More like guidelines than actual rules.
#1) “Lifelong changes.”
Initial response to this: “of course!” What program would say that it’s intending
anything other than lifelong changes? (Although
I suppose there are rapid detox-type programs out there.) But beyond that, it’s not something I just
have to know intellectually. Rather, it’s
a constant reminder to take it slow and make it lasting.
#2) “Practice mindful eating.”
This is really, really, really tough for me. Why?
Because I NEVER DO IT. I
occasionally bike, I occasionally drink water, I occasionally go out walking,
but I pretty much never eat mindfully now.
When I eat, I read, watch TV, game, etc.
I also totally believe that this is important, that
distracted eating leads to over-eating.
This will be tough.
#3) “Focus on real food.”
This is one of those things that doesn’t seem too important
to me – my first impression is that calories are calories – but I’ll trust the
system. “Real” here seems to mean the
fewer ingredients, the better. It really
does help that the program’s not telling me to stop eating anything it doesn’t
count as “real,” and rather sets this up as a longer goal. Paleo is the goal.
Lifelong changes, right?
#4) “Sugar is the enemy, and so are liquid calories.”
Yeah. No problem in
the least buying this. This isn’t a huge
problem for me, but non-“real” liquids are.
I drink a fair bit of diet soda and diet iced tea. Well, tell the truth and shame the
devil. I drink a METRIC TON of diet soda
and diet iced tea. These aren’t liquid
calories, but still stuff to cut I imagine.
I eat lots of sugar though through junk food.
#5) “No ‘cheat days.’”
This doesn’t mean that straying at all from the NFA
nutrition guidelines isn’t allowed. It
means instead that you want to be mindful at all times, even if you’re
mindfully choosing to eat bad food at times.
It helps take away the all-or-nothing feel these things can have.
---
So that’s the endgame!
How do we get there?
Next section: Level
Up on the NF Diet
The program provides ten levels to the diet. (I use diet here to mean “what and how you
eat,” not “go on a diet.”) I have a
habit of looking ahead and fighting battles mentally before I need to, so I’m
going to work to avoid that now.
I wish I could say I could start at a high level, but I’m
really trying to be honest. I’m at level
1, helpfully labeled “Help, I’m Clueless.”
LOL. This is where I know what
healthy eating is supposed to be, which, I suppose I do intellectually, but don’t
do it at all.
The quest: Spend two weeks
tracking my food. No changes, but track
EVERYTHING and be aware of what I eat.
This is basically a long baseline.
Watch. Both carefully and non-judgmentally.
There are two related quests here. The first is to track my eating accurately
for 7 days. The second is to track it
for 30 days. My plan is to post the log on this site every night. If I miss a day (which is not, like, out of
the realm of possibility), post it the next day.
I’m actually really nervous about this part. Weight loss isn’t a simple scientific matter
of cutting calories, exercising, and solving it. That’s certain part of it, even the main
part, but for me at least there’s a tremendous amount of raw shame and embarrassment. The idea of actually looking at what I really
eat on a regular basis and posting it for all to see literally raises my
heart-rate and temperature, even thinking about it now.
It would be much more comfortable for the program to just ask
me to cut out x, y, and z foods, and track the healthy diet I eat going
forward. Maybe that’s why I have to
start with a reflective and honest look at my personal “level one.”
