my food Battle - I think i’m done

When it comes to keeping my body healthy the food part has always been my nemesis. Growing up and into my 20s, I was able to rely on being active and playing sport to keep my weight in check. Rep Basketball, netball, triathlons, summer soccer, going to the gym... If I put on weight, my answer was primarily to up my training. Though I didn’t have a terrible diet, I certainly didn’t focus on it.

I fell pregnant the first time at 27. I had just been selected for Counties NPC netball. I was pretty fit through my first pregnancy - competed in a short course triathlon at 28wks - and of course I put on weight, but no drama really.

I fell pregnant quickly after with baby number 2, when my first baby was only 8mths old. My body had not recovered from being pregnant the first time around and the mild pelvic joint pain I had experienced with my first became severe with my second. In fact in my third trimester, I remember having about 30mins on rising before the pain got so bad I would have to use crutches to get around the house. Of course, I now had a sweet little toddler to care for as well. I couldn’t get out and walk or run or move in any of the ways I was used to. The pelvic pain was excruciating. And without being able to exercise, my weight just ballooned.

And so it went on. Babies three and four arrived - everything to plan, just as we wished - except for the fact that my body struggled each time. It was a vicious cycle. I couldn’t get out and move due to pain. And I was overwhelmed with a house full of babies and toddlers and beautiful craziness.

I think it was around 2013 that I convinced a friend to start an 8-wk challenge with me. It included HIIT classes, a food plan and accountability. I paid my $ and set off on a journey to get healthy and make myself a priority. What I liked most about the challenge was the training. It was hard, but this was me. I was back in my happy place - pushing myself physically to get my results. The nutrition part was centered on the philosophy of 5-6 smaller meals per day with low GI carbs, protein, and low fat.

It worked in that I lost weight and I got fit and strong again. I felt great. I still had an afternoon energy slump, which my trainer suggested I combat by adding some whole food carbs into my evening meal. That seemed to help my energy slump. I had to be organised to make this food plan work. I had to make sure I had good snacks with me when I went out. If I left eating for too long, I felt like I needed to chew my arm off.

In time my weight started to creep on again. Managing a growing family with four kids and busy parents meant planning food was important - but I just didn’t have the time or passion to do it, and implement it ALL THE TIME. So I focused on the “train harder” part. I have to say, I think in those four years, I was actually the fittest and strongest I had ever been... but I certainly hadn’t solved the food part of my puzzle.

Roll on 2019. I was heavier than I wanted to be, and through using the knowledge I had, I could bring it down a couple of kilos if I focused on food using what I learned in 2013, but as soon as I stopped focusing, it would creep back up. June 2019 I started studying towards my Health Coach Certificate. The experts who were teaching talked about “insulin resistance” and “metabolic dysregulation” and other big words which all related to the standard food pyramid way of eating. I started learning about the science of nutrition, lifestyle disease and how our love of sugar (carbs) is LITERALLY slowly killing us. I learned about Low Carb Healthy Fat (LCHF) diet how a Ketogenic diet (extreme LCHF) works - and in what situations it is actually therapeutic. (Keto to me before then was something I rolled my eyes at. Seriously, I would think, it’s just a fad and doesn’t work. HOW WRONG WAS I!)

Encouraged by the idea that we are our own experiment, I started eating in a LCHF way - reducing carbs & increasing healthy fats - and playing around with intermittent fasting. Initially it was hard I have to admit. I experienced headaches and fatigue. I know now that this is because I had to teach my insulin resistant body a new way of working. I had to allow my body to become “fat adapted” so that it would burn fat as a primary source of fuel.

But as my body adjusted weird (good weird) things happened. I realised I wasn’t feeling the intense “eat my arm off” hunger anymore in the late arvos. Cravings for sugary food reduced - dramatically. I didn’t need to eat so often and my need for snacks reduced. My energy increased, my mind became clearer and the morning joint stiffness in my back went away.

And my weight started shifting. It felt effortless. Over a period of 6mths, 8kg slowly and surely came off. And me, the non-foodie, the one who has always struggled to be bothered with food prep and planning, preferring to depend on exercise, has finally found a way of eating, that is backed by the science, that allows me to be free of the constant battle with my body.

It’s liberating.

What about my story sounds familiar to yours?

Is it time to be done with your food battle? …