Kare about Health
Exercise physiologist Karen Nelson helps keep Tucson healthy with fitness news, tips and revelations
by Karen Nelson on Oct.09, 2009, under Life, exercise, fitness, health, weight loss
Journey to healthy behaviors — Week 2 Emotional eating
It’s Friday (already!) and time to check in and see how we are doing on our healthy behaviors journey. I hope you have made your goals and are working toward them. It’s never too late to start!
I must say, that I am very disappointed that I did not hear from those that committed and it seemed to effect my motivation. I started last Friday with good intentions, but was left all alone and didn’t rise to the occasion!
I realize that blaming you is just an excuse and I need to take responsibility and accept that this is MY life and MY body and only I can take care of it and live happy and healthy. So… onward…
As you have probably figured out, I did not do well last week. My weight did not change. I started out
I did not lose any weight this week!
well, but fell off the wagon. I am hopeful that my mistakes can help others know that they are not alone and that one week’s failure doesn’t stop the journey. Let me explain.
Last week’s post mentioned that my weakness was food and wine! Portion sizes (of both) is the major culprit. So, I wrote a list of ways to keep energy levels up and hunger at bay while moderating those portions! It all sounded so good (and still does), but I didn’t listen to my own advice. Here is where I failed:
- I didn’t journal my food intake. Yes, I started out well. I got myself a pen and pad and kept it in the kitchen and was very good about it for one and a half days. Then, I just stopped. I know this is one of my weakness. I hate doing food diaries. But just because you eat things you don’t want to write down, doesn’t mean you should just stop! So, I am determined to write it all down this week. I figure, I can do anything for a week… one week at a time!
- I didn’t avoid temptation. Chips and salsa is a weakness of mine. I went to OktoberFest and bought this mean, awesome salsa called “Blackout” and I just HAD to have chips to eat it with! Bad idea! Due to my emotional eating problem this week (as I will describe below) I overdid it on the chips and salsa… sigh.
- I let myself get too hungry. I was so determined early on to cut my calories enough to actually lose some weight and so I was allowing myself to get too hungry and then I would make those bad choices, like the chips and salsa aforementioned! I also work a lot from home, so I have access to my own cooking (even though it is healthy) anytime I get hungry. This week I will follow my normal eating patterns that include some small healthy snacks to keep the metabolism revved up and hunger at bay.
- I was not measuring my food. Once again, I did this for the first day or two, then fell off the wagon. Forget about the past. Make the right choices moving forward.
One more thing. I am an emotional eater. I think there are many of us out there. I eat when I am happy. I eat when I am depressed. My family background involves comfort foods galore! Even though my personal life is going very well right now, my professional life is not. I was laid off and am struggling with new business ventures. It is becoming a vicious cycle of low-motivation due to depression about the lay off, which keeps me from moving forward aggressively to change the situation. The cycle needs to be broken and only I can do it.
Major life events — such as unemployment, health problems and divorce — and daily life hassles — such as a stressful work commute, bad weather and changes in your normal routine — can trigger emotions that lead to overeating.
Some foods may have seemingly addictive qualities. For example, when you eat enticing foods, such as chocolate, your body releases trace amounts of mood- and satisfaction-elevating hormones. That “reward” may reinforce a preference for foods that are most closely associated with specific feelings. Related to this is the simple fact that the pleasure of eating offsets negative emotions.
Food can also be a distraction. If you’re worried about an upcoming event or rethinking an earlier conflict, eating comfort foods may distract you. But the distraction is only temporary. While you’re eating, your thoughts focus on the pleasant taste of your comfort food. Unfortunately, when you’re done overeating, your attention returns to your worries, and you may now bear the additional burden of guilt about overeating.
So, here are some ideas to help you
- Know your triggers and avoid them whenever possible. Pay attention and determine what triggers you to emotionally eat and try to ward them off if you can.
- Look elsewhere for comfort. Instead of unwrapping a candy bar, take a walk, treat yourself to a movie, listen to music, read or call a friend. If you think that stress relating to a particular event is nudging you toward the refrigerator, try talking to someone about it to distract yourself. Plan enjoyable events for yourself.
- Don’t keep unhealthy foods around. Of course, this is not my problem. I don’t have to eat unhealthy to overeat and emotionally eat! But some of my trigger foods, I can try to avoid.
Snack healthy!
Although there is also a lesson in moderation and deprivation here. I learned a long time ago that to deprive myself of chocolate only led to overeating a lot of calories trying to quench that craving! So, I have taught myself to keep chocolate around and eat it in small quantities just to soothe the craving. Obviously, once in a while, I overindulge. But it works most of the time. Know yourself and act accordingly.
- Snack healthy. Try to have healthy snacks like apples, carrots, nuts around and pack them to take with you. Then when you feel the urge to eat between meals, it will be lower calorie and healthy for you!
- Exercise regularly and get adequate sleep. Your mood is more manageable and your body can more effectively fight stress when it’s fit and well rested.
Get back on track!
So, I am going to forgive myself for my emotional eating this past week and start fresh today. I have learned from the experience, and I am making a plan to prevent it in the future. I am going to focus on the positive things I do (such as my exercise schedule) and the changes I am making in my eating habits and continue to be healthy!
Be happy! Be healthy out there! I love you all!
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October 9th, 2009 on 12:27 pm
Ahh..I apologize for not providing an update! I did NOT do so well this past week. Monday I told myself that I would go take a walk in the park every day during my lunch hour, since it’s not that far away. Well…I only did this on Monday and it was great, however I didn’t stick to my goal.
I hear you about the food journal…I hate writing down everything I eat. I have an app that I downloaded to my phone where I can input what I eat and it will tell me the nutritional info and such. I did this for a few days, and stopped for whatever reason.
I will say though, I definitely am eating much better than I used to. I just need to work more on getting exercise, and stop being lazy!
October 9th, 2009 on 4:47 pm
Hi Jenna! Thanks for responding! I was worried about you! So… we both had a bad week. Pick ourselves up… dust ourselves off… and start all over again!
Maybe your goal was too large or too hard. How about walking on your lunch hour 3 days in the week? And just try again, like I am, at keeping the food journal (yuck!)… but I think if we can do it for a couple of weeks, it will help. How about using my 15-minute rule?! If you haven’t done any exercise yet today and you really don’t want to… just do something for 15 mins. That’s it. Try it! And keep me posted! Just write your comments here after this weeks post as to how you are doing during the week. And write to me about what your goals for this week are. It really helps to put it in writing! Good luck and let me hear from you!
October 9th, 2009 on 12:30 pm
Also, I think part of the problem of not getting our updates is because the first article got lost in the mix. I wasn’t exactly sure where to put how I was doing. Maybe if you do an article each week, much like this one, that gives us updates on how you did, it would remind us to let you know how we’re doing! I know something like that would help keep me motivated! =)
October 9th, 2009 on 4:48 pm
Oh, and I am doing an update every Friday… so just use that post as a way to communicate. I will see when you post a comment.
October 9th, 2009 on 2:10 pm
Thanks for the inspiring posts! I’ve had type 2 diabetes for over 15 years now and both sides of my family is plagued with it. I also have a genetic disease called alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency that effects my lungs so exercise can be challenging.
I’ve tried everything, and finally found things that are helping in the past couple years. At my highest I was around 280. All the little things I tried helped to whittle more off. Then I got stuck around 205. I recently lost 30 pounds and then gained back 10. I’ve lost 5 now and working on it (thanks cooler weather!). Trying to lose a buttload (literally) of it by Christmas. Just like Dory on Finding Nemo, you have to “just keep swimming.”
I run a site for women with diabetes and we have around 9000 members, many trying to lose weight in spite of hormonal systems working against them. We’ve seen just about every program tried. Diabetes makes it a lot harder, but those who have found success just keep going and trying in spite of setbacks until they find something that works for them and everyone is different. I’ve heard smokers have to try upteen times before they succeed, and it’s probably the same for finding something that works for fitness. For me, it’s a calisthenics program I made for myself, walking, slow jogging, and mostly raw food and dark leafy greens. Took me a while (and a lot of money) to figure that out and still discovering more since I still have another 30 or so to lose till I’m within my ideal weight range.
Things that help are learning and motivation – like from your blog. Growing up I wasn’t very educated at all on fitness matters or how to listen to and pay attention to my body. Back when I was diagnosed, I was just given a sheet of paper saying to exercise and not eat sugar. The phenotype of the lung disease I have is rare, so not even my doctor knows very much and just tells me to try to find info on the internet. So, it’s up to me. Thanks for all the great info and inspiration! Your message is so important!
October 9th, 2009 on 4:42 pm
Thank you for such a candid admission! I appreciate your obstacles. I can’t say that I understand them fully, especially the glycoprotein deficiency you have, but I have worked with many Type 2 diabetics in the past. We all have obstacles. Not to trivialize your situation at all, but sometimes when we have a real health problem staring us in the face and manifesting itself in us, we become more motivated! I hope this has helped you. There’s got to be a silver lining, right?
I wasn’t raised in a family that had healthy behaviors, either. My parents both were overweight, even obese, and led a sedentary lifestyle. I don’t know what happened to me, but I seemed to want to be active and pursue it whole-heartedly since I was very young. Most of my family thought I was weird!
I’d love to see your site… and possibly learn from it, so if you could post the URL that would be great.
Let’s work together! Have you done any exercise today?? Get out there this evening if you can! Keep on swimming Dory! What are your goals for this week? And what are your plans for trying to meet them? Write it out… then it is more real!
October 9th, 2009 on 5:28 pm
The site is DiabeticMommy.com. It looks pretty dated right now since I’m working on changing it.
Ya this morning I did a mile and a half at Udall, slow jogged half, walked half. I jog REALLY slow, cause it still was 20 min per mile…but my heart rate still up pretty high. Then did pushups (from a hip-high bar), hanging pullups (for beginners – can’t do full pullup yet), seated dips, squats, lunges, shoulder shrugs, and calf lifts 4 sets of 10 of each. Then reg crunches, bicycle crunches, leg-up crunches, and reverse crunches, 20 each. Then did the plank for 30 seconds. Not long but could only do 15 secs yesterday. In all it was about 40 minutes.
Yesterday I just did 10 of each really fast when I passed the gym equipment. Is that bad? Should I totally give the muscles a rest in between?
I’m trying to do the cardio everyday. The calisthenics either all every other day or part and then part the next day. I’m also working on jumprope. Can only do like 60 jumps before I feel like I’m going to die.
It works good for me, but the obstacles are weather (that’s why I gained that 10 because too hot to get out) and sometimes others want to do it with me and then scheduling gets all complicated and sometimes I find myself at the end of day - after something fell through or an errand took too long – with no exercise. I also have problems with overcomplicating or expecting too much of myself and getting mad and then doing nothing. So I’m trying to keep it simple and being happy if I do anything, even if it’s just 10 minutes of something if my day gets busy.
The jumprope I really want to do and just learning. It’s hard! Why is it so hard now?!? Trying to figure out ways to make it lower impact and also looking into that ropeless jumprope thing they have out. Wonder if that’s helpful at all.
October 10th, 2009 on 10:40 am
Hi Bjay! So, let’s look at what you are doing. Kudos on doing it!!
First of all, jogging slow, fast, walking… whatever it is, as long as you are stressing your cardiovascular system a bit (as witnessed by your increased heart rate), it is good! Check out my post on interval training and see if you can change it up a bit that way. After a bit of a warm-up…Jog a bit, then walk, then jog faster, then walk… etc.
As far as the calisthenics go… Sounds like a good mix… I would make sure you are doing the pushups, squats, etc very slowly and correctly and rather than 4 sets of 10, try 2 sets of 20 (or attempt to work up to that). Doing quick sets of the calisthenics the next day is only a problem if you are sore from doing them the day before. Soreness is your body’s way of telling you you need recovery time. Just listen to your body. If you are not sore at ll, maybe you need to make them harder in some way (start with the changes I mentioned first… going slower, doing 2 sets of 15-20).
About the jump rope! If you haven’t done it in a long time is IS hard! It’s very hard! That’s why boxers do it!! They need to be in the best aerobic shape possible to make it through a bout. As you get better at the rope jumping, it can become smoother and you don’t have to lift your feet as far off the ground, etc… so it will have less impact. Just keep practicing. Slowly increasing the number of jumps or the amount of time you jump… increase SLOWLY!! Today you do 60 jumps, tomorrow maybe 65 or 70… or add 15 seconds each time… This is a good thing to do at home if you haven’t gotten any exercise in and you may be watching the news or something… do it during commercial breaks. Can you jump continuously for the entire commercial break??! I don’t know anything about the ropeless jump rope thing. I could look it up and see what it’s about.
So… bottom-line you have a good thing going. If you could do that routine 3 times a week and then just do some other cardio a couple of other days a week, you would have an awesome program! Keep it up and keep me informed!!
October 10th, 2009 on 8:22 pm
Thanks Karen! I’ll try that. My sister, the Paranormal Old Pueblo blogger, is going to be doing it with me. So I’ll have her update you too.
October 11th, 2009 on 3:47 pm
Great! Good luck and have fun! It’s always so much better to have a partner!! Keep me updated!
November 3rd, 2009 on 4:17 am
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February 8th, 2010 on 4:14 am
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