Can you believe it has been 60 days? over 32 pounds lost..my BMI down, muscle mass up, and most importantly, I feel amazing..going to the gym six days a week, doing what i am told and then some and really really enjoying it! What a blessing has come into my life and it has been 60 days, but it feels so much longer!!
It was funny that on Saturday evening, after the funeral of someone I respected very much, we decided to get away for the evening. We had not done that in a long long time and decided to my hometown and where we met 14 years ago, Chapel Hill. After the funeral, I guess i was a little emotional and not really paying attention. What was paying attention was this insatiable need to munch. I got a bag of "smartfood" white cheddar popcorn..the large one and a diet coke for the road. I did not eat the whole bag, but very close to it. About benson, as I finished the bag, It hit me that I was stuffing my face to not feel. Considering my binges before these last 60 days, a bag of white cheddar popcorn aint so bad! HA! but I needed to just relax. Michael and i went to one of my favorite childhood haunts..an old castle in chapel hill that used to be a secret get away for me. It was still there and still so grand and lovely. We left there and went walking on campus and even sat under the mythical Davie Poplar Sr. (the story goes that if Davie falls, so does the university..today it is held up with guide wires nad his son and grandson, taken from his limbs grow strong and large in his shadow). But it was wonderful just to sit, remember, live.....
We decided to go to dinner and since I have not had a free meal as of yet, I decided to have one. Even then, I only had a wonderful chicken dish with greens and the treat was the sourdough bread....we finished the evening with a trip to another of my childhood haunts, the planetarium and saw the "carolina skies" show. It was a perfect evening.
Sunday was just a day of rest.
All this said was to inidcate that while the emotional eating still pops up, in the last 60 days, I have become more accutely aware of it. I have learned that there is no need for it and there is a way to act and to be that can counter it for my own health. It requires vigiliance..but it is possible and it is happening.
On Sunday, Adam posted the article below...I loved it because it reinforces what I am learning..I never have to eat the mess that I was killing my self with again.
Think of it: in the last 60 days, I had not had, to stuff my face with:
Potato chips
Cheetos
Cheese (that was not no-fat)
Crackers
Candy bars
M&M's
Doughnuts
Cookies
Ice Cream (Ben and jerry's full on fat)
Instead I have had in appropriate amounts and at appropriate times:
Pretzels in appropriate amounts
Wheat thins
triscuits
salsa and Baked Tostios
Pickles (love some mt. olive dills)
apples
fruit cocktail in its own juice (no syrup)
pears in their own juice (no syrup)
peaches (sugar free in pear juice, no syrup)
blueberries
no fat low cal yogurt
no sugar added ice cream sandwiches
no sugar added ice pops
In the last 60 days I have not had for meals
chicken biscuits
sausage egg and cheese biscuits
biscuits
heavy pastas with white sauces
Pasta at all!
french fries AT ALL!
loaded baked potatoes
white bread at all!
butter
canola or vegetable oil
pizza! and that is big one.we were eating 2 a week
FAST FOOD AT ALL!
ribeye cooked in butter
Mexican food (fried chimichangas, etc)
Chinese take out with egg rolls
Instead I have had:
one egg, candadian bacon and fat free cheese with whole wheat english muffin
(egg cooked in microwave, so no butter or oil)
Salad with low cal dressing
Broccoli (and I have learned to cook and LOVE IT!)
Chicken dishes made without oil or butter and NOT FRIED
tuna with low cal mayo (duke's makes the best!)
Hibachi Grill take out (without the rice)
green beans
mixed Greens
Spinach (floretine chicken)
Corn
a couple of times lean steak
WHOLE WHEAT BREAD (which I swore I would never eat..and now I love)
lean turkey slices
chicken sausage for entrees
low fat marinara's on chicken and vegetables (without pasta)
Pita Delight Chicken Salad take out
the occassional low fat breakfast sandwich from Starbucks (340 calories, 9grms fat)
In other words..I am eating fruits and veg! :) for the first time I can remember regularly!
To drink:
I still am drinking diet coke, but down to 2 a day instead of 6
coffee, black, without cream or without fat free creamer (but not a lot of coffee, b/c I have so much energy)
Got brita's at home and office and drinking 6-8 glasses of water a day.
AND I LOVE THIS!!!!!
Here is the article from Adam..it is worth the read:
They say the first step to recovery is acknowledging the fact that you have a problem. Did you know that you are an emotional eater? Actually, everyone is an emotional eater in one way or another. Maybe your shaking your head right now, saying “Are you crazy!!! Only overweight people are emotional eaters.” Well, believe it or not, you are too!
The most common emotion that causes poor eating habits is depression, and it is widely known because a lot of movies will create a laugh that intensifies the character’s feelings by showing how depressed they are to indulge in stuffing their face full with sweets. By seeing that over and over on the silver screen has caused us to think we have to be depressed to have an emotional eating disorder or “bad habit.”
The truth is, an emotion is an emotion. A feeling based on certain events that cause you to react in a certain way. If depression can cause you to eat a large portion of chocolate, wouldn’t over indulging because you are happy the same thing? Actually, yes! Whether you are Sad, Angry, Bored, Happy, Fearful, Surprised, Joyful, or Disgusted, you have an opportunity to crave food for all the wrong reasons. Those are just the basics though! Double that by adding mixed emotions such as Love, Submissive, Awe, Disappointment, Remorse, Contempt, Aggression, Optimism and you will see many new doors open to what may be causing you to crave all the wrong foods.
Now, my point is not to get you all down on yourself and grab the closest candy bar, but to show you exactly how to change it. Your first task is to identify when you are craving something bad. Once you become aware of what emotions are causing these bad habits, then you can take action and control your beliefs about those cravings.
When you think of a soda, what is the first soda that comes to mind? I am more than positive that 99% of you will say either Coke or Pepsi. I had one guy once tell me he loves the “Bud E” and I just had to drop my head low, knowing that if Budweiser Energy was the first thing that came to his mind, then we have a long road ahead of us. My point is, if you can produce the marketing that Coke and Pepsi has done so successfully, then you can trigger a reaction to block bad decisions when it comes to eating bad foods. No, you don’t have to spend millions of dollars advertising in front of millions of people everyday, you just need to advertise to yourself.
Actually it is a very simple 3 step process, all you need is a pen and a notecard and follow these rules:
1) Write on the top of that notecard your awareness key, “I eat Chocolate when _____ stresses me out at work” or “I eat McDonald’s because I am in a hurry/frazzled/impatient.” Now if you have more than one thing that causes you to eat emotionally, list ALL of them!
2) On the opposite side of the notecard, write what you really want to believe about those foods because right now you are saying, “I love chocolate, it comforts me when I am stressed out” (i.e. “Eating Chocolate when I am stressed will only cause me to stress more after I eat it because I will gain weight.” or “If I could take two extra minutes to prepare food before I go to work instead of eating McDonald’s, I would not gain so much weight and I would not cause more stress from being in such a hurry.”)
3) Now laminate your card and put it in your pocket. Keep it in your pocket every single day. Read your card every morning when you wake up and every night before you go to bed. Everytime you reach in your pocket, you will feel your card and everytime you don’t have it in your pocket you will remember you forgot it just as you reach in your pocket and fear that you may have forgotten your keys. The more that card is in front of you, the more you’ll think about it, and the quicker you can change your feelings around about a bad habit you may have.
*BONUS TIP: You can use this same process to stay focused on your goals with fitness, family and work.
Adam FreemanFitness Director/Personal TrainerO2 Fitness ClubsWebsite: www.WilmingtonNCPersonalTraining.comBlog: www.AdamFreemanPT.blogspot.comEmail: AdamFreemanPT@Yahoo.com
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Posted By Adam Freeman PT to Adam Freeman Personal Training at 3/07/2010 12:13:00 PM
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