Body vs. Mind

I've noticed something happening within myself. My mind and my body are on two different pages. And yes, this will shock all of you, but it surfaces when chocolate is involved.

I have cut down considerably on the amount of sweets in general that I eat. I really don't have much processed sugar at all any more. And "they", whoever "they" are (I'm assuming its experts in the field), say that once you cut down on your sugar intake, your body will not crave sugar as much. So the more you eat sugar, the more your body wants it, and the less you eat sugar, the less your body wants it. I have found this to be true most of the time except when it comes to a decadent chocolate dessert - my mind still wants it regardless of how my body feels. And so the battle begins, who will win? The body or the mind?

The other night I went out with some friends. They had a drink and a bite to eat. Since I had already eaten dinner, I chose to treat myself to a special chocolate dessert. There were a few good choices, including a big chocolate cake, but I finally settled on the chocolate mousse - thinking it was a better choice as far as portion size. I started eating the chocolate mousse, which was delicious, but then about half way through, my body started "talking" to me. It was saying "enough sugar", you know that feeling you get when you've had too much sugar, that's how I started to feel. But there were my eyes looking at about half of the chocolate mousse still in the dish and my brain said, "you can't waste that chocolate mousse, it's too precious, how often do you get to eat chocolate mousse?" Guess who won????

It wasn't my body (who was clearly speaking to me), it was my mind. Now what I probably should have done was excuse myself to the ladies room and called Rachel - my personal trainer/nutrition coach - and asked for a little help. She probably would have told me to ask for a little dish to take the rest home. I probably would have said there's not enough left to take home, I should just eat it. Rachel would have said it doesn't matter, take it home anyway and then you are not denying yourself of it or "wasting" it, you can have it later. And this advice probably would have worked, because it usually does work out when I call her. But none of that happened. I never called/texted her because my struggle wasn't with over-indulging on my calories (I was within my calorie count for the day), it was a struggle between what my body wanted and what my mind wanted. This was something new.

The point I am trying to make is having support and calling on that support when you need it is really key when trying to lose weight. Looking back, I should have made a quick phone call to Rachel, but since this was such a "new" struggle I was going through, it really didn't occur to me (or perhaps my mind didn't want to hear what she was going to say). So find someone you can call when you are trying to lose weight and get into a fitness routine. Find someone who will push you in the right direction even if that's not what you want to hear at the moment. It can be a friend, a personal trainer, a workout buddy, anyone who you think will keep you on the right track and tell you what you need to hear, which is not necessarily what you want to hear.

Yes, I ate the rest of that mousse even though I was "sugared out". I know, you're probably thinking this is not a good weight loss story because "the bad guys" won, and it's true they did. But I share this story for two reasons.

One, is because weight loss is full of triumphs and tribulations, steps forward and steps backward, struggles between body and mind, a constant "discovery" process. It is a learning game in so many different ways. So chalk up those setbacks to a learning experience and maybe next time the outcome will be different. I know next time I'm having a battle between the body and the mind, I will call Rachel because I have discovered something new about myself.

The other reason I share this with you is to show you the power of the mind. My mind overruled my body - the physical symptoms I was feeling - that's pretty amazing. If we can channel our mind in the right direction, we are capable of amazing things.

Interesting Thing...

As you all know, I have changed how and what I eat quite a bit. And you might be wondering how this all works with preparing meals for the family because the last thing you want to do is prepare two meals for the family. So I am going to tell you what I have done. As far as dinner goes, what I usually do is prepare a normal meal - meat, vegetable, and some sort of starch. Initially, when I was trying to get down to my goal weight, I would just skip the starch part of the meal for myself, but I now have added it back in at a smaller portion. I eat lots of vegetables and salad, and I am also a little more picky about the kind of meat I choose. We eat a lot of chicken, fish and pork - I try to stay away from the fatty meats. On rare occasions, I will make myself something different than the rest of the family, but for the most part, we all have the same thing, I just change my portions of each food group. I know, this isn't very interesting - I haven't gotten to the interesting part yet...

We still do Subway when things are a little tight time-wise in the evening. We still do pizza usually once on the weekend. However, the kids get what they want for pizza and I get my own pizza. I usually have veggies, no sauce, no mozzarella, sometimes ricotta and then Parmesan cheese. You might think it's a little weird with no sauce or mozzarella but it's actually really good. It's not greasy or soggy which I love. There's nothing worse than opening up that pizza box and seeing all the grease on the bottom of the box or worse yet, soggy dough from all the watery sauce. I have ordered this pizza when out with a group of friends and at first they look at you like you are a little crazy, but when they try it, they like it!

Now here's an interesting thing that has happen with breakfast - yes, I'm finally getting to the interesting part. I was buying my kids the "sugar cereals", Lucky Charms (a favorite), Cinnamon Toast Crunch - you get the idea. One day, Rachel and I were talking about this and she basically said all those cereals were junk (I may as well give them a bowl of sugar for breakfast) and the kids should be eating better cereal. She brought me in a sample of Kashi Go Lean Crunch for both kids to try. I gave it to them and they tried it and said, "it's not horrible" - well that was good enough for me. I decided from that point on, I would no longer buy "sugar cereals". I loaded up on various healthy cereals (with Rachel's help) and placed them into the cereal cupboard. Now we probably had 5 or so "sugar cereals" that were more than half way full. I told the kids they could finish up what was there, but then that was it, no more sugar cereals. I also explained to them why they needed to eat something healthy in the morning and how they would feel better throughout the morning because they were eating better. I received the normal moans and groans about how the cereal tasted like cardboard and "why do we have to eat it, I don't feel any different".

But here's the interesting part (I know, you've been waiting a long time to get to the interesting part), the "sugar cereals" that were about half full a month ago in the cupboard, are still half full. The kids, on their own, have chosen to eat the healthy cereals instead of the sugar cereals. They still occasionally complain about it, but I think maybe they just like to complain about it. They are choosing their own cereal and they can choose the "sugar cereals" if they want - they are right there in front of them in the cupboard - but they don't. I think it's time to throw the "sugar cereals" out, they're not eating them!

Trip to Dunkin Donuts

Today I had to make a trip to Dunkin Donuts. I try not to go in there at all because I find it really hard to resist all the temptations. But today I had to go in to get an egg sandwich for my daughter. I won't bore you with all the details but the bottom line was she needed some breakfast food, neither one of us was at home and I had to get her something quickly.

I decided Dunkin Donuts was the place - and I was "going in", but was also smart enough to know that I needed to let someone know I was "going in". So I text Rachel and told her my plan. Needless to say, she was rather concerned with the plan. We got right on the phone about it and she tried to talk me out of it. However, I was already in my car and on my way there while still talking to Rachel on the phone. She told me she didn't think this was a good idea but if I was "going in", she was "going in" with me (on my bluetooth of course).

So there I was walking into Dunkin Donuts with Rachel in my ear. I have to say, it was a little weird walking in there and placing my order with Rachel piped into my head (and at one point, I thought about putting her in my pocket...) but it certainly did keep me from ordering anything but the egg sandwich...for fear that the little voice in my head (literally) would start speaking to me. I do have to say, we had a good laugh over it. She stayed with me until I was well out of range to go back.

It's nice to have someone to help you through those little challenges in life. I don't know if I would have ordered myself a donut or not, I think there was a good chance I would have, and I'm sure I would have enjoyed every morsel of it, but I also know once I finished eating it, I would have regretted it and then would have had to adjust my whole days' food because of it, or not - which would have been worse. But you know what the coolest thing is? I am at the point where I don't say, "it's just one donut, no big deal", I know now that my whole eating plan for the day would have had to be readjusted had I eaten that donut. I hold myself accountable now. Really, how many times in a week can you say, "it's no big deal, it's just one ...", it adds up really fast.

Time for the "Sugar Talk"

There are a few things in life that just aren't fun to talk about. I've been cruising along the weight loss road, eating my chocolate, everything is going great. As I approach my target weight, something interesting starts to happen, the weight isn't quite coming off as easily as it was. Rachel and I try to "tweak" a few things, give it a little more time but unfortunately, not making a whole lot a progress. And then it happens...the words no dessert lover wants to hear "it's time for the Sugar Talk."

Now I know that chocolate has sugar in it - I've worked it into "my plan". But here's something I hadn't thought about before, other foods with sugar in them. The other day Rachel was asking me about how much sugar I had had so far that day. I proceeded to tell her that I hadn't had much at all, just a couple of chocolate covered almonds. Within the conversation, I mentioned that I had made banana bread the night before and had a slice of that. Rachel pointed out to me that banana bread has sugar in it, so it counted as a "sugar thing". I never really thought about that before. In my mind chocolate/candy = sugar. It never really occurred to me that other foods were considered sugar foods. That was a rude awakening. So apparently I have more sugar in my diet than originally thought.

Now you might say, what's wrong with sugar? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that sugar needs to be completely cut out, but through my weight loss battle and nutritional counseling, I have learned a few things about sugar intake. Sucrose, which is table sugar, is processed differently than fruit and vegetable sugars which go to the liver first. But sugar goes directly into the blood stream, causing insulin to be released in large amounts to "clear" the blood of the sugar. But this then causes "low blood sugar" within a half hour, making you feel tired and cranky....so....you then crave more sugar...and viscous cycle begins....

Basicly, the less processed food you eat, and the more slow burning carbohydrates you can replace sugar with, the more fat you will loose and the better you will feel, because your blood sugar will stay stable.

I am working up to a day (or maybe even two) with no sugar. It's a little scary but I think would be interesting to try. I just want to see what it feels like. I'll keep you posted when it actually happens.

Tough Cardio Day

Today was a tough day for cardio. I just didn't want to do it. I went down to the gym at lunchtime for my legs workout with Rachel. I was doing the leg press machine and Rachel said "we" (love the way she says "we" because I'm only seeing one person on that leg press...), but anyway, "we" are going to do 12 - 15 reps. I get to 15 and she says "5 more". I hate when that happens...but you know what, I did them. I wouldn't have if I had been by myself. I did complain and pointed out that she had said 12 to 15 - it didn't work. Rachel said she knew I could do more and told me she wouldn't be doing her job if she didn't push me. I guess that's true.

Normally I would do my cardio right after my workout but I didn't have time today so I decided I would go back down after work. Well after work came and guess what I didn't want to do? My legs were tired from my lunchtime workout and I was tired from work. So the decision needed to be made, should I go or not? And then I thought about the chocolate...yes, it always comes back to the chocolate. If I didn't go down to do my cardio that would mean less (probably no) chocolate after dinner - didn't like that idea so much. I went down and told myself I would do just 20 minutes since I had already trained 30 minutes on legs earlier. Well 20 minutes came and I decided I could do another 5 minutes. That is a strategy that Rachel taught me when you really don't feel like doing your cardio exercise. It works pretty well.

I am a happy camper now because it is after dinner and I am having my "treat" all because I forced myself to do my cardio today!

The Weight Loss Story

Many of friends have been asking me how I lost weight and transformed my body over the past 7 month. I thought creating a blog would be a good way to share it with all of you who are interested. I started working out with Rachel Ryan, a personal trainer/nutritionist and owner of rachelryansfitness, in Chester, CT, who is just wonderful! Since January, I have lost about 20 pounds, gaining instead, lean muscle mass. I have also increased my strength, flexibility, and cardio capacity. I had muscles hurting I didn't even know I had!

This is not a fun process, in fact you could say it's just alot of work. But I can tell you this, now that I've lost the weight, it is very rewarding. Rachel has also been my weight loss "coach", putting together a nutritional/eating plan based on my fitness needs and food preferences. I have been keeping a food diary on a website called "The Daily Plate". Rachel can then monitor my program online and make suggestions and "tweaks" to my intake. Yes, it means having to add up every morsel of food you put into your mouth. It's amazing when you start writing down and keeping track of the calories you eat each day how you become very conscientious of what you are eating. But more than that, when you have to report back to someone on what you had to eat that day, it makes it hit home even more. Nothing like getting that text everyday, "what did you eat for lunch? what's for dinner?" It makes it very difficult to cheat...

Every day I log in what I eat with the calorie count. I find if I don't do that, I'm not nearly as careful about what I eat. It's way to easy to grab something as you are walking by and pop it into your mouth if you're not writing it down. When you are keeping track and writing everything down and have to stay within a certain calorie count for the day, there are decisions to be made about whether or not you really want that "thing". You only have so many calories in a day, so you have to really decide what you want to "spend" those calories on.

Now for me, it's all about the chocolate. I love chocolate and I want it everyday. So when the kids are grabbing a cookie for themselves and I think, "well it's just one cookie, I can have just one" - that one cookie means I won't be able to have my 5 chocolate covered almonds that I absolutely love!

But you might be surprised to know that since January, I don't think a day has gone by that I did not have chocolate. You wouldn't think that a person could lose 20 pounds and eat chocolate everyday, but I did. I figured out a way to work in my chocolate and still loose weight. In fact, as I'm writing this right now, I am having my chocolate covered almonds...and writing it into my calorie count for the day. You see, it is possible to have your cake and eat it too...and lose weight. It just needs to be part of "the plan".

And then there's the exercise, yes, it's true, you do have to exercise. I always thought that I didn't have time to exercise, there's so much going on with work, kids, etc. you know the routine. But it's amazing how you find the time once you decide this is something you really want. Exercise for me now, is like eating lunch, it's just something I need to do everyday. Do I take a day off every now and then? Yes I do, but not very often. I find that for me, it's way too easy to get out of the routine, it only takes missing 2 days for me to lose my momentum, so I don't allow myself to do that. Actually, I am at the point that if I don't exercise one day, I don't "feel" good. I need it now.

A friend of mine asked me the other day, "Is it hard to eat different things than what other people are eating?" The answer is "yes!" It's really hard when you are out of your normal daily routine. I find the weekends to be really difficult, especially parties and outings.

There are still days when I may vary "off the plan" - Diary Queen's Blizzards are a favorite! So if you're in a car with me and you spot a Diary Queen...please don't ask if I want to stop, just keep driving. But those are the times when having a personal trainer/nutritionist are helpful. A quick text or phone call can make all the difference. I have been in restaurants trying to decide what to order and texting Rachel to see what I should have - actually, I usually have the kids text for me because they are way faster than I am. She talks me through it and we find something that lets me stay within "my plan".

There you have it, that's how I've done it. There are challenges everyday to overcome, but it does get easier. And when I fall off the horse - and I do fall off the horse, Rachel & I get right back on it and off we go!

I'll keep my blog updated so you can follow my weekly challenges and hopefully hear about my successes also. If you are going through something similar or thinking about taking this journey yourself, I would love to hear from you!