Peanut butter was supposed to save my tanking metabolism …
This story always serves as a good reminder of why it’s so important to avoid the pitfalls of always eating less.
Before I get into it, last night I did a free training on how your personality impacts your nutrition and dietary approach.
You can watch the replay for free – right here!
Ok … back to the peanut butter story.
Here’s what my dieting program looked like …
This was during my fad diet days and I was doing a 6 week challenge (that turned into about a 6 year disordered relationship with food and my body, but that’s besides the point).
This particular challenge had me eating approximately 1,400-1,600 calories per day depending on whether I had worked out or not.
On workout days, I was allowed to add two servings of fruit.
It’s funny (read: sad) how none of that seemed strange at the time.
I couldn’t begin eating until 2 pm and I had to be done eating by 8 pm.
I was following all of the rules to a tee.
About 3 weeks into the challenge, the guy in charge asked that we take our body temperature for 3 days in a row.
My body temperature was very low. Like 96.5 or right around there.
Not good.
Low body temperature can indicate a slow metabolism and some thyroid issues (which I didn’t know at the time).
I reported back to the coach and his response was …. “Man, that’s pretty low. Ok, here’s what we’re going to do …
Each morning, eat 1 tablespoon of peanut butter to start the day.”
Ummmm … what?!
My response at the time was: yesssss, I get to eat peanut butter every morning! 🥳
Gotta love diet culture where we celebrate foods we’re “allowed” to eat.
Here’s how the program worked long term …
Anyway, I added the tablespoon of peanut butter … it obviously made no difference at all because an additional 100-ish calories is not going to change anything when you’re severely under eating.
I finished the challenge, and I kept eating that way for as long as I possibly could.
I become orthorexic.
I hated how I looked as my body continued to shrink.
Then, I ended up having crazy binge episodes and lots of yo-yo dieting ensued.
I’m condensing a lot of years of psychological and physiological damage here but the point is this …
If you’re constantly falling into the eat less / do more trap … it’s a VERY slippery slope.
It rarely works long term.
Scratch that … it NEVER works long term.
It’s not worth the collateral damage.
And, it cannot be cured with 95 calories of peanut butter. 🥴
There’s a much more effective way to get the body you desire while actually enjoying the process and sustaining the results you get.
Everyone is different, so the details and specifics will look unique to you.
However, a simple thing to understand is that you should be NOT dieting as much or more often than you’re actively dieting.
