Further contemplations

[Guest guest]

I hope no one minds me doing my " processing " here, but I can't think of anyone

in-person who'd really be interested, but I was thinking about when I lost 55

pounds a number of years ago, and I'm pretty sure that it wasn't from dieting.

I had been having an inner ear problem and was dizzy and had headaches a fair

amount of time, and finally got it diagnosed, and other than a very mild

diuretic, I was supposed to severely limit my salt intake, and that's what I

did. It was really hard a first, because is seemed like the world was one big

salt party. I would walk through the grocery store and feel like crying because

everything was loaded with salt. But then I started figuring our what I could

eat (or rather, more importantly, what I LIKED to eat) the didn't have much

salt, and over two and a half years dropped down to what I had been in college,

where I stayed for about five years, without really much effort. But then I

kind of abandoned the low-salt thing, and experienced a whole bunch of stress

with my kids finishing high school and entering college and my job, that my

weight started creeping up, and so I did Weight Watchers at Work, and though I

lost the weight that had crept on, I think it totally messed up my relationship

with food, because in the yer since I stopped I gained back everything I lost

plus 100% more (that's 100% of what I lost, not of my total weight), which was

alarming enough in and of itself, but also I just really hate thinking about my

weight and food all the time, which is what that year has been all about, and

that's really no fun at all.

I think I have actually been a fairly intuitive eater for most of my life.

Certainly as a child and young adult. The adult weight gain ( up until I was

diagnosed with the inner ear problem, which was not, I don't think, related to

weight) can all be rather readily explained, and I wasn't obsessing about food

or weight at all during those ten years. In fact, it was always somewhat of a

surprise to discover, usually at the doctor's, that I had gained weight.

So I really think I ought to be able to get back to that kind of eating. I've

been thinking about those two and a half years, and how enjoyable it was to

prepare myself food that I loved that was low-salt, and how much I relished

those meals, and how easy it was to choose not to have super-salty things. I

think I might be headed back in that direction.

In the month and a half since i've been aware of IE, I've been having things I

haven't had really much for years--like toast for a snack, and muffins from the

co-op, and other baked goods, and while it hasn't,t felt like over eating per

se, I'm really starting to crave the low-salt, high veggies that I used to so

enjoy, and my body is telling me that it wants steamed veggies with a balsamic

vinegar or lemon-based sauce instead of toast after school