Phase II, Day 18: Goal #4 Achieved

I made it to 209.5 lbs this morning. That’s 17 lbs lost total. Rockin’.

Anyway, Hubbo and I went on our weekly “date” last night and ate at Chili’s. I was really good! I found this really helpful nutritional info chart on their website (first link takes you to a .pdf of the file) and I decided what I would have before I went. For those who are curious – or just living vicariously through my diet meals – I had the Guiltless Black Bean Burger on a Whole Wheat Bun. It comes with a side of steamed veggies, and I also ordered a salad with Chipotle Ranch Dressing (it’s actually lower in calories than some of their vinaigrettes!) I also allowed myself a Diet Coke. The whole thing was fairly delicious, I must say, but the best part was that we both ate for $21 not including tip.

Now, some of you are out there thinking, “Wow, she eats a lot for being on a diet.” And yes, my dinner last night did turn out to be somewhere around 750 calories. But I think it’s important that I share something with you – especially those of you who read this blog because you’re considering going on the South Beach Diet yourselves.

After this crazy rant of a post wherein I discovered I might actually have been inadvertently starving myself, I started upping my calorie intake. Now, I don’t know about everybody else’s bodies, but 1200 calories a day just did not do it for mine. I stopped losing for a good week.

The thing is, I didn’t really feel that hungry. I was still eating throughout the day; it’s just that all the things I was eating were so low-calorie that it didn’t add up to much. Using my-calorie-counter to compare my calorie-intake with my weight loss, I’ve discovered that my body actually needs me to eat between 1450 and 1700 calories a day in order to lose weight. On days when I don’t hit 1400, I gain. Now, I’m not a doctor, so don’t take this as any medical advice or anything; I’m just telling you what’s worked for me.

As a result, though, I have to be very careful to monitor what I eat and what I don’t throughout the day. When we decided to go to Chili’s last night, for example, I decided what I wanted and tallied it in. At that point, I realized that just ordering the Black Bean Burger, if I got it on whole wheat, would not do it for me, and I found a salad and some salad dressing to add as well.

I don’t want to sound preachy with this at all, because I’m obviously a compulsive eater who is struggling with her weight as much as anybody out there. But I’m going to say the terrible thing that all of us compulsive eaters hate to hear, and I’m going to say it because it’s true: be conscious of what you’re eating and what your body needs you to eat. If you pay attention to what you put in your mouth and listen to your body’s responses, you will succeed.

I’m not trying to get all intuitive eating on anybody, and in fact, here is a fabulous post I found the other day that voices my true (negative) opinion of that idea. But if you track what you eat and watch what the scale does after you eat it, you are sure to notice some trends and be able to place limitations on yourself that are proper for you.

And to end with something completely cliché, please remember: every body is different!