My Stages of Dieting

1. Regular Dieting 

Winter/Spring of college freshman year 2013

2. Eat Clean 

Summer and Fall 2013

3. IIFYM 

Winter, Spring, and Summer 2014

4. Strict Paleo 

Summer and fall of 2014  

5. All Real Foods and Quit Sugar 

Fall 2014 through December 2014

6. ME (Mindfulness)

December 2014 through now

For me, dieting came in stages. Some of these lasted months, while some lasted less. It was all on my path to figuring out what worked and what didn't work for my body.

Remember: change is possible and the path to a healthy lifestyle is not always consistent. 

The way I was eating definitely affected me emotionally, physically, and mentally. Everyone needs to follow what works for them, but maybe this can help guide you to make the journey a little easier. 

Phase 1 - Regular Dieting:

My guess is that most people start here. They look to magazines for quick fixes and drastically try to cut calories. This what people refer to when they say dieting doesn't work. It leads to most people giving up.

For those that don't search further for the answers, their journey stops here.

I knew I didn't know enough about what I was doing with diet or exercise. I started looking more into eating healthy to lose weight. The most popular thing I saw were all of these beautiful girls "eating clean" and staying fit at the same time. They were lean and skinny. To me they looked confident, always had bright colored delicious looking food, and could where whatever they wanted. In this moment I wanted just that, I wanted to be confident in my body. After realizing I needed to do more, I finally gave my diet a label, I was "eating clean".

Phase 2 - Eat Clean: 

Eating clean meant I could deem the ingredients of my food "healthy". But in all actuality, my diet was still all over the place and I still spent a lot of time doing cardio (like almost an hour every day just on the elliptical). But how is that practical, maintainable, or fun?

Not knowing how to workout was hurting my progress so I started being more interested in the gym and lifting wights. I stopped doing the youtube body weight workouts for abs and targeted muscles (because clearly that just doesn't do it on its own).

I wanted things to work faster and I wanted to lose the weight now - so I determined for myself that I needed to record everything I ate in order to keep my calories in check.

I wanted to be the "fit is is the new skinny" kind of girl that was posted everywhere.

Phase 3 - IIFYM:

"If It Fits Your Macros" (IIFYM) is another form of dieting very popular amongst the weight lifting world. You basically can eat anything as long as it fit into your set amount of calories. The amount is based on your height, weight, age, and activity level. I didn't take IIFYM as a way to eat crap and lose weight or build muscle like most people who take fitness seriously, but some still do use it as an excuse to eat garbage.

On this system, basically the more you work out, the more you can eat because you have to support your workouts. You can also adjust your calories based on your goal of maintaining, losing, or gaining weight.

I started working out harder and kept myself on a workout schedule. I was able to maintain it for a while, and it actually worked pretty well. I lost weight and I felt and looked good.

.... until one day I couldn't do it anymore. I completely lost my motivation. The whole system was a job and I didn't feel like a real person. I was jealous of people who could just eat normally and not worry about the statistics of their food.

I was so sick of recording everything I ate. Even though I chose to eat healthy foods and worked out, I was becoming obsessed. I was afraid of eating this or eating that, and every time I would eat something unhealthy I couldn't stop until I ate the whole entire thing. I would eat massive amounts of sweets in one sitting because I never allowed myself to eat what I wanted. When I was hungry I wouldn't listen to my body, I only listened to the numbers. (and who even knows how close to accurate they are?!)

I changed from being so happy about my weight loss, to being SO ridiculously miserable.

Phase 4 - Strict Paleo:

After realizing I couldn't count calories anymore, I decided to move onto something else. I had been resistant to all the hype about the paleo diet. I didn't want to go to the extreme of removing grains, legumes, or dairy.  I mean it seemed to me that so many people were eating "healthy foods" and were staying slim. So why should I take them out of my diet? (ah! no more quinoa, hummus, or yogurt!)

But, I eventually tried the paleo lifestyle because I wanted something that could keep my in check without me having to count calories. (counting is strongly discouraged on the paleo diet, as the point is to listen to your body)

So I cut out dairy, grains, legumes, and all processed foods. I ate more meat and I was actually starting to feel a lot better. 

Last summer I really wanted to keep Paleo going, but I kept reverting to my calorie counting ways. This way probably the hardest part of my entire journey. I had to break my bad habits that made me obsess about my body and weight loss. 

Because I was trying to diet at the same time as going Paleo, I was going very low carb and not eating enough of the right foods to keep me sane. I even cut way back on fruit (crazy I know!) I was overthinking everything.

At this time I also wanted to make sure I was eating protein before and after workouts, adding another way to consciously think and plan my eating habits. I always was worried I was eating too much and often went to bed hungry.

The biggest problem was I easily binged on sugar and would often yo yo through a phase of eating all of the sweets in the house to eating very strictly paleo.

I began getting disgusted with myself after these sugar binges, so I made a promise to myself over that i would quit sugar over and over until I finally had it slightly under control.

Me now! February 2015

Phase 5 - Real Food and Quitting Sugar: 

For perhaps one of the longest times I went through a phase of just eating real food. I continued to eat mostly paleo, but added in some grains. I also really focused on controlling my sugar binges and stopping the counting of calories in my head. At first I had my dark chocolate as my savior, but then moved onto not even needing it!

I still struggled at this point and binged on sugar a lot. But it got easier.

I remember being so proud of myself for not having the dessert at a family party. I was so full from dinner, but normally the sugar craving would stomp all over the full feeling and I would eat dessert anyways. But now I actually started to feel in control and I could keep my distance from the sweet stuff.

Don't get me wrong I still find myself wanting to eat all the sugar sometimes, but if I give in, I find it much easier to reset myself. The affect of sugar is really crazy!

Summer 2015

Phase 6 - Me (Mindfulness):

Freedom!!!!!!! What I basically do now is phase 5, but it happens without me trying. 

Now I plan out my food because I enjoy it and I love cooking for myself, not because I'm afraid I won't know how much I've eaten in a day.

Fun fact! THIS AMAZED ME: I had entire box of valentine's chocolates in the fridge and they honestly didn't even tempt me.

I work at bakery people. If I can do it, you can too!

I no longer punish myself for my food choices and I am on a much mentally healthier path of maintaining my weight. I've reached the point that my body wants to be at, and I'm not trying to lose anymore.

I finally feel beautiful and confident in myself and I cannot tell you enough how amazing it feels to be in control. 

The Main Point: 

If you are struggling and you feel like you can't stay consistent with your plan to eat healthier or lose weight, just know you're normal. You can do it and you're not alone. 

We all go through stages, its just finally finding the right phase of your journey that sets you free. I'm here to help and I will be posting more resources on what worked for me and what I learned, so that it hopefully helps you. 

I'm going to help you help yourself. 

We've got this. 

- Bee 

****** I am not certified in any health-related field. I am not giving medical advice, I am only sharing what worked for me!***********