Monthly Archives: March 2012

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12 ways to beat binge eating

March 30, 2012 in happiness, progress, truth

I’m having a hard time dealing with stress this week.

 

My desire to binge eat is HIGH. The feeling that stuffing my face with food will somehow make my troubles disappear seems ridiculous when I write it out, but it still sounds like a wonderful idea when the little voice in my head whispers it sweetly.

 

Instead, my more rational self proposes I make a list to deal with my feelings in a much less harmful way.

 

Here we go.

 

Things that will make me feel better that do not involve eating everything:

1. Walking/running/dancing around my apartment.

2. Journaling.

3. Cooking.

4. Decluttering/organizing/cleaning my apartment.

5. Talking to friends about what is bothering me.

6. Creating my dream kitchen on Pinterest.

7. A glass of wine.

8. Painting my nails.

9. Watching videos of cute animals on YouTube.

10. Taking time before bed and upon waking up to be thankful, express gratitude and give myself empathy (note: need to work harder on this one!!)

11. Be mindful and conscious that stress is triggering the desire to binge eat. Honor the desire, listen to the desire, and then let it go.

12. Stay in the present. Breathe.

 

 

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” – Victor Frankl

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Fantastic four and weigh-in

March 28, 2012 in fitness, food, progress

You guys…!

I finally broke through the 5K distance rut and ran FOUR MILES on Sunday!

I went into the run feeling good, motivated by a new music playlist, cool weather, fresh legs and my Zensah compression sleeves. I hadn’t planned on achieving a new PDR that day, but I was so happy that there was no pain in my shins that I decided to push it!

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It was tough! I relied on intervals of 10 minutes running/1 minute walking to get me through. Overall the 4 miles took about 53 minutes (13 min/mi), which I know is slow for most people – but I’m proud!

But while my shins are okay….my calves are not! I’ve had a few really painful charley horses this week

I’m great at hydrating Monday-Friday…but then the weekend comes and I forget to drink water and subsist largely on coffee…and sometimes wine…

I was woken Sunday morning by muscle spasms in both my calves..and then  the spasms struck again when I took off my compression sleeves after the four mile run. Does anyone know why this is happening?

I was under the impression that muscle cramps come from being dehydrated…which I definitely was…but if you have another reason/idea that might help, tell me! I know that lack of potassium can also be a possible cause, but I used to get them all the time when I was eating a banana a day, so I’ve ruled that out.

I’ve been doing some extra stretches to relieve the pain, but my right calf is still tight.

In other news…I made mini frittatas this week and can’t get over how cute (and yummy!) they are. I (kind of) followed this recipe from Nom Nom Paleo. I left out the meat and just went with onions, broccoli and mushrooms for filling. I also paired down her recipe to make just 12.

Now….The numbers:

Starting weight: 243

Last week: 172.5

This week: 172.5

Change: 0

Total loss: 70.5

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These oats were made for talking

March 26, 2012 in food

I was really craving oatmeal this weekend after going without my favorite breakfast for a whole month! I didn’t want to forgo protein altogether, however, so decided to make stove-top oats with whipped egg whites.

I’m not sure why I never tried it before, after seeing recipes for such all over the internet. I think I thought it would be difficult or something. Not true. I followed Andie’s method at Can You Stay for Dinner? but changed the measurements a bit.

In the bowl:

  • 1/2 cup Quaker oats
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup liquid egg whites
  • 1 tsp chia seeds (optional…but I think they help increase the fluffiness)
  • vanilla, cinnamon, honey

Follow the directions from her recipe exactly and prepare yourself for the most amazing bowl of oatmeal you will ever eat. Fluffy, creamy, and really, really filling. I’m officially in love.

In honor of my grand return to oatmeal this weekend, I thought I would share with you some of my other favorite oat recipes, from more of my favorite bloggers.

  1. It all began with the KERF method for making banana-whipped oatmeal. This is, without a doubt, the recipe that got me hooked on oats.
  2. For weekends, I go with oatmeal pancakes, recipe by Carrots ‘n’ Cake.
  3. My fall oatmeal staple: Fannetastic Food’s Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal.
  4. And my go-to summer breakfast: KERF’s overnight oats

Oat-tastic! heh ;)

ALSO.

Have you noticed the changes to the blog?? I finally got my own domain! After freaking out for a bit, I think I finally settled on a design I love. I hope you like it, too!

Also, also – I added a “Contact” page…so you can email me if you have a question or a comment or something. I also added every weigh-in from the beginning under the “Weight Loss” tab. There you can find a link which will open a spreadsheet of my weight loss progression from October 2010 to now.

Happy Monday!

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Love your fat photos, too

March 23, 2012 in fat acceptance, progress, truth

Earlier this week I was looking through my photos for a picture of my nephew to post with his birthday announcement, when I stumbled upon an old photo of myself.

One from when I weighed around 240 pounds.

My face looked so round, my cheeks so puffy. It was like someone had added an extra ring of skin around my face. I didn’t remember looking like that.

There was shock, And, truth be told, sadness.

And then I got angry that I felt sad.

Those photos are me. The same me that is sitting here right now.

I’m always a little bothered when people use “fat” photos as a reminder of what they don’t want to be for the same reason I feel that being disgusted with your body is not a good motivation to lose weight.

Because, as I’ve said before, you can’t hate yourself thin.

As I was looking through the photos, I stayed conscious of what my inner voice was saying, realized it was negative self-talk, and decided to turn it around.

If I’m going to continue moving forward in this way, believing that I can incorporate fat acceptance beliefs into a lifestyle where I’m also actively trying to lose weight, tuning into my thoughts is going to be critical.

Where I am now is only possible because I loved the person in those photos. I believed that person deserved a full life. I let go of the notion that being fat also meant I was sentenced to a lifetime of unhappiness.

I decided in that moment that I was not going to look at old photos and feel sadness, pity, or regret.

Those photos are just me, at a different time in my life, and obviously were taken in a moment that I wanted to remember. My weight in those photos did not define who I was then, just as my weight does not define who I am now.

Accepting and loving your body doesn’t just happen. It takes hard work, just like any change you want to make. You have to chose to do it every day, especially when confronted with something like old photos. That’s when it is the most important to not slip into a negative space.

It might feel weird at first, if you are used to bashing your body, but if you catch yourself enough times during negative self-talk and switch to a body-positive message, it will become a habit. And it will, of course, be worth it.

“The mind is everything. What you think you become” – Buddha

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10 awesome things not about my weight, and a weigh-in!

March 21, 2012 in fitness, food, happiness, weight loss

1. I’ve been making a ton of excuses about why I haven’t gone to the gym. I haven’t seen my trainer in over two weeks! I always think getting up early is so much worse than it really is but once you’re awake for five minutes, the feeling of wanting to die subsides haha. So on Monday I bit the bullet and forced myself to stay awake when my alarm sounded. I laid in bed for a few minutes listening to the birds chirping when it dawned on me that it was probably warm enough to walk to the gym! That thought alone kicked my butt into gear. The gym is about a half mile from my apartment, an unbelievably perfect distance. I used to walk to the gym in the morning all the time and totally forgot how lovely morning walks are. I see morning runs in my future…

2. All that being said about the gym, I’m really happy with myself exercise-wise this week. I got outside everyday and either walked, ran or hiked and had a blast! I’m so blessed to be living in an area with tons of cool parks, walking paths and hiking trails right outside my door and took advantage of all that nature this weekend.

3. Fun fact: I get sausage fingers really easily when walking from all the blood rushing to my hands. For prevention purposes, I pretty much do all of my walks with what I can only describe as floppy jazz hands. Attractive, right? Stare on, people, stare on.

Source: joannemattera.blogspot.com via Kathy on Pinterest

4. And in case I wasn’t already drawing enough attention to myself at the park with my floppy jazz hands…the Zensah compression sleeves I ordered came in the mail this weekend! I’m pretty sure that the pain that has halted my running progress recently is just from shin splints. I remembered Allie at Live Laugh Eat had awesome results with the Zensah sleeves and decided to go for it. I’ve worn them a few times for recovery after the long hikes and walks this weekend and have had no shin pain, so it’s possible they are working but the real test will be running in them.  I am itching to get past the 3-mile running mark and go further and faster so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they help with the pain.

5. I’ve officially hit the one month mark on paleo. I’m going to stop doing weekly updates. One, because I don’t really feel that I’m following a true paleo diet, more that I’m incorporating paleo principles. Two, weekly updates are super boring. Will I continue eating the way I’ve been eating? ABSOLUTELY. I have so much energy! The change in the way my hunger feels is also reason enough to keep up with a higher protein/lower carb plan. When I started, I honestly didn’t believe I would see that many changes, but I’m totally a believer now! Also, behold this delicious bun-less burger I got at Smash Burger on Sunday. Yum.

6. I made chocolate coconut flour cupcakes (with applesauce!) this weekend from this recipe and am pretending they are muffins so I can eat them for breakfast. Don’t hate. Also, I recommend making them, because they are delicious, but if you’re the kind of baker who follows a recipe exactly, don’t click that link. I found a lot of the measurements to be off and ended up making a bunch of substitutions to get the sweetness/consistency that I wanted. I’m absolutely addicted to the taste of coconut flour. So…coconutty!

7. I can’t stop eating baby carrots! Maybe it’s because I started buying organic carrots, or because I cut down on my sugar, but these babies (pun intended!) have never tasted sweeter. I snack on them throughout the day. Try them with sunflower seed butter and thank me later.

8. I successfully partied smart this week. With all my new-found energy, I’ve been making more time to see my friends, which generally includes a lot of going to bars. I like drinking as much as the next recent college grad, but honestly, it doesn’t make me feel good. I hate being hungover, and truly, alcohol really messes with my mood. I’m way more likely to be sad the day after drinking too much. So this week I stuck to a one to two drink limit, and sometimes no drinks at all, and had a great time! Yeah, it’s a little embarrassing ordering water, or explaining to all your friends why you aren’t drinking, but I’d much rather be in a temporarily awkward situation than regret my actions the next day. Plus, I’m way better at darts when I’m sober.

9. It’s officially Spring!!

10. Monday was my  nephew’s 5th birthday! I’m not saying this just because my amazing sister reads every single word I write (Hi Stacy!), but my nephews have been an unbelievable source of inspiration. I think about them a lot when I’m running and the thought of their ridiculously cute faces keeps me going. I’m glad they will get to know me as someone who puts 100 percent into life. Happy Birthday E!

On that note….The numbers:

Starting weight: 243

Last week: 174.5

This week: 172.5

Change: -2.5

Total loss: 70.5

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