Food Frustration

Many of you know that I've lost a bit of weight this year.  I actually lost 45 lbs. this spring.  I would love to lose another 10 lbs, but I needed to bump weight loss down a little on my priority list to accommodate other important things in my life.

My weight loss success was due to exercise and tracking my food on my SparkPeople phone app.  I did pay special attention to keeping my carbs in check and increasing my protein intake.  My success came after two years of frustration over trying to lose weight with very little results for my efforts.

It seems that everyone I know is on a diet or trying to lose weight right now.  And every single person is doing it in a different way.  Some are working out insanely.  Some are doing high protein, low carb foods.  Some are doing only fresh "whole" foods.  Some are doing Weight Watchers.  Some are doing special shakes.  Some are even doing hormone therapies.  It's enough to make my head spin.

Food has been an issue for me for so long.  As I've been working on not being controlled by food or by my poor body image, I'm still confused about food.

I'm not quite sure what my food focus should be.

At various times, my food focus has been any of the following:

• Buying the cheapest foods to save my family money
• Using up every last bit of foods we have to minimize waste and save money
• Consuming fewer calories
• Choosing low carb foods and high protein foods
• Eating more fruits and vegetables
• Cutting out artificial sweeteners 
• Avoiding foods that aggravate my Irritable Bowel Syndrome and other stomach issues
• Making creative dinners for my family and trying new recipes

The problem is that very few of these food focuses overlap.  I can't eat lots of fruits when I'm limiting carbs.  Avoiding artificial sweeteners means I will likely be consuming more calories (by consuming real sugar instead of "diet" products).  And the most frustrating of all:  it's extremely difficult to save money on my grocery bill when I'm buying healthy foods (cheap foods tend to be not very healthy).

So I'm left paralyzed, unsure of how to approach food.

I'm currently dabbling in a little of everything.  I'm still trying to not go carb crazy, but sometimes I use what we have on hand to feed my family, no matter what it is.  We buy produce that's on sale, but I also use canned fruits and vegetables when I get them cheap (even though they are "processed").  I have a protein shake everyday to help increase my protein and keep me from eating a can of chocolate frosting for lunch.  I have several new dinner recipes I want to try, and I'd like to incorporate them soon, even if they have cheese or pasta or other foods that might be cut out otherwise.

It's hard for me to hear everyone else's view of what works for them or what they think is absolutely the way to go.  I get swayed by the current opinion.  I immediately feel ashamed that I haven't been doing it their way.  I know that I did something right to lose 45 pounds, but now that I'm not losing weight...my confidence is deflating.

I'm still learning how to be comfortable in my body and satisfied with my approach to food, regardless of how others look and what others are doing.  Apparently, I just have a really hard time feeling content.

So, I hope you have found some things that work for you.  But maybe don't tell me about it because I'll just pressure myself to do things your way.

Jessica