Stay Tuned

A few things:

1. Today I logged my 150th workout since joining Map My Ride on June 8th!
2. My fitness coach, aka number one son, has told me that I'm on my own for the month of November,  while he is writing his novel.
3. I bought the Kindle version of The Diet Fix, and am making my way towards a "diet reset". 4. My new bike trainer will be up and running tonight, hopefully.
5. Halloween candy in the house is going to be tricky.
6. I no longer hate exercise.
7. I ate too much on my youngest's birthday yesterday.
8. I ordered a new pair of jeans, a size larger. :(
9. I'm upset about the jeans.
10. I'm going to do something about the jeans!

Submission

Plodding away, that's what I am doing.  I am working out 3 to 5 times a week.  I am reading a great book by Andy Stanley, The Principle of the Path.  I am trying to remember to make good choices with my food. My mantra is "happy now or happy later?"  I read a really good quote from the book yesterday that has really hit me as relevant to my journey.

"Choosing the right path begins with submission, not information.  Not even direction.  Submission.  Specifically, submission to the One who knows where each path leads, as well as where it doesn't lead.  Submission to the One who knows what's best for you better than you know what's best for you."

I have always known that I have tons of information.   I know what it takes to lose weight.  But submission, maybe that is my problem.  I want my cake and to eat it too!   So, I have some praying to do about my submission problem.  Anyway, at least I am making progress in my brain!!!

Gluten Aware and an Update of Sorts

As it usually happens, I was at the library, and I noticed a book on the new book shelf, The South Beach Diet Gluten Solution.  Since I have enjoyed reading The South Beach Diet book, I gave this one a trip home with me. 

This post is not really a book review. I did read the book and glean from it, however, the actual diet itself would be terribly hard for me to follow as it asks the dieter to give up for the first two weeks all grains, sugar and fruits.

I did think it made a good point in that not all people need to be gluten free, which seems to be the bandwagon to be on at the moment.  It does make a case for trying to see if you are gluten sensitive, though, which means you be gluten "aware" for a month.  So, until July 6th, I am going to be gluten aware. 

In a little over a week, I have managed to avoid most of the gluten that I would normally consume. It gets easier as time goes by.  I can't say that I have noticed any changes with my digestive system. Maybe I don't have much of an issue with gluten in the first place, but I do think I was consuming way too much wheat, which led me to eat many more refined carbs than I need. 

I am happy to not be missing the wheat, but it is easier at the moment because I am not restricting more than I usually do sugar, corn, potatoes, and rice.  I know that I need to look at how much sugar/starches I consume in order to lose weight, but I decided to give the gluten free diet a chance first, one thing at a time! 

I know several of you are gluten free for real health reasons.  I think 2 of my kids could benefit from being gluten free, as they both have GI issues at times.  This month will be a testing of the waters so to speak!   

On the exercise front, I have decided to break up my exercising into 3 ten minute segments.  In the morning, I will do 10 minutes on the step aerobic.  After lunch, I will do 10 minutes of strength training.  In the afternoon, I will either walk or ride my bike for 10 minutes.  We shall see how this goes! 

Oh, and my scales broke.  We got a new battery and that did not fix it, so I am going by how my clothes feel.  I was able to buy a new smaller bathing suit, so I know I am doing fine.  Maybe this was a good thing!

And lastly, at a community pool this weekend, I saw this add for 5-2-1-0.  They were encouraging kids to eat 5 servings of vegetables and fruits a day, only be on a screen for 2 hours, be active for 1 hour, and drink almost no sugary beverages.  I thought it was a great message and a good reminder to me to eat my veggies and move.

Fit Mommy Update

It's Friday again.  Time to link up with Annie Kate and others trying to improve their health.

I was hoping that this week I would hit the 35 pounds lost mark.  I kept track of all my eating and even cut back a little here and there, hoping it would make a difference, but no, not this week.  I am stuck, but that's OK.  At least I am not going up!

This week's positives: 

• I cared for two sick kids and managed to fight off an earache and sore throat myself, although it was just a day or two of mild symptoms for me, probably allergies.  This is a positive because it shows that my body is fighting back!  Normally, I'd get sick this time of the year and my allergies would be out of control. 
• I cut way back on treats, like dark chocolate squares after dinner. 
• I read the book above, The Ultimate Volumetrics Diet by Barbara Rolls.  I have to say this book is basically the same old thing in a nice package.  Bottom line, just eat more fruits and vegetables!  Don't get me wrong, it offers nice ideas for adding more vegetables to your diet and if you've never studied this idea in depth, it would be a useful book. 
• I came up with my three go-to lunches.  I'll be writing about them on Monday.  So far, so good! 

This week's not-so-positives:

• Exercise is always an area I need to improve.  Although, I did read an encouraging post about failing.  The basic thought is that when a person is trying to make so many changes at once, they are apt to fail because they are trying to make too many too soon.  I really feel as if I have trouble in this area with trying to change too much too soon.  When my exercising is at the "right" level, my eating falls apart, because I am so hungry that I can't stand it and I need snacks.   My weight stalls.  This is just something I am going to have to work through.  And I will.  I will find the right way for me. 
• No new clothes.  No money.  I am making due.
• I ate too many white potatoes.  I did eat them in place of a starch/grain, not in addition, but it was still too much.  

Update:  I actually did make it to 35# lost today!  I wrote this post based on yesterday's weight.  Guess I should hop on the scales first!  Hooray!  35 down and counting!  

Book Five, Intuitive Eating

Intuitive Eating A Revolutionary Program That Works, by Eveyn Tribole and Elyse Resch is the last book that I am writing about.  Tomorrow, I will try to have my Fit Mommy Update. 

This book describes an intuitive eating program that I once took part of when I was working as a nurse at the local health department, so it's kind of like finding my way back home after a long, long journey in which I am battered and beaten by the woes of life.  In a good way, really!  :-)

Intuitive eating is how God made us to be.  It is how the natural little toddlers are before the world gets a hold of them and shows them that they should not eat this and should eat lots of that.  Toddlers eat when they are hungry, stop when they are full.  Period.  If left alone, they are intuitively feeding themselves and over a time, say a few days, they get the nutrients that their growing bodies need.

Enter in dieting.  This destroys intuitive eating.  You are told to ignore your hunger signals. You eat dull, flavorless, unsatisfying foods.  You get frustrated.  You go back to eating what you like and lots of it because your body now needs to eat more in order to be sure you won't starve it again.  But, you do starve it again because you desire to be thin or thinner.  The cycle repeats again and again until you are 80# overweight and unsure how you got here.  (Just an example!)

This is basically my story from age 13 to now.  At age 13, I was 180# and told by the world that I was fat.  Looking back, I was not fat at all.  But that is not the message that I heard.  So, I spent the next 30 years trying to loose weight.  I think I was up to 230# in high school.  That's 50 pounds that I gained in a few years and I was so unhappy.  Each time I tried to loose the weight, more came back.  My last big effort, I lost 70 pounds, but it all came back and more. Last April, I reached a new high, well, not including pregnancy.  I saw that picture on my side bar and got an eye full of my sorry self.

Here I was, a successful wife, mother, teacher, but could not do this one simple thing, control my weight.  So, I started this blog and vowed to go forward.  Here I am, almost at 30 pounds lost and still so far to go.

And that brings me to the book, Intuitive Eating.  I've known all along it is the answer. Dieting doesn't work.  The only part of the book that I don't agree with is that it is a bit out dated in its view of fats. 

 Here are the take away points:

• Reject the diet mentality (diets don't work, lifestyle eating does)
• Honor your hunger (eat when you are truly hungry)
• Make peace with food (legalize all food, this stops binges)
• Challenge negative self-talk about food
• Feel your fullness (check in while you are eating, helps you eat less) 
• Discover the satisfaction factor (enjoy your food)
• Cope with your emotions (don't stuff your face instead)
• Respect your body (Your body deserves to be cared for)
• Disassociate exercise with weight loss (move for health, not weight loss) 
• Honor your health with "gentle" nutrition

"When you know you can truly have the food again, it doesn't take much to satisfy you!"

I know that I have a long way to go on this journey and it will be a life-long one.  I also know that I am the one who has to do the work. I believe that I have the tools that I need.  It will just be a matter of time.

Thanks for reading all these book reviews.  I hope you were encouraged.  Again, these books are just ones I found myself drawn to at the library. 

Book Four, The End of Overeating

I'm really excited about this book.  First it is written by a doctor who struggles with his weight.  Love that.  Second, it really spoke to me!  For so many years I have been trying to make my food behave , not taking personal responsibility for my behaviors.  It did not even occur to me that I had a behavioral problem.

The End of Overeating, Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite,by Dr. David A. Kessler, is just what I needed to hear.  The first part of the book goes into quite a lot of detail about why we overeat.

What drives us?  Sugar, fat, and salt are powerful forces that reinforce our eating behaviors.  What is sad is that the food industry knows this fact and uses it to get our money! 

Part two of this book is devoted to the food industry, how serving sizes have more than doubled, how consumers are manipulated, and other interesting tidbits.

Part three talks about "conditioned hypereating"  and our need for more and more sugar, fat, and salty foods. The more we eat, the more our body craves.  We eat and are unaware of the amounts of food being consumed.  It takes more and more to be satisfied. (That was me, totally!) 

But there is hope! Parts 4, 5, and 6 speak to treatment.   "Learning to act in a new way requires either being drawn toward something you want or being pushed away from something that no longer seems desirable."  This quote is exactly where I am in my journey to health.  I am drawn to the desire to be healthy more than I am to chocolate, gooey cookies.  But how do I change my deeply ingrained conditioned hypereating?

"To alter our behavior, we need to change our emotional appraisal of salient food.  We begin that process by recognizing our capacity to assign food a value, either good or bad.  If we learn to view the pursuit of sugar, fat, and salt in a negative light, and to imbue with equal emotional significance behavior that encourages us to turn away from it, we can reverse a habit."

"It means to look at a stimulus in new ways.  Change the reward value of the stimulus."

"If we think it's an enemy, we'll turn from it with distaste!"

Now, I don't believe that food is my enemy, any longer, personally.  Tomorrow's book will go more into that issue.  I do believe, however, that there are better choices to be made when choosing between foods. 

"Managing our eating behavior depends on our ability to alter automatic responses to food cues and gain conscious control over them.  We do that most effectively by the engaging the higher functions of the brain regions to change our perceptions."

In other words, form strong,negative opinions about your trouble foods! 

"Learn to find reward in smaller amounts of foods I enjoy."

This is the best statement in the book...

"The loss of control that characterizes conditioned hypereating is magnified by diets that leave us feeling deprived.  We can't sustain a change in behavior if it leaves us hungry, unhappy, angry, or resentful!"  All of which I've been since working with my health coach.

Now again, I don't exactly agree that food is good or bad.  Some cause me more trouble than others.  Some I no longer care to eat because they are gross!  For example, once in my life, I loved Ding Dongs.  Today, I'd have a hard time eating one because it violates so many of my eating convictions.  It's processed.  It's full of corn syrup.  It's not real!!!  It might taste good, but it's not real food.  I'd be better off eating a chocolate cake with whipped cream that I made myself.  

Come to think of it, I have formed some pretty strong negative thoughts about junk food, which in turns help me to avoid eating it.  (This is good stuff!!! )

I do think this book is rather empowering.  It made me realize again that I do not have to be mindless in my eating.  It also alerted me to the addictive nature of foods that are sugary, fatty, salty.  Thankfully, I can't afford to go out to eat much anymore, so those foods are less tempting than they once were.  They did play a huge role in how I got to this size, though.

Hope you're enjoying these reviews as much as I have enjoyed reading these books.  Again, these are just the notes that I took when I borrowed them from the library.  Happy reading!  

Book Three, Food Rules

The next book that I read and wanted to share is Food Rules, An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan. 

This is the second time that I've read this compact little book. I decided to read it again after watching the movie Food, Inc. In Food Rules, Mr. Pollan answers three questions. 

• What should I eat?  (Food)
• What kind of food should I eat?  (Mostly plants)
• How should I eat?  (Not too much)  

Here are some of the points of interest for me from this book:

• Real food is food that your great-grandmother would recognize as food.  
• Avoid foods containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry.
• Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup.
• Avoid foods that have some form of sugar listed in the top 3 ingredients.  
• Avoid foods with more than 5 ingredients.
• Avoid foods that make health claims.
• Avoid "lite" "lowfat" "nonfat" products.
• Avoid imitation foods, like margarine or soy based mock meats.  
• Avoid foods you see on TV ads.
• Eat only foods that will eventually rot.  (Anyone else grossed out by this.)
• Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature.  
• Get out of the supermarket whenever you can.  
• Snack on fruits, nuts or vegetables instead of chips and sweets.
• (I love this one) If it cam from a plan, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't!
• Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.  
• "Better to pay the grocer than the doctor." 
• Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper.  
• "After lunch, sleep awhile; after dinner, walk a mile."  

He also has some points on eating less.

• Stop eating before you are full.  
• Eat only when hungry.
• Slow down.  It takes 20 minutes for your brain to register that you're full.  
• Put your fork down between bites. 
• Smaller plates and glasses
• Serve a proper portion, then don't allow seconds.  

That's all I have for this book.  Again, I am just sharing some notes I jotted down from a library book.  Happy reading to you!

Book Two, Real Food

The next great book that I just finished is Real Food, What to Eat and Why, by Nina Planck.

This is another encouraging, reinforcing my knowledge book.  Nina Planck goes into a lot of details about real food and why our bodies need it.  She tells , her own interesting story of growing up on a farm , becoming a vegetarian, and coming back to real foods.

She talks about why we should not be afraid to eat real, full fat dairy.  She discusses our need for meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, and fats.  She goes into great detail about fats.

Here are some of the take aways that I gleaned from this informative book, not all news, but certainly reinforcing to my habits:

• The higher up the food chain a food is, ie., meat, the more quality you should buy.  (I wish we could afford grass fed meat and dairy.) 
• We need generous amounts of fruits and vegetables each day. :-)
• Butter, lard, coconut and olive oil are healthy fats
• Eat unrefined sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, evaporated cane juice (in moderation, of course)
• Eat wild caught fish and seafood often
• Whole grains and legumes are important
• Cultured, fermented foods like yogurt should be eaten daily. 

She recommends the book, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig.  I hope to find this book at my library soon.  Has anyone read it?

Again, these are just my humble thoughts on a book I found at the library.  Perhaps you can find it at yours as well.

Been Doing Some Reading, Book One

I have been doing some reading lately.  Found some great books to help me fine tune and reinforce my plans.  In order to remember some of what I've read, I decided to write about these books here.  Perhaps you will find a bit of inspiration as well.

The first book that I recently read is, The French Don't Diet Plan by Dr. Will Clower.  This is the book that got me on the right track and out of my months of stalled weight loss!  Here are some highlights of the book:

• Eat real food.  Real food can be found in nature, not faux food like those labeled "low fat" or "sugar free" or filled with chemicals.
• Learn to eat slow.  Spend time enjoying your meal.  Take small bites.  Be a conscious eater.  Use a small plate. 
• Be active without exercise.  Activity is enjoyable.  Exercise is drudgery and you will not keep it up. 
• "This is truly a path.  It's a journey from you current levels of food volume and food quality to a new, more productive level.  You get there by changing what you ask of your body.  You stay there by changing what your body asks of you." 
• "Eat larger and large becomes normal for you body.  Eat small, and small becomes normal.  You decide what kind of eater you want to be, and then be that on purpose until your actions go from intentional to automatic.  You can train your body to expect less food over time. " 
• Food is not the enemy. Overconsumption is!  Americans confuse quantity with quality. (More volume equals value) 
• Eating more does not make you more satisfied.  It just makes you eat more.
• "The amount in front of you determines the amount you will eat.  Understanding that basic fat is how you begin to regain control over your food and weight.  It starts with a decision on your part to order small and serve small.  That way, you get to decide if you overeat or not.  Start small and you'll end small."  
• The goal is to be able to eat all you want, but just want less!  

I loved this book.   It was so encouraging to hear that I really can make a decision and be in control of my eating.  He also makes it clear that we don't have to eat "diet" food.  We just need to control the amount of real food we eat.

I tossed out all the low fat stuff long ago.  We've been eating butter and full fat dairy for a year and I've lost almost 30#.  I totally believe it is the amounts of foods that I was eating that was off.  Just changing to a smaller plate, adding dessert (yes dessert), eating slow, and paying attention to my hunger, has made a huge difference to me.

Next book, tomorrow! 

(These are just my humble opinions, I got the book from the library.)