How Do You Know If Your Taking Your Diet Too Far?
April 11, 2009
Hey Katie,
I have been a vegetarian for a month and a week now. My family thinks its fine, their totally supporting me. But I’m the only one in my family who is a vegetarian. I’ve tried to persuade them, but they keep saying it’s not for me and all that stuff. So I’m ok with that now, since it’s their choice.
My actual question is that I’ve been dieting and not eating any junk food for a month now. And I plan on still doing it. And I’ve been doing vigorous exercises. All this is to lose weight. I’m 107 right now. I plan on going to 95.
My parents have found out I was on this diet, and they keep telling me I can get hurt, I know I can but I know my extremes. I don’t know if I should listen to them or do my own thing? Any help?
Andrea, 13
.
Dear Andrea,
Being a vegetarian is a perfectly fine decision to make if that’s what you want to do. Like you said, it’s a personal choice and you can’t convince your friends to want to become vegetarians too. But it sounds like you are becoming a vegetarian to lose weight too.
It’s really easy to start dieting and just want to lose a few pounds and then lose control and obsess over it. A simple diet can become a strict diet where you count every calorie and gram of fat in your food until suddenly that’s all you think about. So just be cautious and aware of what can happen, and that it is very hard to stop once you start thinking about food in this way.
My suggestion to you is if you want to be vegetarian, do it for health reasons, such as you want to be healthy and eat nutritious food. Don’t do it to lose pounds on the scale. The scale does not measure how healthy you are and it is easy to get attached to those numbers and not see that you are risking your health to be a few pounds lighter. If you are focusing on giving your body what it needs, no more and no less, then your body will find its healthy weight on its own.
Many friends of mine have had issues with food and dieting and have had obscured views of what they should and shouldn’t eat, and all of them who have gotten past it have all said they are much happier with their bodies when they aren’t trying count every calorie.
The truth is, if you starve your body, your metabolism will slow way down and you will gain weight more easily because your body wants to hold onto every calorie it can get! This is bad and in the long run you can end up becoming over weight because your body is storing food that it would normally burn because it is afraid of starving itself.
Realize that curves on a woman are beautiful and give her a womanly shape. Guys like this! Guys don’t like girls that are twigs and look like skeletons. So try not to look at your scale to determine what weight you should be…look in the mirror to see how your body proportions look.
And keep in mind that at your age of 14 you are at a vital time for developing into a woman and if you restrict yourself too much on this diet you may end up stunting your growth and not develop properly (i.e. your height and breasts). So give your body a chance to develop properly. Vegetables and exercise are great and healthy choices, just remember to nourish your body, and don’t deprive it.
One Comment, Comment or Ping
Tasha
Hi,
I know what you mean. I did the exact same thing last summer. Just wanted to shift a few pounds as I was a little shaky on my weight. I just started off by keeping an eye on my calories, setting my self a limit not to go over every day, keeping an eye on the fat content. Soon it got out of hand and I was scared to eat anything with over 100 calories in. As it was summer I was eating slightly less than usual anyway. But with the strictness of the calorie counting I shrunk my stomach. I would eat something small, such as a bowl of cereal, or a bag of crisps all day (7am-10pm). My friends and family commented on my drastic weight loss, as I ended up loosing a stone in about 3-4 weeks. I told them I had it under control and knew what I was doing. Only looking back, I now realise that I was on the verge of anorexia. I’m a size 6 now, but my clothes that fit me now were really baggy on me last summer. I could see every one of my ribs, and my collar bones were really defined and stuck out my skin. Please don’t go on a proper diet like I did, as it could of threatened my life.
Tasha-12.
Apr 13th, 2011
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