Will you ever be normal?

Hey....just an observation. After using CC, I believed most of us got really obsess with foods and calories. But most people I know, they are thin. They didn't bother go to the gym everyday and they eat snacks and junks sometimes. they seems to eat "NORMALLY". They don't have to think about when to eat or they can't eat this or they have to avoid that because it had a very high calories....and so on. 

Will we ever be able to be like them? To have our thought so normal like ordinary people?

Most 'naturally slim' people I know pay rather more attention to what they eat and drink than you think.  Just not in an overtly obvious way.   My mother's one, for example.  A slim 70 years old, has never counted calories in her life, but weighs the same as she did when she was 21.  To you & everyone else she would appear to eat 'normally'.... and she does.  She enjoys a cake here and there, goes out for meals occasionally, drinks the odd glass of wine.   But I know that she eats very sensibly all the time, keeps herself very active, weighs herself every week and, if she sees the scales creeping up a little, she cuts back on the portions a little. 

If the people you're talking about are quite young... say under 20 then they're highly likely to be a healthy weight... regardless of what they eat or do.  It's when people get to 23, 24, 25...  that poor food choices, sedentary jobs, socialising etc., tend to start catching up.   And it's when young people start 'dieting' at an early age that they lose touch with food and forget how to eat.

Try to think more about getting good eating habits - balanced diet, sensible portions, enjoyable food, regular meals - than you do about calories or things you 'can't eat'...    And aim for a wide range of 'activities' rather than simply 'going to the gym'.  It's much more sustainable in the long-run.

That's what I have been trying to do. I'm not stressing myself to go to the gym everyday and if I don't have time, I just don't go. Instead, i try to incorporate active activity such as walk from here to there, walk to lunch, go out somewhere, instead because these activity can be done for life time! 

Every breakfast, one of my friend would be eating 7" waffles with chocolate syrup on it...yummy but I'm too scared to eat even 1/4 of it simply because I know how many calories is in that thing. But I guess, I would just try to stop thinking about calories and stick to what I know is healthy.

Thank you.

Never worry about what a friend eats.....   She enjoys waffles and syrup, fantastic.  It boils down to personal choice. You could also enjoy the same thing.... that's OK.   If you wanted a less sticky sweet breakfast you'd have something different.... that's OK too.  Being 'scared' of a food is an abnormal overreaction however.  Hope you realise that.

'Healthy' applies to your whole diet rather than individual foods and therefore waffles (and other higher calorie foods) can be a legitimate part of a healthy diet.   Overcome that particular mental block and you'd be further down the road of eating normally.

Oh I've been thinking about this all the time, too! I wonder if I'll ever be able to not count calories. I have tried to have my days off, but I ALWAYS count my cals. Heck, I dont even need to count them, I KNOW them without even thinking that much. Oh well...

I sure wish I could just eat like all my friends do. And be normal about this. I often think "why ON EARTH am I obsessing about how much energy do I give to my body?" It sounds SO rediculous, and Im only 14...

ieevee-

we are soooo alike! I can at least estimate whatever thing on the plate no matter how it is cooked!! But I'm sure that the further I get away from eating log, I would be able to stop counting calories. I hope...

yes!  don't worry...  we will ALL be normal again, but only if we up our calories once we hit the maintenance stage.  it's really important to start practicing being normal again.  i know.  it's scary!

just watch that scale!  give yourself a 5 pound cushion & get back to basics for a day or so if necessary.

oh!  and don't go back to being a couch potato, but all that exercise won't be necessary anymore.  you will just need to find a happy medium spot where you can stay.

i hardly ever log my intake anymore.  i still do sometimes, though, just to be sure i am getting an A.  :D

'Normal' for me, after spending the last 2 years losing weight and finally entering maintenance mode, is exercising 6 days a week.  And writing down everything that I eat, even if that means I ate 4 pieces of Pineapple Upside Down Cake and had a 2500 calorie day (yesterday-- eesh).  It wasn't the occasional high-calorie day that made me fat, it was the fact that every day was a high-calorie day, and I didn't exercise. 

I truely love to exercise now.  I enjoy setting new fitness goals for myself and achieving them and setting new ones.  I enjoy the way that eating right makes my body feel. 

This isn't a diet, or an abnormal lifestyle, this is a healthy lifestyle.  And of course you should not obsess over what you eat, but you should watch what you eat.  And if you want 4 pieces of Pineapple Upside Down Cake, than have it!  But be careful the next day, or exercise it off.  Or just don't worry about it so much because the extra 600 calories for one day isn't going to make you fat!

Well considering I was never normal to begin with the answer is no.

You know what's odd - I have been living my lifestyle for so long that I don't even think that I am eating differently than anyone else - I eat as much as I want of the foods I believe are healthy when I feel like it... I will never NOT exercise because mentally & physically I feel so much better doing it daily... One time when I had to drive from 8 until 4 I felt so incredibly tired because I did not exercise that day! I will never not exercise a day in my life - EVEN IF I AM SICK! ha ha! 

Me too, all my friends are so damnn skinny yet they dont appear to count calories or care. Most of them dont even know what calories are or how much you should have in a day. They simply eat whatever they want. But usually naturally skinny people actually eat less when your not around them. I count calories without even realizing it. I cant stop, I really dont think I ever will be able to :[. I mean even when im eating out with my friends I find myself counting and sizing up my friends meals and somtimes I count everything other people eat because im just curious how many calories other people eat. Ahh, im way to obsessed with calories. I don't know about you but I dont think I will ever be able to go back to not thinking about calories all the time...

Been at this for over 1yr & I have to say yes you will be or already are Normal<tm>.  You're quesitoning the rational of counting every calorie & thats a good thing.  But one item I would like to touch on in this topic is that our food is *NOT* Normal.  It's filled w/chemicals, steroids, HFCS & transfat <shelf life>.   Maybe instead of counting cals we should focus on making healtier choices so that it's not so easy to gain so much d@mn weight.   I'd also like to have the FDA held responsible for all the garbage they call "food".  Did anyone else read today that Healthy Choice frozen meals have been recalled because of "Plastic pieces"?!?!  WTF!  the packages were even inspected!!!  It's time for the consumer to start demanding that our Gov. take our health seriously.

I think it's different for everyone. We just have to take each day as it comes and live within the limits we're comfortable with. I hope that one day I am "normal" in my behavior where I can eat what I want, and I can stop when I'm not hungry anymore, but it is not in the now. I still struggle with problems like binging, and over eating. When I throw counting out the window, it triggers something in my head where I just go overboard. So for now, this is my comfortable limits, and I take each day to ease into a normal life. Maybe someday, maybe not. Either way I'm healthier.

charming_imy27, are the people you speak of as "normal" and "ordinary" really that when they do not think about eating a balanced diet and not even exercising ?  Just my opinion, "normal" means eating a balanced diet 80- 90 % and allowing for up to 10% of "extras" as well as including physical activity in thier lives.  Case in point,  the husband can go w/ out a "real" breakfast and lunch and live off a muffin and chips, candy bar as breakfast and lunch.  I scratch my head as to how he can be so thin.  Well, he is thin because he is active.  Is he healthy/happy?  I assume no because his body is lacking nutrition and the physical activity becomes more cumbersome.  For me, "normal" is a balanced diet (food pyramid guidelines) and physical activity.  Can't matain weight with one or the other - need both for a healthy/happy body and mind.  So, I would think "normal" is being able to balance by eating right and staying physically active.

I know this is an old topic - it just caught my eye.