Oh, self-discovery, you are not fun and you frankly make me want to punch something in the neck (myself).
That 3 lbs from last week is really weighing on my mind (pun not intended), but at the same time I'm self-sabotaging myself with my old nemesis - my food. On one hand I WANT to eat healthier - do all that happy horse shit that people say to do - eat less, eat more often - healthier snacks, of course - eat naturally, eat smarter, better, do this do that omgdiewitha"t". But dammit, I want cheeseburgers. I want ice cream sundaes, I want cupcakes (you guys have NO idea), I want pancakes, donuts, chocolate!
What am I doing to myself here? I have no idea. The more I try to stop eating bad things, the more I WANT those bad things. A couple of my friends have said, "Hey, don't worry so much about it - if you crave something, there's a REASON, so feed your craving, just don't go crazy!" Uh, no. Cupcakes are gateway drugs for me. Sundaes are a food-addicts dream.
*intones* Hi, my name is Trisha, and I am a food-addict.
But I really don't think that I am! At least, not in the traditional sense. I don't eat all the time. Nor do I want to. I don't think about food all the time, either (well - okay, it is a thought process throughout the day trying to get my husband and my roommate to figure out what the hell to make for dinner).
And that's another thing - I feel like I'm in a pool full of pudding with this healthy eating thing - I'm trying to introduce healthier meals and snacks into the house, but their answer is "Let's get chicken nuggets and tater-tots!!" So a smart-asses answer would be, "Well, eat what YOU want, buy what YOU need, make your OWN meals - don't worry about them!" Have you smart-asses EVER lived in a house with other people? Do you love your families?
Let me explain this thought process to you - my family always ate as a family. Together. Until we got older, at a table. No TV. Sure, we didn't always like the food (Mom, you made fish a four-letter word - but I still love you!), but there was no begging for other food, either. You got what you got and you ate it - you didn't get anything else! You also got 3 foods on your plate - a meat, a veg, and a side. This taught me to a) eat what was given me and LIKE it, b) meal times are important and c) balanced meals are important.
Now, this is a meal at my house right now - two or less foods on the plate, we eat in front of the TV and it's usually inhaled in less than 15 minutes.
While I'd like to change this dynamic, let's return to the pool of pudding analogy, hmm k?
And those of you that say buy my own meals? Are you KIDDING ME?? Yeah, we don't have that much of an income, okay (well, we DO, but that's just obnoxious, imo).
So here I am, fighting myself and the people that I live with - maybe it's time to start a real food fight?
Stuff I Like -
Crystal Light Fruit Punch
Ice Water w/Lemon
100 Calorie Snack Packs (hello, chocolate!)
Frozen Fruit (strawberries n' peaches)
Sugary snacks tend to make you want more sugar. If you cut your sugar intake down you'll start feeling like you want less sugar all the time. Stuff with artificial sweetener actually makes this harder. If you carefully read the labels, the artificial stuff actually contains sugar in the form of dextrose. Sweeteners are pretty much bad all around.
ReplyDeleteI feel for you and that chicken nugget thing. If you're trying to remove High Fructose Corn Syrup and Industrialized Fats from you diet, guess what, you can't go to BK or McDs. HFCS is in everything and it creates belly fat. Almost all white breads contain it. and almost all fast food restaurants serve their burgers with delicious white bread. Start reading labels and look for HFCS and things like hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated and interestified (usually tortilla shells).
1 - Don't be afraid to use the guilt trip. Your house members know what you want to do, and know how important it is to you. When they balk at eating healthier meals in favor of something that's faster but nowhere near what you need to be eating? Pull out the guilt card! "Don't you WANT me to love myself like you love me?" "Don't you WANT to one day hold your honorary niece or nephew? THEN HELP ME!"
ReplyDelete2 - Look for a book called The Cheater's Diet. I'm planning on getting it when I can. It actually requires you to eat the foods you want - at the same time as eating healthier things, and using portion control.
3 - Something to add your list, to try out...I just got this cereal called Great Grains...it's all oats and fiber and stuff, naturally sweetened, with raisins, dates, and pecans. If those don't do it for you, they have other kinds, but finding the healthy foods that you do actually like will do wonders!
I love you!