Posts Tagged ‘health’

I’m sure you all remember my love and affection for Diet Coke.  Okay, addiction.  It’s the one thing that was on my 1st Personal Diet plan that I was allowed to have that made me feel like I was cheating.  It was my guilty pleasure that I got to indulge in every day.  Especially in the beginning, it was such a big deal because I wasn’t allowing myself to have Diet Coke for all the reasons that you’ve heard.  I know it’s bad for me, blah, blah, blah.  So, being able to include something that felt like a cheat was actually really helpful.

From a coaching perspective, I have recently explored this as being able to hold polarities or inconsistencies and include both sides of an idea.  It’s way better than denial of the “less popular” perspective.  Instead of denying that there is a part of me that wants to, loves to and longs to cheat on my diet, it is very helpful to include the idea - to find the gift in it and how it serves me.  It helps to explore what values are being honored and what values I have that need to be included in the journey that I am on.  Instead of trying to shift my values so that I honor my health and fitness over choice and freedom, I can find ways to honor choice and freedom at the same time as health and fitness.  Pretty cool!  And pretty effective!

And, today I am also embracing my sexy, happy, healthy body and looking for what she wants and needs.  And it makes me think about the fact that people who maintain their ideal weight, don’t drink Diet Coke (or eat diet food or go on diets or a lot of the other crazy things that I have been doing in order to attempt to reach my ideal weight).  So, today, I gave up Diet Coke again because skinny girls don’t drink Diet Coke, especially the skinny girl that I want to be.  I will indulge in other ways - like skinny girls do.  WWSG do?  What would skinny girls do?  I know - it’s  a little irreverent, especially on a Sunday.  And, I’m cool with being irreverant because it’s better than finding one more way to “sell my soul to the devil” in order to reach my ideal weight.

For the last two months, I have been dieting.  More specifically, I have been cheating on my diet.  I am realizing that a shift happened.  When I first started following my current plan, I didn’t think of it as a diet.  I decided to change the way I eat, permanently.  I decided that my health and my weight were more important to me than eating what I want, when I want.  I decided that I was perfectly okay giving up certain foods - for life.  I acknowledged that bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, fast food, processed foods and junk food are not good for me and make me feel horrible.  I decided to change my lifestyle.  I found a lifestyle plan for people who want to lose a lot of weight quickly and easily and I followed it.  And I felt great.  It was easy - really easy.

A couple of months ago, it started getting hard.  It only started getting hard when I started cheating.  It’s really a mindset game.  You don’t cheat on a lifestyle, right?  You cheat on a diet.  I stopped thinking of my plan as a lifestyle and started seeing it as a really restrictive diet.  I had all kinds of people colluding with me, too.  A lot of my friends have tried the diet, based on my previous great results.  And a lot of my friends and family have had the pleasure of dining with me on my diet, too.  The general consensus is “I don’t know how you do that.  I would starve.”  Well, I think that’s the idea.  I wasn’t really “starving” and I was never hungry.  Hungry is not my problem.  I never eat because I’m hungry.  I eat because it’s time, because I’m bored, because I want some entertainment, because I’m stressed out, because I’m lonely, because … fill in the blank.  So, anyway, somewhere along the line, my very effective lifestyle became a diet and my new lifestyle is all about cheating on my diet, beating myself up about it and resolving to get back on.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  The cheats start lasting longer and my resolve starts being shorter.

So, here I am.  I am aware of where I’m at - the first step.  I have been avoiding this awareness, which is why I’ve been avoiding my blog.  I realize that it’s not helping me.  And, I actually humbly admit that I don’t know where to go from here.  I am still committed to my goal.  The only thing more painful than being fat and not losing weight, is being fat and gaining weight.  I refuse to lose any more ground.  I am committed to exploring my vision and looking at the solutions that are present in my life right now.  I know that it’s simple, just do it.  And, simple isn’t necessarily easy.

There are some days, and this week has been more full of these kinds of days, where I am too tired to plan or make dinner for my family. Traditionally, we have picked up fast food. We have pretty much given up McDonald’s and that type of establishment for the most part, but we still pick up Subway, El Pollo Loco, Panda Express, In n Out Burger and things like that. When I’m not eating it, I let the kids have McDonald’s. Ya, ya! I saw “Super Size Me”! I also read “Fast Food Nation” and I’m looking forward to seeing “Food, Inc.” I totally get it that these are not healthy things to feed my family. And, they still want them. And there are days that I still want them, too. They are addicting. I don’t really think of most fast food as actual food - it seems like such a far cry from what food is really about. Food should be nutritious, filling and wholesome and that is not what is generally available at any of these establishments, including the ones on my “approved” list.

One of the things I am realizing is how inconvenient fast food really is. I think that I am saving time, energy and effort by picking something up for dinner and, upon a closer inspection, that really isn’t the case. First off, I generally ask my family what they want. I normally do this because I have no intention of eating what they select, so I figure they should choose what they have. Well, I have four kids and to get them all to agree or even form a majority is often a miracle. And, the majority often leaves out the same kid all the time, so I have to account for that. So, instead of simply deciding what’s for dinner, I find myself moderating a debate or diffusing an argument. That takes a lot more energy and attention than making some chicken breasts. Any way, once I do get some sort of a consensus, I have to actually take orders, put on my shoes and get in my car and drive somewhere. I wait in line, remember everyone’s order (if I am fortunate enough to actually get out of the house without the children), pay and bring the food home. I generally have to tolerate an additional debate about whether or not the kids can have sodas or shakes or whatever other horrible thing it is that they want. The whole thing is exhausting. Then the kids eat that junk and they are hungry an hour later - because there is hardly any nutritional value to most of their fast food meals.

So, the conclusion I have come to is that it is actually easier and more harmonious and definitely healthier to just make something for dinner. Even if I have to run to the grocery store, I can likely have dinner on the table within 30 or 45 minutes. To be perfectly honest, that is about the same amount of time it takes to do the fast food thing. Granted, I don’t have to deal with dishes after a fast food meal - we just throw everything away (a whole other topic). I am thinking it would be healthier and easier (although, not greener) if I just served dinner on paper plates on the days that I need a break and can’t deal with a big production. Seriously, I could just feed the kids peanut butter sandwiches and apple slices for dinner. I could turn that out in about 8 minutes and have it cleaned up in another 2. THAT is convenient and that would make everyone happy.

There’s an article in the paper today discussing the research that is being done that links calorie restriction and longevity.  I guess they used worms first, then mice and now monkeys.  They conclude that calorie restriction does indeed increase life span and long term health and decreases “age-related” illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.  I’d argue that this research may actually indicate that these “age related” illnesses may actually be food related.  But, I guess they aren’t doing that study.  Anyhow, I read the whole article because food, calorie and health related research is fascinating to me.  You do have to read the whole article to get the bottom line.  The bottom line is that calorie restriction does increase longevity.  What I think is more interesting, though, are the fine points.  For calorie restriction to be beneficial, the research recommends that you determine how many calories you need to eat to maintain your weight and then eat 10-30 % less than that.  That doesn’t sound so hard.  Instead of eating 2000 calories, you eat 1400 - 1800 calories.  They don’t discuss the quality of the food or the quality of the diet, which I imagine would be a significant factor.  They go on to say that the test subjects actually seemed more irritable and less content while on calorie restriction - the mice didn’t like to be handled and bit people.  No duh!  I get cranky when I don’t get enough to eat, too.  Okay, here’s the kicker.  They extrapolate all their research (monkey math - my favorite) to calculate the implications for humans.  They estimate that following a colorie restricted diet (essentially being on a diet) for your whole life will yield you a whopping TWO extra years.  Is is worth it?  Not for most of us.  What might be worth it is the quality of those last years.  I’d rather die peacefully in my sleep than to fight cancer, heart disease or diabetes for ten or twenty years.  I’d also rather live in a body that I am happy in than a body that I am ashamed of.  I want to be able to chase my grandkids around Disneyland and the beach.  So, my bottom line…  longevity isn’t my goal, quality of life is.  I’m on this journey to improve the quality of my life NOW and to improve the quality of my life as I move into my best years.