Down But Not Out

I fell off the wagon these past couple of days. I don't make good choices when I'm sleep-deprived, but I really should have been SLEEPING instead of EATING. Nothing to do but pick myself up back again. I don't need to go into the gory details and beat myself up but just get on with it.

I want to get to the place where I am constantly choosing nutritarian foods over SAD. Although I do love nutritarian food, I crave SAD foods also. So many long time nutritarians talk about never going back to SAD because they honestly don't like that food anymore. That's where I want to be.

I think part of my problem is I still have one foot in both worlds. Emily talked about this at the Getaway and emphasized that it's easier to fully commit and have both feet in the nutritarian world. Otherwise you are doing all the work but not getting the results. This really resonated with me. I am doing the work. But I still have a foot in the SAD-world. I won't be able to fully lose my taste for those disease-promoting foods until I completely abstain. I have to commit.

No surprises

I've started to take an evening class and so far, the schedule is killing me.  It's from 6-9 pm Monday evenings and I go there straight from work.  Since I wake up at 5 am most days, it ends up being a looooong day.  No time to report Beck progress today, but I did want to post a weigh-in: 119.6 lbs. 

Same as last week. Oh well...

Beck - Day 24: Deal with Discouragement

Beck's topic for today is how to keep the momentum going. She talks about how in the beginning of any diet, motivation is usually high but at some point, it begins to get harder. At some point, you will feel overwhelmed and discouraged -- which is perfectly normal, she emphasizes! She reminds you that you always have a choice and says that dieting does get easier (it does?). To help deal with discouragement, she suggests the following:

1. Read your Advantages Response Card more often. Really?? I feel like I already read this enough... I know all of the advantages I listed by now, in the exact order they're in. But maybe I need to re-write the card.
2. Add up the difficult hours. This is interesting. Beck points out that most people say that they've had a hard week or tough day but if they really sat down to think about how much time they actually struggled for, it wouldn't be that long. It's probably as little as 20 minutes and a couple of hours once or twice during the week! I'll have to remember this when I complain about my impossible day.
3. Focus on what you can do today. This is supposed to help from feeling overwhelmed. Instead of stressing out about the future, just focus on today, each meal, each choice.

The to-do list:

I am having a pretty good day today so far. The only thing on my checklist I didn't do was monitoring everything I ate in writing after I finished eating. Somehow I forget to do this more on the weekends. I think I need to put my notebook with my food plan where I eat so I can automatically check off the items after the meal.

I wasn't looking forward to riding 60 miles by myself this morning (it's going to be soooooo boring) but just said, "Oh well..." and did it. And surprisingly, it wasn't too bad. I also didn't want to run afterward, but used the same technique. AND I gave myself credit for doing so!

One good choice begets another... I am finding if I make the good choice of eating healthy foods, I'll automatically want to continue with the next meal. There is something about not breaking a streak with me.

I read my Advantages Response Card, NO CHOICE card, and It's Not Okay and Get Back on Track Response Cards at least twice.

I read other Response Cards as needed.

I ate slowly, sitting down and noticing every bite: Every Time

I gave myself credit when I engaged in helpful dieting behaviors: Every Time

I did spontaneous exercise: Once or twice

I did planned exercise.

I wrote out a food plan for tomorrow.

I monitored everything I ate in writing right after I finished eating.

I worked toward accepting what I have to do to lose weight (Oh, well).

I prepared for feeling overwhelmed and discouraged.

Beck - Day 23: Counter the Unfairness Syndrome

Today is another exercise in dealing with feelings of unfairness. Beck discusses how many dieters give themselves permission to eat unplanned food when faced with the sense of unfairness. She emphasizes that life isn't fair and it's important not to dwell on this negative thought and move on. She also offers some excellent tips to change your perspective:

1. Remind yourself why you decided to diet in the first place. This style of eating is always my choice and eating the ETL-way enables me to eat the healthiest food for my body. I might not FEEL like eating this way when I see other temptations around, but I have to remind myself that this way of eating will reward me more than any Girl Scout cookie could.
2. Make a mental list of the advantages in your life. When I compare my situation with so many others, I am really blessed. How lucky am I to have access to an abundance of fruits and vegetables when so many others in the world are starving. How lucky am I to even have the freedom to live the kind of life I want. Wow, this really does help me put fairness into perspective.
3. Create a response card. I copied the one from the book to read when I start feeling like this.

The to-do list:

It was pretty easy today since I had to work a ton of hours which surprisingly kept me busy and not busy eating in a recreational way. Since I had prepared food earlier this week, I already had my healthy meals ready for me at work.

I read my Advantages Response Card, NO CHOICE card, and It's Not Okay and Get Back on Track Response Cards at least twice.

I read other Response Cards as needed.

I ate slowly, sitting down and noticing every bite: Every Time

I gave myself credit when I engaged in helpful dieting behaviors: Every Time

I did spontaneous exercise: Most Times

I did planned exercise.

I monitored everything I ate in writing.

I wrote out a food plan for tomorrow.

I worked toward accepting what I have to do to lose weight (Oh, well).

I created a Response Card to deal with the issue of unfairness.

Beck - Day 22: Say Oh Well to Disappointment

Today deals with disappointment. Beck suggests just saying "Oh well" when faced with something you don't like. The idea is that saying that simple phrase helps you to move on and accept it. It may not mean that you like it, but you're going to move on and stop wasting energy dwelling over it.

Yes, dieting can be difficult and some people have it easier than others, but oh well, this is what I have to do to reach my goals so I'm going to accept it and continue.

I'm going to try to write out the checklists she puts at the end of each day to ensure I'm actually completing all of the tasks for the day.

Today was not great, but now knowing I'll be putting these up, you can bet I'll be trying harder:

I read my Advantages Response Card, NO CHOICE card, and It's Not Okay and Get Back on Track Response Cards at least twice.

I ate slowly, sitting down and noticing every bite: Every Time

I gave myself credit when I engaged in helpful dieting behaviors: sometimes

I did spontaneous exercise: Yes

I did planned exercise. I skipped my weights workout today since I had to work late

I monitored everything I ate in writing.

I wrote out a food plan for tomorrow.

I said, "Oh, well" (I don't like this, but I'm going to accept it and move on), when I wanted something I couldn't have.

I weighed myself, recorded the results on my weight-loss graph, and reported my change in weight to my diet coach (PeerTrainer).

Vacation poundage gone - and a recap!

One week (mostly) back on plan and this morning's weigh-in looked better: 119.6 lbs. Still have more before I get to Dr. Fuhrman's "ideal weight" and these last will be tough, but I'll get there.

I had planned on being back to regular blogging last week but it's been go-go-go! lately for me. One of my team members left for vacation last week and my manager left this week so now it's just 2 of us left to fend for ourselves on my work project. I also started taking an evening class last week that is going to be taking up time (stupid homework!). But the most exciting thing that happened was that I was able to attend Dr. Fuhrman's Getaway last week for one day. It was really inspirational and motivating! One of the lectures he gave on Food Addictions and Weight Loss is available online for viewing at: http://www.drfuhrman.com/live/. Highly recommended!

Beck - Day 21: Get Ready To Weigh In

Back to Beck with seriousness. I feel renewed and ready to get down to business.

Where we last left off, I was at Day 20. Day 21 talks about stepping on the scale and finding out how I did "last week." Seeing how I took a break and went on vacation, this isn't exactly representative of my Beck skills.

However, the point is to realize how important weighing in is, as a motivator and honest assessment of what is working and what isn't. Beck also makes a point of not wasting time getting upset if the scale does not show a number you like and emphasizing that you wouldn't view a friend less worthy or as a failure if she gained weight. She also has you construct a graph (with a 5 lb goal in mind) to track progress.

So I weighed myself (120.6 lbs), but I realize this week's weigh-in is not too accurate. I'll expect next week's to be more accurate.

Refreshed and renewed

I had a fabulous time in Hawaii.  I didn't overeat, but I didn't stay entirely true to ETL.  I expected this, so I'm okay with it.  I did manage to eat some very delicious vegan meals though:

fresh coconut!

I drank the coconut water inside and then a child who couldn't have been older than 12 whipped out a machete and went to town on it, scraping out the meat to eat.

vegan tofu wrap (tofu, brown rice, vegetables) - this was probably my fave lunch on the island

I also managed to cook a few times in our condo so I had plenty of veggies and beans.

The last day, I made an orange-pineapple-banana smoothie from fresh fruits I picked up.  The blender was no Vitamix but it did the job. 

Kauai is awesome for hiking and this we did do!  We managed to fit in part of the Kalalau Trail (to Hanakapiai Falls), 8 miles RT, the "Sleeping Giant" hike (4 miles RT), and the Nualolo-Awaawapuhi loop (11 miles).

I checked this morning and I gained... but only 1/2 pound!

It'll be gone before the week is out.