Getting back on track

Decided to blog again for the first time in about a year and a half. Of course it's about food. I'm noticing a trend that I only blog when I want to talk about food or about eating better and I'm just going to go with it.

So I'm getting myself back on track again. As much as I held back from eating too much junk over the holidays...this was the least amount of junk I've eaten around xmas ever...it was such a shock to my body that it is still fighting off being sick today. I really should be more vocal and refuse more sugar but I think that's way more difficult than refusing meat. When refusing a piece of chicken, many back off realizing that there are many reasons why one can't or won't eat meat. Refuse a piece of wedding cake and people look at you like you're personally hexing the bride and groom. Try to explain why and you get a glassy-eyed blank stare. This country is simply not taught good nutrition in schools. If they did, the grocery store would look very different.

I've learned from taking a great many psychology classes that eating disorders are a result of people feeling like they are losing control. If you feel like you have no control over your life, the one thing you can control is what goes into your stomach. You can control how much or how little and if you don't want it there anymore, you can remove it whenever you want. Whenever I feel like I'm losing control I notice that I start tracking my calories. I don't change what or how much I'm eating, rather, I record everything I am eating to see if it is on par with what I should be eating. If it isn't I can look at my notes and figure out what is out of balance and why it may be that way. I can see the similarities in what I do and what someone with an eating disorder does except my way is much healthier for the body.

Now don't think I'm patting myself on the back or anything. I've always said that the only reason I've never developed an eating disorder is that I can't go a couple hours without eating something and I have a borderline phobia about vomit. I guess I could go the laxative route but I refuse to take a pill unless I have no choice. I took one pain killer after getting my wisdom teeth removed and that was when I got home from the surgery. Same with when I cut my eye.

So after all that my point is, I'm tracking what I eat again. I'm monitoring calories, fat, carbs, protein, cholesterol and iron. I've been having bouts of dizziness again so I'm keeping a special eye on the iron. We'll see how it goes.

Thoughts on Week 1

I have a few minutes before my iPod is done syncing and I have to leave for dance so I thought I'd quickly blog on my thoughts of last weeks meal experiment.

Food Prep: Starting to get easier in terms of the amount of time it takes to prepare the food. Partially it's because we're both developing little systems to help us. I think it's also due to the fact that we're starting to plan time into our schedule for food prep...something neither of us did too much of in the past.

Variety: I have to admit that my mind changes depending on the time of day as to whether or not I'm content with the food I'm eating. One moment I'm really excited to be eating the meals I'm eating and the next I'm really grumpy because I would kill for some pastina and spicy tomato sauce. I think that veggies are yummy and I love the variety of the ones we're eating but without something to add to them it sometimes feels like I am eating the same meal over and over again.

Taste: This kinda ties in to the paragraph just above. For the most part I still think the food is yummy...but when I'm going through withdrawal for some of my favorite foods that aren't on the plan I start to think negatively as to the taste of the food. My opinion really does change minute to minute for the same meal.

How do I feel: I still feel great. I still feel full. Chris and I built a "cheat meal" into the plan (one "cheat meal" a week we are allowing ourselves) because I was afraid that we wouldn't be able to go out and eat with friends...or worse that I would have a total breakdown if I reeealy wanted pizza and couldn't have it. Neither of us cheated all weekend even though we knew we were allowed. I guess that's got to say something for how the food is making me feel (even if my mind still wavers in opinion).

Gym: Today is my first day back at dance. I know I'll be too busy to take class but I'll still be exerting a bunch of extra energy this week so we'll see if the meal plan is good for people who exercise. I have a feeling it will be fine but part of me is a little skeptical.

My final thoughts before I run is that I'm so proud of myself for not cheating. By Friday I was really grumpy and thought I might quit by the end of the weekend. We had a good talk about that and from that talk built in the cheat meal. Now that I know I have an out to go eat whatever I want for one meal a week I've felt like I don't need to cheat. I have to trick my mind like this or else I rebel. I am of the mindset that no one should ever have to feel like they can't have something if they want it. Should it be thought out? Yes. Should it be done in moderation? Most definitely. But depriving myself of something I want is not a lifestyle I want to perscribe to.

That being said I think I'm learning a lot from forcing myself to do what may be possibly better for my health. I still don't know if this is going to turn into a way of life for me....I do love my disco fries...but I feel like my focus has shifted a bit. I feel like part of this experiment is still about food but another part of it is an experiment on which part of my brain will win...the indulgent one or the diciplined one.

New Food Experiment

For the month of September, Chris and I are trying a new food-experiment-type-thing. All the meals for the month are all thought out for us, the shopping lists for each week are all pre-planned and all we need to do is make sure we have the food and prepare it correctly. I'll explain it more as the month goes on but that's the short, short version.

My initial impression when reading the meal plan was how easy it seemed. Most of the meals were simple and filled with really diverse healthy foods. There's minimal cooking too which added to my thinking how simple it will be to do this for a month...a month of healthy food and I don't have to cook?? I'm in!

Well, day one was anything but simple. First of all we woke up at noon and still hadn't gone shopping for any of the first week's food. Peapod wasn't delivering the normal/non-produce foods until 3:30 PM. We also had to go to Whole Foods to get the more obscure foods that we knew we wouldn't find anywhere else and then had to go to Stop n Shop afterward for produce (I'd rather pick out my own produce than have Peapod pick it out for me...plus it's cheaper than the produce at Whole Foods). So breakfast was a wash...we just had Corn Flakes instead of the pumpkin oatmeal I was looking forward to.

So besides not having all the food we need to actually prepare the food till 6:00 PM, I also realized not cooking much this month will be replaced with an equal amount of time spent on chopping up fruit and vegetables. By 6:00 PM we were absolutely starving and still didn't even have our lunch let alone snacks or dinner. The kitchen counters were filled with non-refrigerated ingredients and tuperware I've been too lazy to put away in cabinets yet which made finding room for all the chopping and cutting difficult. As you can imagine it wasn't a good day at all as far as eating or crankiness was concerned.

We finally made it through all the preliminary food prep and had lunch. Then I preped a little for the rest of the week and then had dinner and finally finished around 10:00 or 1o:30 PM. 10:00 PM is a time I'm ok with eating dinner but a lot later than Chris likes to eat.


Quick impressions of today...

Food Prep: Took way too long. Not completely the plan's fault...mainly our lack of foresight to blame.

Variety: Good variety today. I'm excited to see what I'm going to be eating next.

Taste: Todays food was really tasty! Walnuts, coconut curry chickpea salad, and veggies and grilled tofu with a spicy apple dressing...yummy! Sorta kinda made the hastle worth it...but not completely.

How do I feel: I feel great. I feel full (I was worried it wouldn't be enough food), I had no urge to snack and my skin feels a little tingly from all the fresh veggies... mainly the onion...that I had for dinner.

Gym: Didn't make it to the gym today so I can't determine whether or not I had enough calories to handle a workout.