. . .yes, I’m still working on finishing the year healthy.
These are the things I had on my list to work on:
- In bed by 10:00
- 8 glasses of water a day
- Floss 3x a week
- No eating during nap time or after supper
- (new one) Move from 3 to 4 days of running a week
That’s all I’m going to do. Some of those things are really big things! I didn’t do so well last week, but I’m not giving up. These are all things that I can do and I’m going to feel very good about sticking with it.
My journey with my eating habits has been erratic. To be honest, I have some real issues with food addiction. I use food as a way to cope when I’m feeling stressed or overwhelmed. I also use it when I want to celebrate something or if I’m just bored.
I want to be really honest with you because it’s not helpful to pretend that I have this all under control. A little over a week ago, I was feeling overwhelmed or something (I can’t even remember what the deal was right now) and I chose to deal with it by eating whatever I could find in the house that looked appealing. I ate a piece of toast with butter on it, then I ate a plate of chips with cheese melted on the top, then I had a half cup of trail mix. That’s a “snack” of about 800 calories and I don’t think I stopped there. I don’t remember what else I ate. Then I repeated that pattern for several days in a row. The end result was that I managed to increase my weight by 6 to 7 pounds in two weeks. Some of that was water weight, but most of those pounds I have to own. I earned them fair and square.
I’ve turned it around for the last several days. It’s good to be heading in the right direction! I need to find better ways to cope. I’ve also been reminded that I really need to limit eating things that are high in carbohydrates. I love my carbs and I’m not totally cutting them out, but they need to be a smaller percentage of my diet. Foods that are full of HFCS spike my blood sugar and make me feel happy for a while, but then it’s followed by a crash. That makes me want to eat again. Not a good cycle. I’m trying to choose the carbohydrates I eat more carefully (focus on fruits, veggies, whole grains) and keep the extra snacky things like chips, cookies, and crackers to a very small percentage of what I consume. I just can’t have that stuff in the house all the time.
Don’t worry, family, this doesn’t mean that we’re only allowing veggies and turkey in the house for Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to the whole spread, including potatoes, dinners rolls, pies and other desserts. It just means that I’m making sure the leftover sweets go back home with Tim.
