So scared to stop my calorie counting!

[Emw30]

Hello! Looking for some advice. I will be starting the whole30 this coming Monday (Feb 6th). For pretty much all my life I have been on and off diets. Right now I am at the lowest I have been after having two kids. But I have been this weight for a year now! I need a change. I'm reading through the book right now but my biggest concern is just eating without counting my calories or weighing my food. I hate that process but I feel its the only way I have control over my portions. Does it lead to binging? Yeah sometimes. This diet sounds like freedom but as sad as it sounds, I'm scared of that freedom. Any advice? Can I really stop counting calories...eat normal portions and it still work? Thanks everyone! I'm excited to start. 

[MeadowLily]

Yes. 

Doing what we've always done will get us what we've always gotten. 

Those who secretly count calories and diet while they are doing a Whole 30 are the first ones to come back and hopefully, lay counting calories, counting steps, counting crows and micros, macros down.

Combining dieting tactics with a Whole 30 is a total disconnect for the brain.

I know this not a diet...but

I know this not about weight loss...but

That small 'but' is the disconnect.  The brain either believes you're dieting or you're not. It is a false positive.

There are no inbetweens. You're either going to turn this back into a diet or you're not. For 30 days, you will eat like royalty.  That doesn't mean you have to break the bank either.   You are going to eat whole foods without counting a calorie. 

You will learn to break the vicious cycles of dieting that go hand in hand with binge eating. When you get to the end of 30 days, there will plenty of people here to help you through the Reintro process.   Until then, build your positive relationship with food.

One meal and one day a time.  

[Emw30]

Thank you so much for your advice. I got emotional reading it lol because I hate the process of counting calories and logging in everything I eat. I hate weighing my food.. I hate it all. That's why I am so optimistic starting the whole30 on Monday. I chose Monday because I want to finish reading the book and stock up on the weekend with whole30 approved food. The thought of not having to track anything sounds so liberating and at the same time so terrifying. I'm excited to figure it all out though and for once in my life just let it be and eat like a normal person.

[ladyshanny]

We are so conditioned that by society that we can't possibly understand our own bodies and that instead of relying on our connection with ourselves, we need to buy, use, download this app or that tracker or this philosophy or that "plan". 

Go back to Gramma's day. When there were no apps or food calculators or smart phones and they just ate food that came from animals and plants at regular intervals. Check in with yourself. How are you feeling? Emotions? Physically? Mood? Write it all in a daily diary if you like that sort of daily tracking. But become aware of how food makes you feel. And know that every time you count a calorie or track a macro, you're telling your body that you're not going to bother listening to it. That the tracker/calorie/macro is more important than how you're feeling.

Will you binge eat dates and almond butter or eat huge servings of chicken salad because it's just so darned tasty? Maybe. Probably at least once. But then you'll check in with yourself and assess why, how it felt, what effect it had. And you learn to be in partnership with your body instead of warring against it all the time.

You can do this.