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Changing my relationship with food

Posted by: Susan Marshall   |   Posted in: Quieting the Mind, Living Intentionally, Personal resources, Susan's Musings
Monday, August 04, 2008

 

Don’t sleepwalk while you eat

Six weeks, 38,500 calories, and 11 pounds.

Six weeks is how long I’ve been on my new health regiment. During that time, I’ve created a calorie deficit of 38,500 calories—by either eating less or exercising more. As I reported in my last blog, I need a deficit of 3500 to lose one pound. Do the math…and see that I’ve lost 11 pounds.

Was it easy? Yes. And no.

This is my progress report. If you missed my first two blogs on my weight issues, check out June 2 and June 30.

As I shared before, I’m on an 1800 calorie a day program. I refuse to use the word “diet” because it suggests deprivation, some diabolical selection of foods purely for cosmetic weight loss. What I’m trying to do is change my lifestyle and be healthier.

If all I do is eat 1800 calories a day for the foreseeable future, I’ll lose 1 pound a month. But I’m anxious to see a faster weight loss, and besides, I like to be active. So if I don’t exercise on one day, I try to eat closer to 1700 calories. To put that in perspective, I’ve had five days in the last six weeks where I wasn’t walking, hiking, gardening, and/or doing yoga.

On days that I hike for two or more hours, then add yoga or a little gardening, I will eat up to 2100 or 2200 calories and still have an energy deficit. No deprivation here!!

I was hungry and went out for a bite, ran into a chum with a bottle of rum and we wound up drinking all night. Jimmy Buffett

When I first started counting calories, I was always hungry.  I knew I wasn’t starving myself, but my stomach growled and grumbled each night I went to bed.

Now, I don’t feel so hungry…and when I do, I respond to it by drinking water or going for a walk.

[Nerd Alert: I confess that I’m being totally obsessive about counting calories, as well as the number of carbohydrate, protein, and fat grams I’m consuming. My husband, Rick, thinks of me as his own little food geek now!]

We bought a ChefMate food scale. Besides weighing food, I can input a code from the food list provided with the scale and also get the calories, carbs, protein, and fat for the item weighed.

I began by creating a table where I entered all the data and added up each day. When I met with Cara (my Registered Dietician) after two weeks, I handed her my spreadsheet, complete with what percentage of my food intake was from carbs, protein, and fat. I had also listed my exercise each day, noting that I average 62 minutes a day the first week and almost 90 minutes a day the second.

Cara was stunned by my level of detail and promptly awarded my first atta-girl. Did I mention that I’m an over-achiever?

Not satisfied with that, and looking to put away my calculator, I then found a website, Calorie King, where I could input all my foods choices and have it tabulate the nutrients consumed and calculate my exercise energy use.

Yup. You guessed it….another atta-girl!

Every night for dinner we had a big chunk of dirt. Weird Al Yankovic

So how much and what am I eating?

Breakfast generally trends toward yogurt, fruit, and a few nuts…and maybe some cottage cheese—or—scrambled eggs adorned with a mixture of cut veggies and turkey sausage, toast, and grapefruit. Breakfast is important to eat and has never been a problem for me.

On Sundays, Rick likes to treat me with homemade pancakes or French toast and we haven’t stopped that tradition. We’ve just learned to identify what “a portion” is. It’s a lot less than we were previously eating.

Lunch varies depending on where I’m eating it. Eating out has been a challenge—less locally than it is when we travel. A salad, for example, at Applebee’s (and I’m not just picking on them) could come loaded with almost 1000 calories!! Needless to say, always get your dressing on the side.

I try to balance my lunch’s nutrients to complement my breakfast. If I was protein-light in the morning, I make sure it’s on my noon plate. Protein doesn’t mean meat necessarily—it can be beans, peas, lentils, nuts, eggs, or cheese. And everyone needs protein. It protects you against diseases and repairs overused muscles.

I target my snacks to be about 100 calories. It could be nuts (we now pre-measure our nuts in small snack bags), crackers, an energy bar (although they are generally 150-200 calories), or a piece of fruit.

Our dinners are very healthy and here’s where I feel like I can eat all I want….especially the vegetables. We generally have fish, chicken, lamb or pork tenderloin. My serving size is 3 to 4 ounces…or the size of the palm of my hand. We’re eating more brown rice and whole wheat pasta. We’re still eating potatoes. And lots of veggies. Our favorites are any color pepper, broccoli, spinach, green beans, and summer squash. I also love tomatoes and beets, but find myself eating them alone! Salads, plenty of salads.

I always look at how may calories I’ve consumed that day to know whether I should have dessert at dinner.

So far, it’s feeling pretty manageable. I still eat desserts, although they are smaller than I used to eat.

Because I’m not doing any odd “food combining” or total elimination of certain foods, Rick finds it easy to eat with me and has even begun to change some of his own eating habits as well—especially as he has noticed the pounds slipping off me.

Most importantly, I don’t mindlessly eat anything any more. Eating—what I’m eating and how much I’m eating—is a conscious event for me. I think that’s what I need to achieve and stay at a healthy weight for the rest of my life.

Are you aware of what you put in your mouth every day? Have you changed your relationship with food to get on the path to a healthier lifestyle? Share your story.

 

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