I have a hard time living in the now. I am always thinking about the future or ruminating about the past. Something about the Overeater’s Anonymous program helps us put that aside and live in the now. The idea of living just ONE day at a time sounds simplistic to me, but it has helped me.
The thought of writing down every single bit of food I eat every day for the rest of my life sounds INCREDIBLY restrictive to me. I cannot even think of doing it. Can I write down every single bit of food I eat today? Oh, yeah. That’s totally easy. I can do that.
And I have been doing that for over eleven months now.
Somehow, just focusing on ONE day at a time is easy. Can I eat healthy today? Yes. Can I eat healthy for the rest of my life? I’m not even going to think about that. All I’m going to think about is The Here and Now. I’ll make that awesome and forget about everything else.
Overeater’s Anonymous does not endorse anything on this entry or blog. I speak only of my personal experience and not for OA as a whole.
I’ve been really beating myself up lately about the fact that it took me TEN years to get my butt to Overeater’s Anonymous. I heard about it, dismissed it and then suffered for ten more years. During that time, I failed at Weight Watchers two more times.
So I have failed thrice, which means, if Minna Thomas Antrim is to be believed, that I have uncommon strength.
I have to admit that it DID take strength to pick myself up again and try again, especially when I felt so defeated and lost. Back in October of last year, I lost ALL hope. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was powerless over food. I was going to be hungry ALL the time for the rest of my life. My only hope was to white-knuckle it between my feedings. I talked about it here:
After months of not being able to follow my plan for more than an hour each morning, I finally have a tiny modicum of success. It appears that refeeding works for anorexics and binge eaters alike.
It is over a year later, and I STILL have those alarms that go off every two and a half hours. Without questioning it, I eat when they go off and DON’T eat between times. I can ALWAYS wait a couple of hours to eat when I feel hungry. After so much failure, finding something that works is a precious jewel that I have clung to it in near desperation.
I am so grateful I was able to pick myself up and try again, even though I had failed thrice.
Overeater’s Anonymous does not endorse anything on this entry or blog. I speak only of my personal experience and not for OA as a whole.
I found this awesome list of ways to get motivated here: Healthy is Classy. I don’t believe in all of these ideas, for example, coffee makes things WORSE for me. Looking at fat women doesn’t inspire me to be thin, so that Krispy Kreme Calendar isn’t going to work for me either. And anything to do with God and praying is useless for me. Which of these work for you? (more…)
I love these inspirational quotes from Olympic Athletes that I found in Fitness Magazine this month.
This is quote if from Lolo Jones, a Olympic hurdler.
There’s always a point where you get knocked down. But I draw on what I’ve learned on the track: If you work hard, things will work out.
This quote is from Kerri Walsh, who is a beach volleyball player and two-time Olympic gold medalist.
Passion is a huge prerequisite to winning. It makes you willing to jump through hoops, go through all the ups and downs and everything in between to reach your goal.
Seeing this quote from Shoebox yesterday made me laugh.
It reads:
If you could see the insides of bowling ball holes, nobody would ever bowl again.
Bowling isn’t really a cardio sport, but I have had sore muscles after a bowling party many times. I call it Bowling Butt and sore muscles means I must have been working SOMETHING, so don’t let bowling fears stop you from getting a fun workout.
Fear 1: Germs
If thoughts of germs in the bowling ball holes or wearing shoes that have been worn by hundreds of other people bother you, here are some ideas to get past them.
Clean them yourself: Bring some Lysol or your favorite antibiotic cleaner and clean the bowling balls yourself. You can also spray the insides of the shoes with Lysol.
Wear disposable socks: Wear an old pair of socks to the bowling alley and bring a new pair with you. After you bowl, throw away the old pair of socks and put on the fresh pair.
Invest in your own: Bringing your own bowling ball and shoes to the alley not only saves you a bit of money on shoe rental, but it’s better for you. The ball has been drilled specifically for your hand and the shoes fit you better than any rentals could.
Fear 2: I’ll Look Dumb
I was completely surprised by some of the responses when I said that I was enjoying bowling.
Aren’t you afraid of looking stupid?
Aren’t you bothered when your score is so low and posted on those TVs for everyone to see?
I’d play, but I get so many gutter balls, it’s embarrassing!
Since Mike and I went bowling just to have some fun and maybe get a little exercise, it never occurred to me to be embarrassed by it. I don’t get great scores. I throw gutter balls and air balls all the time. I have even fallen on my butt a couple of times with those slippery bowling shoes. I have never felt embarrassed.
Why? Because I look at the end product. The most perfect bowlers look just as silly as I do when they bowl. Take this video for example. Brian Voss does an AMAZING job of picking up a 7-10 split, which is the hardest thing to do while bowling.
In all honesty, he looks a little dorky out there bowling, even though he did something amazing. If the best bowler looks a little dorky, then I don’t need to worry about being embarrassed. I’ll just go out there and have some fun.
Fear #3: I Don’t Know How To Keep Score
This was a big fear for me. When I was a kid, my dad kept score, but I never learned how to do it. By the time Mike and I went bowling, the entire bowling industry had changed. Now, there is automatic scoring at almost every bowling alley. The most archaic of bowling alleys in Salt Lake City uses this system from the early 80’s.
The automatic scoring systems take care of all that stuff for you so you can just get a fun workout and have an idea of who is winning. The more you play, the more you’ll learn about bowling and how to score your games, so you don’t need to worry about this at all.
If you REALLY want to know, however, you can find out everything about how to score bowling here: Wikipedia Bowling Scoring
Fear #4: The People Are Distracting
This has been my own biggest deterrent to going bowling over the last few months. Whether it’s the screaming kids, the dating teenagers or the drunk league players, there are times when it’s downright UNPLEASANT to go bowling.
The key to getting past this fear is knowing the bowling alleys in your area and knowing their schedules. I’ll gladly bowl next to drunk league players because they know the rules of the game and do their sloppy best to be polite. But the birthday party of screeching five year olds? I’d rather avoid them. The teenagers more interested in making out during Cosmic Bowling are basically harmless, but the family of idiots who allow their kids to overrun not only their own lane, but mine as well are infuriating.
I avoid the bowling alley that is connected to the arcade and pizza parlor because that one tends to attract the screeching parties and idiot families. I bowl late on the weekends because the loud music and dark atmosphere of Cosmic Bowling tends to drown out the teenagers in the next lane. I bowl right before the leagues start because I’m more likely to encounter someone who knows the rules and is warming up for their games.
I know my limitations, so I avoid the bowling alleys and times that are irritating to me. All you need to do is do the same. Maybe the sound of children’s voices is like music to your ears. If so, you’ll bowl at a very different bowling alley and at different times than I would.
No Excuses
No matter what fears you can pluck out of the ether to avoid going bowling, in the end, they’re all just excuses. Don’t let excuses get in the way of a fun workout for you and your family. Don’t let bowling fears stop you from getting your own case of the Bowling Butt!
Everything You Know Is Wrong by Weird Al Yankovic: This song is kind of silly and the verses sing about everything EXCEPT working out (unless you count the Almighty running past your room in heaven). The chorus, however, reminds me that sometimes I believe things that aren’t true. If I’m feeling like I can’t finish my workout, listening to this song is really good at showing me that I might be wrong.
Apparently, this concept is new and can be a revelation to some. Here is a TED Talk about this very idea from Derek Sivers:
Derek Sivers, TED Talk: Weird, or just different? Nov 2009
It’s the truth. Everything you know is wrong. If you think diets don’t work, then you’re wrong. If you think exercise makes you hungry, then you’re wrong. If you think your diet is the perfect one for everybody, then you’re wrong. If you think hard exercise is the best way to lose weight, then you’re wrong. No matter what you think about diet and fitness, you’re wrong. There is always someone out there who does well on a wacky diet. There is always someone out there who reacts to exercise differently. We are such a diverse species that there is a way for everything to work and there is a way for everything to fail.
You need to find what works for you and keep doing it until it doesn’t work anymore and then start the process all over again.
The next time that you feel like you can’t follow your diet anymore, repeat to yourself, “Everything you know is wrong.” The next time you feel like you are going to stop your workout before it’s finished, repeat to yourself, “Everything you know is wrong.” Make it your mantra any time that little voice inside your head is telling you that you cannot do something and you’ll find out all the different ways you have been wrong your entire life.
The headline on the National Enquirer was pretty dramatic. It claimed that the Biggest Loser diet had turned deadly. What was going on here?
Paul Marks weighed 303 pounds when he started with The Biggest Loser. He was eliminated back in February and has since had some medical problems.
According to the National Enquirer:
“Paul is fighting for his life. He’s had five surgeries since being voted off the show, and has had a bout with gangrene. And it’s all because of ‘Biggest Loser.'”
Of course, the quote from the show tells another side of the story:
“It is our understanding from sources close to Paul, and from Paul himself, that his doctors believe that losing weight on the show may have saved his life.”
The article doesn’t say WHY Paul had five surgeries and nine inches of his colon and appendix removed. Weight loss alone couldn’t cause a problem like that, could it? He must have had a problem with his colon that was separate from the weight loss. The only other mention of this was a brief interview on TV Guide’s website:
He is really, really sick. In the past two months he’s spent six weeks in the hospital. He’s had ruptured diverticula and he got a colostomy, which got gangrenous. He’s had [several] surgeries.
What do you think? I know that the doctors at The Biggest Loser watch the contestants like hawks and any little thing that happens, they ship the contestants off to the hospital. Do you think the weight loss caused Paul’s sickness?
Annette Clark didn’t blink at the steep 2400 dollar bill for a series of multiple injections. “They gave me about six injections across my abdomen and by the time I got home, I looked like I was eight months pregnant.” The swelling was one of the MILDER side effects. “My whole body, just covered in hives, itching bad. I became very hot… I wake up in an ambulance.”
Gigi Hinton had a nearly perfect body simply hoped to trim her thighs and knees. After a second round of nearly twenty injections, her treatments turned nightmarish. “It really seemed like something started to eat away at the skin beneath.”
Next time you see one of those billboards that promise you that you’re fat will melt away with no effort, remember what Gigi’s leg looked like and steer clear of them.
“Everyone wants to know the secret to being thin because that… that’s success… that’s love, that’s glory, that’s power – that’s a crock.”
“Sometimes they make it look so glamorous to have an eating disorder.”
“In some ways we all have distorted views of what is beautiful. And the repeated exposure to a particular image teaches you to like that particular image. And we have become so used to seeing extremely thin women that we have learned to think that this is what is beautiful.”
“The whole society is involved in the perfection game; that we can all fix our bodies, make our bodies over. “
“I see the common theme in all of this is that women are using the appetite as a voice and they’re using the appetite to express different things depending on their situation.”
“When I was heavy, I was ignored instead of nurtured. And when I was really thin all of a sudden I was nurtured and taken care of and the teachers loved me and they cared about me. Gaining weight was the worst thing. I was just so ashamed of my body. I felt like I was the biggest failure.”
“The scale becomes your altar. It becomes the site where you pray every morning. You pray that it will be down another pound or another ounce or anything to show that the work that you’re doing – and the work is starving – is working, because other things in your life aren’t working.”
“I believe that very few women escape a battle with their bodies.”
“During a binge people will typically report something changes. At least they feel numb – they’re not thinking about whatever it is that they were worrying about. So there is a reward there. They don’t feel good, but they feel different and they feel some relief.”
“Plus size is no different than being skinny. It’s just another way of being beautiful.”
It was a little glurgy at the end with the “cured” girl writing a letter to the hospital that treated her. but it had a lot of good things to say also.
The most interesting portion of the show for me was the section about bulimia. I don’t have purging problems, but I have dealt with bingeing ever since childhood. I was surprised to learn that it takes about three months of staying away from bingeing before the body recovers and starts acting like a normal digestive system. The signal of fullness isn’t as strong with someone who has regularly binged as with a normal person, and it takes three months of not bingeing to start getting back to normal.
I’ve never gone three months without bingeing my entire life.
That’s probably why weight loss is still a struggle for me, so my new goal is to refrain from bingeing for over three months. That is what I’m striving for to get my body back to normalcy. This was a very helpful documentary for me, even though it focused on anorexia nervosa instead of binge eating.
I finally got to Lane Bryant to try out Figure Magazine. As I was worried, there was a full-page ad for the book, “Your Hidden food Allergies Are Making You Fat” but that was the only quacky advertisement in the whole issue. The rest of the advertisements were for clothing, underwear, and of course, the Dove Ad everyone’s talking about. I find it interesting that none of the major makeup companies have even one ad in the magazine. Do they think fat women don’t wear makeup? There was a perfect spot in the makeover section for one of the enterprising makeup companies, but they didn’t bother. Instead, there was an underwear ad.
This issue was focused on Makeover: making over your life, taking risks, making over your relationships, making your recipes healthier, making over your exercise routine and making yourself pretty. It was a really positive issue that concentrated on making things better. Here are some of my favorite quotes:
“There are two kinds of makeovers: the ones that are simply skin deep – a redecorated room or new hairstyle, makeup or wardrobe – and the ones that go to the core of our beings – a complete change of attitude, a new way to behave, even a transformation of the way we think. While we usually have lots of fun repainting our bedroom walls a sunny shade of yellow or applying a new peach-colored blush to our cheeks, it’s not quite so enjoyable transforming the way we reason or act every single day.” – Geri Brin
“We must create opportunities to feel good about ourselves. Although you have no control over exterior influences, be a champion for yourself. Become infatuated with your own beauty.” – Dorrit Bern
“I don’t worry too much about indulging every once in a while. It all comes out in the wash at the end of the week. Punishing yourself for a meal really goes nowhere; the balance has to happen on a weekly or monthly basis. That’s what healthy eating is all about.” – Laura Pensiero, nutritionist
“Body image is so much a state of mind. The way you look even on your worst day isn’t the worst thing in the world. Live your life!” – Wendy McClure, author of I’m Not the New Me
The article, “Find Your Perfect Workout” was a little simplistic and told me that I would love tennis. They didn’t have an option for a person who is both social AND mentally focused. It turned out that DDR, bike riding and running are the best exercises for me, none of which were on their very limited list. For a better list of exercises to choose from try About.com’s Online Workout Center – Weight training and cardio workouts.
On the whole, I liked the magazine and I’m going to buy a subscription. I just hope that more advertisers pull their heads out of the size 3 racks and start realizing that real women wear makeup too.
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It’s the truth. Everything you know is wrong. If you think diets don’t work, then you’re wrong. If you think exercise makes you hungry, then you’re wrong. If you think your diet is the perfect one for everybody, then you’re wrong. If you think hard exercise is the best way to lose weight, then you’re wrong. No matter what you think about diet and fitness, you’re wrong. There is always someone out there who does well on a wacky diet. There is always someone out there who reacts to exercise differently. We are such a diverse species that there is a way for everything to work and there is a way for everything to fail.
