Pilates: Session 5... and.... The Switch

Getting on a roll here... Session 5 was identical to the ones before. Took my measurements today, since I don't have a scale at home to mark my progress. They're supposed to be a better indicator than weight, anyway.

Something seemingly remarkable has happened. For at least the last six months (maybe a year or more...? I'm not sure....), I have been miserable when I wasn't eating, because I was constantly thinking of food, and miserable when I was eating, because I knew I didn't need that much food, and it wasn't really satisfying. Or rather, I never reached a point where I was satisfied. The only time I didn't want to eat was when I was feeling disgusting and bloated because I'd already eaten too much. But then I was still reminded of food.

I wasn't sure how to cope with this problem and turn it around. I have been ruminating on the concepts of the Zone Diet which I did very succesfully, although following it only loosely, for several years in my teens. Basically, the ideas are this:

• Never eat a piece of meat bigger than the size of your palm.
• Always eat some protein when you eat carbs... the more carbs you eat, the more protein you need.
• Never eat more than 500 calories at one meal -- anything over that, and your body can't process it, and it'll end up as fat, or just wasted somehow... whatever it does, it makes for major inefficiencies.
• Never go more than five hours without eating (and also have frequent, small snacks every two to three hours between meals, to keep your metabolism going)
  
• (this is the clincher) If you feel full, stop eating.

I wasn't really able to follow any of these in this past period, for the fact that I never felt full (except for bloated), and therefore couldn't effectively tell myself to stop eating.

So.... the point? I feel like a switch has been turned off inside of me... the switch -- that one that made my appetite keep growing like a cancer. Suddenly, I don't feel like eating all the time. I eat and feel full, before I've finished my plate. And I'm okay with wrapping up the rest or throwing it out, 'cause my stomach just doesn't want it.

How did this happen? I'm not sure. I don't think that my thinking about it (and the Zone principles, etc.) did that much good, because I'd been thinking about it for quite a while. One possibility is that I've cut down on milk products, which I know I'm allergic/sensitive to. My mom says that if she eats milk products, afterwards she'll be ravenous and eat anything that isn't nailed down. So... maybe that's it. But I've still been eating some cheese, and... well... so that doesn't seem so sure an answer. What does seem more sure to me is Pilates. I've always felt like Pilates fixed a lot more than just my physical appearance, my strength, my weight, back pain, etc. In the past, it has even done away with some digestive problems I was having. It improves my whole feeling of well-being.

So here I am, on Session 5, with my appetite curbed, and I'm starting to feel a firm base of muscle beneath the flab. This is good. Very, very good.