What do you think is your strongest asset when you are successful at taking care of yourself?
My strongest asset is my obsessive desire to measure EVERYTHING. When I am on a roll, I insist on tracking every bit of food that goes into my mouth and every minute I spend exercising. I have years and years worth of data about what I’ve eaten and how I’ve exercised.
What’s scary is what ISN’T documented. I can tell when I am close to a binge when I don’t feel like writing down what I have eaten. Even if I know that I haven’t overindulged, I can tell that I’m at risk when I don’t want to pull out my Palm and track my food. That has also been a blessing for me because when I notice that I don’t want to write down what I’ve eaten, I can analyze myself and see what is REALLY going on.
The only problem with this asset is that sometimes I waste too much time documenting everything. Sometimes I don’t need to measure as much as I do. I don’t need to write down every calorie I have eaten to stay healthy. I don’t need to document every workout to get stronger. All I need to do is eat healthy and exercise. Writing it down has become magical to me. If I don’t write it down, somehow the magic doesn’t work anymore.
I keep thinking that I SHOULD be able to live a healthy life without documenting every bite of food that goes into my mouth. The SHOULD word is something that causes me a lot of trouble. I assume that everyone else doesn’t need to monitor their food. The truth of the matter is, it doesn’t matter what everyone else needs to do. I need to write everything down, or I will overeat. I don’t need to test that theory. I’ve tested it enough already.