I’m talking about how Before & After Photos mess with your head — and disconnect you from your Always Body today on Never Say Diet.

One quick note. [And a warning! This might be triggering for some folk. Skip it and go read today’s post if that’s the case for you.] Otherwise, keep on reading…

Regular readers know that I decided to lose some weight in January. Now it’s April and I’ve lost some of the weight. Which is what inspired today’s post about Before & After photos.

But, you might be asking, you Never Say Diet! How is this so? Are you a big (but less fat now) hypocrite?

So here’s the back story: I didn’t diet. There was no calorie counting or carbohydrate avoidance — I pinky swear it. I ate everything I usually ate, but kept an eye on portion size and tried to be mindful of eating only when I was hungry and stopping when I was full.

The good news is that this approach doesn’t result in the good food/bad food shame spiral that you get with a diet.

The bad news is that it’s still kinda hard — and the hardest part is that the results are slower and more subtle. Probably if I had dieted, I would have lost all of the weight instead of just half of it. But I also would have been hungry and cranky and deprived all the time. Which would translate to gaining the weight right back when I got sick of all those scary food rules. Enter shame spiral and serious lack of fun.

So I’m focused on enjoying the smaller changes, aesthetically speaking. And big picture, I’m appreciating my body where it’s been, where it is now, and wherever it might go in the future. Sorry if that sounds unbelievably New Age and cheesy. It’s actually sort of working.

Oh and if you want more (not cheesy, just practical) tips for loving your Always Body right now, check out Ragen’s awesome post about that here.