I got to run outside today and did not have to wear a hat and gloves. What a treat!!
That's all I have to say for today. Other than that, everything is on track and going well. We're getting ready to go to Jack's sister's house in Excelsior Springs for her annual Easter egg hunt. Fun times!!
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Friday, March 29, 2013
3/29/2013: Free
This whole wheat free thing is so new to me that I can't help talking about it. I'm sure the people at work think I am a total freak, always talking about the last book I read about nutrition, exercise, or aging well. But a funny thing is happening, there are a few women that come around my office on a fairly regular basis, or stop me in the hallway, to tell me about progress they are making or to ask me for help on an issue they are having with their own Get Healthy initiatives. I am becoming known as the person in the office that will support and try to help anyone that is trying to make positive changes in their health, no matter where they are in the process. It's kind of nice to be able to help others with something that is so difficult to do all alone.
Lately I have been talking a lot about giving up wheat. I've been so excited about what I read in "Wheat Belly" and the impact that being wheat free has had on me so far, that even Jack has decided to give up wheat for a couple of weeks. So far, he is doing well. He stopped eating wheat on Monday and admits that he feels pretty good. He's not willing to attribute much to the lack of wheat yet, but when I suggested he extend his one week experiment to two weeks, he quickly agreed. That made me happy!! He said he has noticed that he doesn't get as hungry in the afternoons, but so far that is about the only change he has mentioned in the way he feels. He has been surprised to realize how much wheat he was eating. As he says, "Wheat is in everything!" For me, it wasn't that big of a change. Since I had already given up all Dead Food, which encompasses most of the things made of wheat anyway, like cookies, cake, donuts, bagels, breaded and fried foods, crackers, etc... I only had to stop eating the whole wheat toast I was having for breakfast (as much for convenience as anything else) and perhaps a sandwich or bread with my salad at lunch. Therefore, when I stopped eating wheat I didn't have to make a wholesale change in my diet. I added more veggies, like the pan full of vegetables I saute with my eggs in the morning or the veggies I eat with hummus for a snack in the afternoon or evening, but aside from that, my diet has not changed much.
In my opinion, then, given the fact that nothing else has changed (I've been exercising and "eating right" for over a year now), the only thing I can attribute to how different I feel today than I did two weeks ago is the fact that I stopped eating wheat. Jack wonders if it is the "placebo effect," as in I want it to make me feel better so I do feel better. I honestly don't think that's it. I felt like crap on Sunday and was in an equally bad mood on Monday. That is the same time frame that I was having a problem with painful cramps in my foot. I certainly didn't feel good on those days. It took me until the end of the day on Monday to connect the dots to going wheat free, but I think that is what it was. Sunday I was one week into life without wheat and I think my body was adjusting to its new chemical composition. By Tuesday the blues were gone and I was feeling fine. By Wednesday I was feeling incredible. As I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, I was feeling free. Yesterday was a repeat of Wednesday. I felt amazingly good all day long.
One of the most noticeable changes is the fact that I don't think about food very much anymore. Sort of like magic, the cassette tape in my brain that kept saying "eat...eat...eat...eat...eat..." and that I kept having to override with "not now...not now...not now...not now...OK, it's snack time...not now...not now...not now..." has been put on pause. When I am at work I don't sit at my desk, thinking about food and glancing at the clock waiting until it is legitimately "time to eat" again. Instead, I've been very focused on my work and when I look up I am surprised to see how much time has passed. I don't have food cravings at all. I am not having to use up any will power or energy in controlling my food. I'm just focused on work.
I didn't realize how much I've been wearing myself out controlling food. This has been going on my entire life, not just the last year, but my whole life. I've been fighting a war with food. On the one side, I've wanted to eat pretty much constantly. On the other side, I've known what I should eat to be healthy. The war has been a constant series of battles between what I craved and what I knew I should eat. Sometimes the cravings consistently won, and I got fat and felt like crap, sometimes my willpower won and I got thin and felt good, but the war never abated. It was constant.
During this last year I have been successful at arming my willpower's arsenal with more powerful weapons, so my willpower won more and more of the battles. I turned 50, I have so much left that I want to do in my life and many years left that I have to work, so I need to be as healthy and fit as I can possibly be. I read "Younger Next Year" and that book convinced my that I had to exercise for an hour a day six days a week. It gave me the ammunition I needed to stop making excuses to not exercise. Grow or decay each day. Easy choice. I tapped into all of my years of dieting and learning about nutrition to make decent food choices and to reprogram myself to think of food as fuel rather than a drug that makes me feel good. I pretty much stopped using food as a source of pleasure for myself or as a way to please others. I had to think of other ways to have fun, that did not involve eating. I hired a personal training to help me stay focused on well rounded strength training. I created my charts to plot my progress and keep it "in my face." I blogged and shared just about every step of my journey with the world, or at least the small portion of the world that found my blog and decided it was interesting enough to keep reading every day. My husband and sister have been amazingly supportive and I've leaned on them when I could tell I was losing the strength that I needed to get up and fight another day. As a result of having all of these tools, I have been winning way more battles than I have been losing, and I am a whole lot healthier and thinner and happier as a result. But it has still been a battle.
I have really noticed this battle over the last couple of months. After I reached goal weight, I stopped counting every calorie. I was still paying attention to what I ate, mentally adding it up, but I wasn't putting every calorie into my phone app any more. I also wasn't super strict about not eating anything sweet, so I had let butterscotch candies and tootsie pops creep into my afternoon snacking. I maintained my weight, around 153 pounds...not 150, but close enough I thought... without too much effort, but I was having terrible food cravings in the afternoon and evenings. I was still thinking about food too much. It was still taking a lot of energy to control my food. By the beginning of March I was starting to get a little discouraged and maybe a bit desperate. I did not want to fight this desire to snack all day for the rest of my life. This had to get easier somehow.
I read "Thinner This Year" first. That book convinced me to eliminate Dead Food from my day-to-day diet completely. No more, "just a little bit of crap is OK." I formulated my Food Plan for Life. No Dead Foods except on truly special celebratory occasions. I was still eating my toast in the mornings, though, and occasionally had bread for lunch. My Food Plan for Life, in spite of the fact that I was still eating wheat, made life easier, I will admit. It made it easier to walk by the candy bowl at the reception desk and just say no. I no longer had to decide if I was going to "let myself have" a piece of candy or not. I had already made that decision and I only needed to make that decision once, when I adopted my Food Plan for Life. I did not have to remake that decision every minute or every day, even. Decision made. No candy. Forget about it.
Problem is, I couldn't really forget about it. I knew I would say no to Dead Food when the cravings hit, but the cravings still hit. I was actually starting to consider drinking coffee in the afternoons. Maybe I just needed a jolt. I was almost ready to substitute caffeine for the sugar in spite of the fact that I thought it would affect my sleep. I was anxious about that, I need my sleep. In the past, if I drank coffee after noon I would have trouble sleeping. But that is how badly I wanted to get rid of these food cravings, I was getting ready to sacrifice sleep in order to stop wanting to eat. But I never took that step. Instead, I read "Wheat Belly."
Jack and I saw the book at Barnes and Noble when we stopped in to use the restroom during our stroll on the Plaza after his birthday dinner. Ruth and my friend, Lisa Claro, had both said I needed to read the book; and there it was, out on display. I picked it up and we bought it. I was skeptical about this book, I really was. Come on, wheat has been part of our diet for eons. Everyone says whole wheat is good for us, and that is all I eat, I'm fine. I don't need this book. Those were the thoughts I was having. But more and more I was hearing people, even my dad, mention this book. So, skeptic or not, I decided to read it and once I started, I couldn't put it down. What Dr. Davis has to say about wheat is fascinating. It opened my eyes to the possibility that wheat may have been the culprit in my diet, all along.
The first thing Dr. Davis tells us is that the wheat of today is not the wheat of our forefathers. Through a series of cross breedings, wheat is genetically a very different plant than it was even 50 years ago. It is shorter and hardier, it is draught tolerant and has a higher yield per acre, and because of the this new wheat we are now able to feed a lot more people in the world. On the other hand, this new wheat has never been tested to see if it is safe for human consumption.
Dr. Davis then tells us that wheat has two unique properties that make it different from every other food out there. First, it has a very high glycemic index. Two pieces of whole wheat toast convert to glucose in the bloodstream faster than 2 tablespoons of table sugar. Second, when wheat is digested it is degraded into a mix of polypeptides that have the, "Peculiar ability to penetrate the blood-brain barrier that separates the bloodstream from the brain. This barrier is there for a reason: The brain is highly sensitive to the wide variety of substances that gain entry to the blood, some of which can provoke undesirable effects should they cross into your amygdala, hippocampus, cerebral cortex, or other brain structure. Once having gained entry into the brain, wheat polypeptides bind to the brain's morphine receptor, the very same receptor to which opiate drugs bind." The scientist that discovered this, Dr. Christine Zioudrou, called these polypeptides "'exorphins,' short for exogenous morphine-like compounds, distinguishing them for endorphines, the endogenous (internally sourced) morphine-like compounds that occur, for instance, during a 'runner's high.'"
There is a lot more discussion of this phenomena in the book, but the conclusion that Dr. Davis draws, and the evidence is pretty compelling, is that digesting wheat generates morphine-like compounds that bind to the brain's opiate receptors. Therefore eating wheat "induces a form of reward, a mild euphoria. When the effect is blocked, either with opiate blocking drugs or when no wheat is consumed, some people experience a distinctly unpleasant withdrawal."
Wow! Basically, Dr. Davis claims that wheat, not sugar, is the drug that has been keeping me addicted to carbs my entire life. He sites numerous studies, experiments, and anecdotal evidence to support his theory. Again, it is compelling. After I read the book I had heard enough to stop eating wheat.
It's been almost two weeks. At first, the only thing I noticed was a lessening of my food cravings in the afternoon. That was good enough for me! That was the problem I was trying to solve, after all. If that was all I got out of not eating wheat, I was done eating wheat for good. Then I had my crummy weekend, when I was moody, had foot cramps, etc... I thought, "Wow, I am having withdrawals." Then on Wednesday, then Thursday, and now today, I felt amazing. All of a sudden I have so much more energy. All of a sudden I can stay focused on my tasks at hand. All of a sudden I feel like I am not battling the food demons any more.
My brain is quiet. I don't hear, "eat...eat...eat...eat...eat...eat..." constantly, anymore. I am eating less often. I stop eating when I'm not hungry. Last night was a perfect example. My food day was thrown off for a couple of reasons. First, I ate breakfast early because I needed to get to work a couple hours early. Second, I had a lunch planned with someone (I had forgotten about it, so I ate my snack around 11 anyway) so I ate lunch early. Third, I forgot to pack my nuts for a snack, so I had fewer fats that I normally do. The result was I was hungrier than normal when I got home from work. In the good old days, as in a few weeks ago, I would have responded to this by eating a piece of toast with peanut butter, or cheese and crackers (usually wheat thins), or something like that. That snack would then morph into eating more carbs, and then I would just keep eating until I couldn't eat anymore. Coming home hungry was always a recipe for disaster. I avoided it whenever I could. Last night, I came home hungry. I opened the fridge and saw the hummus staring me in the face. I picked it up, grabbed a carrot, and started eating it. Then I got my nuts out, mixed a small bowl of walnuts, macadamia nuts, and almonds. I ate some of those. I was halfway through my carrot and my nuts when I realized I wasn't hungry any more. I was startled by that. I put my snacks away, and started making our dinner, a salad. I had a small salad with a boiled egg and avocado for dinner. It was perfect. What would have been a binge a few weeks ago just didn't happen. Not because I will-powered my way through it, but because when I satisfied my hunger I didn't want to eat anymore. I was just simply done with my snack. Wow. Yes, this really does feel like a miracle.
The most striking change for me is how this is changing the way I feel about every aspect of my life. All of a sudden, I have more energy. I don't feel drained at the end of the day. Because I am not fighting the cravings vs. willpower battle all day long, I have reserves left for other things. I feel more confident about everything in my life. This is as big of a change in my life as I felt when I had my throat surgery and my sleep apnea was cured. I feel like a brand new person. I feel like shackles have been removed from my feet and I can walk freely through life for the first time. It's an amazing feeling. I am convinced this is all because I stopped eating wheat. I'm done with it, forever. Unless, somehow, I accidentally consume wheat because it is in something I don't know it's in, I will not eat wheat again. I have no need for it. I can't tell you how good this feels.
I feel free. It's as simple as that!
Lately I have been talking a lot about giving up wheat. I've been so excited about what I read in "Wheat Belly" and the impact that being wheat free has had on me so far, that even Jack has decided to give up wheat for a couple of weeks. So far, he is doing well. He stopped eating wheat on Monday and admits that he feels pretty good. He's not willing to attribute much to the lack of wheat yet, but when I suggested he extend his one week experiment to two weeks, he quickly agreed. That made me happy!! He said he has noticed that he doesn't get as hungry in the afternoons, but so far that is about the only change he has mentioned in the way he feels. He has been surprised to realize how much wheat he was eating. As he says, "Wheat is in everything!" For me, it wasn't that big of a change. Since I had already given up all Dead Food, which encompasses most of the things made of wheat anyway, like cookies, cake, donuts, bagels, breaded and fried foods, crackers, etc... I only had to stop eating the whole wheat toast I was having for breakfast (as much for convenience as anything else) and perhaps a sandwich or bread with my salad at lunch. Therefore, when I stopped eating wheat I didn't have to make a wholesale change in my diet. I added more veggies, like the pan full of vegetables I saute with my eggs in the morning or the veggies I eat with hummus for a snack in the afternoon or evening, but aside from that, my diet has not changed much.
In my opinion, then, given the fact that nothing else has changed (I've been exercising and "eating right" for over a year now), the only thing I can attribute to how different I feel today than I did two weeks ago is the fact that I stopped eating wheat. Jack wonders if it is the "placebo effect," as in I want it to make me feel better so I do feel better. I honestly don't think that's it. I felt like crap on Sunday and was in an equally bad mood on Monday. That is the same time frame that I was having a problem with painful cramps in my foot. I certainly didn't feel good on those days. It took me until the end of the day on Monday to connect the dots to going wheat free, but I think that is what it was. Sunday I was one week into life without wheat and I think my body was adjusting to its new chemical composition. By Tuesday the blues were gone and I was feeling fine. By Wednesday I was feeling incredible. As I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, I was feeling free. Yesterday was a repeat of Wednesday. I felt amazingly good all day long.
One of the most noticeable changes is the fact that I don't think about food very much anymore. Sort of like magic, the cassette tape in my brain that kept saying "eat...eat...eat...eat...eat..." and that I kept having to override with "not now...not now...not now...not now...OK, it's snack time...not now...not now...not now..." has been put on pause. When I am at work I don't sit at my desk, thinking about food and glancing at the clock waiting until it is legitimately "time to eat" again. Instead, I've been very focused on my work and when I look up I am surprised to see how much time has passed. I don't have food cravings at all. I am not having to use up any will power or energy in controlling my food. I'm just focused on work.
I didn't realize how much I've been wearing myself out controlling food. This has been going on my entire life, not just the last year, but my whole life. I've been fighting a war with food. On the one side, I've wanted to eat pretty much constantly. On the other side, I've known what I should eat to be healthy. The war has been a constant series of battles between what I craved and what I knew I should eat. Sometimes the cravings consistently won, and I got fat and felt like crap, sometimes my willpower won and I got thin and felt good, but the war never abated. It was constant.
During this last year I have been successful at arming my willpower's arsenal with more powerful weapons, so my willpower won more and more of the battles. I turned 50, I have so much left that I want to do in my life and many years left that I have to work, so I need to be as healthy and fit as I can possibly be. I read "Younger Next Year" and that book convinced my that I had to exercise for an hour a day six days a week. It gave me the ammunition I needed to stop making excuses to not exercise. Grow or decay each day. Easy choice. I tapped into all of my years of dieting and learning about nutrition to make decent food choices and to reprogram myself to think of food as fuel rather than a drug that makes me feel good. I pretty much stopped using food as a source of pleasure for myself or as a way to please others. I had to think of other ways to have fun, that did not involve eating. I hired a personal training to help me stay focused on well rounded strength training. I created my charts to plot my progress and keep it "in my face." I blogged and shared just about every step of my journey with the world, or at least the small portion of the world that found my blog and decided it was interesting enough to keep reading every day. My husband and sister have been amazingly supportive and I've leaned on them when I could tell I was losing the strength that I needed to get up and fight another day. As a result of having all of these tools, I have been winning way more battles than I have been losing, and I am a whole lot healthier and thinner and happier as a result. But it has still been a battle.
I have really noticed this battle over the last couple of months. After I reached goal weight, I stopped counting every calorie. I was still paying attention to what I ate, mentally adding it up, but I wasn't putting every calorie into my phone app any more. I also wasn't super strict about not eating anything sweet, so I had let butterscotch candies and tootsie pops creep into my afternoon snacking. I maintained my weight, around 153 pounds...not 150, but close enough I thought... without too much effort, but I was having terrible food cravings in the afternoon and evenings. I was still thinking about food too much. It was still taking a lot of energy to control my food. By the beginning of March I was starting to get a little discouraged and maybe a bit desperate. I did not want to fight this desire to snack all day for the rest of my life. This had to get easier somehow.
I read "Thinner This Year" first. That book convinced me to eliminate Dead Food from my day-to-day diet completely. No more, "just a little bit of crap is OK." I formulated my Food Plan for Life. No Dead Foods except on truly special celebratory occasions. I was still eating my toast in the mornings, though, and occasionally had bread for lunch. My Food Plan for Life, in spite of the fact that I was still eating wheat, made life easier, I will admit. It made it easier to walk by the candy bowl at the reception desk and just say no. I no longer had to decide if I was going to "let myself have" a piece of candy or not. I had already made that decision and I only needed to make that decision once, when I adopted my Food Plan for Life. I did not have to remake that decision every minute or every day, even. Decision made. No candy. Forget about it.
Problem is, I couldn't really forget about it. I knew I would say no to Dead Food when the cravings hit, but the cravings still hit. I was actually starting to consider drinking coffee in the afternoons. Maybe I just needed a jolt. I was almost ready to substitute caffeine for the sugar in spite of the fact that I thought it would affect my sleep. I was anxious about that, I need my sleep. In the past, if I drank coffee after noon I would have trouble sleeping. But that is how badly I wanted to get rid of these food cravings, I was getting ready to sacrifice sleep in order to stop wanting to eat. But I never took that step. Instead, I read "Wheat Belly."
Jack and I saw the book at Barnes and Noble when we stopped in to use the restroom during our stroll on the Plaza after his birthday dinner. Ruth and my friend, Lisa Claro, had both said I needed to read the book; and there it was, out on display. I picked it up and we bought it. I was skeptical about this book, I really was. Come on, wheat has been part of our diet for eons. Everyone says whole wheat is good for us, and that is all I eat, I'm fine. I don't need this book. Those were the thoughts I was having. But more and more I was hearing people, even my dad, mention this book. So, skeptic or not, I decided to read it and once I started, I couldn't put it down. What Dr. Davis has to say about wheat is fascinating. It opened my eyes to the possibility that wheat may have been the culprit in my diet, all along.
The first thing Dr. Davis tells us is that the wheat of today is not the wheat of our forefathers. Through a series of cross breedings, wheat is genetically a very different plant than it was even 50 years ago. It is shorter and hardier, it is draught tolerant and has a higher yield per acre, and because of the this new wheat we are now able to feed a lot more people in the world. On the other hand, this new wheat has never been tested to see if it is safe for human consumption.
Dr. Davis then tells us that wheat has two unique properties that make it different from every other food out there. First, it has a very high glycemic index. Two pieces of whole wheat toast convert to glucose in the bloodstream faster than 2 tablespoons of table sugar. Second, when wheat is digested it is degraded into a mix of polypeptides that have the, "Peculiar ability to penetrate the blood-brain barrier that separates the bloodstream from the brain. This barrier is there for a reason: The brain is highly sensitive to the wide variety of substances that gain entry to the blood, some of which can provoke undesirable effects should they cross into your amygdala, hippocampus, cerebral cortex, or other brain structure. Once having gained entry into the brain, wheat polypeptides bind to the brain's morphine receptor, the very same receptor to which opiate drugs bind." The scientist that discovered this, Dr. Christine Zioudrou, called these polypeptides "'exorphins,' short for exogenous morphine-like compounds, distinguishing them for endorphines, the endogenous (internally sourced) morphine-like compounds that occur, for instance, during a 'runner's high.'"
There is a lot more discussion of this phenomena in the book, but the conclusion that Dr. Davis draws, and the evidence is pretty compelling, is that digesting wheat generates morphine-like compounds that bind to the brain's opiate receptors. Therefore eating wheat "induces a form of reward, a mild euphoria. When the effect is blocked, either with opiate blocking drugs or when no wheat is consumed, some people experience a distinctly unpleasant withdrawal."
Wow! Basically, Dr. Davis claims that wheat, not sugar, is the drug that has been keeping me addicted to carbs my entire life. He sites numerous studies, experiments, and anecdotal evidence to support his theory. Again, it is compelling. After I read the book I had heard enough to stop eating wheat.
It's been almost two weeks. At first, the only thing I noticed was a lessening of my food cravings in the afternoon. That was good enough for me! That was the problem I was trying to solve, after all. If that was all I got out of not eating wheat, I was done eating wheat for good. Then I had my crummy weekend, when I was moody, had foot cramps, etc... I thought, "Wow, I am having withdrawals." Then on Wednesday, then Thursday, and now today, I felt amazing. All of a sudden I have so much more energy. All of a sudden I can stay focused on my tasks at hand. All of a sudden I feel like I am not battling the food demons any more.
My brain is quiet. I don't hear, "eat...eat...eat...eat...eat...eat..." constantly, anymore. I am eating less often. I stop eating when I'm not hungry. Last night was a perfect example. My food day was thrown off for a couple of reasons. First, I ate breakfast early because I needed to get to work a couple hours early. Second, I had a lunch planned with someone (I had forgotten about it, so I ate my snack around 11 anyway) so I ate lunch early. Third, I forgot to pack my nuts for a snack, so I had fewer fats that I normally do. The result was I was hungrier than normal when I got home from work. In the good old days, as in a few weeks ago, I would have responded to this by eating a piece of toast with peanut butter, or cheese and crackers (usually wheat thins), or something like that. That snack would then morph into eating more carbs, and then I would just keep eating until I couldn't eat anymore. Coming home hungry was always a recipe for disaster. I avoided it whenever I could. Last night, I came home hungry. I opened the fridge and saw the hummus staring me in the face. I picked it up, grabbed a carrot, and started eating it. Then I got my nuts out, mixed a small bowl of walnuts, macadamia nuts, and almonds. I ate some of those. I was halfway through my carrot and my nuts when I realized I wasn't hungry any more. I was startled by that. I put my snacks away, and started making our dinner, a salad. I had a small salad with a boiled egg and avocado for dinner. It was perfect. What would have been a binge a few weeks ago just didn't happen. Not because I will-powered my way through it, but because when I satisfied my hunger I didn't want to eat anymore. I was just simply done with my snack. Wow. Yes, this really does feel like a miracle.
The most striking change for me is how this is changing the way I feel about every aspect of my life. All of a sudden, I have more energy. I don't feel drained at the end of the day. Because I am not fighting the cravings vs. willpower battle all day long, I have reserves left for other things. I feel more confident about everything in my life. This is as big of a change in my life as I felt when I had my throat surgery and my sleep apnea was cured. I feel like a brand new person. I feel like shackles have been removed from my feet and I can walk freely through life for the first time. It's an amazing feeling. I am convinced this is all because I stopped eating wheat. I'm done with it, forever. Unless, somehow, I accidentally consume wheat because it is in something I don't know it's in, I will not eat wheat again. I have no need for it. I can't tell you how good this feels.
I feel free. It's as simple as that!
Thursday, March 28, 2013
3/28/2013: All is Well
Yes, I've been crazy busy at work lately, so I've been getting in early. I am there already, actually, and have been for about half an hour. I don't like not checking in, though, so here is the quick check-in. All is well.
Wheat - It's what's not for dinner.
I am so much happier now that I don't eat wheat. Try it, you'll like it!
Biggest difference? I am in total control of my food for the first time in my life. No...that's not it exactly, it's more like I don't have to control my food anymore. I don't even think about it. There is no longer the constant will power vs. temptation battle that I have been waging my entire life. I pack my food for the day. I eat it. Done. End of story.
More about this tomorrow when I have a day off. But it struck me yesterday that I feel more confident about everything else in my life now that I am no longer battling food cravings all day long. I feel free, I guess, for the first time in my life, from the shackles of food cravings.
Miracle? That word comes to mind.
If you have food cravings, if you have trouble not thinking about food all day every day, read "Wheat Belly" by Dr. Davis. Maybe it can change your life, too.
Wheat - It's what's not for dinner.
I am so much happier now that I don't eat wheat. Try it, you'll like it!
Biggest difference? I am in total control of my food for the first time in my life. No...that's not it exactly, it's more like I don't have to control my food anymore. I don't even think about it. There is no longer the constant will power vs. temptation battle that I have been waging my entire life. I pack my food for the day. I eat it. Done. End of story.
More about this tomorrow when I have a day off. But it struck me yesterday that I feel more confident about everything else in my life now that I am no longer battling food cravings all day long. I feel free, I guess, for the first time in my life, from the shackles of food cravings.
Miracle? That word comes to mind.
If you have food cravings, if you have trouble not thinking about food all day every day, read "Wheat Belly" by Dr. Davis. Maybe it can change your life, too.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
3/27/2013: Quick Check-In
I don't have much to talk about today or much time to write. I need to head to work and get some stuff done; so I just wanted to take a minute to say all is well on the home front.
I took the day off from exercise today and tomorrow is my normal day off. I am relieved to have two days off in a row. As soon as I decided to do that yesterday, I knew I made the right decision. I need the rest. I'm looking forward to being refreshed and recharged on Friday.
Have a great day!! See you tomorrow.
I took the day off from exercise today and tomorrow is my normal day off. I am relieved to have two days off in a row. As soon as I decided to do that yesterday, I knew I made the right decision. I need the rest. I'm looking forward to being refreshed and recharged on Friday.
Have a great day!! See you tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
3/26/2013: Feeling a Little Burnt Out
My sister said there would be days like this! Yep, I'm feeling a little burnt out right now. I have been forcing myself to go to the gym for about a week now, hoping that this feeling will go away; but it has been persistent and I have now decided it is time to take a two day break.
I had a good work out this morning, in spite of the fact that I could barely drag my butt out of bed. I do strength training with Joshua on Tuesday mornings, so it was very helpful knowing there was someone at the gym waiting to meet me at 5:00am this morning. The work out was tough, but I got it done. It felt good to work hard this morning. Now I have decided to take tomorrow off and Thursday is my normal day off, so that will be two days off in a row. Friday is a holiday at work, for Good Friday - what a shock, I had no idea it was a holiday until people began talking about it at work yesterday, so I will get to sleep in a little on Friday, too. It may actually be warm enough to get outside for a bit. I wonder if this snow will melt between now and then...I kind out doubt it. It was 21 degrees this morning, it's pretty frozen out there. Maybe by Saturday the snow will be gone and the sidewalks will be passable again.
I think it will do me good to have a couple days off from exercise. I'm ready for a break.
I rescheduled my trip to Colorado for Monday and Tuesday next week. Monday morning I will meet with a vendor, so that will be a work day, but I will have 5 days away from the office, so that will be nice. I'll spend Monday evening and Tuesday morning with Carla and Christian and head home Tuesday evening. No skiing, but that's OK. Jack and I are going to plan on a ski vacation next year. That will be fun!! I am already looking forward to it.
I weighed 150.0 pounds this morning. That felt good. 150.0 is now going to be my baseline, rather than 153. It was kind of interesting this morning to get on the scale and weigh 150.0 pounds and not feel a need to celebrate. I just sort of nodded and said to myself, "That's good." The first time I got to 150.0 it was such a stretch goal that I had to celebrate, immediately. Of course that meant food and that meant gaining a couple of pounds, and that meant establishing a baseline closer to 153 than 150. It took me two months to settle back down and get serious enough about my diet to lose those 3 pounds again. Oh, the mind games we play with ourselves.
The key to getting back on track with my food was reading "Thinner This Year" and "Wheat Belly." Those books provided me with the reasons I needed to stop eating crap food, including wheat. About 3 weeks ago I eliminated snacking on anything that was not a nutritionally sound food. About 1.5 weeks ago I stopped eating wheat. I replaced those crappy snacks with veggies, hummus, nuts, plain Greek yogurt & mixed berries, and fruit. I go to work with all of my food for the day packed in a grocery sack and I don't get hungry and I am not having cravings for sweets. Since them, those extra few pounds have gradually slipped off, without counting calories or adding any additional exercise. It's made a big difference. If you are having trouble making good food choices, I recommend reading both of those books. The more informed I am the better choices I make. It might work for you, too!
I had a good work out this morning, in spite of the fact that I could barely drag my butt out of bed. I do strength training with Joshua on Tuesday mornings, so it was very helpful knowing there was someone at the gym waiting to meet me at 5:00am this morning. The work out was tough, but I got it done. It felt good to work hard this morning. Now I have decided to take tomorrow off and Thursday is my normal day off, so that will be two days off in a row. Friday is a holiday at work, for Good Friday - what a shock, I had no idea it was a holiday until people began talking about it at work yesterday, so I will get to sleep in a little on Friday, too. It may actually be warm enough to get outside for a bit. I wonder if this snow will melt between now and then...I kind out doubt it. It was 21 degrees this morning, it's pretty frozen out there. Maybe by Saturday the snow will be gone and the sidewalks will be passable again.
I think it will do me good to have a couple days off from exercise. I'm ready for a break.
I rescheduled my trip to Colorado for Monday and Tuesday next week. Monday morning I will meet with a vendor, so that will be a work day, but I will have 5 days away from the office, so that will be nice. I'll spend Monday evening and Tuesday morning with Carla and Christian and head home Tuesday evening. No skiing, but that's OK. Jack and I are going to plan on a ski vacation next year. That will be fun!! I am already looking forward to it.
I weighed 150.0 pounds this morning. That felt good. 150.0 is now going to be my baseline, rather than 153. It was kind of interesting this morning to get on the scale and weigh 150.0 pounds and not feel a need to celebrate. I just sort of nodded and said to myself, "That's good." The first time I got to 150.0 it was such a stretch goal that I had to celebrate, immediately. Of course that meant food and that meant gaining a couple of pounds, and that meant establishing a baseline closer to 153 than 150. It took me two months to settle back down and get serious enough about my diet to lose those 3 pounds again. Oh, the mind games we play with ourselves.
The key to getting back on track with my food was reading "Thinner This Year" and "Wheat Belly." Those books provided me with the reasons I needed to stop eating crap food, including wheat. About 3 weeks ago I eliminated snacking on anything that was not a nutritionally sound food. About 1.5 weeks ago I stopped eating wheat. I replaced those crappy snacks with veggies, hummus, nuts, plain Greek yogurt & mixed berries, and fruit. I go to work with all of my food for the day packed in a grocery sack and I don't get hungry and I am not having cravings for sweets. Since them, those extra few pounds have gradually slipped off, without counting calories or adding any additional exercise. It's made a big difference. If you are having trouble making good food choices, I recommend reading both of those books. The more informed I am the better choices I make. It might work for you, too!
Monday, March 25, 2013
3/25/2013: I Need Spring!
I know I'm not the only one out there complaining about the weather, but man, I'm done with this snow and frigid weather. I desperately want to run and bike outdoors. I am sick of the treadmill and the stationary bike. I'm over it already. I feel my enthusiasm for exercise waning with each day that it is too icy, cold, and miserable to be outdoors. My sister up in Michigan is probably thinking, "Quit your whining, already," as she is probably looking at another month of winter up there; but last year at this time I was planting my tomatoes. This year all I can plant in my yard is a snowman!! I know it well end soon and I just need to strong-arm my way through another week or two of cardio workouts indoors, but I am so ready for this snow to be gone for good!!
I weighed 150.2 pounds this morning when I woke up. Just for fun, I weighed myself after my swim and I weighed 149.8 pounds!! That's the first time I have seen a number on a scale start with 14something in decades. It's not quite official, I don't mark my chart with my after exercise weight, but it was still fun to see the number flash up on the scale. Tomorrow, maybe? Perhaps I will be able to put an official mark on my chart below my 150 pound line. I am looking forward to 150 being my new average weight that I fluctuate around, rather than 153. That feels better to me.
I read an amazing article about a couple that collectively lost 500 pounds over 2 years. She started out at a size 28 and is now a size 0! All diet and exercise. He had been studying for awhile about what it took to lose weight and on their first anniversary he told her that he was tired of being big. So together, they went for it. He designed the exercise routines, she cooked the meals. They started out only being able to walk for 30 minutes a day on the treadmill, but they did that 6 days a week. She just finished her first half marathon. How inspiring!! They look like completely different people. They are so young, too. It makes me happy to see people, even complete strangers, makes such drastic changes in their lives. The rest of their lives will be so much better because they figured out how to lose the weight and start exercising every day while they were young. I hope they inspire others as well. Here is the link to their article:
Couple loses 500 pounds in 2 years
I was in a bad mood most of the day yesterday, mostly because my trip to Colorado was busted by the snow. I was looking forward to spending time with Carla and meeting Christian, but I was also looking forward to skiing for a day. I have not been skiing for 30 years, not since I was in college, and I was really looking forward to it. I was very curious about whether or not I would remember how to ski. If Carla is in Vail next winter, I am definitely going to make sure I go out and ski while she is there. This winter was rough, with my job being new and having so many things to do, but next year should be much more doable. I didn't realize how much I really wanted to ski again until I thought I was going to get to do it, and then it got nabbed away from me at the last minute. Next winter, I'm going skiing!!
In spite of my less than stellar mood, Jack and I had a decent day, yesterday. We shoveled the driveway, we went bowling, and I got our meals cooked for the week. On the not so good side, though, I got a cramp in my foot, between the pad of my toes and the arch. It hurt!! It finally went away after massage, stretching and heat. I hope that doesn't happen often. Ruth mentioned she got foot cramps about a week after she gave up wheat, too. Is the cramp related to the change in my diet? Perhaps. I imagine my blood chemistry is changing as my body adjusts to a wheat-free diet. I am hoping that cramp was an isolated incident or, at the very least, that foot cramps are a short lived thing as my body transitions to its wheat-free status.
KU won!! The first half of that game was torture, but Self and his team always seem to know how to adjust at half time. I was glad they were only down by 9 at the half, because I knew they had potential to recover from that. Williams was a good coach, but he was never good at adjusting to what was happening on the court. He built strong teams with a deep bench, a lot of speed, and a lot of endurance. But his teams played a certain kind of game. Self seems much more adaptable. He seems to be able to read an opponent in the first half and come back in the second half with their number down. It doesn't always work. Sometimes the hole is too deep, hence the three losses this season, but it worked yesterday. Against North Carolina. That brightened my mood a bit!!
It'll be a busy week at work, so I better run. Have a great day.
I weighed 150.2 pounds this morning when I woke up. Just for fun, I weighed myself after my swim and I weighed 149.8 pounds!! That's the first time I have seen a number on a scale start with 14something in decades. It's not quite official, I don't mark my chart with my after exercise weight, but it was still fun to see the number flash up on the scale. Tomorrow, maybe? Perhaps I will be able to put an official mark on my chart below my 150 pound line. I am looking forward to 150 being my new average weight that I fluctuate around, rather than 153. That feels better to me.
I read an amazing article about a couple that collectively lost 500 pounds over 2 years. She started out at a size 28 and is now a size 0! All diet and exercise. He had been studying for awhile about what it took to lose weight and on their first anniversary he told her that he was tired of being big. So together, they went for it. He designed the exercise routines, she cooked the meals. They started out only being able to walk for 30 minutes a day on the treadmill, but they did that 6 days a week. She just finished her first half marathon. How inspiring!! They look like completely different people. They are so young, too. It makes me happy to see people, even complete strangers, makes such drastic changes in their lives. The rest of their lives will be so much better because they figured out how to lose the weight and start exercising every day while they were young. I hope they inspire others as well. Here is the link to their article:
Couple loses 500 pounds in 2 years
I was in a bad mood most of the day yesterday, mostly because my trip to Colorado was busted by the snow. I was looking forward to spending time with Carla and meeting Christian, but I was also looking forward to skiing for a day. I have not been skiing for 30 years, not since I was in college, and I was really looking forward to it. I was very curious about whether or not I would remember how to ski. If Carla is in Vail next winter, I am definitely going to make sure I go out and ski while she is there. This winter was rough, with my job being new and having so many things to do, but next year should be much more doable. I didn't realize how much I really wanted to ski again until I thought I was going to get to do it, and then it got nabbed away from me at the last minute. Next winter, I'm going skiing!!
In spite of my less than stellar mood, Jack and I had a decent day, yesterday. We shoveled the driveway, we went bowling, and I got our meals cooked for the week. On the not so good side, though, I got a cramp in my foot, between the pad of my toes and the arch. It hurt!! It finally went away after massage, stretching and heat. I hope that doesn't happen often. Ruth mentioned she got foot cramps about a week after she gave up wheat, too. Is the cramp related to the change in my diet? Perhaps. I imagine my blood chemistry is changing as my body adjusts to a wheat-free diet. I am hoping that cramp was an isolated incident or, at the very least, that foot cramps are a short lived thing as my body transitions to its wheat-free status.
KU won!! The first half of that game was torture, but Self and his team always seem to know how to adjust at half time. I was glad they were only down by 9 at the half, because I knew they had potential to recover from that. Williams was a good coach, but he was never good at adjusting to what was happening on the court. He built strong teams with a deep bench, a lot of speed, and a lot of endurance. But his teams played a certain kind of game. Self seems much more adaptable. He seems to be able to read an opponent in the first half and come back in the second half with their number down. It doesn't always work. Sometimes the hole is too deep, hence the three losses this season, but it worked yesterday. Against North Carolina. That brightened my mood a bit!!
It'll be a busy week at work, so I better run. Have a great day.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
3/24/2013: Change of Plans
The snow changed my plans. Denver got hit hard yesterday and we are getting hit hard now. Because of the snow, my 11:45am flight to Denver was canceled. There was a chance to get out on a flight that was scheduled for 5:00pm but was already delayed to 7:45pm with no guarantees it would make it out of Kansas City and to Denver. Considering the fact that this was a one and a half day visit, there were no promises I was going to make it to Denver even if I did spend the entire day in the airport, and that I had a two hour drive to get to Vail, after dark, on snow covered highways after I got to Denver, I opted for changing my plans. I thought maybe I would get to go to Vail next weekend to see Carla, but that may not work out for her and Christian. So I am not sure when I will go. It turns out the evening flight left here are 8:45pm. I'm glad I chose to come home. Spending all day at the airport waiting to see if our flight was actually going to take off would have driven me nuts. In addition to that, Jack and I saw a crazy wreck on the news, just outside of Denver, last night. The roads looked terrible. I would have been a mess trying to drive to Vail on those roads. I am very disappointed that I don't get to spend the day with Carla and Christian skiing today, I was really looking forward to that. But I think I made the right decision to come home. I hope they are having a good day. I hope I get to see them soon.
It's March 24th and there is a crazy amount of snow out there. I haven't measured the snow in our front yard yet, but I am guessing 8 inches, maybe. Wow. I guess Jack and I will be shoveling snow again today.
Yesterday was a weird food day. I didn't break any of my Food Plan for Life rules, exactly, but it wasn't a great day. I had a big, wonderful breakfast with plenty of veggies and three eggs, knowing it would be a while before I had lunch. On the way to the airport I received a text message saying my flight had been delayed until 1:50. OK...first change of plans. We decided to do a little shopping. We stopped at Walmart, the only store we can find that sells the intermediate light bulbs we need for the ceiling fans in our family room. Then we stopped at Coldwater Creek and I found a couple more spring tops and another pair of spring pants, for 30% off. From there we were going to grab some lunch, but then I got another text message saying the flight was moved up to 1:10. OK, no time for lunch, we headed straight for the airport. Jack dropped me off, I checked the monitor and it still said scheduled departure for 1:10. It was about noon. I made it through security and headed to the gate, to make sure everything was still going according to plan, and then I was going to grab a light lunch at the Pork and Fork (or whatever that restaurant at KCI is called). By the time I got to the gate the flight was canceled. After waiting in line forever, getting my flights changed to next weekend, and waiting for Jack to come back to the airport to pick me up, it was about 1:00. Larry and Luz had invited us over for the afternoon, which Jack was going to do on his own, since I was scheduled to be in Denver. We debated whether or not we should stop somewhere for lunch first, but decided to head straight to Larry's.
Larry and Luz were making dinner for us, so we hung out and visited while they did their thing. I snacked on almonds, cherry tomatoes, a cutie, and an apple. All within the range of normal for my Food Plan, but no protein to speak of. We ate at about 3:45 or 4:00. Luz had made ceviche, with shrimp in it, but mostly it was veggies in a light broth with a little bit of shrimp. To give it a little substance I put dried plantain chips in it. My choices were dried plantain, popcorn, white rice, or corn nuts. The plantain chips seemed like the best option. Dinner then consisted rice, sausage, and quinoa patties. The quinoa patties were made with bread crumbs, so they were out. I don't eat pork or beef, so the sausage was out. So I ate a few more plantain chips. Then it started to snow and Jack and I headed home. We needed to go grocery shopping for the weekend and a lot of snow was predicted so we decided to stop at the store before settling in for the evening. The snow was coming down hard, so we stopped at the store and switched cars. I took advantage of that opportunity and grabbed the last cooked chicken breast out of the fridge for a little quick protein, then we headed to the store.
When we got home I ate some hummus and carrots. Then things took a turn for the worse. The one sweet thing I still allow myself is my 85% cocoa dark chocolate. Both Jen from "Thinner This Year," and Dr. Davis from "Wheat Belly" say the 85% cocoa dark chocolate is a good thing. One bar is 2.5 servings. I am usually pretty good at having a serving or less per day. Last night, at the end of a very strange food day that was more or less beyond my control and being severely disappointed about not getting to go to Vail and see Carla, I managed to work my way through an entire chocolate bar. That was probably not the best thing I could do for myself. Ah well, it does sort of prove my point about my Food Plan for Life, though. My Food Plan is pretty cut and dry. No Dead Foods (including, and perhaps most importantly, no wheat) except for special occasions. I think the special occasions will still be Wheat Free, by the way. Prior to implementing my Food Plan about a week ago, I would justify little diversions into junk food because I counted the calories. The result was intense food cravings from about 2:00 - 6:00 in the afternoon that were just driving me nuts. All I would think about for four hours was finding something sweet to eat. "Thinner This Year" convinced me to give up the Dead Foods. "Wheat Belly" led me to believe that wheat may be the worst Dead Food of them all. So instead of slicing and dicing calories and rationalizing my dalliances into junk food, I drew a line in the sand and said, "None." Unless there is a celebratory special occasion. Then I can eat or drink whatever I want.
This has helped me so much. First of all, the food cravings are GONE. I no longer start looking for sweet treats at 2:00 in the afternoon. Second of all, I just walk on by the donuts on the counter at work. I actually experienced a revulsion when I walked by the snack machine at work the other day, very similar to the revulsion I feel when I see a pack of cigarettes. A sort of, "Ew, that stuff is poison," moment, without even taking the time to process what I was thinking. The more I read about what happens inside my body when I eat crap, the easier it is for me to see it for what it is, addictive junk food that ravages the cells of my body when I eat it. This isn't harmless stuff that may just cause me to weigh a little more. It is poison that causes an incredible chain reaction of negative events to occur within my body. It's not an inane substance that causes me to gain a little neutral fat, it's a negative agent that causes insulin spikes, inflammatory agents to get released, damage to my cells and arteries, and to gain fat which is an active organ in my body that continues to release inflammatory signals long after the food I ate is gone from my body. This is how I see Dead Foods, now. It helps a lot of to have a cut and dry rule, no Dead Food.
Ah, but that brings me back to my dark chocolate. The Docs all say dark chocolate is good for you, go ahead and enjoy it. 85% cocoa dark chocolate, to be specific. It has just enough sugar in it to be palatable. Below are some excerpts from an article on Web MD explaining some of the health benefits of dark chocolate. Here is the link to the full article:
http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20030827/dark-chocolate-is-healthy-chocolate?page=2
"But that's no license to go on a chocolate binge. Eating more dark chocolate can help lower blood pressure -- if you've reached a certain age and have mild high blood pressure, say the researchers. But you have to balance the extra calories by eating less of other things. And if health is your excuse for eating chocolate, remember the word "moderate" as you nibble."
That word, moderation, is difficult. It's so much easier to look at a food and say, "Yes," or "No." It is much more difficult to look at a food and say, "Just a little bit." Particularly when that food is your one and only, "Treat," and when you've had a bad day, and when your food for the day has been so messed up already. I consider what I did yesterday, eating that entire chocolate bar, a binge. It makes me wonder if I should just eliminate dark chocolate completely, just like the Dead Foods and the wheat. I'm not quite ready to do that, however. For now my plan will allow a serving or less of dark chocolate a day, but I will be careful to measure it. On the other hand, If I can't consistently limit it to one serving a day (by consistent, I mean always), then I will eliminate dark chocolate from my diet. We'll see how it goes.
I'm glad yesterday is over. It was a rough day, full of disappointment and frustration and with a lack of control over my food. Today should be more or less normal, in spite of the 8 or so inches of snow on the ground on March 24th.
By the way, I weighed 151.0 this morning, for those of you interested in that sort of thing.
It's March 24th and there is a crazy amount of snow out there. I haven't measured the snow in our front yard yet, but I am guessing 8 inches, maybe. Wow. I guess Jack and I will be shoveling snow again today.
Yesterday was a weird food day. I didn't break any of my Food Plan for Life rules, exactly, but it wasn't a great day. I had a big, wonderful breakfast with plenty of veggies and three eggs, knowing it would be a while before I had lunch. On the way to the airport I received a text message saying my flight had been delayed until 1:50. OK...first change of plans. We decided to do a little shopping. We stopped at Walmart, the only store we can find that sells the intermediate light bulbs we need for the ceiling fans in our family room. Then we stopped at Coldwater Creek and I found a couple more spring tops and another pair of spring pants, for 30% off. From there we were going to grab some lunch, but then I got another text message saying the flight was moved up to 1:10. OK, no time for lunch, we headed straight for the airport. Jack dropped me off, I checked the monitor and it still said scheduled departure for 1:10. It was about noon. I made it through security and headed to the gate, to make sure everything was still going according to plan, and then I was going to grab a light lunch at the Pork and Fork (or whatever that restaurant at KCI is called). By the time I got to the gate the flight was canceled. After waiting in line forever, getting my flights changed to next weekend, and waiting for Jack to come back to the airport to pick me up, it was about 1:00. Larry and Luz had invited us over for the afternoon, which Jack was going to do on his own, since I was scheduled to be in Denver. We debated whether or not we should stop somewhere for lunch first, but decided to head straight to Larry's.
Larry and Luz were making dinner for us, so we hung out and visited while they did their thing. I snacked on almonds, cherry tomatoes, a cutie, and an apple. All within the range of normal for my Food Plan, but no protein to speak of. We ate at about 3:45 or 4:00. Luz had made ceviche, with shrimp in it, but mostly it was veggies in a light broth with a little bit of shrimp. To give it a little substance I put dried plantain chips in it. My choices were dried plantain, popcorn, white rice, or corn nuts. The plantain chips seemed like the best option. Dinner then consisted rice, sausage, and quinoa patties. The quinoa patties were made with bread crumbs, so they were out. I don't eat pork or beef, so the sausage was out. So I ate a few more plantain chips. Then it started to snow and Jack and I headed home. We needed to go grocery shopping for the weekend and a lot of snow was predicted so we decided to stop at the store before settling in for the evening. The snow was coming down hard, so we stopped at the store and switched cars. I took advantage of that opportunity and grabbed the last cooked chicken breast out of the fridge for a little quick protein, then we headed to the store.
When we got home I ate some hummus and carrots. Then things took a turn for the worse. The one sweet thing I still allow myself is my 85% cocoa dark chocolate. Both Jen from "Thinner This Year," and Dr. Davis from "Wheat Belly" say the 85% cocoa dark chocolate is a good thing. One bar is 2.5 servings. I am usually pretty good at having a serving or less per day. Last night, at the end of a very strange food day that was more or less beyond my control and being severely disappointed about not getting to go to Vail and see Carla, I managed to work my way through an entire chocolate bar. That was probably not the best thing I could do for myself. Ah well, it does sort of prove my point about my Food Plan for Life, though. My Food Plan is pretty cut and dry. No Dead Foods (including, and perhaps most importantly, no wheat) except for special occasions. I think the special occasions will still be Wheat Free, by the way. Prior to implementing my Food Plan about a week ago, I would justify little diversions into junk food because I counted the calories. The result was intense food cravings from about 2:00 - 6:00 in the afternoon that were just driving me nuts. All I would think about for four hours was finding something sweet to eat. "Thinner This Year" convinced me to give up the Dead Foods. "Wheat Belly" led me to believe that wheat may be the worst Dead Food of them all. So instead of slicing and dicing calories and rationalizing my dalliances into junk food, I drew a line in the sand and said, "None." Unless there is a celebratory special occasion. Then I can eat or drink whatever I want.
This has helped me so much. First of all, the food cravings are GONE. I no longer start looking for sweet treats at 2:00 in the afternoon. Second of all, I just walk on by the donuts on the counter at work. I actually experienced a revulsion when I walked by the snack machine at work the other day, very similar to the revulsion I feel when I see a pack of cigarettes. A sort of, "Ew, that stuff is poison," moment, without even taking the time to process what I was thinking. The more I read about what happens inside my body when I eat crap, the easier it is for me to see it for what it is, addictive junk food that ravages the cells of my body when I eat it. This isn't harmless stuff that may just cause me to weigh a little more. It is poison that causes an incredible chain reaction of negative events to occur within my body. It's not an inane substance that causes me to gain a little neutral fat, it's a negative agent that causes insulin spikes, inflammatory agents to get released, damage to my cells and arteries, and to gain fat which is an active organ in my body that continues to release inflammatory signals long after the food I ate is gone from my body. This is how I see Dead Foods, now. It helps a lot of to have a cut and dry rule, no Dead Food.
Ah, but that brings me back to my dark chocolate. The Docs all say dark chocolate is good for you, go ahead and enjoy it. 85% cocoa dark chocolate, to be specific. It has just enough sugar in it to be palatable. Below are some excerpts from an article on Web MD explaining some of the health benefits of dark chocolate. Here is the link to the full article:
http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20030827/dark-chocolate-is-healthy-chocolate?page=2
Dark Chocolate Lowers Blood Pressure
Dark
chocolate -- not white chocolate -- lowers high blood pressure, say Dirk
Taubert, MD, PhD, and colleagues...
Antioxidants in Dark Chocolate
Dark
chocolate -- but not milk chocolate or dark chocolate eaten with milk
-- is a potent antioxidant, report Mauro Serafini, PhD, of Italy's
National Institute for Food and Nutrition Research in Rome, and colleagues. Antioxidants gobble up free radicals, destructive molecules that are implicated in heart disease and other ailments.
The Studies
Taubert's
team signed up six men and seven women aged 55-64. All had just been
diagnosed with mild high blood pressure -- on average, systolic blood
pressure (the top number) of 153 and diastolic blood pressure (the
bottom number) of 84.
Every day for two weeks, they
ate a 100-gram candy bar and were asked to balance its 480 calories by
not eating other foods similar in nutrients and calories. Half the
patients got dark chocolate and half got white chocolate.
Those
who ate dark chocolate had a significant drop in blood pressure (by an
average of 5 points for systolic and an average of 2 points for
diastolic blood pressure). Those who ate white chocolate did not.
In
the second study, Serafini's team signed up seven healthy women and
five healthy men aged 25-35. On different days they each ate 100 grams
of dark chocolate by itself, 100 grams of dark chocolate with a small
glass of whole milk, or 200 grams of milk chocolate.
An
hour later, those who ate dark chocolate alone had the most total
antioxidants in their blood. And they had higher levels of epicatechin, a
particularly healthy compound found in chocolate. The milk chocolate
eaters had the lowest epicatechin levels of all.
Chocolate for Blood Pressure: Darker Is Better
What
is it about dark chocolate? The answer is plant phenols -- cocoa
phenols, to be exact. These compounds are known to lower blood pressure.
Chocolates
made in Europe are generally richer in cocoa phenols than those made in
the U.S. So if you're going to try this at home, remember: Darker is
better.
But the doctors due caution you not to overdo it. They say:
"But that's no license to go on a chocolate binge. Eating more dark chocolate can help lower blood pressure -- if you've reached a certain age and have mild high blood pressure, say the researchers. But you have to balance the extra calories by eating less of other things. And if health is your excuse for eating chocolate, remember the word "moderate" as you nibble."
That word, moderation, is difficult. It's so much easier to look at a food and say, "Yes," or "No." It is much more difficult to look at a food and say, "Just a little bit." Particularly when that food is your one and only, "Treat," and when you've had a bad day, and when your food for the day has been so messed up already. I consider what I did yesterday, eating that entire chocolate bar, a binge. It makes me wonder if I should just eliminate dark chocolate completely, just like the Dead Foods and the wheat. I'm not quite ready to do that, however. For now my plan will allow a serving or less of dark chocolate a day, but I will be careful to measure it. On the other hand, If I can't consistently limit it to one serving a day (by consistent, I mean always), then I will eliminate dark chocolate from my diet. We'll see how it goes.
I'm glad yesterday is over. It was a rough day, full of disappointment and frustration and with a lack of control over my food. Today should be more or less normal, in spite of the 8 or so inches of snow on the ground on March 24th.
By the way, I weighed 151.0 this morning, for those of you interested in that sort of thing.
Friday, March 22, 2013
3/22/2013: Time is Flying By!
I can't believe the first quarter of 2013 is almost over already. I am not ready for this. It is all going way too fast. Deadlines keep slipping past me at work and I just barely give them a glance as I shrug, say "Oh well, there goes another one," and keep on trudging along, hoping that some day it all comes together. I know from experience that it will gel sooner or later. It usually takes a year at a new job for me to get a firm handle on things. After my first week at Castle Creations I predicted it would take two years. Every now and then I hope I was too bleak in my forecast and that a year is all it will take, but I'm pretty sure it will take two years for me to get all of the pieces pulled together. It's a good thing I love my job.
I've been working hard at the gym, so all is well on that front. Still Wheat Free, which makes me happy. My Food Plan for Life is holding me in good stead. All is well on the home front.
I need to get to work, too much to do before quittin' time tonight.
Have a wonderful Friday!!
I've been working hard at the gym, so all is well on that front. Still Wheat Free, which makes me happy. My Food Plan for Life is holding me in good stead. All is well on the home front.
I need to get to work, too much to do before quittin' time tonight.
Have a wonderful Friday!!
Thursday, March 21, 2013
3/21/2013: Doing Fine
It has been several days since I decided to eliminate wheat from my diet and I am doing fine. My cravings have diminished considerably and I don't think about food nearly as often as I did before I quit eating wheat. I go longer periods of time between breakfast and snack and snack and lunch, so that I have found myself eating lunch mid-afternoon. This works out really well for me because dinner ends up being just a light snack. I've never done well with big meals in the evening and now I don't even want to eat a big meal. Since I am often working a little late, it's nice to be able to come home and just have a snack and not worry about dinner. It helps a lot that I cooked my meals last Sunday, so there is plenty of food in the fridge, though I am going through my veggies faster than I have in the past since I am putting some many vegetables in my eggs in the morning. I'll have to remember that for next week.
It's probably a little soon to talk about how 'wheat free' is impacting my weight, except that I have noticed that there seems to be fewer fluctuations in the scale. I have lost a little weight since Jack's birthday dinner, which I expected to happen. This morning I weighed 151.2 pounds. The interesting thing is the lack of fluctuation from day to day. But again, it's early in the process. It will be interesting to see what my weight line looks like in a few weeks and after a couple of months. Just a quick recap: My Food Plan for Life is No Dead Food (which includes no wheat products), except on special occasions, which need to be truly special occasions. On special occasions I can eat and drink whatever I want.
I have a big weekend coming up! I am going to Vail to see Carla and meet her new boyfriend. I am looking forward to meeting this young man that Carla is so crazy about. She tells me he is worth the trip! I am also planning on skiing on Sunday, for the first time in 30 years. That should be interesting. I hope all of the weight lifting pays off and I am not too sore on Monday!!
No other big news to report. I did get a couple of book recommendations from yesterday's post, so I will need to check them out. Other than that, it's just another day.
It's probably a little soon to talk about how 'wheat free' is impacting my weight, except that I have noticed that there seems to be fewer fluctuations in the scale. I have lost a little weight since Jack's birthday dinner, which I expected to happen. This morning I weighed 151.2 pounds. The interesting thing is the lack of fluctuation from day to day. But again, it's early in the process. It will be interesting to see what my weight line looks like in a few weeks and after a couple of months. Just a quick recap: My Food Plan for Life is No Dead Food (which includes no wheat products), except on special occasions, which need to be truly special occasions. On special occasions I can eat and drink whatever I want.
I have a big weekend coming up! I am going to Vail to see Carla and meet her new boyfriend. I am looking forward to meeting this young man that Carla is so crazy about. She tells me he is worth the trip! I am also planning on skiing on Sunday, for the first time in 30 years. That should be interesting. I hope all of the weight lifting pays off and I am not too sore on Monday!!
No other big news to report. I did get a couple of book recommendations from yesterday's post, so I will need to check them out. Other than that, it's just another day.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
3/20/2013: Spring?
So much for getting to wear the new clothes that I bought a couple of weeks ago! It's cold out, with a wind chill of 19 degrees on the first day of spring. I guess I get to wear my winter clothes for another week or two.
Speaking of spring clothes, the Slim for Life ads on the radio are driving me nuts. The further I get into my Get Fit Initiative and the more I learn about diet and exercise and how important both are to our overall health and well being, the more irritated I get with "Get Thin Quick" schemes. The current ad touts "30 pounds in 30 days," for just $199! "If you've been lazy all winter, come to Slim For Life and get your body ready for those spring clothes." Yeah, right. Perhaps it is true that through some combination of mixes and powders and supplements and appetite suppressants and who knows what else you can lose 30 pounds in 30 days, but it is healthy? Really? Is it fat or is it some combination of fat, muscle, bone tissue, etc...? The urge to lose weight quickly can be irresistible. The day-in and day-out slog of eating right and exercising daily can get tiresome, it's true. I guess that's why, for me, I have to understand why I am doing it. It's not about how I look (well, maybe that's part of it) but it is about how I feel and how I am going to feel tomorrow, next month, next year, and 40 years from now. For me, this whole business of exercising every day, eating nutritious foods, and avoiding Dead Foods (including wheat) is about being fit and feeling great as I get older. It's about being able to do what I want to do when I'm 70 and 80 and 90 years old.
Sometimes I forget that's why I am doing it. Sometimes I don't want to get up in the morning to exercise (like this morning). That's when habit kicks in and I do it anyway. I really didn't want to get on the treadmill this morning. In fact, on the way to the gym I pretty much talked myself into walking for an hour since I really didn't feel like running today. But I did run, I just couldn't help it. Three or four minutes into my walk I decided I was being silly, I was there, I might as well run. I did take it a little easier than normal and ran at 5mph until I only had 10 minutes left in my hour, then I increased it to 6mph to make up for walking the first few minutes, so that I would get my full 5 miles in before my hour was up. So yes, in spite of my desire to skip exercise today, I ran 5 miles. But I have all my exercise in for the week, so far, and tomorrow is my rest day, so no more exercise until Friday morning. Yeah! I am ready for a break.
I read a lot about nutrition, health, and exercise to remind myself how important all of my daily habits are. I didn't love the book, "Thinner This Year," but it did help me decide to eliminate Dead Foods from my everyday eating. "Wheat Belly," was fascinating and caused me to decide to give up wheat. Since giving up Dead Foods and wheat, my food cravings have diminished considerably, just about disappeared, actually; reading those two books helped me solve a problem that I have been grappling with over the last couple of months. I don't know what I will read next, but I know I will be on the prowl for my next fitness related book soon. It helps to keep myself indoctrinated in the language of fitness. It makes it easier to consistently make good decisions if I am surrounding myself with the ideas, thoughts, and words of other people that take being healthy, seriously; even if these people aren't in my living room, at least their words influence my thoughts. Maybe some day this will all be old hat for me, just part of my life, and I won't have to give it much thought any more. That day isn't here yet. This still takes active planning and discipline on my part. And that's OK. Whatever it takes, it's worth it. I feel great and I know I will feel great again tomorrow!! What more could I want?
Speaking of spring clothes, the Slim for Life ads on the radio are driving me nuts. The further I get into my Get Fit Initiative and the more I learn about diet and exercise and how important both are to our overall health and well being, the more irritated I get with "Get Thin Quick" schemes. The current ad touts "30 pounds in 30 days," for just $199! "If you've been lazy all winter, come to Slim For Life and get your body ready for those spring clothes." Yeah, right. Perhaps it is true that through some combination of mixes and powders and supplements and appetite suppressants and who knows what else you can lose 30 pounds in 30 days, but it is healthy? Really? Is it fat or is it some combination of fat, muscle, bone tissue, etc...? The urge to lose weight quickly can be irresistible. The day-in and day-out slog of eating right and exercising daily can get tiresome, it's true. I guess that's why, for me, I have to understand why I am doing it. It's not about how I look (well, maybe that's part of it) but it is about how I feel and how I am going to feel tomorrow, next month, next year, and 40 years from now. For me, this whole business of exercising every day, eating nutritious foods, and avoiding Dead Foods (including wheat) is about being fit and feeling great as I get older. It's about being able to do what I want to do when I'm 70 and 80 and 90 years old.
Sometimes I forget that's why I am doing it. Sometimes I don't want to get up in the morning to exercise (like this morning). That's when habit kicks in and I do it anyway. I really didn't want to get on the treadmill this morning. In fact, on the way to the gym I pretty much talked myself into walking for an hour since I really didn't feel like running today. But I did run, I just couldn't help it. Three or four minutes into my walk I decided I was being silly, I was there, I might as well run. I did take it a little easier than normal and ran at 5mph until I only had 10 minutes left in my hour, then I increased it to 6mph to make up for walking the first few minutes, so that I would get my full 5 miles in before my hour was up. So yes, in spite of my desire to skip exercise today, I ran 5 miles. But I have all my exercise in for the week, so far, and tomorrow is my rest day, so no more exercise until Friday morning. Yeah! I am ready for a break.
I read a lot about nutrition, health, and exercise to remind myself how important all of my daily habits are. I didn't love the book, "Thinner This Year," but it did help me decide to eliminate Dead Foods from my everyday eating. "Wheat Belly," was fascinating and caused me to decide to give up wheat. Since giving up Dead Foods and wheat, my food cravings have diminished considerably, just about disappeared, actually; reading those two books helped me solve a problem that I have been grappling with over the last couple of months. I don't know what I will read next, but I know I will be on the prowl for my next fitness related book soon. It helps to keep myself indoctrinated in the language of fitness. It makes it easier to consistently make good decisions if I am surrounding myself with the ideas, thoughts, and words of other people that take being healthy, seriously; even if these people aren't in my living room, at least their words influence my thoughts. Maybe some day this will all be old hat for me, just part of my life, and I won't have to give it much thought any more. That day isn't here yet. This still takes active planning and discipline on my part. And that's OK. Whatever it takes, it's worth it. I feel great and I know I will feel great again tomorrow!! What more could I want?
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
3/19/2013: No Wheat, Day Three
This is the morning of my third day with no wheat, after reading 'Wheat Belly' by Dr. Davis.
So far, so good. I don't miss it at all, but then again, I wasn't eating a lot of it. I had dry toast with my eggs in the morning and sometimes I would have a sandwich for lunch. Not eating wheat has caused me to be a little more creative, but since the only processed food I was eating was bread, it's pretty easy for me to eliminate wheat from my diet.
This morning I sauteed a bunch of veggies to put in my eggs. There were way more vegetables than eggs, in fact the eggs barely held all the veggies together; it was yummy. I also had a grapefruit. I cooked this weekend so I have stuffed peppers, sweet potatoes, and garlic rosemary chicken in the fridge for my lunch and dinners. For snacks I am mixing frozen berries with plain Chobani Greek yogurt to get away from the sweeteners used in the pre-mixed yogurts. I also have walnuts, macadamia nuts, fruit and avocado for snacks. I'm certainly not going to starve.
Yesterday I was not nearly as hungry as I normally am in the afternoon and I did not have my normal 2:00 - 3:00 meltdown, which is when I usually start looking for something sweet to eat. In fact, I was not hungry for lunch until about 1:30. I did notice that I got hungry earlier in the morning than normal, but I think that is because I unwittingly ate a very high glycemic index fruit for breakfast, a mango. I had my yogurt snack at about 10:00 though, and then I didn't think about food again until 1:30, when I decided I should probably eat my lunch. I wasn't really hungry at 1:30 and I think maybe I ate more than I needed to yesterday because I am just used to eating a certain amount of food. Today, I am going to pay more attention to just eating what I feel like a I need to eat, instead of eating the entire portion I pack. By the end of the day yesterday I felt like I ate a little too much, even though I ate fewer calories than I normally eat in a day. Interesting...
I am going to try to get more creative with my veggies and my fruit. My goal will be to eat one new (or at least seldom eaten) fruit and vegetable each week. Everything I read tells me that the best thing I can do with regard to my diet is eat a wide variety of foods. I probably already have a wider variety in my diet than the typical American, but I get stuck in a rut, just like the rest of us. So I have decided to have some fun in the produce section and always make a point of picking up something that I have either never eaten before or that I eat very seldom.
My Food Plan for Life is going well. It helps me a ton to know that the Dead Foods are not an option. I don't even think about snacking on something that is not nutritionally sound. I don't know why, but it is so much easier when the crap is just not an option. I guess it is the same thing I talked to Julie about, which is reducing the number of decisions I make about food. When I pack my snack and lunch in the morning, I know that is all I am going to eat that day. I don't even have to consider whether I'll eat the cookies getting passed around or the candy at the receptionist's desk. I don't have to decide over and over and over again to not have something to eat. I already made that decision, last week, when I defined my Food Plan for Life. No Dead Food in my normal day-to-day eating. The only time Dead Foods are permitted is for a special occasion, which must be a true special occasion. For me, it is a plan that is working.
My workout this morning was tough! I like my new trainer, Joshua. Today we focused a lot on balance and whole body exercises that used free weights and whole body movements rather than isolating muscles on machines. I need to ride a bike at lunch today. That's the hardest thing for me to get in, the two lunch time workouts. I get so absorbed in my work it's hard to pull away, yet I know it is the best thing I can do for myself. I'll get it done today.
So far, so good. I don't miss it at all, but then again, I wasn't eating a lot of it. I had dry toast with my eggs in the morning and sometimes I would have a sandwich for lunch. Not eating wheat has caused me to be a little more creative, but since the only processed food I was eating was bread, it's pretty easy for me to eliminate wheat from my diet.
This morning I sauteed a bunch of veggies to put in my eggs. There were way more vegetables than eggs, in fact the eggs barely held all the veggies together; it was yummy. I also had a grapefruit. I cooked this weekend so I have stuffed peppers, sweet potatoes, and garlic rosemary chicken in the fridge for my lunch and dinners. For snacks I am mixing frozen berries with plain Chobani Greek yogurt to get away from the sweeteners used in the pre-mixed yogurts. I also have walnuts, macadamia nuts, fruit and avocado for snacks. I'm certainly not going to starve.
Yesterday I was not nearly as hungry as I normally am in the afternoon and I did not have my normal 2:00 - 3:00 meltdown, which is when I usually start looking for something sweet to eat. In fact, I was not hungry for lunch until about 1:30. I did notice that I got hungry earlier in the morning than normal, but I think that is because I unwittingly ate a very high glycemic index fruit for breakfast, a mango. I had my yogurt snack at about 10:00 though, and then I didn't think about food again until 1:30, when I decided I should probably eat my lunch. I wasn't really hungry at 1:30 and I think maybe I ate more than I needed to yesterday because I am just used to eating a certain amount of food. Today, I am going to pay more attention to just eating what I feel like a I need to eat, instead of eating the entire portion I pack. By the end of the day yesterday I felt like I ate a little too much, even though I ate fewer calories than I normally eat in a day. Interesting...
I am going to try to get more creative with my veggies and my fruit. My goal will be to eat one new (or at least seldom eaten) fruit and vegetable each week. Everything I read tells me that the best thing I can do with regard to my diet is eat a wide variety of foods. I probably already have a wider variety in my diet than the typical American, but I get stuck in a rut, just like the rest of us. So I have decided to have some fun in the produce section and always make a point of picking up something that I have either never eaten before or that I eat very seldom.
My Food Plan for Life is going well. It helps me a ton to know that the Dead Foods are not an option. I don't even think about snacking on something that is not nutritionally sound. I don't know why, but it is so much easier when the crap is just not an option. I guess it is the same thing I talked to Julie about, which is reducing the number of decisions I make about food. When I pack my snack and lunch in the morning, I know that is all I am going to eat that day. I don't even have to consider whether I'll eat the cookies getting passed around or the candy at the receptionist's desk. I don't have to decide over and over and over again to not have something to eat. I already made that decision, last week, when I defined my Food Plan for Life. No Dead Food in my normal day-to-day eating. The only time Dead Foods are permitted is for a special occasion, which must be a true special occasion. For me, it is a plan that is working.
My workout this morning was tough! I like my new trainer, Joshua. Today we focused a lot on balance and whole body exercises that used free weights and whole body movements rather than isolating muscles on machines. I need to ride a bike at lunch today. That's the hardest thing for me to get in, the two lunch time workouts. I get so absorbed in my work it's hard to pull away, yet I know it is the best thing I can do for myself. I'll get it done today.
Monday, March 18, 2013
3/18/13: Wheat Belly: I Feel Duped!
I am about halfway through the book, 'Wheat Belly,' by William Davis, MD, and if half of what he says in his book is true, I feel like we have been completely and totally duped. Duped by whom? you may ask. I'm not sure I know the answer to that question. Scientists? Doctors? The government? Big Food? All of them, I guess. First of all, let me warn you that I am a little bit of a Conspiracy Theorist when it comes to Big Food (companies like Monsanto and ConAgra) and the public. While I understand the benefits of bigger yields per acre when it comes to feeding the populations of the world, I don't believe for a second that Big Food has an ounce of altruism at its core. It's all about profit margins and stock prices. Produce food as cheaply as possible and get people to consume as much of it as you can. Who gives a rat's ass whether it's good for them or not? Best scenario possible: Get them addicted to the stuff that is cheapest to produce and charge a lot of money for it. Oh yeah, and while we're at it, let's genetically modify the seeds so that they can't reproduce and you have to use our fertilizer and bug spray to keep the crop alive. Oh, and don't forget to patent the seeds while we're at it, so if any of our crops end up unwittingly on another farmer's field, we can sue him for not buying the seed from us.
Yeah, I'm jaded. Yeah, I don't trust Big Food one little bit. Yeah, I am into the whole buy local eat local movement, though I don't get to farmers markets and that sort of thing nearly enough. I certainly believe in eating food that looks like it did when it was alive and growing, food that hasn't been transformed and processed into something completely different from what it was to begin with.
All of that said, I believed "them" when "they" said whole wheat products were good for me. I believed them completely, hook, line and sinker. I read my labels. If "whole wheat" was not the only type of flour in the bread, I didn't buy it. I avoided breads with labels like "whole grain." I was smart enough to look at the list of ingredients and see that the "whole grain" bread was basically enriched white flour with some whole grains thrown in for color and texture. I really didn't think my two slices of dry whole wheat 45 per calorie slice of bread in the morning was doing me any harm at all. The opposite, in fact. I believed that bread had some nutritional qualities to it. Whole wheat bread, until yesterday, was not on my list of Dead Foods. Until yesterday. Now, after reading Dr. Davis' book, I think it is highly possible that wheat is the worst culprit of them all.
This is just one book by one guy and, while he sites several experiments over the last 30-40 years that provide support for his theories, it doesn't appear as if there have been any large, controlled experiments that conclusively prove that wheat is the culprit when it comes to our bulging waist lines and increased incidences of illnesses such as diabetes, celiacs disease, and cancer. On the other hand, the circumstantial evidence appears to be overwhelming. The studies and experiments that he sites are pretty impressive. It appears as if "they" have known for sometime that "whole wheat" is not the health food it has been cracked up to be.
Dr. Davis sites the high glycemic index of whole wheat bread as one of the prime reasons wheat is bad for you. On the back of his book he says, "Did you know that eating two slices of whole wheat bread can increase blood sugar more than 2 tablespoons of pure sugar can?" No. I did not know that. He blames the increase of large waistlines over the last 30 years on the changes that have occurred in wheat. Basically, he says that the wheat we eat today is not the wheat our parents ate when they were children. Wheat has been cross bred and cross bred and cross bed, to the point that it is barely recognizable as the same plant it was when the song, "America the Beautiful" was written. There are no longer "Amber waves of grain," that flow in the breeze like an ocean in the fields of America. The fields are now filled with dwarf wheat, whose short, stout stalks can support the larger heads of grain that are now characteristic of the wheat we consume. This dwarf wheat is amazing. It has a much higher yield per acre than the grain of yesteryear. It is drought and temperature tolerant. In can be grown in many different climates. It is helping solve the world's hunger problem. While all of this is true, Dr. Davis tells us in his book that this cross bred beyond recognition wheat has never been tested to make sure it is still healthy for us to consume. According to Dr. Davis, because this wheat was not genetically engineered, it was just carefully bred, scientists assumed that it was basically the same wheat. But it's not. Chromosomally, it is a very different plant. And Dr. Davis says that those differences have everything to do with why we are fatter and sicker than we have ever been.
Dr. Davis gives a lot of examples of studies that support his theories and of people that have transformed their lives by not eating wheat. He sites evidence that negative effects of wheat on our health have been known for decades. And yet, we are told to eat many servings of "Healthy whole grains," every day. Dr. Davis claims that wheat is the culprit behind our food cravings, our afternoon slumps, our inability to "stop at just one." Dr. Davis claims that wheat is the culprit behind a lot of things. He suggests we give it up and see what happens. He has me convinced to give it a try. Yesterday was my first wheat free day.
So there is this huge "Gluten Free" thing going on right now. Many nutritionists say to ignore the gluten free foods on the market. Most of them remove gluten and replace the gluten with sugars and fats. It's just another marketing scheme, like the "fat free" cookies and salad dressing that starting making us fat 20 years ago. Even Dr. Davis says that you don't need to worry about being gluten free if you don't have Celiacs disease. Apparently there is wheat in a lot of things that you would never imagine, such as dry roasted nuts and chewing gum. I am not going to go as far as to avoid incidental trace amounts of flour in such products. I am going to avoid all wheat products such as bread, rolls, muffins, cakes, cookies, breaded anything, bread crumb, crackers, etc... My Food Plan for Life now includes not eating wheat.
This morning has gotten away from me. It's 8:05 and I must go to work. Today is day two, wheat free. I'll let you know how it goes.
Yeah, I'm jaded. Yeah, I don't trust Big Food one little bit. Yeah, I am into the whole buy local eat local movement, though I don't get to farmers markets and that sort of thing nearly enough. I certainly believe in eating food that looks like it did when it was alive and growing, food that hasn't been transformed and processed into something completely different from what it was to begin with.
All of that said, I believed "them" when "they" said whole wheat products were good for me. I believed them completely, hook, line and sinker. I read my labels. If "whole wheat" was not the only type of flour in the bread, I didn't buy it. I avoided breads with labels like "whole grain." I was smart enough to look at the list of ingredients and see that the "whole grain" bread was basically enriched white flour with some whole grains thrown in for color and texture. I really didn't think my two slices of dry whole wheat 45 per calorie slice of bread in the morning was doing me any harm at all. The opposite, in fact. I believed that bread had some nutritional qualities to it. Whole wheat bread, until yesterday, was not on my list of Dead Foods. Until yesterday. Now, after reading Dr. Davis' book, I think it is highly possible that wheat is the worst culprit of them all.
This is just one book by one guy and, while he sites several experiments over the last 30-40 years that provide support for his theories, it doesn't appear as if there have been any large, controlled experiments that conclusively prove that wheat is the culprit when it comes to our bulging waist lines and increased incidences of illnesses such as diabetes, celiacs disease, and cancer. On the other hand, the circumstantial evidence appears to be overwhelming. The studies and experiments that he sites are pretty impressive. It appears as if "they" have known for sometime that "whole wheat" is not the health food it has been cracked up to be.
Dr. Davis sites the high glycemic index of whole wheat bread as one of the prime reasons wheat is bad for you. On the back of his book he says, "Did you know that eating two slices of whole wheat bread can increase blood sugar more than 2 tablespoons of pure sugar can?" No. I did not know that. He blames the increase of large waistlines over the last 30 years on the changes that have occurred in wheat. Basically, he says that the wheat we eat today is not the wheat our parents ate when they were children. Wheat has been cross bred and cross bred and cross bed, to the point that it is barely recognizable as the same plant it was when the song, "America the Beautiful" was written. There are no longer "Amber waves of grain," that flow in the breeze like an ocean in the fields of America. The fields are now filled with dwarf wheat, whose short, stout stalks can support the larger heads of grain that are now characteristic of the wheat we consume. This dwarf wheat is amazing. It has a much higher yield per acre than the grain of yesteryear. It is drought and temperature tolerant. In can be grown in many different climates. It is helping solve the world's hunger problem. While all of this is true, Dr. Davis tells us in his book that this cross bred beyond recognition wheat has never been tested to make sure it is still healthy for us to consume. According to Dr. Davis, because this wheat was not genetically engineered, it was just carefully bred, scientists assumed that it was basically the same wheat. But it's not. Chromosomally, it is a very different plant. And Dr. Davis says that those differences have everything to do with why we are fatter and sicker than we have ever been.
Dr. Davis gives a lot of examples of studies that support his theories and of people that have transformed their lives by not eating wheat. He sites evidence that negative effects of wheat on our health have been known for decades. And yet, we are told to eat many servings of "Healthy whole grains," every day. Dr. Davis claims that wheat is the culprit behind our food cravings, our afternoon slumps, our inability to "stop at just one." Dr. Davis claims that wheat is the culprit behind a lot of things. He suggests we give it up and see what happens. He has me convinced to give it a try. Yesterday was my first wheat free day.
So there is this huge "Gluten Free" thing going on right now. Many nutritionists say to ignore the gluten free foods on the market. Most of them remove gluten and replace the gluten with sugars and fats. It's just another marketing scheme, like the "fat free" cookies and salad dressing that starting making us fat 20 years ago. Even Dr. Davis says that you don't need to worry about being gluten free if you don't have Celiacs disease. Apparently there is wheat in a lot of things that you would never imagine, such as dry roasted nuts and chewing gum. I am not going to go as far as to avoid incidental trace amounts of flour in such products. I am going to avoid all wheat products such as bread, rolls, muffins, cakes, cookies, breaded anything, bread crumb, crackers, etc... My Food Plan for Life now includes not eating wheat.
This morning has gotten away from me. It's 8:05 and I must go to work. Today is day two, wheat free. I'll let you know how it goes.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
3/16/2013: Let's Talk About Food
I haven't blogged for a couple of days for a couple of reasons. First, I didn't have a lot to say. It seemed like many of the struggles that I have been dealing with the last couple of days were the same struggles I had been dealing with all week, BORING, and I was pretty rushed yesterday morning with a 7:45AM meeting scheduled with a vendor. Now it is Saturday morning, the budgeting is caught up for the week, Jack is still all sleepy in bed, and I have a nice quiet time to blog a little.
Food. How do I manage food for the rest of my life? To me, that is the biggest single question to which I need a real and lasting answer.
I have thought a lot about the 'Younger Next Year' book and why it changed my life. After glancing at the newest "stay thin" book out there by a popular author at the bookstore last night, I know the answer. 'Younger Next Year' explains why I need to exercise. That book cemented in my head, forever, why I need to exercise an hour a day six days a week for the rest of my life. It wasn't a bag full of tricks saying do this and do that. It didn't offer easy tips and tricks for being healthy. It wasn't a collection of cute ideas for manipulating myself into doing what was good for me. The book explained to me, in a straightforward and simple fashion, why I need to exercise every day. That knowledge motivates me to get up every day and do something that does not come at all naturally, exercise hard for about an hour.
Before reading the book I would have told you that, "I knew I needed to exercise." Well, I guess, "I thought I should exercise," would be a better way of putting it. After reading the book I no longer have a choice. I exercise every day and will continue to do so for the rest of my life.
I need that same conviction regarding Dead Food. 'Thinner This Year' calls all food that is worthless as far as nutrients go, Dead Food. She's talking about candy, chips, cookies, cakes, white bread, french fries, pop, alcohol, etc... I like that expression, Dead Food. I am now using it as my word to describe any food that does not pack a decent nutrition per calorie punch.
'Thinner This Year' is helping me get there, intellectually. I have been thinking more about Dead Foods, lately, and the impact that they have on my organs, blood, bones, brain, etc... I have not finished the book yet. I think it is likely that when I am done reading the book, I will re-read it and blog about it, similar to how I blogged about 'Younger Next Year.' That process really helped cement the knowledge in YNY into my brain.
In addition to reading 'Thinner' I have been listening to a lot of people talk about food and I've been paying particular attention to people that are fit. As I am developing my Food Plan for Life (Oh, I like the sound of that!), I know it has to be simple and sustainable. It also needs to be clear cut. It can't be fancy. There need to be clear guidelines. On Thursday morning, this is what I decided:
As part of my day-to-day diet, I will eat no Dead Foods. None. Nada. Nil. Zero. As in, no tootsie pops, no butter scotches, no peppermints, no cookies, no ice cream, no french fries, no chips. If the food lacks essential nutrients, I just won't eat it as part of my daily "this is what I eat to stay alive" regimen. I'm talking about my daily habit of food. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, etc... Day-in-day-out, my eating will be about consuming nutritionally rich food and avoiding Dead Foods.
But, and this is a real and true but, and this is the but that makes this plan doable in the long term, I will allow myself the luxury of eating and drinking whatever I want on special occasions. Now, I do need to be judicious in what I consider a special occasion. Jack's birthday dinner is a special occasion. Going out to dinner on a Thursday night because I am tired and don't feel like cooking is not. A co-worker bringing cookies in for St. Pattie's day is not a special occasion. A BBQ at work is not a special occasion. A child or grandchild's wedding, birthday or graduation party is a special occasion, as is a sibling's or parent's. A date is not a special occasion, unless it is for an anniversary or celebrating a promotion or something awesome like that. Going to a ball game is not a special occasion. Having lunch with friends at a restaurant is not a special occasion. Vacations are not special occasions. Going to dinner with Carla at her fancy restaurant in Vail will be a special occasion. In a nut shell, special occasions must be special. There is something to celebrate. It's not just daily life, it's a moment that is meant to commemorate something that is important to me and those close to me. These events will happen every now and then, not every week.
I have lived this plan for two days, so far, and I like it. The hardest part is afternoons at work. I get intense sugar cravings in the afternoons. I think I am just looking for a pick-me-up, since I can't take a nap. I have decided I may try a small cup of coffee at about 2:00, to see if that will help. I will have to pay special attention to whether or not that affects my ability to fall and stay asleep at night.
I like this plan because it is cut and dry. I know what is good for me and what's not. I am beginning to understand how damaging it is to my body to consume Dead Foods. It's getting easier and easier for me to look at a cookie and see it as a "yuck" instead of as treat, reward, or a crutch to get through the day. Yet, I know if I am exercising everyday and my daily food habit is healthy and nutrient rich, my body can process away occasional bouts of junk. The thing is, I have to avoid rationalizing that it is OK to eat a little junk everyday, because that little becomes some, and that some become some more, and that some more becomes a lot. This is my Food Plan for Life: I will consume no Dead Foods except for on truly special occasions. On special occasions, I can eat and drink whatever I want.
Speaking of special occasions, we did have a special occasion yesterday. It was Jack's birthday!!! We had such a lovely evening. First of all, Jack really liked his presents. I bought him three new shirts and three pairs of shorts and a set of Briton soldiers, the West Point Cadet Color Guard. He was pleased with the new clothes but he loved the soldiers. They are pretty cool.
Last night we went out to dinner to a little restaurant just off the Plaza called Cafe Trio. We had been there once before, so we knew we would like it. We like the atmosphere. The food is good. The service is great. They have a piano player in the corner. It feels special, and it was a special day, so it was the perfect place to go. This was definitely a special occasion, so I knew I would eat what I wanted to eat, but it was interesting, when I looked at the menu I automatically rejected anything that was ridiculously calorie intense. For example, I like scallops. They taste good, they are low in calories, I tend to look for them on the menu when we go to nice restaurants. Cafe Trio had scallops on the menu; yep, they were coated in candied pecans (yes, I said candied) and were served in a frangelica cream sauce. Really? Come on. Let's take an innocent 75 calorie protein and convert it into a 1000 calorie mess, why don't we? Yeah, I skipped the scallops. They weren't even tempting. We split an appetizer, toasted ravioli. They were nutritionally worthless, I know, except for the tomato sauce, but they were light and tasty. A nice treat, nothing more, nothing less. For dinner I chose a beet salad with an add on of a few ounces of Ahi tuna. It was perfect, delicious and just the right amount of food. Even though we were enjoying a special occasion, I didn't gravitate toward the high calorie, heavy options on the menu. Just the opposite, I gravitated away from them. I did enjoy a couple of drinks, though. The restaurant has some fun specialty cocktails. And I shared Jack's birthday desert with him. They even brought it out with a candle in it and I sang him happy birthday. I really enjoyed treating Jack to this special meal and celebrating my husband on his birthday. I find it interesting that even though I could eat whatever I wanted according to my Food Plan for Life, what I really wanted to eat for dinner was a salad with beets and Ahi tuna.
Something that is worthy of a note and that I need to consider for future celebrations; the alcohol made it difficult for me to sleep last night. I was tired and fell asleep hard by 10:30 or so, but around midnight I woke up and could not fall back asleep for a couple of hours. This was caused by a combination of two things, the alcohol and stressing about work. I am pretty sure if I had not drank alcohol last night, I would not have woken up, but when I drink, I tend to wake up in the middle of the night, after the alcohol as "worn off." Then the stress kept me up. My sleep is important to me. I don't drink very often, but it is quite likely that I will tend to drink even less when I remember that it keeps me from sleeping well. I think it is worth paying attention to, at the very least.
I guess that's it for now. Life carries on. It's a new day, I need to exercise, go bowling, and make my husband a special birthday dinner. He gets his Swiss steak today. Lucky man!!
Food. How do I manage food for the rest of my life? To me, that is the biggest single question to which I need a real and lasting answer.
I have thought a lot about the 'Younger Next Year' book and why it changed my life. After glancing at the newest "stay thin" book out there by a popular author at the bookstore last night, I know the answer. 'Younger Next Year' explains why I need to exercise. That book cemented in my head, forever, why I need to exercise an hour a day six days a week for the rest of my life. It wasn't a bag full of tricks saying do this and do that. It didn't offer easy tips and tricks for being healthy. It wasn't a collection of cute ideas for manipulating myself into doing what was good for me. The book explained to me, in a straightforward and simple fashion, why I need to exercise every day. That knowledge motivates me to get up every day and do something that does not come at all naturally, exercise hard for about an hour.
Before reading the book I would have told you that, "I knew I needed to exercise." Well, I guess, "I thought I should exercise," would be a better way of putting it. After reading the book I no longer have a choice. I exercise every day and will continue to do so for the rest of my life.
I need that same conviction regarding Dead Food. 'Thinner This Year' calls all food that is worthless as far as nutrients go, Dead Food. She's talking about candy, chips, cookies, cakes, white bread, french fries, pop, alcohol, etc... I like that expression, Dead Food. I am now using it as my word to describe any food that does not pack a decent nutrition per calorie punch.
'Thinner This Year' is helping me get there, intellectually. I have been thinking more about Dead Foods, lately, and the impact that they have on my organs, blood, bones, brain, etc... I have not finished the book yet. I think it is likely that when I am done reading the book, I will re-read it and blog about it, similar to how I blogged about 'Younger Next Year.' That process really helped cement the knowledge in YNY into my brain.
In addition to reading 'Thinner' I have been listening to a lot of people talk about food and I've been paying particular attention to people that are fit. As I am developing my Food Plan for Life (Oh, I like the sound of that!), I know it has to be simple and sustainable. It also needs to be clear cut. It can't be fancy. There need to be clear guidelines. On Thursday morning, this is what I decided:
As part of my day-to-day diet, I will eat no Dead Foods. None. Nada. Nil. Zero. As in, no tootsie pops, no butter scotches, no peppermints, no cookies, no ice cream, no french fries, no chips. If the food lacks essential nutrients, I just won't eat it as part of my daily "this is what I eat to stay alive" regimen. I'm talking about my daily habit of food. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, etc... Day-in-day-out, my eating will be about consuming nutritionally rich food and avoiding Dead Foods.
But, and this is a real and true but, and this is the but that makes this plan doable in the long term, I will allow myself the luxury of eating and drinking whatever I want on special occasions. Now, I do need to be judicious in what I consider a special occasion. Jack's birthday dinner is a special occasion. Going out to dinner on a Thursday night because I am tired and don't feel like cooking is not. A co-worker bringing cookies in for St. Pattie's day is not a special occasion. A BBQ at work is not a special occasion. A child or grandchild's wedding, birthday or graduation party is a special occasion, as is a sibling's or parent's. A date is not a special occasion, unless it is for an anniversary or celebrating a promotion or something awesome like that. Going to a ball game is not a special occasion. Having lunch with friends at a restaurant is not a special occasion. Vacations are not special occasions. Going to dinner with Carla at her fancy restaurant in Vail will be a special occasion. In a nut shell, special occasions must be special. There is something to celebrate. It's not just daily life, it's a moment that is meant to commemorate something that is important to me and those close to me. These events will happen every now and then, not every week.
I have lived this plan for two days, so far, and I like it. The hardest part is afternoons at work. I get intense sugar cravings in the afternoons. I think I am just looking for a pick-me-up, since I can't take a nap. I have decided I may try a small cup of coffee at about 2:00, to see if that will help. I will have to pay special attention to whether or not that affects my ability to fall and stay asleep at night.
I like this plan because it is cut and dry. I know what is good for me and what's not. I am beginning to understand how damaging it is to my body to consume Dead Foods. It's getting easier and easier for me to look at a cookie and see it as a "yuck" instead of as treat, reward, or a crutch to get through the day. Yet, I know if I am exercising everyday and my daily food habit is healthy and nutrient rich, my body can process away occasional bouts of junk. The thing is, I have to avoid rationalizing that it is OK to eat a little junk everyday, because that little becomes some, and that some become some more, and that some more becomes a lot. This is my Food Plan for Life: I will consume no Dead Foods except for on truly special occasions. On special occasions, I can eat and drink whatever I want.
Speaking of special occasions, we did have a special occasion yesterday. It was Jack's birthday!!! We had such a lovely evening. First of all, Jack really liked his presents. I bought him three new shirts and three pairs of shorts and a set of Briton soldiers, the West Point Cadet Color Guard. He was pleased with the new clothes but he loved the soldiers. They are pretty cool.
Last night we went out to dinner to a little restaurant just off the Plaza called Cafe Trio. We had been there once before, so we knew we would like it. We like the atmosphere. The food is good. The service is great. They have a piano player in the corner. It feels special, and it was a special day, so it was the perfect place to go. This was definitely a special occasion, so I knew I would eat what I wanted to eat, but it was interesting, when I looked at the menu I automatically rejected anything that was ridiculously calorie intense. For example, I like scallops. They taste good, they are low in calories, I tend to look for them on the menu when we go to nice restaurants. Cafe Trio had scallops on the menu; yep, they were coated in candied pecans (yes, I said candied) and were served in a frangelica cream sauce. Really? Come on. Let's take an innocent 75 calorie protein and convert it into a 1000 calorie mess, why don't we? Yeah, I skipped the scallops. They weren't even tempting. We split an appetizer, toasted ravioli. They were nutritionally worthless, I know, except for the tomato sauce, but they were light and tasty. A nice treat, nothing more, nothing less. For dinner I chose a beet salad with an add on of a few ounces of Ahi tuna. It was perfect, delicious and just the right amount of food. Even though we were enjoying a special occasion, I didn't gravitate toward the high calorie, heavy options on the menu. Just the opposite, I gravitated away from them. I did enjoy a couple of drinks, though. The restaurant has some fun specialty cocktails. And I shared Jack's birthday desert with him. They even brought it out with a candle in it and I sang him happy birthday. I really enjoyed treating Jack to this special meal and celebrating my husband on his birthday. I find it interesting that even though I could eat whatever I wanted according to my Food Plan for Life, what I really wanted to eat for dinner was a salad with beets and Ahi tuna.
Something that is worthy of a note and that I need to consider for future celebrations; the alcohol made it difficult for me to sleep last night. I was tired and fell asleep hard by 10:30 or so, but around midnight I woke up and could not fall back asleep for a couple of hours. This was caused by a combination of two things, the alcohol and stressing about work. I am pretty sure if I had not drank alcohol last night, I would not have woken up, but when I drink, I tend to wake up in the middle of the night, after the alcohol as "worn off." Then the stress kept me up. My sleep is important to me. I don't drink very often, but it is quite likely that I will tend to drink even less when I remember that it keeps me from sleeping well. I think it is worth paying attention to, at the very least.
I guess that's it for now. Life carries on. It's a new day, I need to exercise, go bowling, and make my husband a special birthday dinner. He gets his Swiss steak today. Lucky man!!
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
3/13/2013: Slow News Day
There is not much new to talk about today. It's mid-week and I'm working through the things I need to work through.
I made a new exercise schedule last night and pasted it to my chart. My weekly schedule is now: Three full-body strength training workouts (1 hour each), 10 miles running (two 5 miles days), 1500 meters swimming and 76 minutes biking. If the weather is nice and I can get outdoors, the bike rides will be longer. Jack and I play racquetball almost every week for a little over an hour and, now that it is getting warmer, we'll probably start to do some hiking, too. I still need to double up some days so that I can get a day off in there, but I am happier with 3 full body strength days than 2 lower body days and 2 upper body days. I look forward to getting outside to run and ride my bike.
Other than that, there is not much new to talk about. Jack's birthday is Friday. He is taking the day off and it is supposed to be a gorgeous day, so that's cool. I'm glad he gets to have a pretty day for his birthday.
I made a new exercise schedule last night and pasted it to my chart. My weekly schedule is now: Three full-body strength training workouts (1 hour each), 10 miles running (two 5 miles days), 1500 meters swimming and 76 minutes biking. If the weather is nice and I can get outdoors, the bike rides will be longer. Jack and I play racquetball almost every week for a little over an hour and, now that it is getting warmer, we'll probably start to do some hiking, too. I still need to double up some days so that I can get a day off in there, but I am happier with 3 full body strength days than 2 lower body days and 2 upper body days. I look forward to getting outside to run and ride my bike.
Other than that, there is not much new to talk about. Jack's birthday is Friday. He is taking the day off and it is supposed to be a gorgeous day, so that's cool. I'm glad he gets to have a pretty day for his birthday.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
3/12/2013: New Trainer
The trainer that I have been working with for more than a year has finally gotten out of reach for me. First, he switched gyms. After working out with a different trainer at 24 Hour Fitness and not being happy with that, I switched gyms, too; and followed Jeremy to Aspen in Lee's Summit. Aspen is a brand new gym, so it is all sparkly and clean and the equipment is new and that is nice. It really is a lot more pleasant to go to a clean, well equipped, roomy gym. Aspen also has racquetball courts which has been great. Jack and I enjoy going to the gym together on the weekends, playing racquetball and following the game up with a workout. I like having Jack being part of my exercise regimen. Also, since the gym was not even open yet when we joined, we got a great deal. The monthly gym membership plus an hour a week of training is less expensive than just the training was at 24. So even though I have kept my 24Hour membership so that I would have access to the pool and a gym that is open early and late close to home, I am spending less money than I was when I just belonged to 24Hour and trained there.
All of that said, the real reason I joined Aspen was so I could continue to work with Jeremy, which I did until things changed. First, Jeremy got promoted at the Aspen in Lee's Summit. That changed things a bit. Because of his promotion he stopped doing personal training sessions, except for working with the few people who followed him to Aspen, of which I was one. Because of the promotion and his new responsibilities, I could tell he was less focused on Personal Training. OK...I could deal with that. Then he got promoted again and moved to the Olathe Aspen a couple of weeks ago. After a couple of weeks of radio silence and waiting somewhat impatiently for him to work his schedule out, I decided to start training with someone else, so I signed up to start working with Joshua. This morning was our first workout together. Jeremy did text yesterday to say he was looking for someone that would "fit my schedule," meaning a trainer that would take 5AM sessions. It turns out that yesterday Jeremy started talking to Joshua about working with me, so when I walked in this morning, Joshua at least knew who I was.
We had a good work out this morning. We talked about my fitness goals, which I have decided should be pretty basic. I told him that I had given up on the idea of measuring body fat because it was such an inexact science. It's too hard to have reducing body fat % as a goal if I can't measure it accurately. I told him that I am training for the triathlon and that I want to be very fit. I told him that I want to be able to do a pull-up by the end of the year, so that is my one measurable fitness goal. I'd like to continue to improve my overall strength and get as fit as I can by the end of the year. We talked about working on core, stabilizers, and balance; all of which are important to me. I decided that I would like to go back to 3 full body strength training workouts a week, rather than 2 upper body and 2 lower body. The extra strength training session was sapping my schedule and I felt like I wasn't getting enough cardio in for my tri training. And I like the full body workouts better, anyway. So today we had a good, yet difficult, full body workout session. For a first session together, it went pretty well. Now I have to re-write my schedule for the next four weeks, but that is OK. I'll try to get that done, tonight.
Onward and upward! I wish Jeremy the best of luck in his new position! Joshua and I will do just fine together!
All of that said, the real reason I joined Aspen was so I could continue to work with Jeremy, which I did until things changed. First, Jeremy got promoted at the Aspen in Lee's Summit. That changed things a bit. Because of his promotion he stopped doing personal training sessions, except for working with the few people who followed him to Aspen, of which I was one. Because of the promotion and his new responsibilities, I could tell he was less focused on Personal Training. OK...I could deal with that. Then he got promoted again and moved to the Olathe Aspen a couple of weeks ago. After a couple of weeks of radio silence and waiting somewhat impatiently for him to work his schedule out, I decided to start training with someone else, so I signed up to start working with Joshua. This morning was our first workout together. Jeremy did text yesterday to say he was looking for someone that would "fit my schedule," meaning a trainer that would take 5AM sessions. It turns out that yesterday Jeremy started talking to Joshua about working with me, so when I walked in this morning, Joshua at least knew who I was.
We had a good work out this morning. We talked about my fitness goals, which I have decided should be pretty basic. I told him that I had given up on the idea of measuring body fat because it was such an inexact science. It's too hard to have reducing body fat % as a goal if I can't measure it accurately. I told him that I am training for the triathlon and that I want to be very fit. I told him that I want to be able to do a pull-up by the end of the year, so that is my one measurable fitness goal. I'd like to continue to improve my overall strength and get as fit as I can by the end of the year. We talked about working on core, stabilizers, and balance; all of which are important to me. I decided that I would like to go back to 3 full body strength training workouts a week, rather than 2 upper body and 2 lower body. The extra strength training session was sapping my schedule and I felt like I wasn't getting enough cardio in for my tri training. And I like the full body workouts better, anyway. So today we had a good, yet difficult, full body workout session. For a first session together, it went pretty well. Now I have to re-write my schedule for the next four weeks, but that is OK. I'll try to get that done, tonight.
Onward and upward! I wish Jeremy the best of luck in his new position! Joshua and I will do just fine together!
Monday, March 11, 2013
3/11/13: We Did a Little Shopping Yesterday
As of yesterday morning I had no spring clothes that fit. Well, I owned two t-shirts that I have purchased in the last 6 months, but that was it. The rest of my warm weather clothes had been given away, donated to Goodwill, or tossed out it it was in too bad of shape. Everything else I own is a sweater or warm winter clothes of some sort. Now that the weather is starting to hint at getting warm, it's time for me to get serious about doing some clothes shopping. There is something that is kind of fun about shopping when I really need the clothes. I don't have to feel bad about spending the money. It's obvious that I need to shop.
We got lucky and ended up at Macy's when they were having a 50% off sale. I think everything we purchased there yesterday was half off. I ended up with 4 pairs of pants, 3 shirts and a jean jacket for about $250. Not too bad. Then we stopped in Abercrombie and Fitch, in spite of the ridiculously loud music, and I found a couple of light spring sweaters that I liked. The most fun part of the shopping trip was the sizes that I was trying on. I started out trying on size 8 pants. They were all too big. So I started trying on the sixes. For the most part, they fit and that is what I bought. But the last pair of pants I tried on was a cropped pair of jeans. I grabbed a size 6, confident that the pants would fit, and they were too....BIG! I was stunned as I walked out of the dressing room and to the rack to see if they had a size 4. There was a size 4 on the rack, I picked them up, took them to the dressing room in disbelief, tried them on, and they fit perfectly! Yesterday, I bought a size 4 pair of pants! Unbelievable. I am still sort of in shock. Yes, they are in the ladies section, not the junior section. There is no way I could get in to those low rise, skinny legged jeans that girls wear in a size 4, or even a 6 for that matter, but yesterday I bought an honest to God size 4 pair of pants in the ladies' department at Macy's. It felt good!
As I was trying on tops, I started feeling like they were a little looser than I wanted them to be. They were mediums, and they fit OK, but not great. So I got brave and picked one of the tops out in a small. I tried it on and it fit better than the medium did. A small? You have got to be kidding me. With the exception of one shirt, all of the smalls fit better than the mediums. This is actually taking a little getting used to. I'm wearing a size 4 or a size 6 pair of pants and a small top; I am a small person. When did that happen? Wow! The exercise continues to make a difference.
Between daylight savings time and being worried about my work, I did not sleep well last night, so I decided to take today off for exercise. I missed last week's day off because I ended up doing my cycling on my lunch hour on Thursday to get caught up. I needed a whole day off, so I am taking it today. It will be good to rest. Yesterday I played racquetball with Jack and did a lower body workout. I came very close to winning our last game! I started out the game with something like a 9 - 0 advantage. Jack started playing his heart out and slowly closed the gap. I finally got 19 points while he had 17, but after that he did not miss a shot and he ended up winning the game, 21 - 19. But I gave him a run for his money and I am starting to close the skill gap a little. The game was a lot of fun. My elbow hurts a little from playing though. I'm probably taking too many big swings at the ball, some of which I miss. I am guessing that that is what is hurting my elbow. I hope that as I improve, that soreness will go away.
I continue to avoid Dead Foods. Reading 'Thinner This Year' is helping. As we were walking through the grocery store the sweets and treats were not even tempting. I actually saw them as poison as we were walking through the aisles. It sure makes it a lot easier to eat the Good Stuff when you see the Dead Foods in that light. This morning I weighed 150.2 pounds. Almost back to my 150 goal. That will be my baseline from now on, rather than the 153 that I have gravitated towards since the middle of January.
We got lucky and ended up at Macy's when they were having a 50% off sale. I think everything we purchased there yesterday was half off. I ended up with 4 pairs of pants, 3 shirts and a jean jacket for about $250. Not too bad. Then we stopped in Abercrombie and Fitch, in spite of the ridiculously loud music, and I found a couple of light spring sweaters that I liked. The most fun part of the shopping trip was the sizes that I was trying on. I started out trying on size 8 pants. They were all too big. So I started trying on the sixes. For the most part, they fit and that is what I bought. But the last pair of pants I tried on was a cropped pair of jeans. I grabbed a size 6, confident that the pants would fit, and they were too....BIG! I was stunned as I walked out of the dressing room and to the rack to see if they had a size 4. There was a size 4 on the rack, I picked them up, took them to the dressing room in disbelief, tried them on, and they fit perfectly! Yesterday, I bought a size 4 pair of pants! Unbelievable. I am still sort of in shock. Yes, they are in the ladies section, not the junior section. There is no way I could get in to those low rise, skinny legged jeans that girls wear in a size 4, or even a 6 for that matter, but yesterday I bought an honest to God size 4 pair of pants in the ladies' department at Macy's. It felt good!
As I was trying on tops, I started feeling like they were a little looser than I wanted them to be. They were mediums, and they fit OK, but not great. So I got brave and picked one of the tops out in a small. I tried it on and it fit better than the medium did. A small? You have got to be kidding me. With the exception of one shirt, all of the smalls fit better than the mediums. This is actually taking a little getting used to. I'm wearing a size 4 or a size 6 pair of pants and a small top; I am a small person. When did that happen? Wow! The exercise continues to make a difference.
Between daylight savings time and being worried about my work, I did not sleep well last night, so I decided to take today off for exercise. I missed last week's day off because I ended up doing my cycling on my lunch hour on Thursday to get caught up. I needed a whole day off, so I am taking it today. It will be good to rest. Yesterday I played racquetball with Jack and did a lower body workout. I came very close to winning our last game! I started out the game with something like a 9 - 0 advantage. Jack started playing his heart out and slowly closed the gap. I finally got 19 points while he had 17, but after that he did not miss a shot and he ended up winning the game, 21 - 19. But I gave him a run for his money and I am starting to close the skill gap a little. The game was a lot of fun. My elbow hurts a little from playing though. I'm probably taking too many big swings at the ball, some of which I miss. I am guessing that that is what is hurting my elbow. I hope that as I improve, that soreness will go away.
I continue to avoid Dead Foods. Reading 'Thinner This Year' is helping. As we were walking through the grocery store the sweets and treats were not even tempting. I actually saw them as poison as we were walking through the aisles. It sure makes it a lot easier to eat the Good Stuff when you see the Dead Foods in that light. This morning I weighed 150.2 pounds. Almost back to my 150 goal. That will be my baseline from now on, rather than the 153 that I have gravitated towards since the middle of January.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
3/10/2013: Focus, Focus, Focus
It seems like when the world starts swirling around me in the massive cacophony of noise I start seeking out little things I can control so I feel like I can hang onto something and not get sucked into the vortex of craziness around me (while fully acknowledging that I had something to do with creating the craziness in the first place).
I started reading 'Thinner This Year,' by Chris Crowley and Jen Saheck, Ph.D., this week. This book takes a similar approach to not being fat as 'Younger Next Year' took to exercising every day. This book is more focused on nutrition, while the first book was focused primarily on exercise. The doctors Chris partnered with have different specialties. Jen Saheck specializes in nutrition.
I like 'Younger Next Year' better than I like this book. I'm not sure if that is because I am now a little tired of Chris Crowley or if it is because I really like Dr. Henry Lodge and I miss him a little bit, or if it is because I so needed to hear 'Younger Next Year's' message that it just spoke to me. I don't feel like I am learning as much from this book as I did from 'Younger.' On the other hand, reading 'Thinner' is helping me get refocused on why I am doing all of this in the first place.
Basically, Jen says that being fat is bad. I mean, really bad. She goes into detail why being fat is bad. She talks with frustration about the "levels of nonsense and downright deception about diet and exercise that the average person in the country encounters." Her goal in writing this book is to provide accurate information to the reader about the impact of eating what she calls "Dead Food" and being fat, vs. eating the "Good Stuff" and being at a healthy weight. She feels there is a desperate need for accuracy and truth, so she provides a lot of scientific evidence about nutrition and, to a lesser extent, exercise; while slamming the "boloney fed to Americans about nutrition and weight loss: do-nothing diet pills, "miracle" supplements, "eat everything" diets, "eat nothing" diets, four-minutes-a-week exercise regimes - easy "solutions" that are nothing of the sort."
There are a few things I learned from the book already. First, she talks about the inflammation cycle that occurs in the body when you eat Dead Foods. I can't remember the details off the cuff, but basically your body releases too many inflammatory signals when you eat the wrong things and those signals mess with all of the cells in your body. Then she talks about the fact that fat is not an inert substance in your body. Fat is actually a living organ that is constantly sending out these inflammatory signals. This is one of the reasons that belly fat, in particular, is so bad. That fat is wrapped around the internal organs, exposing those organs to all of these inflammatory signals and chemicals. This is not a good thing. Jen goes into quite a bit of detail about what happens chemically and physically when we eat well vs. poorly. I can tell I am going to have to start re-reading the book to be able to report back with any accuracy on this blog. Suffice it to say, for now, that reading the book has me recommitted to staying thin for my long-term health.
In that vein, I have recommitted to being 150 pounds and to not eating food that isn't good for me. I confess that when I reached my goal weight I was tired of watching every last thing I put in my mouth and I got a little lazy and sporadic about my food. I snacked more, ate healthy foods a little less. My weight stabilized around 153 and I rationalized that that was OK. But as I read this book I am reminded that every pound does count. I am also reminded of how important it is to eat the Good Stuff and not eat Dead Food, at least not on a regular basis. A few days ago, I recommitted to eating the Good Stuff and avoiding Dead Food. You can see the result on my chart:
 |
| 3/10/2013 Chart |
It is kind of obvious that the main focus of this chart is exercise, but I am charting my weight, too. You can see that my weight has centered around 153 since mid-January with a spike to 155 last week when all hell was breaking loose around me. Then, in the middle of last week I started reading 'Thinner This Year' and look what happened. I lost almost 4 pounds. How? I stopped snacking on junk and focused on eating healthy foods, only. Really, it was easy. I just had to decide to do it. For two months I have thought about this, rationalized this and that, made little excuses for myself, and just been non-committal towards this particular issue. On Wednesday I made a commitment to myself and I see the results immediately. As Caden would say, "That's a Humph!" I am pleased with my renewed commitment to eating the Good Stuff and avoiding Dead Foods. I am OK with the occasional celebratory meal or party, but day-in and day-out eating needs to be healthy choices 99.9% of the time.
I am very excited about the rest of this chart. It turns out that marking my chart after I exercise is part of the reward that I really crave. It feels good to finish the week and see that I have completed 100% of my exercise goals for the week. It is easy to exercise when I look at my schedule and can see what I am supposed to do today. I love this chart. I think the bar graph at the bottom is a lot of fun. It indicates what % of scheduled swimming, biking, running, upper body, and lower body workouts I got done each week. Week 8 was great! In spite of the uber-load of stress, I got all of my exercise in. It helps a lot!! The exercise, I mean. It does help me manage the stress and feel like I have control of at least some of the things in my life.
OK - enough of the heavy stuff. Jack and I have had a little fun in the last couple of weeks. As most of you know, we had a couple of huge snows. How big? Check out this snow bank beside our driveway:
I asked Jack to lay on it to give you some perspective. Yes, I counted shoveling that snow as exercise in week 7.
After shoveling the driveway we made a snow woman. Here we are:
I know she looks a little angry, I think it is the eyebrows that do it. But really, she was happy to be with us! We had a blast playing in the snow. I even made a snow angel...my first in decades, I think.
It's about noon and I am still in my PJs. I need some spring clothes that fit, so I am going to sign off for now and do some shopping with Jack. Have a great day!
Friday, March 8, 2013
3/8/2013: Checking In
It's been a crazy couple of mornings. This morning I had to run out the door for a 7:45 meeting and did not have time to put up a post. But for those of you that may check in on me daily, I wanted to let you know that I'm doing OK.
We are finding solutions to some of the issues at work, Steve is hanging in there, and I finally managed to make it to the gym at lunch yesterday! As of today, I am caught up with my exercise chart for the week. I did not get up early to exercise this morning. I was just plain tired. I will do an upper body workout at home this evening. Then all I will have left for the week is a 38 minute bike ride and a 5 mile run (tomorrow is the last day of my week). I hope to get to the gym at lunch today for the 38 minute bike ride and I will definitely do the 5 mile run tomorrow. If I don't get the bike ride in today, I will do it tomorrow, along with the run.
I am reading 'Thinner This Year,' a follow-up to 'Younger Next Year' that focuses on the physiological impacts of one's diet and of being overweight, the same way 'Younger Next Year' talked about the physiological impact of daily exercise. I am reading it to reaffirm my commitment to healthy eating and maintaining my weight. So far it is interesting. I will write more about it this weekend.
I'm at work, so I gotta run. Have a great Friday!!
We are finding solutions to some of the issues at work, Steve is hanging in there, and I finally managed to make it to the gym at lunch yesterday! As of today, I am caught up with my exercise chart for the week. I did not get up early to exercise this morning. I was just plain tired. I will do an upper body workout at home this evening. Then all I will have left for the week is a 38 minute bike ride and a 5 mile run (tomorrow is the last day of my week). I hope to get to the gym at lunch today for the 38 minute bike ride and I will definitely do the 5 mile run tomorrow. If I don't get the bike ride in today, I will do it tomorrow, along with the run.
I am reading 'Thinner This Year,' a follow-up to 'Younger Next Year' that focuses on the physiological impacts of one's diet and of being overweight, the same way 'Younger Next Year' talked about the physiological impact of daily exercise. I am reading it to reaffirm my commitment to healthy eating and maintaining my weight. So far it is interesting. I will write more about it this weekend.
I'm at work, so I gotta run. Have a great Friday!!
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
3/6/2013: Let's just say I've had better days...
Yes, it is true. I've had better days. Sometimes it all just piles up and all I want to do is crawl under the covers and wait for it to all be over, but that is not an option. Between work being super difficult right now and being worried about Steven, I just seem to be having trouble staying positive and upbeat. I've eaten more in the evenings than normal, which has led me to being at 155 for a couple days in a row. I need to mark my chart tomorrow morning, so that is motivation to super careful about drinking water and evening eating today. Thank goodness I still have my chart.
Actually, thank goodness I still have several things. In spite of feeling really down for this last week, there are enough aspects of my daily life that are working well to keep me sane. I am exercising every day and keeping track of my exercise on my log. That brings me a sense of satisfaction and I feel the tangible benefit in my body and mood. I cooked on Sunday so I have homemade meals for my lunches and Jack has something to eat for dinner. Jack loves me and supports me, no matter what. Our home is a safe haven, the value of which is indescribable. I am coaching Julie and now supporting Carla in their own Get Fit Initiatives. They keep me inspired and on my game and helping them achieve success brings me great joy. I have started making our bed every morning and putting away all of my clothes every day instead of letting them pile up all week. This is a new "keystone habit" I am trying develop after reading 'The Power of Habit.' I can't tell you how much my messy bedroom would start to bother me by the end of the week and after reading that book I realized this is one habit I can change today that will likely trigger an avalanche of other habits. It's already started, in fact. This morning I noticed that I didn't walk past some little things that I would normally walk right past. Well, I did walk past them the first time, but then I turned around and took care of them. It took two seconds. They are really little things (like shutting a door to a room we don't use to save on heat) but they are things I would have walked past 10 times, before today. I've got my sister who called to chat the other day, to remind me of all of the things I needed to be reminded of, and many other loving and supportive people in my life. I feel great, physically, even if emotionally I am struggling right now. It's all going to be OK. I know that. I just feel blah. Ah, these are the days that I just have to keep on keeping on!!
Actually, thank goodness I still have several things. In spite of feeling really down for this last week, there are enough aspects of my daily life that are working well to keep me sane. I am exercising every day and keeping track of my exercise on my log. That brings me a sense of satisfaction and I feel the tangible benefit in my body and mood. I cooked on Sunday so I have homemade meals for my lunches and Jack has something to eat for dinner. Jack loves me and supports me, no matter what. Our home is a safe haven, the value of which is indescribable. I am coaching Julie and now supporting Carla in their own Get Fit Initiatives. They keep me inspired and on my game and helping them achieve success brings me great joy. I have started making our bed every morning and putting away all of my clothes every day instead of letting them pile up all week. This is a new "keystone habit" I am trying develop after reading 'The Power of Habit.' I can't tell you how much my messy bedroom would start to bother me by the end of the week and after reading that book I realized this is one habit I can change today that will likely trigger an avalanche of other habits. It's already started, in fact. This morning I noticed that I didn't walk past some little things that I would normally walk right past. Well, I did walk past them the first time, but then I turned around and took care of them. It took two seconds. They are really little things (like shutting a door to a room we don't use to save on heat) but they are things I would have walked past 10 times, before today. I've got my sister who called to chat the other day, to remind me of all of the things I needed to be reminded of, and many other loving and supportive people in my life. I feel great, physically, even if emotionally I am struggling right now. It's all going to be OK. I know that. I just feel blah. Ah, these are the days that I just have to keep on keeping on!!
Monday, March 4, 2013
3/4/2013: Weakness in the Analogy
OK, so there is a slight weakness in my analogy about putting gas in your car and food in your body. Your car has a fuel gauge and your body doesn't. Wouldn't that be cool though, if you had a little meter on the back of your hand that let you know that you are running out of your fuel supply and it is time to stock up? (I am thinking about Ultraman right now and the red light that starts beeping on his chest when he needs energy and has to fly to the sun to get it.) And then, as you're eating, the needle on the gauge would slowly move up until you had eaten enough calories for the next 4 - 6 hours of activity. I think that would be super cool! Take all the measuring and weighing and guess work out of it. Just eat until the meter says you've had enough and stop! Alas, our bodies are wonderful but they don't have that feature. That is the best reason I can think of for weighing myself every day. I can measure and calculate and guesstimate calories in and calories out, but the only sure way I have of knowing if I am eating too much or eating too little is checking every morning to see how much I weigh. When I eat more calories than I burn, I gain weight. When I eat fewer calories than I burn, I lose weight. It's that simple. I don't have a gas gauge that tells me if I am eating too much right now, but I do have a scale that tells me if I ate too much yesterday. My scale is my retrospective gas gauge. It works for me. 155.0 pounds? Oops, your emotional stress got the best of you over the weekend and you lost focus on your caloric intake. You've stored a little extra, so it's time to cut back a little and get back in balance. Yes, it works for me.
It is time for me to update my recommended reading list. It has been a while. When I do update my reading list I am going to add, 'The Power of Habit,' by Charles Duhigg. It is an excellent book. Jen, I could barely put it down. It is a very compelling and motivational book because it puts your habits into context. It defines the components of habits and helps you identify those parts of the habit cycle you need to alter if you want to change a habit. I found it fascinating and appreciate the recommendation. It's extremely well written and an easy read. If you have any curiosity about habits and how to change them, I heartily endorse this book!
It is time for me to update my recommended reading list. It has been a while. When I do update my reading list I am going to add, 'The Power of Habit,' by Charles Duhigg. It is an excellent book. Jen, I could barely put it down. It is a very compelling and motivational book because it puts your habits into context. It defines the components of habits and helps you identify those parts of the habit cycle you need to alter if you want to change a habit. I found it fascinating and appreciate the recommendation. It's extremely well written and an easy read. If you have any curiosity about habits and how to change them, I heartily endorse this book!
Sunday, March 3, 2013
3/3/2013: A Couple of Rough Days
Steven and Carla came into town on Thursday to join with the family and friends of Kyle Hickman and celebrate his life. Kyle was Steven's best friend He was shot and killed by a friend of his, who then killed himself. The memorial service was yesterday and story after story was told about Kyle and how he has touched so many lives. I knew Kyle through Steven. I'd met Kyle many times, of course, when he'd come by the house as he and Steven were growing up, by I knew him through the stories Steven has told me over the years. It was fascinating to hear the stories others told yesterday and it gave me a better appreciation for why Steven and Kyle were such good friends. Steven has been hit hard by Kyle's death. I'm worried about him but have no idea what I can do to help. The feeling of helplessness is overwhelming at the moment. I've told Steven I am here for him, no matter what. I think he knows that. Other than that, I'm not sure what else I can do. I was able to have a conversation with Kyle's mom yesterday and my heart was breaking for her. I pray for everyone whose lives were touched by Kyle, that they all will heal from their sorrow and heart break and that the love and memories they have for Kyle will keep them warm for the rest of their lives.
After the service Jack, Carla and I headed home so Carla could pack and we could get her to the airport in time for her 6:00 flight. In spite of the sad reason for her visit, it was good to touch base with Carla again. She is struggling with developing healthy routines while she is in Vale, so we talked a lot about habits (thanks for the book tip, Jen, it's helped a lot already) and how to substitute one behavior for another, while keeping the same cue and reward. For one particular time of her day we were able to identify the cue, coming home from work after a long day; the behavior, eating until her tummy feels full; and the reward, feeling comforted and hugged by her full tummy. We know she will be coming home from work every day, so the cue is not going to go away, so we needed to think of another behavior that would help attain the same sense of comfort or stress release that she gets from having a full stomach. Of course she needs to eat at the end of the day, but one of the habits Carla developed when she was dieting was eating a ton of very low calorie food, so that when she was done eating she would feel stuffed. That stuffed feeling was what she craved, so she never got used to eating just to fuel herself, even when she was eating fewer calories she was eating a ton of food so she could get satisfaction from feeling full.
Carla loves to make art projects, and she is quite talented. She made her boyfriend a walking stick for Valentine's Day that turned out really well. When she is working on projects like this she is transported to a different place and completely relaxes and de-stresses. She gets the same sense of calm by being outdoors. She doesn't do well being trapped inside. So she decided to replace the behavior of eating until she was full with working on making walking sticks to sell. She'll still come home and eat, but she will eat a predetermined amount of food that satisfies her body's need for fuel. Then she will spend her time sanding sticks, carving inscriptions, varnishing, etc... Doing what she loves to do. This will give her the same reward that she got from eating too much. A sense of calm and comfort. I look forward to hearing how it goes.
It is interesting how comforting the sense of being full really is. I am almost never full. I just don't eat that much food anymore. I eat the calories I know I need and stop eating. I'm not saying I never eat food that isn't particularly good for me, I still eat my dark chocolate and tootsie pops for little treats, but I almost never eat until I'm full. I can count on one hand the number of times that I have done that in the last year and one of those times was Friday night. I was so worried about Steve and so sad about Kyle that I just started eating and didn't stop. About the same time that Jack said something to me about it, I realized that my stomach was starting to feel full and that that was the feeling that I was looking for; that fully tummy feeling. Something about having a full tummy is very comforting. I don't know what it is. I don't look for it very often, but every now and then, when I am feeling very, very stressed or sad or both, the full tummy feeling is exactly what I want. The biggest difference between now and previous periods in my life is that when I do eat too much, I stop as soon as I feel full and then I'm done. I wake up in the morning, weigh myself, put on my running shoes, and go to the gym. Yes, it would be better if I never used food to medicate myself, but my new attitude about food and exercise keep those moments from really damaging me. They do not turn into an entire day of binging; every "binge eating" moment that I have had in the last year lasted a very short period of time, perhaps 30 minutes or an hour. They have never spilled into the next day. I never wake up and say, "Oh, I blew it, I may as well give up." I've woken up the next day, wondered why I needed to feel full last night, and got right back into the habits that I know truly make me feel good; exercising and eating a reasonable number of calories. The real reward is feeling good, all day, every day. The fact is, when I over eat I feel good for a fleeting moment, while I am eating and for that moment afterwards when my belly is full and I feel like I am wrapped up in a whole body hug. But that feeling is fleeting, sort of like riding a roller coaster and experiencing the joy and excitement of going down a big hill. You know how that is exhilarating but fleeting. Overeating brings the same rush, but it's not happiness. When I exercise I may not get that rush that I get from overeating, but the feeling of comfort and happiness that I get from exercise lasts all day and night. It brings real and lasting happiness into my life. Part of it is how I look. I don't have to squeeze into my size 16 jeans and feel fat. That's nice. But it is more about how I feel. I'm full of energy, joy and zest for life. That comes from the exercise. I would rather have that then the fleeting cozy comfort of a full belly, any day.
Julie had a great first week on her new plan. I get great joy from reading her blog and texting her and hearing how well she is doing with her renewed commitment to her lifetime achievement initiative. She is examining her relationship with food and thinking about the number of food decisions she makes everyday. She blogged about how she decided to take my advice one day and make her food decisions for the day in the morning. When she went to lunch with a friend, she did not even open the menu, she had already decided what she was going to order. She said she did not have to struggle with the decision not to order the higher calorie options, she could just enjoy the company of her friend. I thought that was awesome!
I hear that again, and again, and again. I talk to so many people who are trying to lose weight and they all want to know how they can stop thinking about food all of the time. It's a real struggle and certainly something I struggled with as I was changing my habits. I really had to change my relationship with food. It had to stop being something that brought me pleasure, either by feeding myself or by feeding other people, and become something that fueled my body. Nothing more or less exciting than the gasoline that I put in my car. I use that analogy a lot now. What happens when you keep pushing on the gas dispenser lever after your tank is full? Gas spills on the pavement. Do I do that, keep trying to put more fuel in the car after the tank is full? No, that would be stupid. Well, it is just as stupid for me to keep putting food in my mouth beyond my body's capacity to turn it into energy in the next several hours. It spills out, too. It spills out in the form of fat on my hips, my belly, under my chin, and onto my thighs. It really is that simple. It's easier to see when that gasoline that we pay $3 - $4 a gallon is spilling onto the ground. But heck, food is more expensive than gas these days, so even from a purely economical perspective it's nuts to eat more food than we need. And it's not good for our bodies. Plain and simple.
But beyond trying to develop this attitude about food = fuel, I do think it is important to limit the number of decision we have to make about food every day. If a person is struggling to lose weight and has a history of over eating or eating the wrong food, every opportunity to make a food decision is difficult. Most food decisions end in no, you can't do that. It feels like punishment for being fat. It feels like denial. It just feels bad. "Oh, I really want that but I can't have it." That does not feel good. It's a struggle to get through a day if thousands of times a day you think about that snack machine in the break room and thousands of times a day you say no. You don't get a mini-celebration for each successful decision. Instead, the one time you say to yourself, "Oh, OK, you can have one candy bar," you punish yourself for slipping. For being bad. Hell, even I call it being naughty. It's crazy.
So, it makes sense to limit your decision making to once a day. Before going to bed at night or before you start eating in the morning, make all of your food decision. Write it down. Carry the list with you, if you have to. Instead of making thousands of decisions a day, you make them all in the morning. If it's not on the list, you don't eat it. Done. It frees you up to think about other things.
This methodology certainly helps me with being consistent about exercise. I have my exercise schedule on my bathroom wall. Before I go to bed I consult it and mentally check off what I am going to do the next day. Then when I wake up, I put on my shoes and go. The decision was already made when I made my schedule. All I need to do is execute. It makes it so much easier. Yesterday was a perfect example. For the second Saturday in a row I did not have time to exercise during the day and I was leaving for the gym at 6:00 in the evening. But that was OK. I knew what I needed to do. It was on my chart. I had to do it. I was tired and emotionally rung out, but I also knew I needed to exercise. Yesterday, more than I wanted to rest on the couch, I wanted to mark off my chart. So I went to the gym.
Yesterday at the gym I did a little mini-tri. I swam 1500 meters, rode a stationary bike hard for 30 minutes, and did a 2 mile run at 5.5 miles per hour. It was tiring but satisfying, and I got to mark swimming, biking, and running off of my chart. The only thing I missed in week 7 was one of my lower body workouts and given the snowstorm and the kids coming into town, that's not bad.
I weighed 153.0 this morning. I am totally OK with that. In fact, I told Jack yesterday that I seem to be totally OK with anything between 150.0 and 154.8. I am not OK with 155.0. The one time I saw that number in the last two months I immediately started dieting. But as soon as I saw 152.0 again (two days later) I was fine. I have no sense of stress or of feeling "overweight" when I am in this 150 - 154.8 range, so it seems like this is where I am going to live. I am seeing a gradual change in my body shape as I continue to exercise. Muscles are becoming more defined, rolls are becoming smaller, and I feel stronger and more fit. But I don't live for those moments when I see a noticeable change and I don't seek them out. I am exercising as part of my life, it keeps me young and happy. That's the real benefit. Daily exercise gives me the capacity to live a full and vibrant life. There is nothing like it.
After the service Jack, Carla and I headed home so Carla could pack and we could get her to the airport in time for her 6:00 flight. In spite of the sad reason for her visit, it was good to touch base with Carla again. She is struggling with developing healthy routines while she is in Vale, so we talked a lot about habits (thanks for the book tip, Jen, it's helped a lot already) and how to substitute one behavior for another, while keeping the same cue and reward. For one particular time of her day we were able to identify the cue, coming home from work after a long day; the behavior, eating until her tummy feels full; and the reward, feeling comforted and hugged by her full tummy. We know she will be coming home from work every day, so the cue is not going to go away, so we needed to think of another behavior that would help attain the same sense of comfort or stress release that she gets from having a full stomach. Of course she needs to eat at the end of the day, but one of the habits Carla developed when she was dieting was eating a ton of very low calorie food, so that when she was done eating she would feel stuffed. That stuffed feeling was what she craved, so she never got used to eating just to fuel herself, even when she was eating fewer calories she was eating a ton of food so she could get satisfaction from feeling full.
Carla loves to make art projects, and she is quite talented. She made her boyfriend a walking stick for Valentine's Day that turned out really well. When she is working on projects like this she is transported to a different place and completely relaxes and de-stresses. She gets the same sense of calm by being outdoors. She doesn't do well being trapped inside. So she decided to replace the behavior of eating until she was full with working on making walking sticks to sell. She'll still come home and eat, but she will eat a predetermined amount of food that satisfies her body's need for fuel. Then she will spend her time sanding sticks, carving inscriptions, varnishing, etc... Doing what she loves to do. This will give her the same reward that she got from eating too much. A sense of calm and comfort. I look forward to hearing how it goes.
It is interesting how comforting the sense of being full really is. I am almost never full. I just don't eat that much food anymore. I eat the calories I know I need and stop eating. I'm not saying I never eat food that isn't particularly good for me, I still eat my dark chocolate and tootsie pops for little treats, but I almost never eat until I'm full. I can count on one hand the number of times that I have done that in the last year and one of those times was Friday night. I was so worried about Steve and so sad about Kyle that I just started eating and didn't stop. About the same time that Jack said something to me about it, I realized that my stomach was starting to feel full and that that was the feeling that I was looking for; that fully tummy feeling. Something about having a full tummy is very comforting. I don't know what it is. I don't look for it very often, but every now and then, when I am feeling very, very stressed or sad or both, the full tummy feeling is exactly what I want. The biggest difference between now and previous periods in my life is that when I do eat too much, I stop as soon as I feel full and then I'm done. I wake up in the morning, weigh myself, put on my running shoes, and go to the gym. Yes, it would be better if I never used food to medicate myself, but my new attitude about food and exercise keep those moments from really damaging me. They do not turn into an entire day of binging; every "binge eating" moment that I have had in the last year lasted a very short period of time, perhaps 30 minutes or an hour. They have never spilled into the next day. I never wake up and say, "Oh, I blew it, I may as well give up." I've woken up the next day, wondered why I needed to feel full last night, and got right back into the habits that I know truly make me feel good; exercising and eating a reasonable number of calories. The real reward is feeling good, all day, every day. The fact is, when I over eat I feel good for a fleeting moment, while I am eating and for that moment afterwards when my belly is full and I feel like I am wrapped up in a whole body hug. But that feeling is fleeting, sort of like riding a roller coaster and experiencing the joy and excitement of going down a big hill. You know how that is exhilarating but fleeting. Overeating brings the same rush, but it's not happiness. When I exercise I may not get that rush that I get from overeating, but the feeling of comfort and happiness that I get from exercise lasts all day and night. It brings real and lasting happiness into my life. Part of it is how I look. I don't have to squeeze into my size 16 jeans and feel fat. That's nice. But it is more about how I feel. I'm full of energy, joy and zest for life. That comes from the exercise. I would rather have that then the fleeting cozy comfort of a full belly, any day.
Julie had a great first week on her new plan. I get great joy from reading her blog and texting her and hearing how well she is doing with her renewed commitment to her lifetime achievement initiative. She is examining her relationship with food and thinking about the number of food decisions she makes everyday. She blogged about how she decided to take my advice one day and make her food decisions for the day in the morning. When she went to lunch with a friend, she did not even open the menu, she had already decided what she was going to order. She said she did not have to struggle with the decision not to order the higher calorie options, she could just enjoy the company of her friend. I thought that was awesome!
I hear that again, and again, and again. I talk to so many people who are trying to lose weight and they all want to know how they can stop thinking about food all of the time. It's a real struggle and certainly something I struggled with as I was changing my habits. I really had to change my relationship with food. It had to stop being something that brought me pleasure, either by feeding myself or by feeding other people, and become something that fueled my body. Nothing more or less exciting than the gasoline that I put in my car. I use that analogy a lot now. What happens when you keep pushing on the gas dispenser lever after your tank is full? Gas spills on the pavement. Do I do that, keep trying to put more fuel in the car after the tank is full? No, that would be stupid. Well, it is just as stupid for me to keep putting food in my mouth beyond my body's capacity to turn it into energy in the next several hours. It spills out, too. It spills out in the form of fat on my hips, my belly, under my chin, and onto my thighs. It really is that simple. It's easier to see when that gasoline that we pay $3 - $4 a gallon is spilling onto the ground. But heck, food is more expensive than gas these days, so even from a purely economical perspective it's nuts to eat more food than we need. And it's not good for our bodies. Plain and simple.
But beyond trying to develop this attitude about food = fuel, I do think it is important to limit the number of decision we have to make about food every day. If a person is struggling to lose weight and has a history of over eating or eating the wrong food, every opportunity to make a food decision is difficult. Most food decisions end in no, you can't do that. It feels like punishment for being fat. It feels like denial. It just feels bad. "Oh, I really want that but I can't have it." That does not feel good. It's a struggle to get through a day if thousands of times a day you think about that snack machine in the break room and thousands of times a day you say no. You don't get a mini-celebration for each successful decision. Instead, the one time you say to yourself, "Oh, OK, you can have one candy bar," you punish yourself for slipping. For being bad. Hell, even I call it being naughty. It's crazy.
So, it makes sense to limit your decision making to once a day. Before going to bed at night or before you start eating in the morning, make all of your food decision. Write it down. Carry the list with you, if you have to. Instead of making thousands of decisions a day, you make them all in the morning. If it's not on the list, you don't eat it. Done. It frees you up to think about other things.
This methodology certainly helps me with being consistent about exercise. I have my exercise schedule on my bathroom wall. Before I go to bed I consult it and mentally check off what I am going to do the next day. Then when I wake up, I put on my shoes and go. The decision was already made when I made my schedule. All I need to do is execute. It makes it so much easier. Yesterday was a perfect example. For the second Saturday in a row I did not have time to exercise during the day and I was leaving for the gym at 6:00 in the evening. But that was OK. I knew what I needed to do. It was on my chart. I had to do it. I was tired and emotionally rung out, but I also knew I needed to exercise. Yesterday, more than I wanted to rest on the couch, I wanted to mark off my chart. So I went to the gym.
Yesterday at the gym I did a little mini-tri. I swam 1500 meters, rode a stationary bike hard for 30 minutes, and did a 2 mile run at 5.5 miles per hour. It was tiring but satisfying, and I got to mark swimming, biking, and running off of my chart. The only thing I missed in week 7 was one of my lower body workouts and given the snowstorm and the kids coming into town, that's not bad.
I weighed 153.0 this morning. I am totally OK with that. In fact, I told Jack yesterday that I seem to be totally OK with anything between 150.0 and 154.8. I am not OK with 155.0. The one time I saw that number in the last two months I immediately started dieting. But as soon as I saw 152.0 again (two days later) I was fine. I have no sense of stress or of feeling "overweight" when I am in this 150 - 154.8 range, so it seems like this is where I am going to live. I am seeing a gradual change in my body shape as I continue to exercise. Muscles are becoming more defined, rolls are becoming smaller, and I feel stronger and more fit. But I don't live for those moments when I see a noticeable change and I don't seek them out. I am exercising as part of my life, it keeps me young and happy. That's the real benefit. Daily exercise gives me the capacity to live a full and vibrant life. There is nothing like it.
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