Can we talk?
I'm going to try to use my "big girl words" and to pull my panties out of the bunch they've gotten themselves into, but keep in mind, I'm a bit peeved at the moment.
I've been blogging for what will be seven years come May 2012. I started out over on Blogger.com and then moved to TypePad in January of 2007. My blog encompasses my entire life, save for the things I hold close to the vest and refuse to share. Most of the time though, I write about the things that have happened to me over the course of my life that have shaped me into the woman I am today. It's not always wrapped in a pretty bow and delivered to you via singing unicorns who blow fruit-scented bubbles out of their bums. Sometimes what I have to say might make you uncomfortable, it might make you angry, or alternatively, it might elicit feelings of happiness, joy, and laughter . . . At the end of the day though, this is my life and I'm content to share my journey via this blog, with you.
When I decided to very personally share with you my journey to overcome the emotional issues that have led me to overeat and then subsequently the road to actually losing the weight, I knew there were some struggles and bumps in the road that would come in telling this story. One of those "bumps in the road" has manifested in the opinion that Barking Mad is turning into a "Diet Blog." Please! Let me be the first to reassure you that while the focus of late has been what I'm eating and where I am weight-wise, that the blog is not going to solely be about my lifestyle changes.
Yes, a great deal of it will encompass this particular journey, however there are still so many other things I find joy in writing about and talking about that I could never make my weight the absolute center of what I write about.
I will continue posting the "Emotional Fat" series, as well as the occasional cute kid or fluffy cat posts as well. You'll still be photobombed from time to time. It wouldn't be my blog if it weren't image heavy, now would it? Eventually I'll grow a backbone and dip my toes into politics and religion again.
Next up, I AM NOT ON A DIET. Diets don't work. It's been scientifically proven over and over and over again that DIETS DON'T WORK! When you get to the point that I and so many other hundreds of thousands of men and women are at (and sadly, some of our youth as well), it goes well beyond a diet and into the very necessary realm of making some serious lifestyle changes. My goal from Day One has been to address what's going on emotionally and learn how to deal with the things that make me feel like I need to bury myself under all of this fat, so that I can then begin to take the weight off in a healthy and responsible manner. It's not a race. It's a slow marathon that I'm going to have to run for the rest of my life. Again, I'm not on a diet.
Lastly, I value and appreciate all of the comments, emails, feedback, support, and encouragement I receive from you via the comments section here, email, Facebook, or Twitter. What I don't like is having my journey judged based on the successes or failures of your journey.
I'm genuinely happy for you if you were able to lose a great deal - or really any weight - and keep it off. I'm doubly happy if you did it with your health and life in mind and didn't use a fad diet to go about taking the weight off. It's one thing to offer me suggestions, point me to books (I'm always so grateful for book suggestions! Keep 'em coming! I am doing this on my own without the aide of a medical professional), videos, or web sites. However it's entirely another matter when you take what I'm eating and make snap judgements about it without even really knowing me or keeping in mind that what I'm doing is comparatively healthy to how I have been eating, and that I've managed to take off 7lbs in two weeks, and then tell me I'm doing it all wrong? I don't need that. I don't know if you mean well but your message came across wrong, or if you just think I'm making a general mess of things and decided I needed to be put in my place? Either way, it's not helpful. And I'm sorry if you don't appreciate my photos and think that what I'm eating is crap. I can't afford to completely gut my cupboards and fridge in an effort to restock them with what you feel would be the best for me.
Right now it's all about eliminating as much processed food as possible, controlling my portions, paying attention to the signals my body is sending me that tell me I'm full, and getting out and moving, walking, and exercising. It is not about what you think I should be doing. If you feel so overwhelmingly strong about the choices that you made that led you to lose weight, then by all means share with me what worked for you, but keep the snide judgements to yourself, please.
In time I'm sure that what I'm eating will change as my body changes, especially in light of the fact that right now I feel like crap and don't want to eat anything. I'm aware that at the moment, I'm not meeting my caloric requirements. However, I think, given the circumstances, I'm making really great choices about what I'm putting in my body to fuel it. I won't always make ideal choices. I'm smart enough to know that for every Coke I might drink or other simple carbohydrate I consume, I have to pay for that in either more exercise or a slower weight loss. Plus I have to consider how, what I put in my mouth, affects the rest of my body. Again, this isn't a race. It's a slow marathon. I'm going to make mistakes, but hopefully along with those mistakes will come a knowledge that grows with time, of the foods/fuels that benefit me the best and help me run this marathon.
I guess that's all I wanted to say . . . for now.
