I love this motivational poster from Funeral For My Fat.
It reads:
You are what you eat, so don’t be fast, greasy or fake.
Now, I might have to argue with the “greasy” part because healthy oils are ESSENTIAL, but surely, don’t be fast or fake, in real life or in your diet.
Almost three months ago, I had a freak out because I realized my weight was up to 220.9.
Since then, I have tried to lose the weight on my own. I used Lose It! and had a lot of support on that website, but I kept flaking on myself. Despite the lovely people there, willing to give me support, I didn’t follow through.
Low carb eating works best for my body, but I haven’t been able to stay on that diet any longer than I was able to stay low fat. The only diet that I’ve been able to stay on long-term is Weight Watchers.
I think it’s because of the accountability. Every week, I stand on a scale in front of a REAL person. Most of the times, it was my WW leader who weighed me. Something about that accountability is very motivating to me.
Of course, there are other forms of accountability. I could hire a weight loss doctor to weigh me each week, but that costs a lot more than the $12 a week that WW is costing me right now. I could go to OA meetings. Heck, I think they are even FREE, but then I have to accept a “higher power” and all that Jesus talk that I can’t swallow any more than I could swallow a Jenny Craig meal.
It seemed that the only option that I could see was Weight Watchers and seeing my weight on the scale at the office shocked me. I had bounced up to 226.4, despite all my efforts on my own to lose weight. I might not have lost weight the last time I struggled with WW, but I didn’t GAIN! Trying to do this on my own, I GAINED weight.
In 2011, I wrote about why I was leaving WW:
I said:
And I did it. I went to every WW meeting and I followed the program for a year. My progress was minimal at best. I lost approximately ten pounds in that year, which is better than gaining that same amount, but it was a CONSTANT struggle to even have those minimal results.
Two years later, I’m looking at a constant struggle and I’ve GAINED over twenty pounds since I left WW. Those “minimal results” are looking pretty good compared to the last two years of failure.
So, I’m back at the beginning. I went to WW yesterday and it was really good to see my leader. It was really good to see my old friends. It was even BETTER to see the lifetime member who lost 150 pounds in 1995 and has kept it off since then. She goes to WW EVERY week, even though she has kept the weight off for so long.
What the HECK was I thinking? If that lifetimer has to still go to WW every week for YEARS in order to keep those 150 pounds from creeping back, why did I think I could do this on my own?!
And now, I have to start over…
Well, if I’m sick of starting over, I need to stop quitting. I’ve seen it time and time again on Pinterest. It’s time to take it to heart.
I love this tweet from Tara Stiles.
It reads:
It’s all in the food. Eat better, feel better, never get sick, have a great mood, loads of energy, and look fantastic. #saynothankstojunk
The thing that really caught my eye was the hashtag, “Say No Thanks to Junk.” It is so hard for me to do it. Not only do I have a hard time saying no thanks to other people, but it’s SO hard to say it to myself. I crave all the worst in food and just saying no to it is as hard as they told me it would be to say no to drugs.
Tara Stiles is a Yoga instructor and she has many yoga videos for sale at Amazon:
I also found a workout on YouTube, but I don’t know how long it will stay there:
She seems focused on Yoga, yet she tells us that it is all about the food. If we can control our eating, then everything else will fall into place.
I found this image on Fat Kid Goes Paleo the other day and it really reminded me of what I have been doing wrong lately.
It reads:
Food is the most widely abused anti-anxiety drug in America, and exercise is the most potent and underutilized antidepressant.
- Bill Phillips
Bill Phillips is the Body for Life guy, which is a plan that never worked for me, but he is spot on with this quote.
I have continually turned to food to alter my mood when I SHOULD be turning to exercise. I need to have a note on my fridge or pantry that tells me to jump on the treadmill.
The always funny Jenna Marbles has decided that she needs to confess her junk food transgressions. BTW, she has a minor swearing problem, so don’t be surprised about the swear words that come out of her mouth. She’s still funny.
So many of the things she said were really funny, but she starts it all with this little zinger!
It’s just got to the point where my underwear is getting a little tight.
Here are some of my favorites:
At one occasion, I would eat macaroni and cheese until I couldn’t feel feelings anymore.
I would even eat lying down, like I can’t even SIT UP to eat.
One time, I didn’t have any real food to eat, so I just ate a bag of croutons.
I eat so many Doritos Locos tacos, because once you eat the Doritos ones, you can’t go back to regular tacos. The shell is just so boring. I want that one covered in cheese. And then, of course, when the Cool Ranch ones came out, I had to eat those, because I needed to see what all the rage was about. It was about hating yourself.
Spring comes EVERY year, and yet EVERY year, it manages to surprise me by sneaking up on me and reminding me that I’m not ready to put on my bathing suits yet.
She hopes that by sharing her confessions that she will get a new slate and start eating healthy again and stop being so “squishy.” I wish her the best of luck!
After years of suffering in food service under the hand of food obsessed elitists, he gets a little nervous every time he goes into a Trader Joe’s Grocery Store.
But let’s face it; many people are organic because they want to feel better about themselves. For them food isn’t sustenance, it’s a statement. It’s often a quick, easy and rather masturbatory piece of faux virtuousness. How else can you explain purchasing organic vodka? Are you kidding? You want to pickle your liver and stroke your social consciousness too?
I feel the same way. After years of being told to eat more whole grains, my digestive tract was bleeding me dry. The minute I disregarded the Food Taliban, I started healing. Fortunately, Trader Joe’s has options for me.
No matter whether it’s veganism, vegetarianism, organic proponents, or whole grain pushers, whenever someone thinks they have THE answer for everyone, I start to back away. Food elitism isn’t about being healthy. It’s a religion.
I’ve talked about this before:
In 2010, I said:
Maybe it’s time to reconsider the idea that your diet is supposed to make you feel unique, special or superior. When they said that you are what you eat, I don’t think they meant that as a judgment of your personality, just as a guideline for food choices.
Using your diet as a statement of your political beliefs is just as disordered eating as anorexia, bulimia or binge eating. If you need to feel good about yourself, your diet isn’t going to make you feel any better than earning a lot of money, wearing the coolest clothes or exercising a lot. There is ALWAYS someone out there doing more than you and you cannot outdo the crazy people of this world.
In the end, there is no ONE way that is best for everyone. We are all the same species, but we evolved over vast distances, eating many different types of food. That’s the beauty of being human: we get to figure out what works best for our individual bodies. Even more interesting, our bodies are constantly changing and what worked for us at one stage of our lives might not work very well at another.
Whenever someone tries to tell you that they know the one secret to eating properly, be wary of them. Don’t spend seven years in horrible pain with a bleeding digestive system before you realize that the prevailing “wisdom” just doesn’t work for you, like I did. Be smarter than I was and reject any form of food elitism or snobbery within yourself or others.
Photo via: Flickr: Kathy at Trader Joe’s in Modesto – Day 94
Hunger is a strange thing. It’s far more powerful than any other digestive pain I’ve experienced. I was bleeding, bloated and doubled over with an intestine trying to process whole wheat at the insistence of the USDA food pyramid, but all that pain isn’t quite as insistent as hunger.
Yet, we are told to not let food control us. ALL THE TIME…
The images show up on Pinterest and Tumbler and Facebook, urging us to control ourselves and say no to food, despite the intense urging of hunger.
How are we supposed do that?
How do people suffering from anorexia do it? Do they not feel hunger the same way I do? Is it somehow easier for them? According to this article in Psychology Today, the answer is NO. People who have anorexia feel every urge and pang.
Myth 2: Anorexics don’t feel hungry.
Of course they do. They’re only human, however much they like to pretend otherwise. Hunger is the point, after a while: it’s the great tormentor and the great addictive high. You’ll say you’re not hungry ad nauseam, but it’s an excuse that wears thin when you’re staring with eyes sunken into a skeletal head at the biscuit on someone else’s plate, of which you’ve just been offered one, and refused. (‘I’ve already eaten / just had a big lunch, thanks’, is the other implausible stand-by.)
So, even people who starve themselves feel hunger and deny it. If they can stop themselves from eating despite that physical urging of LITERAL starvation, why is it so difficult for me?
Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t want to suffer through the pain of anorexia. I just wonder why my I cannot do what every “fitspo” and “thinspiration” Tumbler urges me to do.
Part of the problem is eating the right foods. When I eat low carb, I tend to have less hunger than when I eat a higher percentage of carbohydrates. Then again, once I’ve been eating low carb for a while, I tend to have insane cravings that become downright obsessive.
According to this post, I just need to take control.
Think of the consequences. When you feel a craving surfacing in your thoughts, think of what would probably happen if you do give in. Will it reset your diet plan? Will it make fitting into your dress next to impossible? By focusing on the aftermath, you would be able to persuade yourself to save the munchies for later.
Hydrate. If you’re not particularly hungry, opt to drink water. It will make you feel fuller, and prevent you from going through with your bingeing plans. Besides, you could probably use more fluids anyway.
Eat with your five senses. If you keep rushing through your meals like there’s no tomorrow, you’ll be more likely to give in to your cravings later on. However, if you enjoyed your last meal, you’d feel a lot fuller.
Keep calm and carry on. According to WebMD, cravings kick in especially when we feel stressed or anxious. We may find ourselves craving for carbohydrates because they boost our serotonin levels, which in turn, make us calm. We may also crave for a combination of fat and sugar which supposedly has the same effect on our body.
Set specific limits. If you must give in (meaning you can no longer concentrate on work unless you satisfy your craving), keep your consumption to a minimum. Instead of a whole slice of chocolate cake, eat only half.
Is that all it is? I don’t have control, whereas thin people do? Is it really that simple?
Somehow, I think it’s more than that. I believe that powerful physiological factors are at work, not to mention some psychological ones. Only once we learn how to control THEM can we actually get in control of our hunger, and sadly every human body is a little different. Getting your hunger under control is going to take individual experimentation from every person struggling with this issue, including me. And, sadly, once I find out what works for me, it really will only be the answer for ME.
Images via:
I have my McDonalds trained well. I can go through the drive-thru and order an Egg McMuffin without the muffin and they will give me an egg, ham and cheese wrapped up without the muffin. They don’t even blink when I order it anymore and they send me through the drive-thru pretty quickly.
I timed it once. From the time I stepped into the garage to the moment I got back home, I was able to get myself a Low Carb Egg McMuffin in only fifteen minutes. That was five minutes driving there. Five minutes driving back and less than five minutes in the line.
For fun, the other day, I threw together one egg, some ham and a slice of cheese. It was the same ingredients I get from McDonalds, but I had to cook them. I thought that it was a big pain in the butt until I timed it.
How long does it take me to cook a Low Carb Egg McMuffin on my own? FOUR minutes.
FOUR MINUTES! I can’t even drive to McDonalds in that amount of time!
So many times, I think that getting “fast” food is easier, but it’s not. By the time I get into the car and drive over there, I could be EATING my homemade version. All I need to do is make sure I have the ingredients in the fridge and I am ahead of the game.
The next time you’re tempted to just grab some fast food, remember that it might just be quicker to make your own.
Photo via: Treadmill Tricks & Drive-Through Shopping
A while back, Raining In Reverse posted a photo with this description:
my mom ordered nothing for dessert so they gave her a plate with “nothing” written in chocolate syrup on it
She has since removed that photo, but you can NEVER fully remove a photo from the Internet, so it’s around and I found it. In honor of her feelings, however, I have cropped her disappointed mother out of the photo.
I absolutely LOVE this photo. It’s sort of liberating. It’s perfectly okay to order NOTHING for dessert. The next time everyone else is ordering chocolate gooey decadence or carmel plastered fry bombs, remember Raining In Reverse’s mom and order NOTHING. It’s so much better in the long run for your body and peace of mind.
This image from I CAN DO IT made me laugh.
It reads:
You should eat your vegetables before they eat you.
There are no carnivorous bell peppers, so you’re probably safe from murderous veggies, but you can never be too safe.
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