Keeping It Simple

Today I was thinking how glad I am that I am limited to Optifast products until I reach my goal. To be honest, I'm afraid of food right now -- well, maybe not fearful but certainly wary of how I typically behave around food. I'll pretty much try anything once and I don't put the brakes on when I eat. I've been this way my entire life. But for now, that's a thing of the past.

I have never, ever been on a diet before. I have gone through phases of intense physical activity, and that did result in satisfactory weight loss, but I still ate heartily along the way. I have no experience with counting calories, keeping a food journal, reading nutrition labels and following the food pyramid. I have never tried Slim Fast or other over-the-counter weight loss products nor have I enrolled in Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers. This is all foreign to me. All of this would wreck my "relationship" with my beloved food. Why put an arrow through its heart?

But in the past ten years, since I have been married, things have crept out of control. Not only did I place no restrictions on what I ate, I also grew to embrace a sedentary lifestyle. I just "grew into" this situation. Quite easily, I might add. Portion sizes started increasing. I would spend hours preparing complicated dishes, only to eat them at record speed once served. When I wasn't cooking or eating, I was sitting on my bum watching cooking shows on TV. Food, it seemed, was starting to consume me, not vice versa.

In order to end this insanity, enter Optifast. The food choices are made for me. I eat when I am supposed to. All of my nutritional needs are met. It's simple. And I'm safe. Perhaps that's the beauty of Optifast -- the sense of security that comes from having your meal plan mapped out for you. I'm not someone who wants to fret about calorie counting and fat percentages right now. My former relationship with food needs some unraveling and I've got some breathing room now to do that.

I like keeping things simple. Lots of us have trouble achieving this. Thanks Optifast for taking the complexity out of my eating equation. What a relief.