As mentioned in the last post, I’m working on a completely rewritten version of Diet Recovery. We haven’t?finalized a book cover yet. We’ve only done?a few mockups. But Rob and I were thinking that it might be fun for you guys to submit some cover images in an informal contest. One image that we’ve been looking at doing some mockups with is an image of a smashed bathroom scale – or scale in the act of being smashed. I know many of you have bathroom scales that have done you wrong, but are still sitting in your house somewhere unpunished. This might be a fun way for you to commemorate some of the 180D-inspired?breakthroughs you’ve experienced, and your fiet-ducking success.
If you are feeling?an overwhelming bout of Michael Bolton rage (the Office Space Michael Bolton, not’the singer Michael Bolton… video below), or have some other genius idea that you think would be a great fit as a?cover image for Diet Recovery, by all means, go for it. We’ll accept submissions?all week up until Sunday the 27th.
Keep in mind it has to be a cover of a book with the title written over the image somewhere.?So don’t make it too dark, or too devoid of empty space, or blurry, or busy, or what have you. Anything you want people to recognize should be pretty big as well, as most people’that see this image will see it standing a massive 2 inches tall on Amazon. One example of a 
bathroom scale making it into the cover image is one of my top 10 favorites – Health at Every Size by Linda Bacon. ??
Anyway, you should probably smash your bathroom scale anyway. Gaining 5 pounds of solid muscle and standing on the thing might catapult you into restriction relapse. It tells you’very little about how you look or what direction your health is headed in. ?But this is a way to do it in a more fun, creative, and memorable way. Plus you can make big bucks too. If your book cover is chosen we will pay you?$4.2 million * the number of units sold/ 100. Once we get that we’subtract 4% for taxes and transaction fees and then?multiply it all by ZERO.?
Yes, we can’t really justify payment for this image in any way with the wealth of?royalty-free images all over the internet. It will have to be more about prestige. Anyway, submit any cover candidates you have or produce’this week to Rob – rob@180degreehealth.com? If there are lots of good ones, we’ll publish them on the site and have some laughs. Maybe even let the readers decide which one is the best! ??
Inspiration…
I say this in jest, but a nice photo of a big ol’ stack of pancakes smothered in maple syrup with a few large pats of butter on top + an ice cream sundae in the background smothered in chocolate syrup.
Hahahaha…
that’s diet recovery for ya!
I’m open to all different ideas. That’s just one we were brainstorming about today. We’ll change our mind 48 more times before we finalize a cover image. Then decide we suck too bad at graphic design and just pay someone else to do it.
That’s okay. We’ll have a lot of fun in the process! Kinda makes me wish I had a scale just to smash it all to hell!
How about a scale with stake through its heart!
My scale is awaiting its trip in the Salvation Army truck, and I’ll never buy another one, not because they don’t do a “good enough” job (mine does), but because I’ll never need it again. I’m down to size 6 jeans from size (snug) 16 only about 30 months ago, have lost 50# of fat, still weight quite a lot but that’s muscle that I can feel beneath my skin. Not much exercise, either; I read some time ago that losing weight is possible without exercise, and I’ve found that when I eat enough fat, that is true, exercise or not. We did get a puppy though, now 2 y/o, and I do my share of walking him, or rather running after him holding the leash…and that’s tribute enough to the 100% change in my health status, thanks to protein and fat. DO IT FOR YOURSELVES, FOLKS!!
I’ll continue restricting carbs and maybe eventually my half-grapefruit-size-belly will be flat, but nevertheless, lookin mighty good right now!
Srogers – are you doing any of the things Matt suggested, or some other plan, for this impressive decrease in size? I need inspiration!
Are you sure you’re in the right place? :) You might want to have a look around 180 and read a little about what Matt thinks of carb restriction.
Reminds me of Sweet Mystery Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy 2.
http://www.mariowiki.com/Sweet_Mystery_Galaxy
Maybe Bruce Lee aka my hubby should take a go at it? What say you Mattie Cakes?
xo
haggie
Do it!
That said, I am not gonna smash my bathroom scale. Why? Because the numbers keep getting higher, and that’s a good thing! : )
I f**king hate my bathroom scales….. They have so much power over me and can decide my moods for me (which is usually a bad one). They need to be nuked…..
Aye, then you should nuke it!
How about someone laying in bed with bowls of foods all around them on the bed and a salt shaker in each hand?
I’d rather drown mine with the leftover bottled water I used to chug.
Spoken just like…Chief! :)
this image does not belong to me, but i think it fits:
http://i.imgur.com/DOTfGzr.jpg
it’s actually a lithograph from an unknown artist for sale at http://www.rubylane.com/item/574925-PP-1121/Chromolithograph-Young-Girl-Dog-Begging
That one’s kinda fun- old timey. Might try a mock up. Thanks
no problem. glad ya liked. there’s also the anna rexia halloween costume:
http://i.imgur.com/A3VV4XP.png
How about a picture of a dog in the act of defecating on a scale? All huddled up. Doesn’t actually need to include excrement. Just the dog on top of the scale. Or he could be peeing on it. Either one would be awesome.
I like the old one! you should do the same thing only with an attractive man instead! the scale thing is over done.
Whatever you choose Matt, I am sure it will tell the whole story without any need for words. Awhile back, my dad was bemoaning some weight gain and I told him to beware of bathroom scales, they can warp your sense of reality. We had a good laugh over that and he hasn’t taken them as seriously since.
Good idea!
Sorry for asking this here, but would you recommend following what Tim Ferriss states in his 4-Hour Body book? Or at least, do you think it might be dangerous or beneificial? Thank you!
I think you can do better than 4HB.
Hey Matt,
I was wondering if you can eleborate on that answer: “I think you can do better than 4HB.” In some ways your HED diet resembles some of the 4HB Diet and in a post from a couple of years ago you made comment that you had respect for Tim Ferriss’s work. The 4HB diet does allow for beans/lentils (which are starches) in large quantities along with animal protein (he allows for a broad range of that quantity) and he recommends fats like grass-fed butter, ghee and mac nut oil. Is there something about his diet that concerns you?
I don’t think there’s any need to eat beans and lentils all day every day. Or to eat the same diet all week and then binge. Or to avoid other carbohydrates like sugars, etc. There’s just no need either to eat such a regimented diet. I wouldn’t recommend any diet that isn’t sustainable. There are plenty of diets that “work” but none of them are very practical and sustainble or long-lasting in any way. Including the general dietary prescription of 4HB
Thank you Matt so much for replying and clarifying. I apologize, I should have looked at that diet from a “Restriction” point of view, but now I know better.
we didnt have a scale until I was like 18 years old. I never had the desire to weigh myself because I was always slender, even when I ate “crap”. I mean I sometimes even made cake dough, scooped it out, and crazy stuff like that… Even eating fries in the morning. Ofcourse, I was a teenager. But I stopped growing at 16 like my dad (already 1m76 so quite tall for a girl). But the highest my weight went was 64.5 kg. I started the 80/10/10 fruit diet when I was around 22, because they said it was healthy and not because I was sick (I wasnt, never been a sick person). BUT, the diet made me sick and I got many weird things, even a bacterial infection that neede antibiotics :S. My weight dropped to 57kg, which is really low, my heart rate went to 47 beats per minute and I almost always had cold.
Anyway, I stopped that and started eating my normal vegan food again, cooked, all kinds of things like lentils and beans and rice and vegetables and some fruit, nuts, seeds etc… also chocolat and ginseng coffee. My weight went back up, and now I am at 62 kg :) It seems to stabilize around this point. And I am not longer cold all the time and my heart rate went back up. I also went hiking for a week which made me lose 2 kg in those few days, after that I gained weight more rapidly. But I mean, I am still bmi 19.8 lol. But to me, it is more weight that I usually had, but I keep eating according to my appetite and what nourishes me, and if weight goes up then I let it be like that.
Maybe a great bonfire of trashed scales,mirrors,measuring tapes etc.
how about avoiding all that banality? It is done and done and done.
there must be more sexy and original way to dress you concept then smashed
bathroom scale.
Lay it on us, elina! We’re open to all ideas- whattaya got?
On kinda sidenote….saw a video of somethimg called epic mealtime and what that guy ate was massive!makes me wonder how he could stay quite lean eating like that,as you see morbidly obese persons eating the same and becoming fatter&bedridden’theres probably a catch to it….maybe he pukes it all out aftetwards,or does this like once in a blue moon or something…
Dutchie,
Eating big quantities of food doesn’t necessarily change your bodyweight set point. If the body doesn’t want to get fat, there are a bunch of ways to get rid of those calories besides shutting them into fat storage.
Getting warmer, pooping more, dropping appetite, feeling antsy and needing to move around, building muscle- all are possible responses to calorie surplus in some contexts. Excess calories don’t automatically mean morbid obesity, or even puking it up.
Then I really wonder if it’s indeed about food toxins&feeding bad gut flora/parasites and stuff,veggie oils/PUFA overload,HFCS/fructose(yes I’ve read the pro and cons regarding fructose),gluten etc. causing foodaddiction/overeating while having detrimental effects? bc otherwise people wouldn’t get (morbidly) obese&more and more tired….
You should look up my alter ego, Matt Stonie.
I think a message, a text
always kicks strong . Like “Diets make you fat” stuff Matt is talking since some time..
Sensationalism is a good weapon in book-selling business. A catch phrase, white on black,
something that takes the codes of serious literature but twist it on unexpected way, or
a image, but one that is shocking, or shockingly funny..
or strong message with hilarious image..
possibilities are infinite. But no banalities, no bathroom scales, no stuff that has been abused since ages by the nutritional literature. Matt has made a name by being off the mainstream,
his book can’t do different. Funny, strong, unexpected..
My idea would be to bake a cake (or a tray of brownies) and then decorate it to look like a scale. Photograph someone eating it with immense satisfaction, or maybe just the cake in the process of being eaten. I’m not sure which one would be more iconic.
Yeah, a F**k Diets cake would be awesome.
Good ideas, folks- keep ’em coming!
And if you’ve got images send em my way either with a link here or to my email adress above.
Thanks y’all!
How about someone in a He-Man pose holding an ice cream cone instead of a sword standing on top of either a mountain of shitty diet books or “health foods”…..
or holding a spork with tons of delicious food laid out before him/her.
I like the second one best.
…or someone going all Popeye with a pint of ice cream in place of a can of spinach.
…or if you wanted to avoid possible copyright infringement: an image of someone (happy and healthy looking) sitting at a table eating a plate of delicious food full of carbs and meat and gravy and such (with dessert on the side) mirrored atop a frailer/thinner, depressed looking version of this person poking at a small plate of salad or a sparse plate of lightly steamed vegetables. Or the same thing in a before and after photo.
As a recovering bulimic and dieter, one of the first things I learned to do was refrain from weighing myself. I threw out my scale about 20 years ago. I learned from one of the pioneers of the non diet movement, my best friend Laurelee Roark who wrote the book, It’s Not About Food, that eating was ok and not weighing myself was a good thing.
I met Linda Bacon through Laurelee. What a gift to us all!
When I go in for check ups, the nurses ask me to get in the scale, as the usual routine.
I say to her, I do not weigh myself. They protest and I do not budge. I say, ” my weight is fine.”
So far the doctor has not confronted me. If they ever do, I will send them Linda Bacon’s book.
We have been brainwashed and harmed by the very authorities that proclaim to want to help.
Shame on them.
Thank you Matt for your research and work. It is imperative the mainstream get it that we are insane when it comes to food, weight and health. Every voice contributing to sanity helps us all.
Damn it feels good to be a gansta.
I need my scale to make sure I’m keeping my weight high enough. :-)
A cool image would be a person with lighter fluid in one hand, lighter in the other hand, about to burn a BBQ grill full of diet books ;P
Good one!
The last time I went to the doctor, which was quite a while ago because I mostly think they are full of shit, I refused to get on the scales. I told the girl that I eat healthy unprocessed foods and get some excercise, as much as I am comfortable with so that I dont feel wiped out the next day. I told her that was as good as I could or anyone could do, so if I weigh more than their little chart says I should then that is too bad and it would be pointless to know about it cause I aint doing anything other than what im doing. I told her that all getting on a scale ever accomplished for me was depression and numerous other stressful and negative and unhealthy emotions. She looked at me like I was from mars, but backed off and left me alone about the scales. Im sure the doc and his staff had fun talking about the crazy lady who wouldnt get on the scales.
Matt-
When you recommend that people “overfeed” do you ever find that these people may have allergies to things like dairy, gluten, etc. that are caused by the low metabolism in the first place? Are they just supposed to ignore the symptoms? (For example, Sinus inflammation) Pizza seems like an awesome tool for raising the metabolic rate, but it could be problematic too. Seems like a catch-22 situation. Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Marcus
I view dietary restriction as a last resort. Many reactions, like sinus inflammation in response to dairy, can improve dramatically as you go through the process of raising metabolic rate. I used to get super clogged from dairy, but it doesn’t bother me any more, especially after going really, really high-calorie for 3 months last spring.
Ok, thanks for that one- I still tend to get a bit of sinus inflammation or clogged up-ness from dairy-
but have decided I dont want to give it up ( I did for a while).
I decided I want to heal my body enough be able to deal with it!
It is good to know it is possible…
How higher calories did you go in the spring? ie how many approx?
I read your weight gain was 30 pds? (I assume from that time)
Did it come off naturally? easily?
Were there negatives? other benefits?
I had a hard time raising my metabolism when stuff like casein was inflaming and stressing the system though. Don’t know how you would “get around” this, maybe I can introduce cheese and milk back in the future when my gut is really strong
My symptoms are relatively mild on the surface – stuffy blocked nose,
and more vulnerability to colds or flu or in this state. Elimination flow is less free..
They are undeniable though – and definitely go when dairy is not being eaten.
I am just sick of elimination type diets though and want to get over it..
Are you drinking fortified milk? Fortified food in general tends to clog my sinuses up good.
You should also see if you can’t try different brands. Some brands treat people better when it comes to people.
I drink raw milk- organic too I think,
and ordinary shop pastuerized cheese , pastuerized cream, and butter..
I live in NZ so all our dairy is grass-fed.
I also eat some processed food- biscuits etc, which
contain “milk solids”,
ie, dried milk.
I think this is one of the worst culprits in fact, then secondly cheese.
I am trying out a high calorie phase- so I will see if my dairy reactions become less.
I drink raw milk- organic too I think,
and ordinary shop pasteurized cheese , pastuerized cream, and butter..
I live in NZ so all our dairy is grass-fed.
I also eat some processed food- biscuits etc, which
contain “milk solids”,
ie, dried milk.
I think this is one of the worst culprits in fact, then secondly cheese.
I am trying out a high calorie phase- so I will see if my dairy reactions become less.
From elimination diets and trying different forms of dairy it appears that the caseine protein would be the problem for many people, which makes sense since it’s the thing that differs the most between human milk and cow milk
This super high calorie period sounds interesting. So it improved your allergies? Did you notice any other indicators of improved health/metabolism doing this?
Yes, everything across the board that should be noticed. I wrote about a lot of those, but in a more comedic way in the post – Inconviences of a High Metabolism. http://180degreehealth.com/2012/10/10-inconveniences-of-a-high-metabolism
I was militantly, and necessarily, gluten free for 6 full years, before getting tired of it, and testing the waters over the past year. For the first several of those months, I’d get the old familiar aches and mood and congestion issues. So I gave it up again “for good” this fall.
Started again after Christmas, and the symptoms are so much less — still achey, from dairy too. But not always, and not as much. The rest of teh symptoms — most bothersome of which was the serious mood issues — haven’t shown.
I’ve also gained a bunch of weight during this time, adding far more carbs back, drinking MUCH less during the day (had a decaf tea habit), and finally, since the fall I have far better sleep (used to be a chronic insomniac), minimal anxiety, normal, satiable hunger for regular meals instead of major (or even minor) cravings… all signs the my metabolism is improving, right? I still have difficulty digesting whole grains.
But anyway, long story long, I am hoping my gluten intolerance is also improving for the same reasons.
Fingers crossed it’s getting better.
sounds like you are on the right path….i don’t think it would hurt to cut the gluten out, it isn’t great, maybe sub it for rice and other starches like potatoes, but i dont think there’s anything wrong w/ dairy
Annie,
I was eating gluten free for approx. 6 years as well before I finally figured out that it was the bran that was bothering me. Here’s my reply to someone else yesterday about this. Maybe it will be helpful to you:
“Hopefully, down the road you can handle gluten again. I thought I had a problem with gluten, but it turned out that it was the bran from the whole wheat, and other whole grains, but to a lesser extent, that was causing me problems. Once I removed whole grains/bran from my diet all of my symptoms finally went away. I only cook with white flour now and have no trouble what so ever.”
For me, not checking my temp incessantly has been very helpful. I just go off of the warm feel myself. I always freak myself out a little bit when I’m checking my temperature.
I was going to buy your Platinum Collection, but with the eminent release of the Diet Recovery book, I’m holding off. Will that be a free upgrade if I buy now?
Yes- Platinum buyers will receive the new version on release. No need to wait.
Sorry for posting this question here,but just read Eat For Heat and can someone get good results from the plan if they have food sensitivitys to grains and can’t digest oils and don’t like eating in between meals! or should they not even bother.
my 2 cents: I think your only problem with eat for heat would be if you don’t substitute those grains with other carbohydrates– potatoes, fruit, sugar. I’m pretty sure vegetable oil is one of the few things Matt does proscribe against. But if you’re secretly saying you want to stay paleo and do EFH, then I’m sure you could– in the limited scope of avoiding excessive water intake, upping your salt & sugar, etc…. In general, though, 180 is pretty much against food restrictions. If you don’t eat between meals because you’re not hungry that’s one thing, but if you have some rule against it and won’t do it even though you’re hungry and need a little snack,well then, I think you’re missing the point. Read diet recovery or just go back and read more of the blog posts.
If this sounds like alot of rules “it’s nothing compaired to what it used to be”I just have to stick to what works for me but can one eat too much arrowroot flour?
Sometimes I wonder if denial is just as bad as obsession. What I would also hate to see is people swapping dependence and addiction to one set of numbers (scale weight) for another set of numbers (temperature). What is the middle ground where the scales and thermometres are used properly as a tool or a guide? Also if you just keep eating to appetite rather than aggressive overfeeding is your basal temperature ever likely to increase – if so, what time frame is reasonable?
Ancel Key’s subjects healed from starvation without purposely overfeeding. They ate a ton of food, to appetite (well, the ones in the group that could eat freely).
I don’t get this forced overfeeding thing at all.
I eat to appetite; sometimes that’s a lot, sometimes very little.
For example, this week I had 48 ounces of ice cream on each of three separate days. That’s what my body was craving and it was very easy for me to eat that much ice cream in addition to everything else. I feel better and I don’t think I will be eating that much ice cream again for a while, unless my body craves it sooner.
I guess if one does not care about looking attractive then force feeding which leads to obesity is okay. But there is no way that I am going to allow myself to become obese in order to lose weight. I would like to lose about 10 pounds. What sense would it make for me to gain 50 pounds so that my metabolism will increase and shed 60 pounds? And what about the stretch marks and loose skin that comes from gaining weight quickly? I can’t afford that. I have a thing for younger men so I have to stay sexy.
Then don’t do it.
Have you even read any of the links that Matt posted, or the link I provided you before, that explains WHY? If you don’t understand it even after reading Gwyneth’s article, or why at least WE want to do it, then I don’t know what else any of us can tell you. Here’s the article again, in case you haven’t read it, which I’m guessing is the case or you wouldn’t be asking this question yet again. Maybe this site is not the site you’re looking for???
http://www.youreatopia.com/blog/2012/11/23/phases-of-recovery-from-a-restrictive-eating-disorder.html
easy Emma, this is a site for everyone.. no restrictions..
Of course it is, but there’s not need for backdoor insults to be thrown at those of use who do accept weight gain as part of the healing process. To suggest that that’s an indication that we don’t care about our body, how we look, or our desire to be attractive to our spouses, etc., is wrong. This is not the first time she’s handed out backdoor insults, and the rest of us don’t need to continue to simply put up with. Your comment would have been better directed towards Ann, in a show of your support of those of us that she’s been insulting.
I think Matt is moving away from forced overfeeding as he discovers other ways to increase temperature and metabolism- like drinking less. Someone correct me if I’m wrong. Eating to appetite is a great atart in healing your metabolism. I would encourage you also to forget about that ten pounds for a while and instead focus on loving and taking care of yourself. I can’t tell you how freeing it is to stop dieting after years and years of wanting to lose a little weight to look perfect. And if men whatever their age can’t love you for who you are, pass them by and find a real man that thinks being happy and healthy is sexy.
I believe he’s doing a combination of all of it. I guess we’ll get to see more about where he thinking is at in regards to all of this when his new updated book is released.
Saw a pic that might work. Can’t figure out how to post a link so I’ll just direct you to it. Check out the photo from 2pm today, Jan 24, on the “Alice 105.9” radio station’s Facebook page. It’s a Denver station so perhaps Matt will have nostalgia (I think Matt lived in CO, unless I just made that up). Don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll just say it involves cupcakes. Not sure if you can just jack their photo, but thought you could throw the idea up on the brainstorm chalkboard.
Nice- will contact them and see what the scoop is, if they have the rights or would mind us using it.
Or I could just make something similar and shoot thar, and run a mock up. Thanks Ms Banana
I vote for a flaming bathroom scale, in the tradition of eat for heat.
Or maybe and old style scale with some salad on one side and a cheeseburger on the other?
Or a scale that instead of numbers, is pointing to a phrase like “Get off me” or “Eat the food.” You know, like the novelty ones in the bathroom at the mall?
Or someone doing a military press with a big tall dr’s scale.
Hi, Matt I have been reading some of your blogs for quite a while. I was eating a very low carb, almost zero carb paleo diet. But it made me sick. From your advice I decided to get over my fear of fruit and starches and decrease my water intake. Now I eat my same paleo diet, with coconut water instead of water only when thirsty and a much higher carb intake (think 200 gram+). I increased my calories probably by 2000.
So my question is why can’t you overeat (refeed) on nutrient dense foods in a paleo framework and heal yourself? My stomach has dropped that last padding, I have tons of energy. If Im hungry at 10 o clock at night I make a meal, I eat lots of salt now but no grains. It appears on a lcpd I was so full on way to little of nutrients and CALORIES! But giving up orethexia of (the kind that fruit sugar is going to kill you and only carbs make you fat) has been a saviour. Thank you.
Chelsea- you can eat big on nutrient dense food. The issue I see is twofold:
1) You may not be able to get as many calories as you need eating clean. You can kick back 1000 calories of ice cream in a few minutes and maybe still be hungry. 1000 calories of baked potatoes is a lot harder. If your body needs the calories, a commitment to clean foods might not get you all the way there
2) That thinking is still fixated on villainizing or valorizing certain foods on an absolute, rather than provisional basis. What is a healthy food? I would say it’s one that supports robust health, including high metabolic rate, feelings of well being, energy, vitality, etc. Lots of non-paleo foods can do that, and in some cases, more effectively than paleo foods (see above). The question to ask isn’t: was this food a part of our evolutionary milieu, and therefore “good”? The question is: is this food likely to support a robust metabolism and all the ancillary health benefits that stem from it, and therefore “good”?
That question has to take into account your specific circumstances, and there isn’t any one size fits all answer. Paleo presumes to have that, and inadvertantly can lead people from the most expedient path to nutrition-based health enhancement.
i would avoid drinks high in potassium…matt says its the anti-salt….so coconut water and OJ wouldn’t be helpful in a low-metabolic state….go w/ the soda until you get warm again
If it’s working for you, stick with it! To me it sounds like you’re on the right track. If it ain’t broke…
Has anyone here actually lowered their body fat eating tons of high sugar, high salt foods? Shouldn’t vegetables and balanced nutrition be emphasized?
Yes, agreed, they should be.
Mark,
You are missing the point. The first point for most people will be to get their metabolism up and not focus so much on nutrients. There are two reasons for this. One, to ensure that enough food is eaten to get the metabolism kick-started and two, to break the neurosis fixation on “the Perfect Diet” that most – probably all- people coming to this board have suffered from. Once this has been done, then people will naturally-so it seems-return to something more well-rounded.
Yeah, but they still need to get nutrients. It’s great to add calories in with things like rice, white flour products, sugar, etc., but I think people will run into issues if they aren’t getting enough nutrients in addition to that. Having gone through the recovery process, I know I felt better when I had proper balanced meals. You just may need to add some extra calories to them, and easily digestible things like crackers and pasta are great for that.
Yes I avoided gluten but otherwise ate everything in sight. Most vegetables are poisonous (broccoli, kale, spinach, etc.) when eat raw…i get all nutrients from dairy, eggs, grass-fed beef, shellfish, fruit, below-ground vegetables (potatoes, etc.)
I stopped weighing in the late 90s and didn’t get back on till I was under 100. By then, I’d achieved some of my “goals” like not bingeing, avoiding ice cream and being able to dress fashionably, so the fact that I got acne and had to go on the pill (elevated shbg for life!) didn’t matter to me. I weighed last fall and was 1 lb over my 15 year high weight (102) so I went back to restricting. Christmas Day (actually Eve) I had to admit I look awful (my eyebrows esp)so I started eating again, and now my jeans are tight. Now I’m fat so damn u scale-actually, I need to go to Target and buy one, so i can track my weight and figure out what to do. Lol
I got a lot more attention from guys after I put on weight from what I considered “ideal” (and now see as shockingly thin). Having a bit more flesh is apparently attractive to the opposite sex, and so is stuff like having proper eyebrows and being able to maintain good skin. Guys are attracted to fertility. Try to remember that if you get upset about your tight jeans. I don’t know how tall you are, but unless you are 5 feet or under, 100 lb is too thin! (I’ve got 20 lbs on you and I am still quite thin, I just look healthy now)
Great topic as always…
Is anyone else saddened by friends who consistently talk about their diets? There are several people I know who have been crash-dieting and ?primal? dieting for months in order to lose weight for a wedding. Mostly I keep my mouth shut, although when they ask me for nutrition advice I describe the dangers of low-calorie/low-carb and the benefits of eating actual food. Today a Facebook friend wrote about how she pitifully removed the croutons from her salad because there were only two months left to the wedding and she just ?had? to fit into a particular dress. (It’s not even her own wedding; it’s her daughter’s wedding and she’s attending as a guest.) This stuff makes me so sad. Millions of people are spending months and years of their lives in miserable deprivation’to meet an arbitrary number on a scale or fit into a piece of clothing that they could have ordered one size larger. The value system here is so inverted. Think of how your life can flourish when you are treating yourself well; and of the happiness you are missing out on for a goal that is unrelated to building your character or your life’s passion. :-(
Anyway, this friend who just can’t eat the croutons received 10+ ?likes? on her Facebook, and I felt compelled to respond, ?Be careful? low-carb or any other diet will harm your health in the long-run. Some mean-spirited stranger mocked, ?Be careful? primal can ONLY benefit your health in the long-run. Boo.
Tonight I sit here enjoying several sizable servings of nuts and dried apricots, reading Matt’s blog, and feeling so glad to have found the site and know there are many other people learning to live again. I’m still underweight and tire too easily, but I’m much healthier than I was a few years ago when I was undereating and endurance exercising 8 hours a day in addition to a full-time job and other responsibilities. Although I’m still not completely recovered and still unfortunately have some concerns with gaining weight, I’m so happy to be in a state of mind where a number on a scale doesn’t have so much power over my sense of self-worth?and it cannot detract from the pride in my other accomplishments!
Best to all in your health journey.
It is so tough. I find myself wanting to share Matt and Gwyn’s blogs with every woman I come across, but I know that would be perceived as rude since I’m not being asked my opinion. But, I can’t help but think how much better off they would be if they knew the information and got off the diet/restriction roller coaster. But, every appropriate opportunity I do get, I will be sharing.
Just throwing out another trick here.
Try using no mirrors. I haven’t looked in a mirror (on purpose) for about 2 weeks now.
Actually had someone tell me a looked better recently. Not sure if related but it’s interesting.
I spent all summer out camping and hiking around. Never even thought about what I looked like. It didn’t make me look much different. But I was noticeably happier. No sudden onset of bad moods related to those aesthetic imperfections.