After writing my angry letter to myself I got busy with my food journal. If you haven’t visited my food journaling partner in crime’s blog please head on over to Marion’s site to see what she’s been eating. If you don’t regularly read Marion’s blog Affection for Fitness please take a few moments to read through some of her recent posts. They are so well written and thought provoking as always.
This is my food journal entry from Friday, February 10, 2012.
Breakfast: Smoothie with spinach, 1/2 c frozen pineapple, 1c almond milk and 1 scoop protein powder
About 1 hour after breakfast on my way to pick up Carlos from school: an apple
Snack before lunch: I’m snacky and I just packed up a bag of Cheerios in Carlos’ snack bag for school on Monday. I left a 1/2 c. dry Cheerios out on the counter. I’m going to leave them out and eat them one by one as a way to give myself something to snack on while keeping it healthy and low calorie.
*This is hard. I want to eat the whole measuring cup in one bite. How terrible is that?
Note: I managed to take at least 15 minutes to eat the Cheerios
Lunch: kale, broccoli and 1/2c. chick peas sautéed with 1T coconut oil, 4T lemon juice, 3T water and 3T nutritional yeast (this is ridiculously addicting)
This afternoon we went ice skating for about an hour and 15 minutes.
Snack: 2 apple cinnamon rice cakes, 1 cheese stick
Dinner isn’t for another hour. I’m making pasta fagioli soup. I’m in the kitchen and naturally want to eat. Instead I’m sipping on a 25 cal packet of diet hot cocoa.
Dinner: bowl of Pasta fagioli with about 2T grated Pecorino Romano cheese
Snack later while watching Dateline with Orlando: kiwi and banana with cinnamon, another packet of diet hot cocoa because the fruit didn’t really kill my sweet tooth
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Reflections/Readings/Thoughts
Clearly snacking is an issue. It’s as though I think about food all day long or I just need to be munching on something at all times. I really envy people like my husband who eat because they have to, not because they really care about food. I care…a little too much.
In researching ways to stop snacking so much I came across a segment from the Dr. Oz show on
food addiction. In a companion article Dr. Oz outlines the
5 warning signs of a food addict. These are namely:
- Hiding food
- Thinking about food more than 1 hour a day
- Emotional eating
- Experiencing withdrawal symptoms when not eating (shaking, dizziness)
- Unable to stop eating even when not hungry
Dr. Oz points to
three strategies in order to regain control of your eating habits:
- First think about why you are eating. If it is out of frustration, loneliness, anxiety or boredom put down the food.
- Journal your emotions about food
- Keep a food log
So am I a food addict? Well Dr. Oz notes that in order to be considered addicted to food you would experience 3 out of 5 of the warning signs. I would say that numbers 2 and 3 are definitely applicable to me though there are times when emotions are running high and I actually don’t eat. I don’t hide food. I have never experienced withdrawal symptoms from not eating. I can stop eating most of the time, but sometimes it feels like I have a black hole inside my stomach that just won’t get full. I don’t usually give in to that feeling yet it bothers me.
While I may not have a true food addiction I definitely struggle with my relationship with food. I’m glad to see that a significant part of battling my often out of control eating habits is writing about it. It has helped me a lot over the weekend and definitely staved off some of the eating I would have normally done.
Attack before it Attacks You
I have been trying to get out of the kitchen as much as possible particularly in the afternoon. Twice last week we went ice skating. I also moved myself into the dining room for laundry folding, bill paying, etc. Being out of the kitchen removes the immediate temptation of food all around me.
Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail
I love kale. I buy big bundles of kale almost every week. I find that if I clean it, tear it off the stems and store it in a container I am much more inclined to make myself a healthy lunch. Half the battle is preparing it but once it’s all prepped I make massaged kale salads, the sautéed kale I mentioned above, kale egg white omelets or kale smoothies. Lunch is not my favorite meal. I don’t like sandwiches so having the kale on hand and ready to go really helps me to make a better choice.
Girls Just Want to Have Fun!
I have mentioned my latest fun activity
ice skating. Well I actually bought my own ice skates last week. They aren’t figure skates. They were recommended by my cousin who is a hockey player. His wife owns the same kind and loves them. They are SofTec Recreational skates and look a little like these only mine are black and red.
On Friday when I took Carlos to skate during the public skate hours at the rink nearby I met a hockey coach/ice skating instructor. He was there with his youngest son who was only 3 years old. We got to talking and I told him that while I really enjoyed being on ice skates I really have no idea how to skate. He mentioned that he teaches an adult Learn to Skate program. It starts in March and runs for one hour every Sunday afternoon for 6 weeks. It’s more hockey skating rather than figure skating in the sense that we will be learning the basics of skating like stopping, going backwards, turning, etc.
Guess who is going to be taking ice skating lessons?! I’m so excited about this. I’ve gotten a few funny comments and looks from the few family members and friends that I’ve told about it, but I don’t care. It is a nice break from the running. It’s great exercise. Plus it just sounds like fun.
You know for years I avoided doing things like this because I was so uncomfortable in my skin. Now I might not be where I want to be with my weight but I’ll be damned if I am going to let that stop me from trying new things. So Olympics Learn to Skate here I come!
Aim 
Yay for ice skating! That’s awesome and a really good workout (I seem to remember from ice skating for only an hour or two when I visit home).
Sounds like a lot of fun and I can’t wait to hear all about it.
I love workouts that don’t feel like workouts Kaye. Ice skating is like that for me though I may feel differently in the lesson.
Love it that you are taking skating lessons! That’s so fun.
Ice skating is so much fun, I’m sure you will enjoy the lessons 🙂
Ooh, I’m so jealous of your skates, Aimee! I haven’t skated for years and years. I’m really mad at myself because I forgot to take my old skates with me when I visited my parents during Christmas vacation.
It’s true that failing to plan is planning to fail. I’ve adopted Marion’s habit of making hard-boiled eggs in batches. They are surprisingly tasty.