Congrats on your self-awareness in figuring that out!

Just an update my far away friends, I did just as I planned last week, hid the scales, kept my carbs under 20 grams, etc. and went from 243.0 to 239.6 (and Aunt Flo came for a visit as well).

I had a nice relaxing week, read the lust Scot romance and started murder mystery. The only stress was the normal prospects of raising 6 kids! Nothing self inflicted like tormenting myself about what I ate.

Thanks for all the support and great advice.

Leslie - Letting go of the obsessions about eating and weight is such a good idea. My weight loss journey has lasted longer than most, at least a decade. At one point I decided to get rid of my scale and to stop tracking all my food. I knew how to eat without the tracking although I practiced portion control to keep the carbs low. Over the next 2 years I lost 30 more pounds (i had already lost 75 pounds) and only found it out when I went to my doctor's for a physical. It had been 2 years since the last one. I restarted tracking daily and weighing occasionally over the past year or so but I no longer obsess, or at least I don't obsess as much as I used to. Other people need those daily reminders but I do much better when I work to keep the stress levels low and that at least means not obsessing about the scale. As it turned out I did better over 2 years without it than I had done the previous 2 years.

Jean

GREAT WORK!!!!! 3.5 lbs in one week is my idea of awesome!!!! My mother tells me all the time "when you stress and obsess, your body hangs onto it longer". I used to always roll my eyes at her. She's naturally thin (well, she's curvy, but definitely naturally on the thin side). But...she's SO RIGHT. I'm one week in to my return to low carb, and I am not weighing until day 14 (in hopes I could just focus on getting great LC food into me first), but I can already feel a difference in my jeans. I'm really just trying to focus on choosing the right food every time and keeping my carbs under 25. That's it. No stressing over anything else. I'm hoping that simplifying it all will be the key to this for me. Sound like its the right plan for you!!!!!!