21/02/2024
I’ve been wanting to share about my recent weight loss for a while, but I was afraid of talking about it publicly… Probably because of all the comments I got - from ‘stop dieting you look too skinny’ to ‘you look great now that you’re no longer fat’ 🤦🏻♀️😳
When I got sober, I couldn’t use drugs and alcohol as a numbing solution, so I went to the next best thing: watching a lot of Netflix and binge eating.
This is something that I’ve been doing since I was a kid. To escape the boredom, anxiety, stress, and so many other discomforts.
The problem with eating while watching shows is that I don’t hear my body when she says I’m not hungry anymore. So I would just continue eating, sometimes until feeling nauseous.
In June of 2023, I realized that this problem was getting out of hand. I would watch and binge eat every time I would have a chance to, many times a day. I decided to stop watching shows, just for 1 month (exactly what I did when I stopped using substances).
I noticed that if I didn’t watch shows, I wouldn’t binge eat anymore - they go hand in hand, I couldn’t do one without the other - just like my alcohol and co***ne addiction.
I started replacing my unhealthy habit with healthy ones like going on a walk/run, connecting with friends, reading, yoga, cleaning my home, nature time, etc. After just 1 month, I noticed that I was feeling a lot healthier, more active, productive, motivated, energized, slept better, didn’t procrastinate as much, and of course I started losing weight.
I was feeling so great overall that I decided to keep going.
About 4 months later, I had lost 20 pounds. This wasn’t my initial intention, it was the result of quitting an unhealthy habit.
When I chose to eat mindfully and being fully present with food, I actually started to listen to my body a lot more and feel the ‘I’m not hungry anymore’ signal - which is so hard to feel when eating mindlessly…
Navigating life’s highs and lows can be really challenging, and it sometimes is so hard to stay present and to avoid escaping into these ‘comforting habits’!
To all my sober friends… what did you struggle with after becoming sober??
