At this time of the year, it’s important to remember that we are all on our own journey with eating and fitness. Scolding someone’s food choices is NEVER appropriate. Focus on YOUR choices and leave the choices of everyone else to them with no comments or rolling eyes.
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:
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.
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.
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.
This postcard from PostSecret talked about how I feel many times.
It reads:
I don’t work out to burn calories.
I work out so that when the day comes for me to leap across train cars, climb burning buildings, and duel with the bad guys, I can do it ALL.
I feel the same way. When I eat healthy and work out, I imagine that I can be a superhero. I call it the Movie Diet.
PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.
Here is a great video from the Sci Show about why we love junk food so much.
I wish I could change my brain to love the carrots better than the french fries, but that just hasn’t happened and probably never will. I’ll just have to eat healthy despite what my brain loves.
Jenna Marbles made me laugh out loud at this video about how diets work.
At the point where there’s a cupcake, and she says, “How did you get here?!” I just lost it! Where does one even FIND a cupcake that looks like that?!
Honestly, though, that is EXACTLY how my eating was EVERY day for years. Once I got off sugar, though, it became a lot easier. Now, there are actually times when I FORGET to eat. Crazy, I know, but the carbohydrates were driving my insane hunger. Once I stopped eating them, my eating became MUCH more normal.
It took about two weeks of eating NOTHING sweet and no more than 30 grams of carbohydrates a day to get away from this cycle of eating. When I say nothing sweet, I mean even artificial sweeteners. Even though they have no calories, the sweet flavor would set me off.
The next time you feel like this video is the story of your life, get your self away from the carbs and load up on protein and fat for a couple of weeks and your dieting will become much easier, I promise!
I’ve never seen American Psycho, but I get the drift the Christian Bale’s character is a bad guy and probably shouldn’t be trusted.
Then again, what he said in this clip is true:
Chloe Sevigny’s character says: “Do you wanna bite?”
Christian Bale’s character says: “I’m on a diet, but thank you.”
Chloe: “You don’t need to lose any weight. You’re kidding, right? You look great, very fit.”
Christian: “You can always be thinner, look better.”
The next time someone offers you food you shouldn’t eat, remember this little video. Reply, “No, thank you.” If they press you about it, remember the mantra, “You can always be thinner, look better.”
Who cares if a deranged and psychotic killer said the words. If they help you, they’re golden.
Does it actually work? Does it hold the burrito together so well that you can eat it with your hands, or do you have to use a fork? The blog entry doesn’t clarify, so I guess I’ll have to try it myself. (more…)
I found some pancake forms at the dollar store the other day, so I made some heart-shaped eggs and star-shaped eggs for breakfast.
When I cracked the eggs into the forms, some of the egg whites escaped, but that didn’t ruin them. It worked really well and I loved having the same breakfast I have every day shaped in fun shapes instead. Why should having a heart-shaped egg make it taste better?!
If you can’t find pancake forms in your dollar store, here are some links to some:
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I just read this article on Slate about a woman who went from 320 pounds, down to a size 12. 
