The Average: My New Best Friend

This week I again started to worry that I'm eating too much. I'm eating only when I'm hungry, and tiny portions. On the other hand, I'm often hungry, and many days I eat slightly more than my goal calorie intake. 

I'm speaking with WRD monthly now, so I spoke with her about this. She reminded me:

* My goal is made up! There is no set amount of recommended calories per day that I'm supposed to be eating. I arrived at my calorie goal through guidelines and self-awareness.

* Calorie content is all approximate. The numbers on the packages -- or in my app -- are not exact. Obsessing over small differences in daily intake is pointless.

* Calorie tracking is a tool. It's meant to help me stay on track, not to control my eating. I should be controlling my eating based on feelings of satiety, and I'm doing that.

* I'm exercising 60 minutes/day, six days/week. Maybe I need a bit more more fuel.

* I'm still losing weight.

* I'm still eating about one-third of what I ate before surgery.

This all made me feel better, for a while. Then the nagging worry returned. 

I jumped on the scale -- thank you to R, who encouraged me to give myself permission to do this sometimes! -- and saw I had lost a few pounds since my last weigh-in. 

Then I searched online several times for something that would make me feel better. And I found it: the average.

Some days I eat more. Some days I eat less. What's my average calorie intake over one week or two weeks? 

I went back through the tracking app and chose random periods of time. And guess what? It's all fine. 

I did a weekly average for several different weeks, plus two-week averages, and a couple of monthly averages. Fine, fine, fine. In fact, my average daily caloric intake is remarkably consistent. 

This is a big relief. I'll try to remember it next time I start to worry.