The few people who had the courage to tell me that I ate too much must have gotten tired of arguing with me. I had this idea that I ate just like every other person but somehow my own body reacted differently. But as I began to work towards being more aware of myself, I thought it would be a good idea to start keeping a diary on what I was eating, how much and when I was eating it. This seemingly easy concept was more difficult than I had imagined. I found it difficult to always write every single thing that went into my mouth, I found myself deliberately omitting some things and also not giving full details of my meals, often because
I was embarrassed to be eating again and writing it down so I tried to tone my eating down. I would write rice and chicken but omit the whole box of cookies and two bars of snickers. I would write juice but not indicate if it was a glass or the whole pack. How convenient, right? Then I would have a bowl of rice and
because I did not want to add two extra bowls, I would grudgingly not eat. You can imagine how I felt, deceiving no one else but me. After one week of wasting paper, I decided to have a strict and honest self-assessment. My diary at the end of a normal day looked like this:
Day 1
2 large mugs of Ovaltine with
2 cubes of sugar each, total of 4 cubes.
5 table spoons of milk, 2 of Ovaltine – 8am
4 slices of yam, egg sauce & sausages – 8am
Half a pack of TUC – 10am
1 pack of Plantain chips – 11am
A can of coke – 11am
Gala – 12pm
Rice, chicken, plantain – A LOT – 2pm
Half a pack of Ice tea – 2pm
Rice, beef and beans – 8pm
Bread and peanut butter – 11pm
4 sweets – During the day
A can of coke – 1am
In one day!!!! Imagine the horror after the first week. It was not something I would ever want my enemies to come across. Before then, I would write:
Yam and egg
Rice and chicken
Rice and beans
I would write that and leave it in the open for all who cared to see that I don’t eat as much as they “see”.
Don’t think that I forgot to add water, I didn’t drink water. I could go days without remembering that water even existed; after all, juice, beverage and coke has water. Sounds familiar?
At the end of that first week, I went into my room, shut the door and went through each line. I cried, no… I wailed! Like someone had died. I could not understand HOW I ate this much and how I did not even realise it. I was epically embarrassed at myself, severely embarrassed. It was then I realised that it was not that I ate like everyone else and my body reacted differently but that I ate like I was feeding a village and it was reflecting in leaps and bounds. I was killing myself.
HOME WORK
So before you argue with yourself that you don’t eat as much as you do. Keep a detailed diary for one week and review it. The temptation for you to not eat much just so you can smile at your diary at the end of the day is high, so I advise to eat as you would normally eat. The truth is necessary. I also recommend that you document immediately you eat, there is a high tendency to omit or forget if you decide to write it at the end of a long day. It can be done on your phone or in a writing pad.
Courtesy Google Images
Fitmua 