While many of my friends gained weight during the pandemic, I lost about 20 pounds during the lockdown without going on a strict diet and without exercise.  

Everyone keeps asking me how I managed to do that so I decided to write about it.  

When the world shut down at the beginning of the pandemic, going to Costco became my obsession.   In fact, it was an all-day affair since I, like most Americans, had to stand in line for up to 2 1/2 hours before even entering the store.  The hunt for paper towels and toilet paper was all-consuming.  Buying extra food and snacks while at Costco was the logical thing to do.  My semi-empty nest was completely full again and everyone was always hungry.  

I was cooking and eating a lot for my family even though I was still trying hard not to gain weight.  But when the numbers on the scale started to creep up, I needed to find a way to keep my family happily fed while still maintaining my weight.   However, I did not want to feel miserable or deprived.  The world had already turned upside down and food felt like comfort.  

I needed a new plan.  I had been on hundreds of diets throughout my life.  I was well-versed in Deprivation Dieting.  Deprivation Dieting is eliminating the tasty, “bad-for-you” food and eating “twigs and sprouts” instead. 

With enough willpower, Deprivation Dieting works.   It  worked for me – just not over the long run.  I could not sustain it long-term so I eventually regained the weight I had lost.  A steady diet of carrots and celery was not going to cut it during a pandemic.  I needed to figure out how to enjoy the tasty food I liked but not pack on the pounds.  

I stumbled upon a solution.

I had to eliminate “Obligatory Eating” and eat only what I love, when I am actually hungry for it.

I know what you are thinking – “Are you crazy?!  Doing that is what made you gain weight in the first place.”

Actually, that’s not true.  

What used to happen is that I would crave a little something sweet – like a cookie.   But I knew that I should not eat a cookie, so I’d find something “healthy” to eat instead.  I’d eat an apple.  That would not quite hit the spot, so I would eat an orange.  That was not satisfying so I’d have some carrots.  Twenty carrot sticks later I would still be craving that cookie.  Finally, I’d break down and eat that cookie.  

I would have been better off if I had just eaten the dang cookie in the first place.  

Obligatory Eating is when you eat something because you feel obliged to eat it.  It’s eating something at 8am because breakfast is the “most important meal of the day” even though you aren’t really hungry.  It’s eating boneless, skinless chicken breasts when you would rather have a juicy thigh.  It’s eating an apple when you are really in the mood for some vanilla ice cream with rainbow sprinkles.  

Obligatory Eating was making me miserable and it was not helping my waistline.  The problem is that we have been trained by the diet industry not to trust ourselves or listen to our own bodies.  We have allowed the diet gurus to tell us exactly what to eat and when to eat it.  We have been conditioned to chase one magic bullet after another with each one disappointing us in the end.  

They disappoint us because we are each unique.  A “diet plan” that works like a charm for Janet may only frustrate Jackie.  We each have to stop looking outside of ourselves for the solution and sit still long enough to listen to our bodies.  

That’s what the pandemic made me do.  It eliminated most of my commitments outside the home and consequently took some of my eating habits off auto-pilot.  When that happened, I was able to pay better attention to my body’s signals.  When I did that  I realized that I had been eating according to the clock instead of my level of hunger.  I had been eating what I was “supposed to” eat instead of what I really wanted at that time.  It was time for a change. 

That’s how I lost 20 pounds.  I listened to my own cravings before I put anything in my mouth.  I trained myself to take the time I needed to figure out exactly what would satisfy my hunger best at that moment.  Then I ate precisely that and only that.  And I ate only the amount I needed to satisfy that craving.  

I know, that sounds scary.  What if I craved chocolate cake and ended up eating the entire cake in one sitting?!  Guess what?  Once I slowed down and listened to my body, that did not happened.  Believe me, I would have gobbled up an entire cake before the pandemic.  But because the pandemic kept me at home, I learned to eat very slowly and to savor every bite.  

I learned to pay close attention to my body’s signals.  I also learned to stop eating as soon as the craving first goes away.  I walk away from that cake when it first “hits the spot” and my sweet tooth is satisfied.  No going back for seconds and thirds.  That discipline took a little while to develop – but if I can develop it, so can you.   

You know what else?  Sometimes I actually crave an apple.  And sometimes I crave a salad.  When that happens, I enjoy those foods immensely because that’s what I feel like eating.  The key is never eating something I don’t really want just because it’s convenient, “healthy” or low in calories.   

Because I learned to pay attention to my body’s cues and trust myself, no foods are off limits.  So when I really want some ice cream, I enjoy just enough of it to satisfy my cravings for it.  And I enjoy that ice cream without feeling guilty about eating it.  

So, that’s the secret to my weight loss during the pandemic.  It sounds simple, but it worked like a charm.  Let me know if you think you are brave enough to give it a try.