The first half of January has been pretty uneventful for me. I haven't been tempted to eat any non-healthy foods and I've been feeling great. Of course, I didn't cut back on my yogurt and coffee as I thought I might either. If I go by the signals my body is giving, I've lost a little weight anyhow so I haven't felt the need to be overly-restrictive.
But that's enough about me, how are you doing? Have you been trying to change what or how much you eat? Has that caused any problems for you and, if so, what have you tried so far to get around it?
I can tell you this--health goals rarely if ever unfold in a straight line. A binge eater, for example, almost always has one or more crisis points and may binge a few times while trying to break the pattern. It's not about whether you struggle. It's about whether you get back up when you fall.
Many people who try to leave grains and refined "neolithic" foods behind them suffer withdrawal. Has that happened to you? The lucky folks just look back fondly at their old foods while others are shocked by how strong their cravings are. They have to become obsessed with their goals for a while in order to see past how much they want wheat or other addictive foods. If/when they succeed in breaking the pattern the obsession can be managed and then broken by learning new tricks such as intermittent fasting but that can be a tough period.
Other withdrawal symptoms include feeling what is referred to as the "low-carb flu." If you ate grains and heavily sweetened neolithic foods for many years you have gut flora that include the "bad boys" and they are the source of feeling both cravings and sickness. Cravings mean they're demanding to be fed junk food and sickness means they're actually dying because healthy food encourages the "good guys" who crowd out the bad ones. So being sick for a while can mean you're getting healthier!
If you changed your eating pattern at New Year's and stuck with it, you may be feeling fabulous about now--how cool is that? If you're like me, you hadn't noticed that you hadn't felt GOOD in a long time so you're feeling too good to be legal.
If you tried but couldn't stick with healthy eating, why not give yourself permission to try again? Instead of beating up on yourself, how about being your own best champion and rooting for yourself to feel really, really good after you get through the tough part?
Well, it's a beautiful day here in southern Nevada and I'm going outside to play with my 3 toy dogs and visit with my neighbors. You should do something that gets you outdoors, particularly if the sun is shining--sunshine is very healthy.
Just remember--you own your body and you own your life, so live toward having the one you wish to have.
Showing posts with label temptation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label temptation. Show all posts
January 19, 2012
January 15, 2012
When Life Happens ...
I've been waiting for something to happen that triggered strong emotions.
It wouldn't have mattered whether the emotions were happy, sad, fearful or what--strong emotions can cause a desire to eat, particularly in binge eaters. In my case, the urge to eat was always for the junk foods I was usually trying to avoid.
And here I am tonight, pouting because the Green Bay Packers lost. Pouting angrily. I lived in Wisconsin for about 40 years so I'm deeply fond of the Wisconsin Badgers and the Pack.
I've been waiting for something emotional to happen to see how I would react now that I seem to be an ex-binger. And yep, it's pretty different. I had my usual morning of coffee with cream and a little sugar (out of honey--bleh even turbanado tastes awful to me now.) I also had my usual dish of home-made yogurt. Wow, the yogurt was fabulous! It's taken a while, but I've grown to love the taste of the yogurt by itself rather than needing to have fruit as the dominant flavor. I still add fruit--today it was an organic banana and a ripe persimmon--but I like a little pure yogurt with each bite of fruit.
Anyhow, I digress. My morning and mid-day were normal. I didn't eat before the Packer game because I was too nervous. I drank a pineapple water kefir and that was it. Now that the game's been over for a while and I'm calming down, I find I have no appetite at all. Unless something changes in the next hour or so it looks like I'll wait until tomorrow to eat.
No urge to binge at all. When eating loses it's importance as a stress management tool there's just no impulse to binge. Since I'm enjoying my whole foods so much, that's pretty weird really.
The next time you get emotional, find your "comfort" in something other than food--put eating in its proper place.
Update 1/16/12: As I suspected, I never became hungry last night and I'm no more hungry than usual this morning. I really believe the "weak from not eating" is either a mental belief creating reality or a symptom of inability to burn stored fat.
I do plan to eat a complete and healthy menu today but no extra portions.
It wouldn't have mattered whether the emotions were happy, sad, fearful or what--strong emotions can cause a desire to eat, particularly in binge eaters. In my case, the urge to eat was always for the junk foods I was usually trying to avoid.
And here I am tonight, pouting because the Green Bay Packers lost. Pouting angrily. I lived in Wisconsin for about 40 years so I'm deeply fond of the Wisconsin Badgers and the Pack.
I've been waiting for something emotional to happen to see how I would react now that I seem to be an ex-binger. And yep, it's pretty different. I had my usual morning of coffee with cream and a little sugar (out of honey--bleh even turbanado tastes awful to me now.) I also had my usual dish of home-made yogurt. Wow, the yogurt was fabulous! It's taken a while, but I've grown to love the taste of the yogurt by itself rather than needing to have fruit as the dominant flavor. I still add fruit--today it was an organic banana and a ripe persimmon--but I like a little pure yogurt with each bite of fruit.
Anyhow, I digress. My morning and mid-day were normal. I didn't eat before the Packer game because I was too nervous. I drank a pineapple water kefir and that was it. Now that the game's been over for a while and I'm calming down, I find I have no appetite at all. Unless something changes in the next hour or so it looks like I'll wait until tomorrow to eat.
No urge to binge at all. When eating loses it's importance as a stress management tool there's just no impulse to binge. Since I'm enjoying my whole foods so much, that's pretty weird really.
The next time you get emotional, find your "comfort" in something other than food--put eating in its proper place.
Update 1/16/12: As I suspected, I never became hungry last night and I'm no more hungry than usual this morning. I really believe the "weak from not eating" is either a mental belief creating reality or a symptom of inability to burn stored fat.
I do plan to eat a complete and healthy menu today but no extra portions.
January 7, 2012
Weight Loss Tactics for 2012 - Part 5
Review:
In Part 1, we talked about distinguishing between physical and emotional hunger because for weight loss we want to feed one while distracting the other.
In Part 2, we talked about losing weight slowly and steadily rather than trying drastic measures that can back-fire.
In Part 2, we talked about losing weight slowly and steadily rather than trying drastic measures that can back-fire.
In Part 3, we talked about supporting your health and energy by moving around a lot and incorporating walking or other exercise.
In Part 4, we talked about different eating patterns and why I settled on a moderate pattern of eating whole foods and home-made probiotic foods.
Okay, now we get back to the hard part--eating healthier and/or losing weight in the real world, which includes events and circumstances that trigger emotional responses.
Let's imagine you're walking on a sidewalk. Except, the strap/lace/heel of your left shoe just broke and the shoe wants to fall off. You'd do something about that except, your arms are full of packages. They aren't terribly heavy, but they're all shapes and sizes and make an unwieldy burden. You'd put down the packages and deal with the shoe except, this is a very busy sidewalk and there's a crowd of other people moving briskly past you in all directions. In fact, you're at an intersection so the people are jammed up waiting for the light to turn green. If you step off the curb, your shoe will fall off. If you just stand there, the guy at your right elbow will jostle you and the packages will go flying. What will you do, WHAT WILL YOU DO?
So what, you ask, does the above goofy scenario have to do with your desire to get healthier and/or lose weight? Well, life is a messy business. It was messy before you decided to change how you eat and life isn't going to change just so you can follow your perfect plan for ancestral eating. S*%# happens!
But you're human. You get a promotion, or hit a nice pot at the casino, and you want to celebrate. You get laid off, your son/daughter/grandchild seriously messes up or suffers a tragedy, and you need comfort. You find out your credit card has been hacked and you're furious. Or, maybe nothing has happened for days and you're bored out of your skull. That's a pretty good list of reasons to slide on your eating plan, isn't it? Isn't it?
Or maybe it's not that dramatic. It's just that you go to the buffet and, yes, there are plenty of healthy options but your eyes go straight to all those tempting (think unhealthy, fattening) foods. Decision point: what do you REALLY want? Because if you want to eat for better health and vitality with gradual loss of any excess fat, you will look at the junk foods as if they are plaster figurines and you will walk past them to the real food. You will feel free to fill your plate several times with salad (oil and vinegar please, not dressing) and whole fruit and cooked vegetables and 3-5 kinds of meat. You will walk out of that buffet with your head held high and triumph in your eyes. Or ...
Yes, it's about you. You will be tired, you will be busy, you will suffer emotional highs and lows and you will be tempted. But you won't notice those things so much if you are obsessed with the life you want to have next month and next year.
What will you do? WHAT WILL YOU DO?
I hope you enjoyed this little series focused around the decision to eat for improved health. Possible topics of discussion are endless and I'll be as surprised as you when I select the next one. :-))
'Til then, think of ancestral eating as your new hobby and have fun learning about it and practicing how to make it work for you.
Special note to binge eaters: I didn't talk about us in this post because I've decided to write a self-standing one on the subject. I'm not sure when yet.
In Part 4, we talked about different eating patterns and why I settled on a moderate pattern of eating whole foods and home-made probiotic foods.
Okay, now we get back to the hard part--eating healthier and/or losing weight in the real world, which includes events and circumstances that trigger emotional responses.
Let's imagine you're walking on a sidewalk. Except, the strap/lace/heel of your left shoe just broke and the shoe wants to fall off. You'd do something about that except, your arms are full of packages. They aren't terribly heavy, but they're all shapes and sizes and make an unwieldy burden. You'd put down the packages and deal with the shoe except, this is a very busy sidewalk and there's a crowd of other people moving briskly past you in all directions. In fact, you're at an intersection so the people are jammed up waiting for the light to turn green. If you step off the curb, your shoe will fall off. If you just stand there, the guy at your right elbow will jostle you and the packages will go flying. What will you do, WHAT WILL YOU DO?
So what, you ask, does the above goofy scenario have to do with your desire to get healthier and/or lose weight? Well, life is a messy business. It was messy before you decided to change how you eat and life isn't going to change just so you can follow your perfect plan for ancestral eating. S*%# happens!
But you're human. You get a promotion, or hit a nice pot at the casino, and you want to celebrate. You get laid off, your son/daughter/grandchild seriously messes up or suffers a tragedy, and you need comfort. You find out your credit card has been hacked and you're furious. Or, maybe nothing has happened for days and you're bored out of your skull. That's a pretty good list of reasons to slide on your eating plan, isn't it? Isn't it?
Or maybe it's not that dramatic. It's just that you go to the buffet and, yes, there are plenty of healthy options but your eyes go straight to all those tempting (think unhealthy, fattening) foods. Decision point: what do you REALLY want? Because if you want to eat for better health and vitality with gradual loss of any excess fat, you will look at the junk foods as if they are plaster figurines and you will walk past them to the real food. You will feel free to fill your plate several times with salad (oil and vinegar please, not dressing) and whole fruit and cooked vegetables and 3-5 kinds of meat. You will walk out of that buffet with your head held high and triumph in your eyes. Or ...
Yes, it's about you. You will be tired, you will be busy, you will suffer emotional highs and lows and you will be tempted. But you won't notice those things so much if you are obsessed with the life you want to have next month and next year.
What will you do? WHAT WILL YOU DO?
I hope you enjoyed this little series focused around the decision to eat for improved health. Possible topics of discussion are endless and I'll be as surprised as you when I select the next one. :-))
'Til then, think of ancestral eating as your new hobby and have fun learning about it and practicing how to make it work for you.
Special note to binge eaters: I didn't talk about us in this post because I've decided to write a self-standing one on the subject. I'm not sure when yet.
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