Category: Health

Food, oh how I love food! I have always had an appetite for glorious food for as long as I can remember. At the age of 4 at my grandparents’ house, I knew that when Young & the Restless was over, it was lunch time, and once Oprah was over, it was dinner time, lol. The most important times of the day for me!

As a child, I never really exercised outside of recess or gym class. My metabolism must have been a bit fast because I remained relatively small during childhood and my teen years. For the most part, I have maintained a healthy weight most of my life, but my thirties have been a different story. Remaining thin does not equal healthy eating and I am the prime example of that. Here is my journey with food and weight over the years.

Food in My Twenties

Sugar has been my best friend for years. As an adult, my sugar intake increased greatly when I went to college. During college, no one was there to monitor my diet so I would gain about 10 to 12 pounds during the school year and lose it during the summer break each year. I would overconsume calories by binge eating or underconsume calories to maintain my weight.

Most of my calories were from sugary and highly processed foods. Before moving to New York, I hit my goal weight despite my terrible diet. I worked out with a trainor for about 10 months at Planet Fitness in 2016. From 2016 until 2017, I took dance classes eight hours a week at AMDA and lived in NYC. I maintained my weight pretty well for the first couple of years living in New York. From 2017 to 2018, I gained about 10 pounds and then gained another 10 pounds in 2019.

2020-2021

I turned thirty in November of 2019. During the pandemic, I was teaching full-time remotely for the entire school year. I was the least active than I had been in my entire adult life in 2020. Furthermore, I discovered ubereats, grubhub and doordash, which was a mistake for sure. The pounds piled on quickly causing my most rapid weight gain in my life.

From July 2020 until February 2021, I gained thirty additional pounds. I never thought I would see a number that high, but 196 pounds was my highest weight ever. I knew that I had to make a change because I did not want to see 200 anytime soon. Unfortunately, I still loved food aloooot, so this weight loss journey was not as quick as I thought it would be. I thought I could drop 30 pounds in six months, but this was not the case.

2021-Mid 2022

First, I got rid of my ubereats, doordash, and grubhub accounts. If you have a food addiction, having food come directly to your door will not end well for you. Secondly, I began to walk 10,000 steps or more everyday. This is a habit that I still continue today. Lastly, I began using my fitness pal to track my food and exercise daily. Logging my food showed me that I had been consuming about 3,000 calories a day without even realizing it.

2022-Present

Eventually, I lost the thirty pounds over the course of a year and a half. So far, I have maintained the 30 pound weight loss since late 2022. My diet is still a work in progress. Yes, my calorie intake has decreased and I do not binge eat the way that I used to all the time. But, the quality of my calories is still the issue. My cholesterol was a bit high last year and my doctor referred me to a nutritionist.

If you have a nutritionist, it is not just a one time visit. I have met with a nutritionist quite a few times over the course of the past year. I learned that food is definitely a coping mechanism for me to deal with life. My hectic ever changing lifestyle does not help much either. Food has been my drug of choice.

One of the biggest issues that I have dealt with pretty much my entire life is loneliness. Adulthood has been extremely challenging for me in many ways and I never had any outlets, except eating. Food has been my friend for as long as I can remember because it is consistently there and people are not.

I have plenty of friends who live in other states. However, most friends have partners and being single leaves you out on the fringe of society when you reach a certain age. So, I began reading and taking 5-mile walks more often to relieve my stress and loneliness. I am working on socializing a bit more too.

Conclusion

After meeting with the nutrionist multiple times, I am still holding on to 20 extra pounds. The sugar addiction has been hard to break. I read a book called Breaking Up with Sugar by Molly Carmel twice. I have attemped multiple times to give it up. The nutrionist did teach me to find ways to prepare meals at home that are not too difficult. I did not like to cook at home. I hated it.

But, I have started to meal prep at least my breakfast and my protein for dinner on the weekends. Now, if I could continue to cut down on sugar, the 20 pounds would drop quickly. My nutritionist has told me this multiple times to no avail. Frustrated is an understatement. If you can break your sugar addiction or over indulgence with food, please consider it.

My calorie count is reasonable overall, but the quality of calories could still use some improvement. My prayer is to lose these last 20 pounds by June and give up sugar until I reach this goal. If food is your best friend, I completely understand because my journey with food has been a wild ride for sure. Stay encouraged friends!

Sincerely,

Dominique Duarte

https://www.bydominiqueduarte.com/how-to-overcome-food-addiction/

Food addiction can be difficult to handle. You cannot completely give up food since you need it to live. However, you are addicted to overeating and food is always so tempting for you. Eating whole foods can help curb appetite and cooking at home can cut the excess calories when eating out. Plan and log your meals, cancel food delivering services, and meet with a nutritionist regularly.

Plan & Log Your Meals

Keeping a food diary can be key to long term weight loss. When you are addicted to food, you overeat without realizing it. So use a journal or notebook to log every single thing that you eat every day. The best way to log meals and excercise is to use the My Fitness Pal app or website. My Fitness Pal is the easiest way to log your meals because it can give you the most accurate calorie readings for almost anything that you eat no matter where you eat.

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/create/welcome

Cancel All Food Delivering Services

If you are addicted to food, using doordash, ubereats, or grubhub can tempt you to overeat more frequently. Deleting them will make it harder for you to access high calorie foods more frequently. When you do go out to eat, walk or drive to go get the food. This decision will make it more likely that you will eat at home more often and eat out less. But if you want to keep these services, you can limit how much you will use them.

Meet with a Nutritionist

A nutritionist can give you advice to make small changes to improve your eating habits over time. You and your nutritionist can come up with strategies based on your personal goals and your current lifestyle. Nutritionists will have meal ideas that you may have never thought of as options that work for your daily life. Lastly, you can reach out to your primary care doctor and ask if they can refer you to a nutritionist.

Conclusion

If you have a food addiction, do not be discouraged. You can do this. Make small changes and you will see results. The results just may not be as quick as you thought. It took me a year and a half to lose 30 pounds, but I have maintained the weight loss for over a year. Log your meals on My Fitness Pal, meet with a nutritionist, and cancel or limit the the food delivery subscriptions to reach your health goals.

Check out “How to Eat Healthier” https://bydominiqueduarte.com/how-to-become-healthier/

Hope this helps,

Dominique Duarte

Like so many Americans, I have struggled to eat healthy and exercise pretty much my entire adulthood. Growing up, I ate more balanced meals, but still had a huge love for sweets. I was never overweight as a child, teen or young adult. As a child, I never played sports, rarely played outside, or exercised much, except for physical education classes. My eating habits have never been very good.

I turned 30 right before the pandemic and this is the age where your body WILL CHANGE ALOT. Pre-pandemic, I already carried about 20 extra pounds, nothing too crazy. During the pandemic, I gained an extra 30 pounds. So I had to lose weight and I am just now hitting my pre-pandemic weight almsot, a year and a half later. Here are some tips that helped me shed the pandemic weight:

Book Suggestion: Freedom from Emotional Eating by Barb Raveling: https://amzn.to/3SoslPS

https://bydominiqueduarte.com/how-to-overcome-food-addiction/

Keep a Food Dairy Everyday

You can write it out by hand, use myfitness pal online, or type it daily in a Microsoft Word document. I chose MyFitnessPal. Go back over the diary for the week. Acknowledge what you did well and see where you need to make improvements. The diary has given me insight into my eating habits. I usually don’t eat enough or I binge, and rarely have I had a solid 1200 calorie day.

I’m usually over 1,200 calories or under 1,200 calories. If you want to lose weight, you need to consume between 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day. Then, you can increase to 2,000 calories a day once you reach your goal weight. Counting calories is super important, however, you also need to look for the grams of fat, protein, and sugar. Knowing your numbers are essential for consistent weight loss.

Ask Yourself Why are You Eating

Are you hungry, bored, sad, or lonely? Most times boredom, depression, and loneliness can cause overeating. Quarantine increased boredom and depression for people. Food has become a crutch for many of us during this time. Journal, workout, read books, or watch movies or television shows to manage your stress.

Acknowledge your feelings instead of stuffing them down with food or other substances. Eventually bad habits will catch up with you. It is better to deal with this now before it becomes a serious medical problem later.

Move Your Body

You have to move your body regularly whether you want to maintain or lose weight. I walk almost everyday and this has helped me lose weight within the last year. If you want to go to the gym to tone up, great, but walking is quite effective.

I have walked between 5,000 to 10,000 steps almost every day since early 2021 and have lost almost 30 pounds since that time. I combined the walking with logging my meals consistently and the weight came off. However, be patient if you only choose to walk. If you want quicker weight loss results, the gym may be the way to go.

Conclusion

Keeping a food diary and moving my body have helped me get my body to a healthy weight again. Does this mean that I have everything together? Of course not, my diet is still a serious work in progress. I am consuming less calories most days, but the quality of the calories still needs improvement.

It is okay if you mess up on your daily calories, just reset the next day. Be Patient with yourself! Weight loss does take time and may take longer than you anticipate. I thought 30 pounds would come off in six months, but it took a year and a half. Just remember to take your time and keep taking care of yourselves!!

Have a good day!

Dominique Duarte