I came across this article on Yahoo News about eating styles and how these styles can sabotage your weight loss. For me, I know I fit perfectly into the "Weekender" category. I'm much, much better about this now- especially during Tri Training because I'm working out all weekend long for hours at a time, and somehow, when you've put that much sweat equity into your weekend, you find yourself looking at that fattening food and thinking "hmm it's not really worth it to me for the few minutes of satisfaction" I used to do weight watchers a few years back, and my friend and I who did it together, would weigh in early on Saturday mornings and then we would head out for breakfast together. And you would not believe how many women from our Weight Watchers meetings we would see at the breakfast place across the street. Apparently a lot of Weight Watcher women were on the 5 day plan.
Type # 1: The Weekender You live "by the book" all week, only to throw it out the window on Friday night. Or maybe you travel a lot for work or pleasure, and as soon as your surroundings change, so do your eating and daily calorie-counting habits.
Fix It:
Go (mildly) wild on Wednesday. It's hard to resist going nuts on Saturday and ordering the mac ’n’ cheese when you've been buttoned up for 5 days straight, so consider working one splurge night into your week. If you inject a little food-related fun into the weekdays, you'll be less likely to "reward" yourself with major damage on the weekends.
The mid - week "treat" is actually a fairly good idea- if you know that you will then have enough will power not to fall into your regular habits over the weekend and end up having treats on Wednesdays AND all Weekend.
The 2nd Type of Diet Sabotage - I also used to be very familiar with
Type # 2: The Calorie Drinker One of the biggest diet mistakes is thinking that if it's something you sip, the calories won't stick. Unfortunately, liquid calories are stealth fatteners—they go down quickly, making it easy to drink more and rack up the calories—fast. Fix It:
Make smarter switches. Whether your weakness is sweet coffee drinks or soda, there's a way to alter your particular poison so it doesn't sabotage your progress. Skip the sweetener (and whipped cream) in coffee and drink seltzer instead of sugar-packed soda. You’ll save hundreds of calories and barely notice the change.
My husband and I, back in our ridiculously unhealthy days would each be able to polish off a 2 liter of pop in a day. Mix that in with a morning Starbucks as well as drinking pop at work all day as well- and calorie consumption from drinks surpass ridiculous. I've cut out pop all but completely from my diet. And honestly I don't even miss it. Every once in a while, in a social situation I'll have a pop, mainly because I'm not a big alcohol drinker (don't get me wrong I'll let my hair down with the a-aaa-al-ca-hol) but I have to be in the mood to drink. I'm not a "lets have a glass a wine with dinner, or a beer on Friday nights kind of gal) but now most of my drinking consists of Water- water, more water, crystal lite, and LaCroix seltzer.
And that is the "fix" that they discuss. I personally love LaCroix water. It's slightly flavored, its still bubbly, and gives you the feeling of having pop without all the calories (plus drinking pop is really, really bad for you- especially for your poor pancreas)
Thankfully, I avoid number 3 fairly well. I recently read an article in I believe it was prevention about "Are Your Co-Workers Making You Fat" and seriously, if you work with a group of bad-food-choice making enablers, they probably ARE making you fat. You can find out very quickly if your working environment is partially to blame. Bring your lunch for one whole week - and stick to what you brought no matter what. How many of those days were your co-workers eating food from restaurants? And had you not eaten what you brought every day- how many of those days would you have been eating out with them? That's only lunch- never mind the treats that get brought in for birthdays, or free samples from vendors, and all the other reasons food never -endingly surrounds you at work.
Type # 3: The Low-Hanging "Fruit" Grabber These days we're confronted with calories everywhere we go, from bagels in the conference room to king-size chocolate bars in the checkout aisle. In an environment with such an abundance of cheap, easy calories, temptation lurks around every corner and chips away at your willpower. Fix It:
Track every single bite. It's always important to track your meals, but in this case, it's extra important that you take note of everything that slips between your lips. Until now, you probably haven't been "counting" all those free samples at the supermarket, but they can easily cost you 100 calories or more. Seeing how all those extra bites add up is motivation enough to make you say no to the free muffin sample.
I never thought I was a stress eater until I really started to focus on what I was eating and when (it really helps to keep a food journal of some type so you can see what you eat and when and what emotions were behind what you ate)
For me, when papers are due, or when I have a lot of homework I need to get done, tends to be the most typical time for mindless stress eating. I've combatted these urges by keeping gum by my computer at home. So, as I'm writing/researching/typing I can pop away on my gum and it keeps my jaw busy curbing that need for constant movement. On the really stressful days I'll resort to popcorn, pistachios or pretzels. All are hard and take time to chew and with the pistachios, getting them open takes so much effort it also helps curb the stresses.
Type # 4: The Stress Eater Do you find yourself looking for solace in a red velvet cupcake after a long, stressful day? Do you empty a bag of tortilla chips whenever your mother-in-law is in town? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then stress eating is a part of your life--and probably a major hindrance to your weight loss.
Fix It: Name that theme. Are there any common themes among your stress-related binges? Do they generally occur at work? Do they happen mostly in the evenings, when you’re dealing with family, bills, or housework? If you know that a certain situation or person tends to push you over the edge, prepare yourself for the stress that will inevitably come. Just being aware that a binge-inducing situation is on the horizon can help you brace for it and lower the chances that you'll give in.
Now- emotional stress eating is an entirely different monster, and I have no tips for avoiding that one, because that monster still lurks in my closet and under my bed and rears his ugly head every once in a while. - Coloring does help a bit though :) As Ive said before.
Thankfully- out of the five- this last one is not me at all (yay finally something I can't identify with lol)
Type # 5: The Judger Do you wonder why you're not losing weight when you seem to be doing everything right? You may be falling for healthy buzzwords on a package of high-calorie processed food. Even actual "healthy" foods--some of which offer many benefits--can be calorie bombs.
Fix It: Don't buy into marketing gimmicks. Read every food nutrition label and decide for yourself whether or not something makes sense for your calorie budget. Also, stop personalizing your food choices. Try not to categorize them as "good" or "bad"--and definitely don't apply that black-and-white thinking to your character. Eating an apple does not make you a "good" person any more than eating a cookie makes you a "bad" person! If you're an ecoconscious eater, "good" and "bad" have other connotations for you. While your efforts to green our planet are applause-worthy, don't forget that words like organic, sustainable, and grass-fed do not necessarily mean "low in calories." Being good to the Earth doesn't automatically mean you're making good choices for your waistline.
Finally, beware of healthy calories. If eating larger portions of lower-calorie foods is your thing, that's fine, but some foods can throw you off your budget when you indulge with too much abandon. For example, almonds are often touted for their nutritional power--and they do pack lots of protein and a nice dose of vitamin E and monounsaturated fats. But if you eat just 1/2 cup of almonds (easy to do in one sitting), you're taking in 400 calories.
I am a huge proponent of perimeter shopping. Packaged processed foods are NOT GOOD for you. AT ALL. Even before I picked up Jillian Michael's Master Your Metabolism and found out all the physiological damage processed foods do to your body, I avoided a lot of that crap. If they have to take things out of your food and fill it back up with a bunch of junk that you can't pronounce to make it calorie -free enough for you to eat it- you should n't be eating it in the first place. Jillian says (and I concur) if it didn't come from the ground or have a mother DON"T EAT IT. And it is SO TRUE! Stick with all natural things! If you want cookies, make your own! (just don't eat the whole batch in one sitting....not like I'm speaking from experience or anything....) If you want to have french fries, buy a potato and fry it at home. Or better yet- buy a potato and bake it.
If you want to read the entire article without my .02 interjected into every paragraph, you can find it here
I'm going to work on loving myself right now!
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