Diary of a Habyt babe PT. 2
By Kate Holland - a habyt member
Recently, I signed up for a class on ClassPass without really reading the description. I showed up to the studio and quickly realized that it specialized in just meditation. Not yoga with an extended savasana pose at the end, as I had previously thought. For the class, they tucked you into a little sleep pod and played a guided meditation recording. Although I often refer to this class as "happy adult sleepy time," I try to go once a week. It took me a while to get on the mindfulness train because, in general, I think my mind should be full of less. As an anxiety-riddled human, I try to limit the amount of thoughts swirling around in my brain. However, I've slowly started to realize that the objective of mindfulness is to focus on being present and taking in one thing at a time. While I've been fairly successful in applying this methodology to most areas of my life, my eating habits have been another story. Food was the one thing I never thought about (aside from mentally noting where the closest Shake Shack was at all times). I would go through most of my day like Mrs. Pac- Man, gobbling up almost anything in sight. My knowledge of food was also limited to knowing that bananas are full of potassium, and can be used to revive a diabetic person according to Honey We Shrunk Ourselves, and that butter is not actually a carb, but who the hell cares because, whatever I'm getting cheese fries.
It's only been a week since I started The Habyt, and while it's too soon to see any physical difference in my body, I can already tell that there's been a shift in the way I think about food. For the first time, I'm thinking about the food before I put it in my mouth (whereas I had previously only considered if it would fit or not). In just a few days, I've developed a sense of mindfulness around my food consumption. I went from winging every meal, to having to plan out most of what I was going to eat in advance. The problem wasn't so much the planning, which I didn't mind, but the fact I knew nothing about food. I wasn't able to instantly identify which foods ware high in fat or low in carbs, so I found myself constantly having to look up information. I became extremely grateful to live in the age of the internet, because if this was 30 years ago, I would have had to invest in a pricey encyclopedia set by now. Christina was extremely helpful as I tried to navigate what I could eat within the limits of my macros. The Habyt Starter Kit also helped me learn to plan out my meals and adjust my mindset about dieting. It wasn't a diet, it was a lifestyle change. It wasn't about not eating certain foods, but about making the most of the foods I could eat. I wasn't depriving myself, I was actually respecting my body by thinking about what goes in it for once.
Despite the learning curve, I've been shocked by how well my body has adapted in just a few days. I'm come to enjoy every bite of every meal, opposed to snacking my way through the day. I almost didn't realize how much my taste buds had changed until I made my friend try one of the frozen yogurt "cupcakes" I had been raving about it. I watched her take a bite, and anxiously asked, "Isn't it amazing?!" The displeased look on her face told me otherwise. I was amazed that I had gone from eating four cupcakes in a day to thinking a frozen yogurt bite was a treat. And I was actually happy about it!
I was only really presented with one true challenge during week one, which was that the first day of my program fell on Valentine's Day. Thankfully (?) the only person who sent me chocolates was my mom, and I promptly regifted the box to my apartment's doorman before I was tempted to eat the contents. I made it through the day without being tempted by the candy hearts and caramels, but by the time work was over, I was incredibly hangry. I was seeing red, and not just because of all the heart balloons and roses I saw people carrying down the street on my walk home. The small afternoon snack I had eaten was not cutting it, and I was desperate for dinner. I dramatically threw myself through my apartment door, only to find my roommate and her boyfriend cooking a romantic lobster dinner in the kitchen. When I spotted the lobster, I imagine that I looked like the chef from The Little Mermaid when he angrily chases Sebastian around the kitchen with a cleaver. My roommate must have spotted the murderous look in my eyes, because she quickly helped me make a strawberry spinach salad. After wolfing down the salad, I felt much better and even proud of myself. I could have easily spent my night popping Russell Stover chocolates into my mouth while watching Sex in the City and swiping through Bumble. Instead, I watched Sex in the City and swiped through Bumble while excitedly meal planning for the rest of the week. Baby steps, right?