I had my first appointment with Mandy on Tuesday evening after a grueling Push It class with her. I was excited about this visit because I had anticipated it for a month. We had a good honest talk and I tried to fill her in on all of my bad food habits. These are some of the things she gave me advice on.
1. No more eating in bed. (ohhhh...I really like doing this)
2. No more eating in front of the TV. (This is going to be difficult)
3. Drink a minimum of 80 oz a day of water. (I can handle it)
4. Fried foods are forbidden.
5. Limit of two diet Cokes per day. (Ya...I don't have to give them up completely)
6. Must eat breakfast every day. (I always do)
7. Eat at least every 4 hours.
8. Eat a protein source with every meal. (New to me)
9. Keep a food journal. (A necessary evil)
10. Minimize eating out.
She gave me a goal to loose 8lbs by July 16th and put me on a 2000 calorie a day diet. OK...nothing here was a revelation, except maybe eating a protein with every meal. This visit cost me $55 and I had original signed up for a six meeting package for $219. However, because of difficulties with my flexible spending account I couldn't prepay for this service. So upon my first visit I decided to pay for the service as I use them.
The thing is I am not sure I need it. My good friend Nicole hinted this to me but I didn't listen to her. I talked with her for a couple of hours a few weeks ago and she told me most of these things already. I am a smart girl and I already know most of these things. I just need to put them in practice. The first step is the food journal. I started keeping one a week ago on a website but I have since found that it is much more difficult than keeping an old school paper journal. Me and old school technology this is quite a contradiction.
I was scheduled to have a home visit from M to view my pantry and fridge and help me get rid of the wrong foods. I decided to cancel this service because I don't think that this is my problem area. To be honest I don't buy that many groceries so there isn't that much to look at. My problem with food doesn't have anything to do with what is at my home and in my pantry. It has to do with my large quantity of eating out and consequently what I am choosing to eat when I am at the restaurants. Perhaps if one of my sensible eating friends wants to come and view my pantry I wouldn't turn them down.
I told M in my email that I might like to add a couple half hour visits and I think that I would like to talk to her more about eating out. Of course I still think I know what do do here. I know how to look up nutritional information online I just have to consciously make these decisions.
Her email back to me was fairly scathing. I don't think that she thinks that I am making the right decision. But it is my money. She also recommend an hour grocery store visit. I think that this might be a good idea. I could use more ideas in this category. I just want to feel that I am getting something out of the money expenditure.
I was thinking I could utilize my online friends to help me be accountable on the eating front. I would post my daily calorie intake and perhaps that will help me be able to stay within it so I don't embarrass myself.
Today emotional eating reared it's ugly head. I had a visit to the dentist today and after I was done I stopped by CVS and bought some comfort foods. I got a 2L of diet Coke, a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup and a pint of Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup ice cream. I ate the Recces on the way home and I then ate the pint of ice cream for dinner at 9pm after my nap. Isn't it interesting how I can rationalize behavior as I am doing it. "I don't feel good...my mouth hurts...I deserve to eat ice cream for dinner"
This is how I have done this week:
Wednesday (06/17) 2372
Areas of Improvement:
9 Oreo Cookies
480 calories
Thursday (06/18) 2848
Areas of Improvement:
Pint of Ice Cream for dinner
1000 calories
I have only eaten one meal out this week. I went out to lunch on Monday. That is incredibly good for me. I plan on going out to lunch tomorrow and I will make good choices.
4 comments:
Oh! Also, I think it's great that you're doing this. Most people never get this far.
Um ... you might not need to get rid of the wrong foods (or at least not many of them), but if you don't have much at home, that's probably one of your problems. It's much easier to justify eating out when you "don't have anything to eat at home." (Of course, that's from personal experience; as they say on the innernets, YMMV.)
I think it's pretty reasonable for you to want to try some of this without paid help. As you say, you probably know most of this already, and a 30-minute session isn't going to help you with the other 167.5 hours of the week.
If you view your eating as an addiction, then I think friends (online and offline) are absolutely important with respect to accountability. It is extremely difficult to battle an addiction on your own; I think many people feel that support from fellow addicts is also important. Sometimes even good friends can't understand what you're going through nearly as well as people who've been through it themselves.
If you're going to be eating every 4 hours and eating protein with every meal, you better go to the store and get some healthy stuff. And speaking from current experience, 2000 calories is quite a bit if you plan it right. I had some Weight Watchers breakfast quesadillas this morning; pretty good and only 220 calories each with 13 grams of protein. (And sugar is a bad way to waste your calories. At the very least, find low-sugar or sugar-free substitutes ...)
Also, not that you asked, but remember it's not all or nothing; if you find yourself "accidentally" having a third Diet Coke or getting fries instead of a salad, don't take it as an excuse to write off the whole day. Some progress is better than none.
If you like, I can print out some of my days so you can see what's possible in a 2000-calorie day, but our goals and tastes may be different enough that it may not help you.
It's all about selection and portion control. Don't stop eating what you like. Just eat less of it.
NE
I think that you are right about the grocery thing. If I don't have anything easy at home I am bound to eat out.
I decided today to meet with M on Saturday afternoon to have a grocery store visit. I thought she could give me some good insight into what types of staples I should be buying (other than the diet Coke and cat food).
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