Put on a Diet

At one point during our dynamic, Lois said she wanted me to start eating healthy and lose some weight. I thought this had been coming for a while but I was still a little surprised when she said it, as well as worried. What if I wouldn’t be able to do this? I mean, that’s my usual worry in regards to any task, right? But when Lois wanted something there wasn’t much to argue.

Eating History

Looking back, I never really ate healthily in my life. I’ve always had digestive problems of some sorts. I was born 10 weeks early so I’ve been told I couldn’t keep in certain food during my early years. This was no longer a problem by the time I was aware of eating but I really struggled with eating whole wheat products. It used to make me want to throw up so I tried to avoid eating breakfast and snuck downstairs early to instead eat chocolate cookies or something similar. Children, right? I didn’t do well with meat either so during dinner I would sort of pretend to eat it and get rid of it elsewhere, then go back to something like biscuits. I only stopped doing this when I became depressed and went through life eating plain crackers for a while.

A few years later before university, my friend and I discovered our love for food. A typical day we spend together starts by getting our favourite cheesecake and tea somewhere, followed by all you can eat sushi (and I mean all you can eat) plus ice cream from our favourite ice cream parlour. How do we manage to eat all of that? I don’t know but she reserves a specific ML fund for when I’m back in the Netherlands as we tend to see each other several times. And yes I do tend to gain weight whenever I visit, lol.

When I started university in 2015 I also started eating chocolate, crisps, doughnuts and all the great sugary things at quite an alarming rate (mentioned that in this post before). I started gaining weight (though it was rather gradually and not that noticeable to anyone but me) and felt more insecure because of it. I wasn’t unhappy with my body but it bothered me that it had changed. This is probably really silly and I feel embarrassed writing it but I thought that the more time passed, the less attractive I became which meant I should really find a girlfriend or dominant soon because otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to experience my best years. Is this how people feel when they get older? lol. Seriously though, I’m pretty sure I didn’t go a single day without eating chocolate for months at a time. This was still very much the case when Lois told me to start eating healthy and lose some weight and I welcomed it. I had suggested that she should maybe interfere so I would stop eating chocolate; it was an addiction that I wanted to get rid of but couldn’t on my own. I had tried things like going on a refined sugar-free diet (like I bought a cooking book and all) as well as other things and it all failed.

My Diet

Losing weight worried me because I didn’t think I was able to do it as I had no idea where to start (other than cutting out chocolate). She very matter-of-factly said that it was very simple; all I had to do was consume fewer calories than that went out. “Alright,” I said. “I’ll try, I guess but please help me if I can’t do it.” She stepped in once to punish me for eating chocolate. The only other thing she did was ask me for a picture here and there, as well as update her on my weight. Otherwise, I did it all by myself. Apparently I only needed the order and my usual desire to please her.

For a while, I kept track of what I was eating and my weight with my Fitbit, though I wasn’t very consistent. I can’t remember the exact date that I started but it was sometime in February when I was around 60kg.

The first thing I did was cutting out chocolate, which was really difficult because I was truly addicted. I knew from the start that I couldn’t just go off and have nothing to replace it with. I tried carrots and hummus, which I didn’t fancy enough so I scrapped that and ended up with small round crackers that I ate with jam (maybe 4 to 8 a day). I started eating miso soup for breakfast (which I love) and ate an omelette with ham, cheese and spinach for lunch with probably one or two pieces of toast and hummus. Dinner could be something like sweet potato fries, salmon and a mix of vegetables. I also ate pasta or noodles sometimes. I know you’re supposed to go off carbs when losing weight but I exercise so I kind of need them. I also think that rather than full-on dieting, mostly all I did was change my eating habits. I already only drank water (and tea) and obviously exercised a lot, so there wasn’t much I had to change about my lifestyle.

On the 7th of March, I was 57.3kg, which is the picture below. On the 6th I went to 57.1kg, on the 7th to 57kg and on the 8th to 56.5kg.

I was so surprised that I was actually losing weight. I honestly thought losing weight required some excessive diet and so far, cutting out all the bad things seemed to be working pretty well. For context’s sake, I was around 54kg when I started university (at 20). In the six years prior I was between 50 and 54kg and I stopped growing when I was 13 years old (stuck at 163 cm, lol. Thank you Asian genes *cough*). By the 16th of March, I reached 56.2kg.

On the 17th I went down to 56kg and then stopped making progress for the following 5 days. My mental health had dropped so I ate chocolate (when I say eat chocolate I mean like a full bar, if not two) and needed some days to go back to where I’d been. On the 22nd I went to 55.8kg, 23rd: 55.7kg, 24th: 55.6kg, 25th: 55.5kg, 26th: 54.8kg (Don’t ask me how. Football match perhaps) and on the 27th I reached 54.2kg.

Seeing the changes in my body was a real eye-opener. Liam and I were both amazed because every time we thought I looked great and it couldn’t really make much of a difference to lose more weight it did. Seeing the changes in my body did make me appreciate myself more and it gave me confidence. Lois had never given me a specific number to work towards but kind of judged it along the way. I was pretty happy by this point but apparently it wasn’t quite up to her standard yet so she said to keep on going.

I don’t know how much I weighted in the picture below. According to my Fitbit, on the 30th of March, I was 53.8kg and on the 17th of April 52.5kg. I didn’t log how much I weighed on the 4th of April but that’s when this picture was taken.

I then hit another slump of 10 days and reached 52kg on the 26th of April. Finally, 23 days later I reached 50.2kg on the 19th of May, which is when I stopped dieting and had to figure out how to eat enough calories to remain stable. The thing is, I struggled when my mental health sucked but I wasn’t hungry while I was dieting. I didn’t obsess over calories. After the first 2 weeks, I had found a certain eating schedule that worked. All I needed to do was eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and as long as I did that, it kind of worked. It’s probably because I exercise so much. During an away match, my team always went to MacDonalds afterwards and I always got a burger and fries (sometimes a Macflurry) too but I wouldn’t have gained any weight the next day. That’s how many calories I lose during a football match? I don’t know, I’m not a dietician. But I also have a really fast metabolism, which makes sense because I exercise a lot.

The best benefit of this diet was that I stopped feeling like food (and specifically chocolate) was controlling me. I stopped having that craving and constant need to eat something with sugar, which gave my mind so much peace. Secondly, my stomach didn’t hurt as much and my constipation became better and thirdly, I felt a lot more confident because of my body. This time of my life, depression wise was honestly the lightest (pun intended ha) I had felt like in years and years. Like, I couldn’t remember that I had ever felt like this before. I wasn’t euphoric, just alright and happy, I think. I’ve kind of forgotten what that feels like again, but it was great.

The End of Our Dynamic

I didn’t cope very well when my dynamic with Lois ended (July). I tried to stick to my good habits and even managed for a few days thinking I would only feel worse if I lost the figure I’d worked so hard to get while regaining my chocolate addiction. Of course, I broke and did end up eating chocolate. I went back to 52kg pretty quickly and then started swinging in between 51kg and 52kg. I was trying to fight my urge to eat sugar and succeeded for maybe two or three days at a time before going down the slippery slope again.

I can’t remember much from that time. When I dissociate or break down or end up in a long depressive period I tend to barely remember anything from that time. There are a few key points I can remember, which are essentially 5-second snippets of something that somehow stuck to my mind. To me, they’re like stills, like a moment captured and frozen in time so I have at least a point of reference. In August I was in the Netherlands and between then and December I sort of stabilised around 51kg, which I was happy with. I don’t need to be 50kg; Lois liked me to be. But around March I stopped being stable again.

Overeating

During this pandemic, my eating habit has felt out of control in the same way it did after my dynamic with Lois ended. I started swinging between 52kg and 54kg and I didn’t feel too bothered about 52kg, but 54kg was definitely a low. But more than my weight, what really bothers me is that food seems to be in control, not me. I’m not actually eating a lot of sugar but I am overeating and this can be anything. At first, I had a few of the small round crackers with jam or cheese, which I mentioned above but since the pandemic, if they’re in my cupboard I’ll just eat all of them. I stopped buying jam or cheese to prevent this from happening but I would still eat them without. It then took me about two more weeks before I was able to stop buying the crackers.

What followed was beschuit with chocolate sprinkles, which is Dutch (see the picture below. However, I use about 1/3rd of the amount of chocolate sprinkles and eat it without butter). My dad sends me a box with Dutch stuff I miss sometimes. During Christmas, I ate these instead of bread so just before the pandemic, I asked him to send me a lot, which translated to about 20 packages of 13. Now since I’ve been overeating you can imagine that 20 packages are a bit of a weight gaining problem. Then when I finished all of them I started eating too much bread (which I tried to stop by putting it in the freezer because then it requires effort to make toast, which didn’t work). As a result, I replaced bread with rye crackers because they don’t taste that nice except that didn’t seem to matter. I then moved onto boring plain rice crackers, then carrots and hummus because I never really liked that either and still every single time, I end up overeating. It’s been a bit of a disaster, really. I have never had this kind of overeating, where it literally doesn’t matter what it is.

Image by: Lucy Lambriex / Getty Images

At the moment I’m still swinging between 52kg and 54kg. It literally depends on my mood at the moment and I absolutely hate it and hate myself for it. When I overeat (no matter what I look like and whether I’m 50kg or 60kg) I don’t feel good or confident in my own skin. When I’m down all my mind can think about is wanting to eat and I’m constantly fighting myself in order not to. The later it is in the day, the more likely I am to lose that fight. I know that I’m capable of getting out of this and I know that life is still rather strange right now and my mental health isn’t at its best. However, I feel like I need to get out of this sooner rather than later as this in and of itself is affecting my mental health too. I want to stop thinking about food all the time and just have some peace. I’ll get there.

Xx ML

16 Replies to “Put on a Diet”

  1. nudo4

    Hi ML, i think you look great now. Remember to eat regularly and small meals, 4 a day. Eat slowly. Give your body fruits or vegetables as between meals. The stomach should have something to work with, metabolism, if you, for example, walk a long time between meals, the body may begin to think that it is starvation and begin to store fat, among other things.
    This has been my mantra for 12 years, and has lost 16 kg.
    Along with exercise, yoga and strength.
    And you exercise I know, keep it up.
     

    Reply
  2. Tom

    For what it is worth, and I will put it bluntly and I hope you don’t mind: I like your “sometime in February” figure better than those that follow. Yes, seriously, you certainly didn’t look like you needed to shed weight. But what really matters is how it all makes you feel. Around 54 kilos sounds like a great compromise. In any case, you’re a cutie.

    I know how it makes you feels when you overeat and cannot stop (the low selfesteem), and I am in a far greater need of losing weight than you . Food craving is quite a bitch, isn’t it?

    You are probably not looking for fresh ideas about how to normalize your weight, but if you are, have you looked into intermittent fasting kind of eating? I am looking into it right now. It is not really a diet, it is a way of eating lifestyle to adopt, and it actually contradicts to a large degree the “many small regular meals over the day” approach. You fast regularly (like for 12-18 hours every day in one of its variants), but fasting intervals are too short to trigger the dreaded starvation and fat accumulating processes in the body. There seems to be a lot of supporting evidence in its favor and the explanation of how and why it works (the beneficial biological processes in the body that the short fasting intervals trigger) makes a lot of sense, at least to me.

    But then again, there are obviously many ways to skin this particular proverbial cat…

    Reply
    • MLSlavePuppet Post author

      I don’t mind at all, don’t worry. It’s funny how you like the sometime in February figure better. I suppose everyone has preferences! Like with certain hairstyles, you can’t ‘please’ (for a lack of a better word) everyone. (Which I know is not what you mean!)
      I know I felt insecure being at that weight, esp looking in the mirror if I was naked. It was fine when I was dressed. So it was really positive for me to lose some weight. But I’m happy to know I don’t have to worry either way. I suppose in the end like you say it’s all about feeling comfortable in your own skin.

      Lol! Food craving certainly is a bitch. It’s such a consumer of the mind.

      I actually tried intermittent fasting and found it worked really well for stopping the cravings to eat so I would definitely recommend! Unfortunately it made me constipated if I didn’t eat throughout the day so I stopped but some friends of mine do it too and have no problem with it.

      Atm I’m trying to regulate it also by going to the library where I can’t eat haha! But then the evenings are always my pitfall

      Reply
      • Tom

        Oh the evenings, I know. I swear it, when I get home in the evening (nearly every day), I am a different person and I could eat an ox! I can be well behaved the whole day, but in the evening (or, even worse, later at night, before going to bed) my resolutions are flushed away and all to often I eat… and feel like shit in the morning and I promise to myself never to do it again. And then, rinse and repeat. Far too often.

        Reply
  3. Sweetgirl

    I totally understand how when you over eat you don’t feel right. There is the mental side of it, where you feel out of control and guilty at least that’s how it affects me. I hope you find a way to take back control so you feel calmer and more like yourself

    Reply
    • MLSlavePuppet Post author

      Yes, exactly. I think for me it’s the mental side that makes it so bad. But then I guess in order to feel bad about the body we see, that’s also the mental bit!
      Thank you Sweet

      Reply
  4. May More

    I think u are very toned cause of your sport and that can weigh heavier than someone who looks bigger.
    As far as finding someone while u look at your prime is concerned – a person is more “marketable” at their prime – and in the olden days would need to “marry” so as to get their choice of the best, richest husband lol – but – well – times have changed. And i have had my best times over 30 years old
    May xx

    Reply
    • MLSlavePuppet Post author

      That’s true I suppose! Though I don’t have a very strong core contrary to what it might look like haha.
      LOl it’s good that times have changed. And I think ‘your best time’ is not really a thing as there’s something new and beautiful at any stage in your life. Maturity itself can be very attractive

      Reply
  5. collaredmichael

    You look great but need to feel that way too. So lose weight if it is important to you. You looked great at 50 kg too. After all, we’re only talking a difference of 8 or so pounds. On a smallish person that is a fair amount and you are a smallish person.
    Cutting out bread and grains will make weight loss easier.
    Stay safe!

    Reply
    • MLSlavePuppet Post author

      Thank you. I think I feel okay with myself after a while. But going up from a certain weight will always feel bad because it’s a change I don’t want to have. But I feel like I have my food intake a bit more under control right now.

      Reply
  6. Marie Rebelle

    I think you look wonderful in all your images, but get that it is YOU that have to feel good with how you feel, and not how others look at you. Eating regularly and cutting out sugar is probably mostly the best way to do it. I need to get back to that regime, especially so I can be kinder to my tummy.
    ~ Marie

    Reply
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