Oh You Holidays! What Am I going To Do With You?

Here are my thoughts. It would be awesome if we could all SS right through the New Year. If able to do that, then by all means do it! Most of us seem to be kind of aiming for perfection during the most difficult time of year, but falling short. I believe that the one thing you do NOT want to do when trying to lose weight is allow any negative thoughts take over.

I had intended to SS right through the holidays and straight to my birthday on Feb 18th. I had completed about 12 or 13 days sole source, and then had Thanksgiving. Since then I have not felt motivated to get back to it and I have felt kind of bad about it, not to mention physically just blah. I realized that for now, my goal is good enough if it is just not to gain anything over the holidays. So what I'm going to do is get back in the habit of having Cambridge very day and  consider what I eat carefully and be sure it is worth it. It's not an all or nothing thing, or at least it doesn't have to be. I want to keep my attitude positive. I want to retain my Cambridge habit. I want to weigh every day for now to be sure I am not gaining ANYTHING and I also want to feel free to eat if I choose until Christmas. Then it will be a full on focused effort to my birthday. I realize that my birthday is just a day on the calendar and I've never been much of a believer of setting myself up with a deadline before, but turning 56 is kind of major to me and I do want to begin my 56th year in better shape then I am today.

Each of us has to develop our own strategy for getting through this annual food fest without doing too much damage, physically or mentally. I just want to be sure that no one sets them self up for any negative thoughts if they can't be perfect for the next few weeks. There is no one right answer, other then to be sure that you are keeping a positive outlook at this evolution we call weight loss.

A Thanksgiving Poem I wrote for my Support Board

It's the night before Thanksgiving
And all through the board
Not a dieter was posting
Not one single word

The blenders are quiet
The posters are too
I had good intentions
But what's a dieter to do?

The family is here
The whole country is cooking
I so badly want to sample
When no one is looking

My head starts to spin
My heart starts to pound
My commitment to diet
Is nowhere to be found.

I know what to do
I know what is best
I know I'm important
But temptation's a pest

When Thanksgiving is over
And Friday begins
I want to count pounds lost
Instead of my sins

So take THAT you stuffed turkey!
Away with you food
My health's more important
I choose  to do good!

Whatever your plan
Whatever you choose
Keep your best interest in mind
And you will not lose!

(except pounds of course!)

Happy Thanksgiving !

Persistence, Not Perfection. An Emotional Healing

While on Cambridge, we all hope for perfection. We strive to stick to our diet without any detours or derailments. Unfortunately, it's not realistic to think we can isolate ourselves throughout the entire process of losing our weight. Success with Cambridge is not about perfection. It's about persistence. "All or nothing" thinking gets many of us in to a never ending loop of starting and stopping our diets. It reinforces thoughts of failure which only makes us feel hopeless and we give up once again.

There's always going to be something that comes up that will involve food somehow. That's just life. For example, lets say you have friends or family come in to town unexpectedly and  the decision is made for everyone to go out to eat. You don't want to be "that" person that lessens everyone else's experience by staying home or just sitting there with a diet soda while the rest of the table eats uncomfortably around you. What do you do?  Do you just dive in and go for it, using this as the perfect excuse to eat yourself under the table? Or, do you practice some good eating choices? We only have a problem if we continue to use normal every day activities and events as an excuse to binge and indulge our food addictions. If you eat like a health minded person, then that is a success! It's progress of the best kind. You are reinforcing your new lifestyle choices and will be in the proper state of mind to resume your Cambridge without it triggering an emotionally charged binge.

Eating food is not the problem. The emotions we nurture when we eat food are! The bargaining and excuses and justifying...these are the problem. They stir the pot of compulsive behavior and pretty soon, it boils over.

When given the unavoidable opportunity to practice good eating choices, take it as part of your recovery and make a point of detaching emotions from the event. Use it to your benefit as a chance to prove to yourself that you can keep food in it's proper perspective. That's not easy in our food obsessed culture. What other time in our history has food played such a obsessive central roll in our every day lives? TV shows and entire networks are devoted to it. The once common job of cooking for a living has become celebrity status. Restaurants and even food trucks clamber for cult like followings. Even home cooks are now endlessly striving for show stopper meals they see displayed on Pinterest and other social media. It used to be we just had to try to compete with Martha Stewart. Now we're all supposed to BE Martha Stewart!

You want to be free. The goal should not only be about being a certain size, shape, or weight. It should not only be about looking better for an event or a deadline. We all want to be free from this thing that our lives currently revolve around...our eating disorders. We all need an emotional mental healing. Only then will our bodies be able to do the work to heal us physically. We can't observe this healing from viewing X-Rays or stitches or any other tangible evidence of recovery. We have to be tuned in to our thoughts at all times and be willing to abort those that do us harm. A peaceful co-existence between our mind and our body, one nurturing the other.

Diffusing Triggers

I tell my clients that none of us got fat because we were hungry. We overeat for emotional reasons and because of a lack of coping options. At some point, we decide that food is an acceptable method of dealing with our feelings. We self medicate with food. It is not unlike any other addict. We sacrifice our self respect, health, and happiness to be numb in the present.

Stress and anxiety are two if the common triggers for destructive eating. We can temporarily distract ourselves from the issues and even get a little boost from "feel good" hormones that sugar and other food chemicals can stimulate. Finding a way to handle stress and anxiety in a constructive way is challenging. When you are in the midst of it you are the least capable of making a good decision and more likely to turn to food for sedation. Stress and anxiety hormones need a release. Adrenaline can damage your health if it is not used so a better alternative to eating is physical activity. You will get the endorphins, those "feel good" hormones, released in to your system. It is the body's preferred way of managing stress. Find a way to move your body, sweat and get out of breath.

Depression and loneliness can be overwhelming and food can become your solace and comfort.  At least in the moment you are eating it. Once consumed, it becomes more fuel for your depression.  The hardest thing for someone to do while feeling down is to reach out for help and support. The immediate desire is the exact opposite. Retreating and trying to stuff the feelings down with junk food is normal for someone feeling hopeless. It's a self  perpetuating cycle. Depressed-eat-regret-gain weight-feel out of control-more depressed-eat...and on it goes.  Food will never make anything better. It isolates you even more. The best way to reject old behaviors is to make new ones. Write your feelings in a journal with ideas of positive ways to manage them productively.  Find some way to connect with others. Recovery groups like OA can  help and of course, I am just a phone call away.

Pay attention to your thoughts. Take note of how life events direct your actions and reactions. If you get disturbing news, is your first reaction to go to the fridge?  I have a magnet on my fridge that says, "The answer is not in here. It's inside of you". It's a good little reminder.  Start paying attention to your triggers and come up with alternative productive ways of diffusing them. It's not easy to change, but it's required for a lifelong success story.

Food is Fuel

Originally Posted by Pam Turner on 08/17/12:
Just like your car, if you kept putting gas in it but you never turn it on and go anywhere it will begin to spill out and get out of control. There is only so much a gas tank can hold. It would be great if we were self regulating and only able to consume exactly what our body will use like a gas tank, but unfortunately our fuel source is abundant and all around us.

People that contact me usually get freaked out at the low calorie content of Cambridge. I have to remind them that a calorie is not a nutrient like protein or carbohydrates. It is only a way to measure the amount of energy food produces in the body. As long as you have stored body fat you have calories. Imagine that chunk of fat in your body. If you could reach in and pluck it out and put it on the dinning room table, would that make an impression on you? It sure would for me!

Our bodies store fat and sugar for a reason. We were never made to live in the abundance that we do now. If we were designed for that then we would have a self regulating mechanism that would prevent us from consuming too much fuel. Not only that, but the foods we eat are mostly void of nutrition and have no other function then to be stored. We are calorie hoarders ! If you watch that show "Hoarders" then you get the picture of what I'm saying. The chaos you see in those houses is similar to what your body is dealing with. People stuff their houses with garbage and useless junk until the house is literally deteriorating around them. They are drowning in junk. You body is suffering the same stress load trying desperately to manage all the garbage and fat/junk that you keep forcing in every day. It's time to clean house!

If we begin to look at food as it was intended to be for us which is fuel then we begin the process of restoring balance and health. I used to feel imprisoned by my body and fat. I understand now that it was my own thoughts, beliefs, behaviors and actions that had me in prison...all stuff that I had the power to change in a heartbeat.

Death By Food

Originally Posted by Pam Turner on 06/10/12:

It's really true. Being obese means that you are dying from food. The food you eat either gives you life or shortens it. It is either fuel or poison. Many people live by the words, "Oh well, it won't kill me today" and think that they can get away with eating garbage one more day, week, month or year. It's probably true. You could go out today and eat a 2,500 calorie restaurant meal and probably live to tell the tale, but the damage from food is cumulative. It creeps up on you while you're having fun. Sometimes it taps you on the shoulder when you least expect it and drops you to your knees as it did my husband 3 years ago. He ended up with an emergency triple bypass. As a 55 year old man, lifetime smoker and a person that didn't think food was worth eating unless it had a pound of cheese melted on top, he learned the hard way that it does catch up with you.

Personally, I am PISSED at the food industry that only has making money.. and lots of it ..in mind. They have no consideration as to what the majority of the food they manufacture in this country is doing to our health and quality of life, not even for our children. We are a nation of addicts to chemicals and dead processed crap and excessive eating. The only attempts the manufacturers make at appearing concerned about the public are only to make themselves look good and fool people in to buying more. This "Whole Grain" nonsense is the greatest lie of all. Grain in any form is one of the main contributors to obesity. The fact is, most of the "whole grain" in these products is just plain old GMO corn, one of the worst things a human body can consume. We humans have no need for grain. We actually were not designed to eat or digest it. It spikes insulin and insulin is the fat storing hormone. One of the main maintenance tools I pass on to my clients is to eliminate 99% of the grain based foods in their diets. That change right there will do wonders to prevent fat regain. Sugar in all forms is next. In reality, we only need minuet amounts of sugar to be healthy. Unfortunately the average American eats over 150 pounds of sugar a year. Even natural forms of sugar like fructose found in fruits needs to be consumed in moderation. Most of the nutrients needed can be found in vegetables, healthy protein sources and good fats.

When I go grocery shopping now it is very different then it was 11 years ago. In the past it was like a trip to Disneyland. All that food in all those pretty packages! I wanted it all!! It was so easy to have that 5 second debate with myself and then just toss it in the cart. Sometimes it would never even make it home. I would park somewhere out of view and stuff myself in the car. I have no shame admitting this to you all here because I know most of you have done the same. As soon as it was over I would sit in stunned horror at what I'd done, but feel so powerless over stopping. I gave years of my life to gorging on toxic Frankenfoods that nearly killed me. Even worse, it stripped me of any quality of life at all.

Those years have faded away to a sad distant memory. I can hardly believe I was that person. What made me so sad and self destructive? I have no idea. My life had certainly not followed the path it would have had I been free to choose it, but I can't point the finger at anyone but me. Because I caused it, I was able to fix it. Each of you here are in complete control of your life because ultimately you are free to choose how you will react to it. You may not be able to live the lifestyle that some do and wonder why you are so deprived or dissatisfied or lonely, but you can choose how you will receive what comes your way and use it to your best advantage. When you look at food... evaluate it in your mind. Is this fuel or is it poison? It's an easy decision to make if you do it without anxiety or emotion. My kids have heard me say this a million times, "Death on a plate".

My Morning Breakfast Cambridge Brownie

Originally Posted by Pam Turner on 01/24/12:

Thought you might want to see what I made this morning for breakfast. I am on day 2 and wanted something solid and yummy so I decided to make a Cambridge Brownie. With the addition of 2 egg whites, 1/2 tsp vanilla, pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 2 T coconut oil, 1 or 2 T (depending on how dark you like it) cocoa powder, water and Xylitol sweetener to taste I made a delicious dark chocolate brownie! I used 2 scoops of Original 330 Dutch Chocolate and baked it in the microwave for about 4 minutes on power level 6. This will be 2 generous servings. Don't bake it too long. It should still look a little damp on top. You can of course bake it in a regular oven if you're not in a hurry. I usually make cake this way but this time I added less water for a thicker batter and it came out very dense like a brownie. I'm now eating it with my coffee and feeling very decadent. The additional calories are around 50. I don't count the coconut oil as this doesn't store in the body as fat, but gets used up as energy and increases the metabolism.