Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

I’ve talked many times about caffeine and how it affects my mind. I said it best when I wrote about it here:

• Starling Fitness – Fitness, diet, and health weblog » Avoid Caffeine

Why should you avoid caffeine? I don’t necessarily think you should. Caffeine affects ME negatively, but that doesn’t mean that it will affect you the same way. The most important thing during this whole journey is learning how to listen to your body.

That’s why when I saw the title for this episode of the Sci Show, I thought I was going to get mad at them. So many people (like me) have such a negative reaction to caffeine withdrawal that they become a little didactic and demand that NO ONE should be consuming the stuff. Instead, it was a wonderfully scientific treatment of the subject.

What did I learn? Well, caffeine is NOT an addictive substance. Unlike heroin, it doesn’t CHANGE your brain chemistry permanently. Additionally, it’s nearly impossible to overdose on the stuff. I’ve used the word addiction for caffeine many times and I’m cringing now for using that word so lightly.

In my defense, the way caffeine affects me is so powerful that I feel as if I have no control with it. One cup of coffee a day will escalate to two and suddenly I find myself drinking several cups a day and having trouble getting to sleep at night. Even now, I am struggling to keep my consumption at one cup of coffee a day. Going off it completely doesn’t solve the problem, either. THEN, I can smell coffee or even a Coke Zero from a mile away. The temptation to start again is constant.

To compound the problem, caffeine is EXCELLENT for staving away my monthly migraines. Now that I’m gluten-free, my migraines have trickled down to one or two a month and they are so minor that a cup of coffee or two coupled with two naproxen sodium is enough to tame them.

So, is caffeine bad for me? Yeah, kinda… Is caffeine good for me? Yeah, kinda… Like any drug, it has its uses and can be abused. I am riding that thin line every day, trying to keep within my limits.

If you’d like some pointers on how to get OFF caffeine, I have some here:

• Starling Fitness » How To Quit Soda

Sci Show has a great episode about the chemistry of addiction. He’s talking mostly about drugs, but there is a small segment about food addiction. He does note, however, that the concept of food addiction is still a controversial subject and hasn’t been studied as much as drug addiction.

Sci Show did an episode on why we love junk food so much. Here is the link to that as well.

• Starling Fitness » Why Our Brains Love Junk Food

It feels completely demoralizing when I hear about the science of addiction because it makes it feel like my eating is out of my control. There are all these chemicals in my body urging me to do things that are BAD for me, so why should I even try to fight them?

I prefer to feel that my eating IS in my control. I want to believe that I am the master of my physical being and I have the choice whether to exercise, eat healthy food and refrain from bad food. Part of me just wants to forget about science and continue living in the fantasy that I have a say in the matter, but more and more science seems to prove just the opposite.

I absolutely love this motivational photo:

It reads:

The distance between dreams and reality is discipline.

Time and time again, we see that society rewards those who have discipline, whether it’s to put down the cake, run the extra mile or put in the overtime at work. If you want to be successful, you must be able to put aside your happiness now for rewards in the future.

The next time you’re tempted to eat poorly or skip your workout, remember this phrase: The distance between dreams and reality is discipline. You can make your dreams come true, but you have to stick to your program.

Photo via: I CAN DO IT

I just read this article on Slate about a woman who went from 320 pounds, down to a size 12.

• From obese to chubby: How I lost the weight, and why you shouldn’t admire me for it. – Slate Magazine

Let’s say you had to starve yourself daily for bare maintenance of your health and physical appearance. Could you do it? Forever? And would you be happy? I doubt very much that you would. But still, it’s what I have to do.

THAT is the question. When I was at my lowest weight, I was STARVING. I thought about food all the time and I wasn’t particularly happy with how I looked.

I think I had blamed so much of my unhappiness on my weight that I was shocked that I was still unhappy with my appearance when I was so close to goal. The truth of the matter is, being thin doesn’t make me happy.

Neither does being fat.

Happiness and weight loss are two different things. If losing weight won’t make you happy, what are the benefits?

• You live longer: Whether those extra years will be spent in joy or misery is your choice.
• People respect you more: As much as we’d like to deny it, we do respect people who are thin. That girl from high school who is still physically fit is the belle of the 20 year high school reunion.

That’s about it, folks. If you think losing weight is going to change your life, you’re wrong. Losing weight will change your BODY. YOU have to change your life.

If you expect to be instantly happy because you’ve lost weight, then you’ll be disappointed. If you set concrete goals about living longer and basking in the glow of your accomplishment, then you’ll be much more likely to achieve your goal and stay there.

Via: Weight Loss and Happiness are Two Different Things « Low Carb Confidential