I know, I know you've been waiting with bated breath, waiting to find out how my week of adding fruits and veggies went. No, no, don't deny it. I saw you there, sitting on the edge of your seat. The answer? Good and bad.
Good: Eating these lovelies with every meal means you have less room for the unhealthy stuff and in general after a meal with fruits/veggies, I felt better. It also made me more conscious of my food choices and realize how many meals I just don't include something like this without even realizing it. If you'd asked me a week ago, I would have said I was getting my 3-5 servings a day no problem. Wrong! And I maintain my prediction from last week: it is definitely easier to add something to a meal than to subtract.
Bad: There wasn't really anything bad about eating the fruits and vegetables themselves, but something is still wrong. Because I'm a writer and enjoy being organized, I kept a food journal last week to track my progress. I've found writing about something helps me understand it better. Last Wednesday, for reasons I didn't understand at the time, I inexplicably became depressed. It was in the evening, right after playing racquetball, and suddenly it hit me. Crippling and overwhelming. I couldn't make simple decisions. Nothing felt right. I woke up the next morning feeling more of the same. I had no energy or motivation.
Because I know how much food affects me (I like to joke that I'm just naturally sensitive...to food, caffeine, alcohol, the sun...you name it, I seem to have stronger reactions than most people), I looked back through my food journal and saw it there. It could have been writing in glittering letters. It seemed so obvious. Wednesday afternoon, sugar binge.
Why is sugar eating so hard to control? I know most people reading this fall into two major camps, those that think, "It's not...you just stop eating sugar," and the others, like me, who think, "I have no idea, but it is, it really is." Eating bad food is like a compulsion. If I get really hungry, it's like someone has stripped away all reason. You just can't make rational decisions any more.
Life is funny sometimes. We seek out ways to understand the world around us. I was feeling frustrated by the pull sugar had over me and absentmindedly looking at my mom's many books on nutrition (because she, like me, likes to read about nutrition to find motivation) as I sorted my laundry. They just happened to be at my eye level and I noticed a book called The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program. Of course I pulled it right off the shelf. And I've been reading it. Mostly this weekend. Although my critical mind is wary of "programs" to follow, I also know that sugar detox is in my future.
When I was a vegan a few years ago, I learned that detox is a great way to get cravings out of your system. You don't have to give up sugar forever. That isn't the point. The point is to retrain your body to have better habits and in the process eliminate your cravings.
So I started viewing this book as a method to follow for my sugar detox. Because I can't quit cold turkey. I've tried, and I just can't seem to last more than a couple days. And I never could figure out why that was. Other people I know seemed to have much more success, where I would be left feeling like an addict, unable to give it up.
My favorite nugget that stood out in the book: people with low serotonin levels tend to feel depressed and helpless, and often sugar addicts have naturally low serotonin levels. Often these people are prescribed anti-depressants, but in many cases these levels can be fixed with food. Never having been a fan of taking medication, I liked the idea of changing my outlook with food. I don't want you to get the impression that I'm a depressed person. I'm generally very happy. But I'll have moments throughout my day where the food I eat changes my mood (ups and downs) so drastically, and I don't like the roller coaster.
So, my ultimate goal is to detox from sugar. I'm glad that what I've been reading recognizes how hard this is.
The First Step: eat protein with breakfast.
Sound's simple. Why? The ultimate goal is to eat protein with every meal, but to start the habit with breakfast. Many of us don't eat breakfast right away in the morning, and it helps to have the protein right away. It gives you energy and provides you with the amino acid tryptophan, which, once it crosses the blood-brain barrier, your brain uses to manufacture...serotonin.
There are more (simple) steps involved later in the process to help your brain with this manufacturing process, but it starts with getting the protein into your body in the first place. What encourages me about this plan is that it also wants you to eat complex carbohydrates and fruits and vegetables. It is NOT a high protein diet. When you get to the stage of eating protein with every meal, you're eating about half your body weight in grams of protein (aka if you weigh 150, you'd eat 75 grams of protein a day). This is about 20 grams more than the recommended amount. Because I've read so much about adverse affects of getting too much protein, I'm not going to go overboard. I want to listen to my body as I come to that threshold, which brings me to the best part about this plan, which is the next step...
The Second Step: Keeping a journal
That's right, I'm being encouraged to keep a food journal. This is my favorite part about this plan. She's actively encouraging you to think for yourself and pay attention to your body. And this is also a step I personally should have no problem with.
In these early stages, she doesn't have you cut out sugar. She recommends that if you were planning on having a candy bar, you can have it, but try having it with your meal instead of a snack later. As a sugar addict, I still want to give it up. But I don't want to set myself up to fail.
Goals this Week: keep eating 3-5 servings of fruits and veggies a day, eat breakfast (which will include protein) within an hour of getting up, and keep a food journal. Oh, and keep working out of course! This is such an energy and mood elevator.
Okay, feedback? Thoughts? Until next week :)
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Working out isn't enough
This year I want to get back in to shape, better shape than I've been before. The BolderBoulder, 14er hikes, a week long 3 mountain 14er hike extravaganza, skiing. These are all things I want to get in to better shape for. I had a list of resolutions that I was going to stick to. Of course, after my first day, I realized it was ridiculous to expect me to change all my bad habits in one day. I've been told that this is a problem of mine, that I set my expectations too high, that I expect too much of myself and then I, ultimately, fail.
So, I tried a different trick. How about just "more working out" and "quit caffeine" for starters. I knew on the one hand that these two would be most likely the easiest of my goals to achieve because I'd done both of them before successfully. And what do you know. After a month, I'd quit caffeine and was working out 6 days a week. The quitting caffeine hasn't been enormously successful, but I'm not a super addict.
I don't want anyone to get me wrong (which you might do as I go further into this): I am incredibly proud of working out pretty much every day. Not only is this a major accomplishment, but I feel so much better about myself when I do it. It's completely changed my attitude about a lot of things, especially those aspects of my life that had been more difficult.
What really kicked my ass in to gear about the working out was when I stepped on the scale and realized that if I was going to be in the shape I wanted for this summer, I would really have to change. I'd gained 10 pounds in the last six months. I couldn't handle that. I'd gotten pretty good at maintaining my weight. Granted, it was a weight that I didn't exactly want to stay at, but I certainly was okay with it. I worked hard to stay there, but I was there.
Then suddenly my whole routine changed. I broke my jaw. I went to Italy for 2 weeks. I fell in love. Although these were mostly good events, breaking my jaw threw everything off. And change in general has made it hard to stick to good habits. I don't want to begin to describe the wonderful foods I ate in Italy. And I don't regret for one minute those foods. And I'm happy I feel in love. I'm happy with that aspect of my life, but being in love for me also means that I seem to care less about what I eat.
So here I am. I've been working out wonderfully for a month and when I stepped on the scale a couple days ago...I'd gained 1.5 pounds. I knew I'd been eating more...the working out had increased my appetite like crazy, but I'd been hoping that just listening to my body and my cravings with my new regimen would put me at weight maintenance. Not so.
Let me tell you friends, it is so incredibly frustrating stepping on the scale seeing the numbers go up after working out that hard. But I knew the main problem. It was a problem that I was hoping to ignore. But now it seems like I'm going to have to face it. Food. My major downfall.
Food has always been the hardest part for me to master. I love food and I have some bad habits when it comes to this. I know a lot about food. I love reading about it, learning about it, often very healthy habits. I know what foods are bad and what foods are good. But that's just a first step. It doesn't really tell me: okay Dana, now that you know what to eat, here's this weeks list of groceries and recipes. Knowing the theory doesn't always make it easy to execute.
Not that this is a good excuse, but I'm also a notoriously discriminating eater. I'm avoiding the word picky here because it doesn't quite paint the right picture. I like most foods, I'm just particular about how they're prepared. For example: I can't stand raw celery stalks (even with peanut butter)...biting in to them makes me gag (a combination of the texture and the flavor). But chop it up and put it in chicken salad (or something similar) and I'd swear up and down that celery is genius. I also love very flavorful foods...vinegar...spice...salt...sugar of course.
And I know one of the rules of successful healthy eaters is that you still have to enjoy what you're eating. If you're unhappy with food, you're doomed to fail. What else do I know? Superfoods! White sugars/breads/pastas are bad (eat yummy whole grains)! Eat fresh fruits and veggies! Combine your food groups in meals! Shall I go on? Because I can. Most of what I learn now about food isn't revolutionary. Many things I learn now are just good little tidbits to tuck aside.
But how do I execute this? One baby step at a time, like I did with the exercise? Yes that was my thought too. Okay, I said. Time to cut out sugar next. In retrospect, it might have been better to start with something else, or to try limiting sugar first (I know, by the way, that I will never completely give up sugar. I'm not deluding myself about this. I also know that my body needs to be detoxed from this processed punk in order to get rid of these pesky cravings). So that didn't work. Every day I'm bombarded with sugar. Through my own doings but also in my work environment. What is it about free food that we just can't turn down? Try. I am. I am trying.
So here's where I'm at. Utterly frustrated. I do not want to keep busting my butt working out only to see those numbers go up on the scale. If those numbers go up, I'm not getting in to the shape that this summer and my life desires. Getting rid of some of this body fat is just what should happen for a girl that's fit, that wants tackle some hard core climbs. And I do. I love being active, and I hate feeling hindered by my own body, by limitations I can control.
But food is still a problem. It is the problem I have to change. Not just temporarily, but permanently. I'm not looking for an eating disorder (so not my style), or Atkins or South Beach (don't get me started on ketosis) or any other fad diet, or veganism (although it was wonderful the first time, I can't live like that forever...I'm still considering it as a future detox now and then though). That just won't do the trick. But if I'm not sticking with a plan (that's often what fad diets give you), it's harder to know what to do, what to eat.
So I'm still frustrated. But at least I know it. At least I'm trying to figure it out. I'm not giving up. And tomorrow is a new day. So what should tomorrow be? What should that goal be? Okay...thinking...starting small...what can I realistically do?
Okay, tomorrow start's a new habit (one that I'm much better at during the week than on weekends): fruits and or veggies with every meal. Every meal. Mmm! Stay tuned to see how I do...
So, I tried a different trick. How about just "more working out" and "quit caffeine" for starters. I knew on the one hand that these two would be most likely the easiest of my goals to achieve because I'd done both of them before successfully. And what do you know. After a month, I'd quit caffeine and was working out 6 days a week. The quitting caffeine hasn't been enormously successful, but I'm not a super addict.
I don't want anyone to get me wrong (which you might do as I go further into this): I am incredibly proud of working out pretty much every day. Not only is this a major accomplishment, but I feel so much better about myself when I do it. It's completely changed my attitude about a lot of things, especially those aspects of my life that had been more difficult.
What really kicked my ass in to gear about the working out was when I stepped on the scale and realized that if I was going to be in the shape I wanted for this summer, I would really have to change. I'd gained 10 pounds in the last six months. I couldn't handle that. I'd gotten pretty good at maintaining my weight. Granted, it was a weight that I didn't exactly want to stay at, but I certainly was okay with it. I worked hard to stay there, but I was there.
Then suddenly my whole routine changed. I broke my jaw. I went to Italy for 2 weeks. I fell in love. Although these were mostly good events, breaking my jaw threw everything off. And change in general has made it hard to stick to good habits. I don't want to begin to describe the wonderful foods I ate in Italy. And I don't regret for one minute those foods. And I'm happy I feel in love. I'm happy with that aspect of my life, but being in love for me also means that I seem to care less about what I eat.
So here I am. I've been working out wonderfully for a month and when I stepped on the scale a couple days ago...I'd gained 1.5 pounds. I knew I'd been eating more...the working out had increased my appetite like crazy, but I'd been hoping that just listening to my body and my cravings with my new regimen would put me at weight maintenance. Not so.
Let me tell you friends, it is so incredibly frustrating stepping on the scale seeing the numbers go up after working out that hard. But I knew the main problem. It was a problem that I was hoping to ignore. But now it seems like I'm going to have to face it. Food. My major downfall.
Food has always been the hardest part for me to master. I love food and I have some bad habits when it comes to this. I know a lot about food. I love reading about it, learning about it, often very healthy habits. I know what foods are bad and what foods are good. But that's just a first step. It doesn't really tell me: okay Dana, now that you know what to eat, here's this weeks list of groceries and recipes. Knowing the theory doesn't always make it easy to execute.
Not that this is a good excuse, but I'm also a notoriously discriminating eater. I'm avoiding the word picky here because it doesn't quite paint the right picture. I like most foods, I'm just particular about how they're prepared. For example: I can't stand raw celery stalks (even with peanut butter)...biting in to them makes me gag (a combination of the texture and the flavor). But chop it up and put it in chicken salad (or something similar) and I'd swear up and down that celery is genius. I also love very flavorful foods...vinegar...spice...salt...sugar of course.
And I know one of the rules of successful healthy eaters is that you still have to enjoy what you're eating. If you're unhappy with food, you're doomed to fail. What else do I know? Superfoods! White sugars/breads/pastas are bad (eat yummy whole grains)! Eat fresh fruits and veggies! Combine your food groups in meals! Shall I go on? Because I can. Most of what I learn now about food isn't revolutionary. Many things I learn now are just good little tidbits to tuck aside.
But how do I execute this? One baby step at a time, like I did with the exercise? Yes that was my thought too. Okay, I said. Time to cut out sugar next. In retrospect, it might have been better to start with something else, or to try limiting sugar first (I know, by the way, that I will never completely give up sugar. I'm not deluding myself about this. I also know that my body needs to be detoxed from this processed punk in order to get rid of these pesky cravings). So that didn't work. Every day I'm bombarded with sugar. Through my own doings but also in my work environment. What is it about free food that we just can't turn down? Try. I am. I am trying.
So here's where I'm at. Utterly frustrated. I do not want to keep busting my butt working out only to see those numbers go up on the scale. If those numbers go up, I'm not getting in to the shape that this summer and my life desires. Getting rid of some of this body fat is just what should happen for a girl that's fit, that wants tackle some hard core climbs. And I do. I love being active, and I hate feeling hindered by my own body, by limitations I can control.
But food is still a problem. It is the problem I have to change. Not just temporarily, but permanently. I'm not looking for an eating disorder (so not my style), or Atkins or South Beach (don't get me started on ketosis) or any other fad diet, or veganism (although it was wonderful the first time, I can't live like that forever...I'm still considering it as a future detox now and then though). That just won't do the trick. But if I'm not sticking with a plan (that's often what fad diets give you), it's harder to know what to do, what to eat.
So I'm still frustrated. But at least I know it. At least I'm trying to figure it out. I'm not giving up. And tomorrow is a new day. So what should tomorrow be? What should that goal be? Okay...thinking...starting small...what can I realistically do?
Okay, tomorrow start's a new habit (one that I'm much better at during the week than on weekends): fruits and or veggies with every meal. Every meal. Mmm! Stay tuned to see how I do...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
