Saturday, April 11, 2009

Food Log

Breakfast (9 AM, 4)
  • 2 eggs over light
  • 2 hash browns from 1 potato
  • 4 strips of bacon
  • 2 pieces of toast w/margarine & strawberry spread
  • coffee
Lunch (3:30 PM, 5)
  • peanut butter & jelly sandwich
  • 2 large glasses of lemon aid
Dinner (8 PM, 4)
  • 15-20 pcs of popcorn chicken
  • 6 pcs chicken nuggets
  • lemon aid
  • milk
  • nutty bar (H7)
Snack (late, late night)
  • 3 rum and cokes over a 4 hr period
  • coconut dream bar
  • chips & salsa

Friday, April 10, 2009

Food Log

Breakfast (10:20 AM, 5)
  • Reese's Mini Peanut Butter cups (H6)
  • coffee
Lunch (3:10 PM, 4)
  • large toasted chicken grinder, lettuce, pickles, mayo/mustard (H5 - good but not the original I could get 45 minutes to the north)
Dinner (10 PM, 4)
  • 2 Nathan's hot dogs w/onions, mustard & catchup
  • handful of corn chips
  • 2 Sam Adam's light beers
  • 2 scotch & sodas

Binging

From the last several food logs I can see (and perhaps feel) myself building up to an eating binge. My body's wanting something sweet. I've been dreaming about Resee's Peanut Butter Cups - the mini ones.

Interestingly enough, I'm at a point in the book I'm reading where there's a discussion on eating what your body tells you to eat vs. denying it. According to the book, the denial aspect is a root cause of binging. So along with understanding hunger is what to eat when you are hungry.

My "diet" has been to try and make healthy choices when hungry. The book's suggesting that when you are hungry, eat what your body wants. Failure to do so does two things in their opinion:
  • even though you're now full, you're body's still demanding what it wanted
  • you'll eat it eventually even if you are full
In some examples the book gave, people ate ice cream instead of salad for a meal, even going to the point of putting away a prepared meal in order to eat what the body desired.

The key in all of this from my vantage point is not simply to eat what you want whenever, but that by feeding the body what it's hungry for when it's hungry (and not just what's convenient) you don't develop diet killing binges. In effect, there are no forbidden foods in loosing weight.

The idea of forbidden foods is a key point in diets from my vantage point. Every diet I've ever tried says in effect: "these are OK, those are not". Naturally I always want what I can't have - high fat meals, sweets, high-carb bread, etc. and in the end that's my downfall - eating the forbidden fruit as it were.

One suggestion was to record what's eaten as either a hummer or a beckoner. A Hummer is an extremely satisfying food that you crave even when you don’t see the food. Nothing will satisfy you besides that food. A Beckoner is something eaten only because it is there and not because it satisfies. You'll eat lots of beckoner while in search of a hummer.

Last night I was grumpy when I came home. I didn't want to cook dinner, which is unusual since I like to cook. I ended up snacking though the meal prep and then after dinner and on into the evening. I think my mood and my food grazing was because what I really wanted was peanut butter w/cold milk and not pork chops w/potatoes and gravy. I did eat the peanut butter but late in the evening before I went to bed. Consequently this AM I feel sluggish, full, etc.

I'll have to do some serious thinking about hummers and beckoners and separating one from the other. Also, how do hummers and beckoners work with family meal planning?

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Food Log

Breakfast
  • NONE (busy meeting morning)
Lunch (1 PM, 4)
  • Left over sausage, onion and peppers
  • rice
Snack (4:50 PM, 4)
  • handful of chips w/salsa
Dinner (6:30 PM, 5)
  • Pork chop
  • roasted red potatoes
  • mixed veggies
  • water
  • individual ice cream
Late Night (11:30 PM, 6)
  • 1 small roll of ritz crakers w/peanut butter
  • 2 glasses of 1% milk

Old Habits

Hank Williams Jr has a song about "Old Habits" that says they are hard to break. Late night snacking is mine. I opted not to walk last night since I participated in National Start Walking Day yesterday at work and figured I walked enough. As previously posted my late night walking trend (I hate to call it a habit since I have to remind myself to do it) keeps me away from the danger zone of late night snacking.

True to form I didn't walk and therefor I ate. The compulsion to eat when I wasn't that hungry was strong. I wanted something sweet. I did try some fruit w/cottage cheese but that didn't hold it. Eventually I got to what I really wanted which was sugary cereal - honey smacks in this case.

Late night cereal eating is a habit I picked up from my father. Just about every night at 11 PM or so he'd have a bowl (or sometimes 2) of cold cereal with milk before heading off to bed. He'd cut down every once and a while but more often that not he had one. That habit caught on with me and I tend to use that food avenue when I'm hungry late at night.

Despite the late night binge, I did have a light eating day that proceeded it. While not trying to excuse the binging perhaps I was a we bit hungry since I didn't eat a lot during the day.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Food Log

Breakfast (9:45 AM, 4)
  • breakfast buritto
  • coffee
Lunch (2:40 PM, 5)
  • P & P loaf sandwich w/cheese & mustard/mayo
  • coconut dream bar
Dinner (6:30 PM, 5)
  • grilled teryaki chicken breast
  • rice
  • Caesar salad
  • water
Snack (11 PM, 6)
  • coffee
  • cottage cheese w/tropical fruit
  • handful of chips w/salsa
  • sugar smacks - 2 bowls

Small Changes

I've been going at this regimen about 2 weeks now and although I still can't see my weight on my home scale I do notice a few things:
  • those new pants I purchased feel a little looser on my waist/hip area
  • I have a better range of motion when bending over
  • my stomach area doesn't protrude as much
  • I find it a little easier to not snack in the evening
  • I've quit snacking between arriving home and eating dinner
I've tried to stick with eating breakfast. I can't say that I've notice a difference in my hunger level over the course of the day, but I'm certainly not ravenous at dinner. I've also tried to pay attention to a hunger level and am starting to get a feel for when I'm really hungry vs just using eating as an excuse for not having anything else to do.

My evening walks are serving a dual purpose, exercise and avoiding the danger zone - that period of the evening when I'm most likely to snack. At first the walks were only about 20 minutes, but I stretched them to 40 minutes and then just within the last couple of days, to 50 minutes. Unfortunately it's been a tad rainy so I can't get out as often as I did the first week. I can really tell the difference in the morning if I didn't walk the prior evening.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Food Log

Breakfast (9:40 AM, 4)
  • Bacon, egg & cheese on english muffin
  • coffee
Lunch (12:40 PM, 5)
  • BLT wrap on wheat
  • potato chips
  • pickle
  • Dr Pepper
Dinner (6:30 PM, 4)
  • Spaghetti with meat sauce ~ 2 helpings
  • cheesy garlic bread - 5 pieces
  • asparagus - 1 helping
Snack (10 PM, 6)
  • decaf coffee

Monday, April 6, 2009

Food Log

Breakfast (7:30 AM, 4)
  • toasted bagel w/cream cheese
Mid-Morning (9 AM, 5)
  • Coffee
Lunch (12:45 PM, 4)
  • grilled cheese on wheat bread
  • chicken noodle soup ~ 1/2 - 2/3rds cup
  • Dr Pepper
  • handful of potato chips
Dinner (6:30 PM, 4)
  • kielbasa sausage w/peppers & onions ~ 2 helpings
  • red rice
  • lemon aid

Weekend Reflections

Weekends pose the biggest risk for over-indulging as far as I'm concerned. From Friday through Sunday evening I'm extremely tempted to snack my way through those hours instead of eating foods that are better for me, in particular corn chips with salsa.

Part of that is alcohol consumption. I tend to binge drink on the weekend, especially Friday and Saturday evenings. The rest of the week I'm dry, but I let it hang out on those 2 evenings. Sometimes that's with friends at my favorite watering hole, other times it's at home with friends just relaxing. If I'm out I do not drive - that's firm. My mainstays are scotch & soda and rum & diet coke. Occasionally I may have a beer evening, but that's rare.

This past weekend was unusual in that Friday and Saturday evening meals were eaten out. Friday at a steak house with my wife and son and Saturday out with friends at a fundraiser. As I indicated earlier, my unconscious eating was after I returned home with the drinks helping me right along.

The weekend was also rainy which kept me from walking. I think I would have felt better about it had I been able to have my evening walk (or mid day since I was out Saturday evening). I did manage to get a 50 minute one in on Sunday and was predictably hungry this AM. I had to find a new walk route since road and sidewalk construction has started again on the main route I'm used to taking.

Food Log

Breakfast (9:30 AM, 4)
  • 2 over medium eggs
  • 4 strips bacon
  • 2 hash browns ~ 1 potato
  • 2 pieces of toast w/strawberry spread
  • coffee
Snack (2 PM, 6)
  • 2 oz tuna fish w/mayo & mustard
Dinner (6:30 PM, 4)
  • French bread pizza
  • Caesar salad - 2 helpings
  • lemon aid
Late Night Snack (9:15 PM, 6)
  • medium decaf coffee