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What Works?

12 Aug 2010 | By Jaime

When I told The Bloke that I’d hit the “I refuse to let myself gain anymore weight back” point, he told me that I needed to sit down for some reflection. I needed to figure out what worked in the past and what didn’t. He wasn’t just talking about diets, either; he meant which bits and pieces worked for me.

After much thought, I know these things work for me:

*Cutting out 99% of bread, potatoes and rice (I am a former carbaholic)
*Going raw (calms down my mind)
*Meal replacements (helps me create a sense of control that helps me to not binge)

With those things in mind, I have created a balance that, I think, will work well for the rest of my life. The meal replacements won’t be a part of my life forever, but they’ll help me maintain control while I take the steps in creating the framework for a healthy life. Right now I use meal replacements for breakfast (to get me used to eating then in the first place) and to help me have a sensible lunch. When I’ve been at this for a while, I’ll be switching to lunch salads and healthy breakfasts (smoothies! oatmeal!). Otherwise, I’ll be going mostly raw with my eating.

But, after all that thought, I also realize that the big ol’ elephant in the room has a “Hi, my name is EXERCISE” on his chest and is looking at me with little patience in his expression.

I work from home. I’m a bit shy, so I don’t get out socially a lot. The gym is too expensive. I have Wii Fit, which has been working, but I have a hard time sticking to an exercise program. I have yet to figure out what works for me for exercise.

I’m open to ideas.

What works for you for exercise – especially when you just start? Is walking your thing? How about rewards? Are you a morning exerciser or night? Spread it out in doable chunks through the day? Do you do anything creative to get yourself to do it or do you not need to?

Category: Diets, Exercise, Food, General, Getting Started  One Comment

Live and Learn

19 Jul 2010 | By Jaime

Last week I decided I would take pictures of all the food I ate in order to see how it influenced me. Would I eat less? Would I eat healthier foods? So on and so forth.

While things didn’t go as planned when my binge demons came out to play, I did learn a lot from this project…

What I Learned:

*I do a lot more mindless eating than I thought. I need to stop multitasking and focusing on my food when I eat.
*Starting the day off with a smoothie? Awesomeness.
*When I was taking pictures, I cared what my food looked like. When I cared what my food looked like, I found it more pleasing aesthetically as well as found it tasted better. I need to care about my food no matter who is or isn’t watching.
*Giving up addictions (like sugar) takes time. You can’t go from all to zero suddenly or you will binge. Not to mention experience other physical unpleasantness.
*Spinach leaves are incredibly versatile.

*Finally, I learned that the most impressive thing for me with this project is what I didn’t eat:

*Glass of orange juice x2
*Piece of bread w/hommus
*Chai latte
*Cottage cheese spoonfull (number of occasions)
*Doughnut (had a bad day and wanted sugar)
*Kahlua and milk
*Alcoholic cider
*Chips (french fries)
*Crisps (potato chips)

*and probably a few other things I didn’t list but they passed through my mind and then quickly out when I saw my camera.

And…

*I didn’t overeat when I easily could have.

All in all, I think every person trying to live a healthier lifestyle should try doing this. Has it cured my binge eating? No. For the moment, but I’m no dummy. I have emotional issues to work out. But it has gotten me to think about food – and portions differently. It’s gotten me to think about how much I not only hide from other people but from myself. It has gotten me to realise that, while I thought I was ‘doing okay’ diet-wise, I actually have a lot of room to improve with healthy eating.

I do hope that everyone who reads this has tried it, is trying it or will try it. I may have had a crash and burn moment, but I’m going to keep on taking pictures (though not loading them too the site because I just don’t have time for that).

Category: Body, Challenges, Food, Mental Health, Pictures  3 Comments

When it Goes Wrong

15 Jul 2010 | By Jaime

When I was a child, I always prided myself on keeping my promises. While eating was the one thing I could control day in and day out, I still had the occasional opportunity to make a promise – and keep it.

On Sunday, I made a promise. And while I don’t want to keep it at this moment, I still hold to that childhood pride of never breaking a promise.

I swore to you that I would take a picture of everything I put in my mouth. The two times I haven’t been able to, it was because I didn’t have my camera with me and because of weird disappearing pictures. (I took the picture; it’s just not on my memory card…)

But there is something I didn’t take a picture of, and it’s not because of technical difficulties.

I’m a binge eater. I don’t say that as an excuse so much as a preface that I hope will help you to understand.

You see, when I talk about my binge eating experiences, it’s always my fear that people won’t stand the utter loss of control when it comes to a binge.

When I was making brownies last night, I binged. I binged not in terms of size but in terms of the lack of control. I made the brownies… and lost control. My logical mind knew I didn’t actually want the brownies, I couldn’t stop myself from licking the spatula. From eating not one, but two spoonfuls of brownie mix.

Two spoonfuls of brownie mix, not huge in size but huge in the amount of guilt it gives me. Huge in how I am reminded that my binge eating rises from emotional issues that won’t just go away if I don’t deal with them. Huge in reminding me that I have come a long way, but I have a long way to go.

Now that I’ve typed it, I’m not sure why I was feeling so afraid of typing this here. It’s all part of the journey, after all, and the emotional blow it has dealt me won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

Category: Food, Mental Health, Stress  4 Comments

Visual Food Diary – Day Three

14 Jul 2010 | By Jaime

And now for the ‘out and about’ edition of my food diary… Well, I was out for part of the day, anyway.

Smoothie, as usual, but not as good as my usual. I didn’t get time to make my own before I left, so I bought one. I went with banana, honey and wheatgerm.

Salmon and avocado hand roll times two. In retrospect, two was too many. I used to down two at a time, but I just don’t eat that much anymore. Old habits die hard. At least – except for the white rice – these babies are all goodness.

This, my friends, is sashimi – sushi without the rice. The lighter stuff is salmon and the darker red is tuna. Absolutely delicious with a bit of lemon and soy sauce. Also, the white stuff underneath? Radish to garnish. Also very good with lemon and soy sauce.

These are sesame snaps – pretty much just sesame seeds and honey. They make a perfect sweet-tooth buster with no gluten, no cholesterol. Very small, but very good.

However, I discovered that fish and sesame snaps don’t make a very good snack, because I was feeling pretty darn hungry a few hours later. So I had…

Good ol’ apple.

Lately, there has just been something about salads, so dinner consisted of a big salad of spinach leaves, rocket, tomato, tasty cheese and warm lamb. Yum. Sorry for the Pollock dressing style. I barely had any left, so I added some water, which made it go all over the place.

I meant to end the evening there, but a friend is having their last day at work this Friday, so I baked some brownies for The Bloke to bring into work. I couldn’t resist having a piece of my own, so I had a small brownie about the width and length of my middle and forefinger.

The reason it’s not pictured? I don’t know. I took the picture, but when I went to load it with all the rest, it wasn’t there. I really have no idea and am rather upset. Either my camera or the memory card flubbed up.

Even so.

Thoughts

I feel like I ate too much today. Like I said, two sushi rolls was just too much at one sitting, and overall, I feel like I had a lot of food. The Bloke says I’m being too hard on myself, but I probably should have at least skipped the brownie.

Category: Food  Leave a Comment

Checking In – Visual Food Diary Day Two

13 Jul 2010 | By Jaime

I couldn’t find my memory card reader for a bit, so this one is going up late. I figure this will work as a check-in, too.

Well, day two didn’t go at all as planned, to be sure. It was one of those days where you make a tiny decision, and then it just keeps adding on…

The day started off with my usual smoothie. I love smoothies, even in winter. Oh, wait, I think I said that yesterday…

Okay, so this is the one where you find out I was never one of those people who couldn’t have the foods touching each other. This may not look the greatest, but it tasted of pure awesome. Five bean mix (just beans, not baked beans or packed with crap), the other half of the snack can of tuna, a spoon of cottage cheese and some spinach leaves in there for some greens. Yum-o!

Meet my kryptonite – and we’re not even talking coffee. For a while, I was having a large chai latte every day. Of course that’s no good, so I cut way back. Recently, I would have one large chai once every fortnight (if that). Now, I’ve cut back again and only drink regular size every once in a while for a treat.

This is where the story starts, though. I had a rough day and wanted a glass of wine. Just one. Alcohol is something I’m cutting back as well. So we agree, we’ll go to the pub for once glass of wine for me and one something of The Bloke’s choice. Then we head back home.

Well, as it turns out, one of our favourite barmen is going to be leaving soon, and we were having such a good conversation…

…we stayed for dinner.

Pub food again, but this time I was a bit better. I got a smaller parma and asked for a ‘double salad’ instead of salad and chips. That was all fine and well, it was about eight, we were about to go home…

Then some old friends we hadn’t seen for a while showed up.

I had one of these and then had water for the rest of the night, which is pretty good in my book because we didn’t leave until eleven!

The night was completely unexpected, but a lot of fun. I hate to have gone out two nights in a row, but some days you just can’t beat a good conversation with friends.

I got some comments on taking pictures of all my food, and then I explained the project. Everyone was quite impressed and we talked for at least an hour about food habits (I’m a half-way grazer, one friend was a total grazer, my husband is more one big brekkie and he’s set for the day and the other guy is more like me). I’m still quite excited about the visual food diary, even though I know difficult times are ahead as far as temptation goes…

Category: Challenges, Checking In, Food  Leave a Comment
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