This week, I caved in and started something that I’m not sure how to name. I don’t like the word diet, and it’s certainly not a diet in the strictest sense. I’ve simply given up a couple of vices—soda and sweets, as well as junk fast food—and decided to eat healthier food with—sigh—yes, fewer calories. I am pretty overweight, and I’ve actually accepted that as something that’s okay and doesn’t define me as a person (unlike how many others view it). I am doing this, however, because I just don’t feel great.
I’m sick more often than I’d like to be, and I am very uncomfortable when I move (particularly in the heat). I don’t have a set number of pounds I want to lose, or a size in mind; I just want to be comfortable again. I know plenty of fat people who are healthy—they eat healthy foods, they move every day, and they’re fat, and that’s fine. But I’m not healthy, and I don’t move my body every day like I need to. I want to be one of these people. I just want to feel good in my own skin again.
But what I don’t want is unsolicited advice or labels on what I’m doing. I shy away from announcing what I’m doing not because I am embarrassed, but because I don’t know what to call it—and I don’t want everyone around me telling me how to count my carbs or find 100-calorie snacks or their other tricks. I have my own tricks, thanks; I’ve done this before. They also don’t understand that my life is very different from theirs—isn’t everyone’s? I work at home. I am up all night. I need different “rules,” if any at all, than someone else does. I’m not a prepackaged, uniform contraption off a conveyer belt; I’m a human being, just like everyone else.
But they don’t seem to understand what I’m doing; to them, it’s “weight loss,” when weight isn’t nearly as involved in this equation as me simply wanting to move quickly and walk the zoo front to back and back again without feeling tired, which I can, believe it or not, do at this weight when I’m feeling better and not eating crap and not sitting at the computer for the majority of my day. So the goal is simply an increase in movement and healthy eating. So far, I’ve been on the path for three days, and while I’m crabby, I’m optimistic.
My question is, what would you call this type of journey? (Please, no fat hatred or other negative comments; this is a body positive thread!) I am not a fan of the whole “lifestyle change” trend, and I will absolutely not call this a diet. Something simple that is easy to say and sums it up for me without requiring a lengthy explanation (see above!) would do the trick.