Oct 17

Made my butt go to the gym today!

breakfast: bran (70) cereal (70) milk (70) coffee (50)

snack: 2 mini pb cub (72)

lunch: bread (160) turkey (30) low fat mayo (30) cheese (40) tomato

snack: handful potato chips 150

dinner: santa fe rice and beans (330) 1/2 piece of artisan bread (40)

popcorn (100) light hot chocolate (110)

1322

So I liked Steve's link so much to the 'Shrink Yourself' excerpt, I have read the entire first section and signed up to the online program. I have more hope for a) correcting my negative thought patterns and b) finally losing this weight than I have felt my entire life. I have long known that I feel so bad not necessarily because I of the weight itself, but because of my inability to do it. It's the most frustrating thing in the world to be successful in other areas of my life and struggle with this SO much.

I'm learning that when I reach for food when I have recently eaten (aka not hungry) that I want to change the way I am feeling. There are other ways I can change the way I am feeling at that moment besides shoving my face full of ice cream. By reaching for food, I am circumventing my decision-making process - and THIS is what makes me feel stupid. It's the inability to make a logical decision, the frustration that comes with making a poor decision over and over and over (and over) again and not learning the lesson.

I have learned and am practicing that in the moment I go to reach for that candy (ok yes I did have a pb cup today and a handful of chips but it's the weekend and I'm usually very bad on the weekend so even this is a massive improvement) to stop and THINK - what am I feeling? What feeling is it that I am trying to avoid by eating?

I made my goal for the week to savour my food. To sit down at the table and eat without watching tv or playing on the computer or distracting myself in some other way. I'm discovering that some of the foods that make me feel good, I don't even really like the taste of. Weird.

The author states that trying to get an emotional eater to lose weight by counting calories is like trying to train for a marathon by sitting on the couch. He's right - I need to change my approach entirely. I have to stop counting each and every calorie and letting myself eat more because I"m below my daily limit or otherwise driving myself nuts. I am fully aware, as most chronic dieters are, of the nutritional value in every single piece of food that I eat. THAT is not the problem. It's making healthy choices. It sounds simple but that's what it is. No more eating to fulfill the mind.

So in any case just checking in. This book is great, I feel like it is what I have needed for a long long time.

Thanks Steve! :)