Taking a My Fitness Pal Break...

I remember a time when I was hooked on the Weight Watchers message boards.  I spent hours a day on there, getting tips, talking with "friends" (and a couple of actual friends), giving advice, and reading posts about anything and everything.

I realized that it wasn't healthy to spend so much time on a site, especially once I drifted away from Weight Watchers yet again.  But instead of quitting altogether, I found a new addiction:  My Fitness Pal.

Don't get me wrong, now, I love MFP. 

It's a fantastic tool for weight loss and calorie counting. Also, the friends that I made on there have really helped to get me through some difficult times, including this entire past year.  They helped me with my grief and validated my emotions when I felt especially crazy.  I am more honest and revealing on my MFP page than I am with anyone in "real life".  They know the REAL me. 

...But. 

But, I was spending way too much time on there.  It has become an addiction, just like the Weight Watchers boards were. 

Because I don't want to feed ANY of my addictions, I am taking a break from MFP.  It will not be a permanent one, because like I said, I have made some true friends on there, and they have helped me so much.  I want to continue to be there for them as well, and MFP is a great forum to do that.

I am once again taking the plunge into intuitive eating.  This time, I am going to be truly kind to myself, and will be focusing on it from a different perspective, incorporating ideas from several different successful intuitive eaters and taking baby steps. 

In order to do this, I need to eliminate the temptation to track calories.  This is another reason that I am stepping away from MFP.  It is too tempting to track my food when I am on a site that is meant for... tracking food. 

I don't want to focus on weight loss or calories right now, and that is MFP's main purpose. 

The main reason that I am stepping away from tracking is that I truly believe that it is the next step for my EDNOS recovery, as well as eliminating emotional eating as much as possible. 

One IE tip that is helping me today is to ask myself every time I eat:  "Would I still want to eat this if I were not allowed to watch TV / play on the internet / read while eating it?"  If the answer is "yes" then I must be truly hungry.  And sometimes I do step away and eat without the distractions, but most of the time I am still eating with some distractions.  Baby steps and self-love.  I will get there.

One of my goals is to enjoy biking for the
sake of biking, not for the calories burned. 

One final reason that I'm stepping away from MFP for a bit is the LSAT!!!  I have fallen behind in my studying, and the most important test that I will ever take (until the bar, I suppose...) is only five weeks away!!!  Yikes.

Also, if you guys want to read more about intuitive eating from another blogger's perspective, you should check out my friend Marie's blog The Dancing Paralegal.  She has recently taken the IE plunge, too, and is doing really great.

Have you ever been addicted to a website? 

If so, how did you get over it?