Intuitive eating fails

So, it turns out eating intuitively can be difficult sometimes.

Namely when I'm not on a normal eating schedule, when I'm having the opportunity to eat something I rarely get to, and when I'm in a really crummy mood.

 

www.someecards.com 

On Friday my parents were coming into town, and wanted my brother and I to come up for dinner.  The problem was, by the time they got in, and all of the shenanigans had ensued, our only option for dinner was Ruby Tuesday at 9:30 at night.  Now I don't like Ruby Tuesday under the best of circumstances, and this night were definitely the worst of circumstances.  Dinner took forever to get there.  And even though I went with what I thought would be a "safe" option of a grilled chicken sandwich with bacon and avocado, it tasted gross.  But I was starving, so mostly what I ate was the little biscuits, onion rings, croutons, and zucchini.  But hey, win for eating the veggies!  Needless to say, my stomach was not pleased with me the next day. 

Saturday was also an overeating extravaganza day.  Crabcake luncheon, pad thai.  And since I was in a really bad mood, and terrified for the race on Sunday, I also over ate. 

 

someecards.com

And then I went 13.1 miles on Sunday.  So I guess I'm still pretty impressed with myself.  Nobody ever said getting through life without food as a crutch would be easy.  

Did anybody else eat some delicious food this weekend?

13.1......What?

Today I put one foot in front of the other for 13.1 miles.

I can honestly say there were parts of me that didn't think I could do it.  And I was by no means fast.  I'm pretty sure there were walkers who finished ahead of me.  But I did it.

This morning I woke up bright and early at 5:30 am, quickly changed into my clothes which had all been laid out obsessively the night before.

Walked the dog, then bikeshared to the start of the race.  I have to say being able to take the short bike ride before the race worked out well.  I got to stretch my calves well and it warmed up my legs.

By the time the race was about to start I was feeling pretty nervous.  I didn't think I could do it, and I didn't want to make a fool out of myself.  Luckily it was pretty low key.  I think most of the people around me were there to just have fun and not worry so much about their time.

Then I went 13.1 miles.  I won't go into the mile by mile details.  I didn't take pictures because I haven't quite mastered the doing two things at once, and as I said, I was worried about finishing in the time frame allotted.  All I need to say is some miles felt great, and other miles felt awful.  By the time I hit 11 my legs didn't really want to move anymore.

Now I am the proud owner of a lovely sea foam green finisher's shirt, a pair of very sore hips, a number of ridiculously sized blisters on my feet (Not pictured)

And a gorgeous silver Tiffany's finisher necklace.  Which I kind of love.

I'm pretty proud of myself.  Now to take a million ibuprofen and drain my blisters (ewwww I know.)

"Expotique"

The only other race expo I have ever been to was the Rock and Roll New Orleans expo.  I was cheering on a friend running the race, and at a conference in the same convention center.  The expo was enormous, and almost overwhelming, but there was so much fun stuff to look at. 

This expo was.....not like that at all.

It was basically a tent in Georgetown. 

I guess this makes sense.  Since it is the Nike Women's Half Marathon, none of the other brands really got to come out, only the ones that had a specific deal with Nike.

The coolest part was the wall of names.

However, it was very exciting to get all of my stuff for the race.  I am both excited and terrified.  I can't believe its tomorrow morning!

I had a pretty big fail when it came to intuitive eating last night.  But more on that later.  Now I'm heading up to Baltimore to enjoy a crab cake lunch and lacrosse game with my family.

What's the coolest expo you've ever been to?

Friday Weigh In

Starting Weight: 222.6

Last Weigh In: 220.0

Current Weight: 216.6

Weight Loss this week: 3.6

Total weight loss: 6 lbs

 

The amazing Bill Watterson

On the whole I think intuitive eating has gone pretty well this week.  It certainly gives me a chance to ask my body how I am feeling secondary to what I've been eating, and although I am still no where near an expert at really knowing what my body needs, I feel like I'm making a good start. 

Pros:

- I really haven't found it all that difficult to stop eating when I am not hungry.  Partly I have no real stress to worry about right now which helps to curb emotional eating, and plenty of time to make and get whatever I really want.  

- It's relatively easy to track on weight watchers while I do this, so I know that I am not going completely over the top with my food choices or portions.

Cons:

- I haven't really been eating any veggies.  I have found myself craving fresher food as the week went on, but my vegetable consumption has been pretty well nil.  I'm okay with this for now, as I do feel like as everything evens out I will start to incorporate them more into my nutrition.

Let's hope that things continue to go smoothly, though I'm sure that there will be bumps to come.

I'll bring my new toy to the "Expotique" and snap some pictures.

Adventures in customer service!!........(or why it always pays to ask)

I've been playing around with the idea of getting a new digital camera for awhile now.  I lost my old camera (and I mean probably bought in 2004/2005 old) when I went to Israel last year, and my phone just isn't going to quite cut it for my upcoming vacation to yellowstone.

 

Wikimedia.com

(I'm not totally crazy for thinking that a lovely little inexpensive point and shoot camera can capture photos like these right???)

However, in true me fashion, I have been stewing over this for weeks.  Poring over reviews, going back and forth, until finally, in the heat of the moment I decide I've had enough and just make my decision.  So at 11:30 last night I ordered a Samsung WB 150 on Best Buy, to be picked up the next day.

I received my confirmation e-mail that I could pick it up around 8:00 this morning.  Then at 9:00 this morning I got a, wait for confirmation for pick up in......Frederick, MD.  I was floored, I wasn't planning on driving an hour for a camera.  And then I got an e-mail that there was a problem with my credit card.  Cue freakout that somebody has hacked into my account. A number of very obnoxious phone calls later, I was told that I hadn't received non-confirmation of picking up my camera at the closer best buy so I should just go get it, and then pay for it there (they had cancelled the first payment).  However, when I got there I was told that the confirmation e-mail had been sent too soon, they didn't have it, and didn't have a "wait, we made a mistake" email.  Le sigh.

At this point I was so frustrated that I decided to get a camera on amazon, even if it was 15 bucks more expensive.  It was just less hassle.  To validate my parking, I decided to stop into Costco and get a hotdog for lunch. 

Which is where I saw it, the newer version of the camera I had chosen, 50 dollar off retail.  SCORE!  Except when I asked about it, they said it was a rebate that ended on 4/21.  (Today being 4/25????) So I went over, had a lovely little chat with customer service, and with the addition of a 65 dollar gift card I had (my mom buys A LOT of dog food at Costco) I got the newer version of the camera I wanted, plus a bag and 16 GB memory card, for a whopping 15 dollars more than my original payment at Best Buy.

Photocredit ME!

So, if you read my entire story, the moral is this......Always smile at customer service and ask for what you want.  The worst they can say is no.

Has anybody else ever gotten a sweet deal from a store because of a miscommunication?

Blogger Mode

I read a lot of blogs.  Some of them more frequently than others, however most of them have a certain phrase in common.  They talk about being in "blogger mode."

From what I can tell this means that they bring their very pretty, expensive cameras with them wherever they go and take hundreds of pictures of everything that they do.

I have not mastered the art of being in this "blogger mode."

Since I have no job right now, and nothing with a set time frame, and happen to live in a city with endless opportunities for fun and excitement, my friend Lisa and I decided that we had nothing better to do than chase food trucks all over the city. 

And I took NO pictures.  So please forgive me for using stock internet photos.  I will try to be better in the future.

 

blog.georgetownvoice.com

We decided like any normal 27-30 year olds that we really wanted grilled cheese for lunch.  And it was AMAZING.  We split the "thrilled cheese" with chipotle cheddar, jalapeno, and guacomole, and the "Mt. Fuji" with brie, apple, and honey. 

Then we decided hadn't quite had enough......

  

http://www.sweetzcheesecake.com/ 

And we took two metros to get to Navy Yard to get some cheesecake.  We split the key lime and the chocolate chip kalua.  

Oh my god chocolate chip kalua cheesecake.  I may be having dreams about this for awhile. 

Of course after all of this ridiculous food, when I checked in with myself later in the afternoon I definitely felt my stomach hurting me.  Probably a little too much fat and dairy for the day.  But totally worth it.  

Does anybody have a food truck they want to recommend?  I know that I will probably be doing more food truck chasing in the coming weeks.    

 

Intuitive Eating

I've been doing a lot of reading about intuitive eating over the weekend.  This is one of the newer books to come out on this subject.

 

A number of bloggers I really love like Can You Stay For Dinner use this eating technique and there is a lot about it that I find helpful and intriguing. I find that in the right circumstances I don't find it difficult to intuitively eat at all.

When I am on fancy vacations like cruises for instance I eat intuitively easily.  I think this is because I know my next delicious meal is only hours away, there's no point in overeating. 

 

I absolutely understand that emotional eating comes into play with me a lot of the time.  Particularly when I am under a lot of stress I am bound to handle it by curling up in bed with an entire bag/box/pint of anything I can find. I also hate sitting alone at my dining table eating, so I end up zoning out in front of the television a lot. 

I sometimes find it hard to believe though.  Like most weight loss plans it touts the ideal that this is the perfect way to find your happy weight.  I find that most people who are successful intuitive eaters are the ones who have reached at least most of their weight loss goal and are working on making a lifestyle.  It also just goes against everything I think when they try to tell me that a huge bowl of soup will make me the same amount full as the same calories worth of something much smaller. 

However, being that I have the whole summer, and a lot of time that I can spend eating on my bed/couch/completely zoned out, this has definitely got me thinking. At the very least I can train myself to eat at my table, without distractions, and to think about my hunger levels.  If I do this in conjunction with tracking my food through weight watchers might this be a successful plan for me as well? 

At the very least I guess I will post more pictures of food. 

Has anybody out there (who hasn't written a book on the subject) lost a great deal of weight through intuitive eating?

Weekly Weigh In Friday

I've picked Friday to be my weigh in days.  At least for now.

www.sparkppeople.com

It used to be that I did most of my heavier eating on weekends, because I had more time, so it was nice to have the week to catch up and get back to healthy habits. Now that I have no real job or school to go to on a daily basis we will see if that holds up.

Starting Weight: 222.6
Today's Weight: 220.0
Change in weight: -2.6 lbs
Total weight lost: 2.6 lbs.

 

Charles M Schultz

I wasn't actually all that great about eating this week, but I was really good about tracking everything. So I just have to keep going. It's a lifestyle, I have to find where I can easily maintain a healthy weight without torturing myself.  It might take some time. 

Runners are such an interesting group of people. A mostly solo sport, in terms of competition (excepting the top racers in the world who race against one another), however inevitably running brings strangers together in ways that nothing else can.

I ran 9 miles today for the first time in my life and I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the people who waved at me, smiled at me, gave me high fives, and occasionally stopped to chat with me at crossing lights.

This is why what happened in Boston is so horrifying. A race that people spend years of their lives qualifying for, where finishing is half of the pride alone, to be attacked after finishing 26.2 miles is dismaying. I can't imagine trying to run away after putting my heart and soul into a race like that.

My heart and soul go out to the runners and citizens of the city of Boston. May the angry in the world come to understand that violent acts of terror do nothing to change the world in the way they wish to see it.

Just a few of my views on my 9 mile, very slow, very painful run today. I have serious doubts about my ability to finish 13.1 miles in the allotted time frame. but all I can do is press on and try. Better to fail halfway through the race then never to start at all.

90 Days of Summer (Day 1)

I'm done.

Three years. Hundreds of tests, papers, and projects. Over 30 class grades. Countless crazed study sessions. Tons of coffee, stress, hair loss, and sleepless nights.

 http://www.sharenator.com

And thirty pounds of weight that I now have to go back and lose again.

But its finished. I am finally done with physical therapy school.

Now I am just looking out at a summer of studying for my national boards, job hunting, and learning how to be a human being again. Anybody who tells you that grad school is cake is obviously taking some heavy duty drugs.

So here it goes.

I have give or take 90 days.  (I'm absolutely not ripping off the movie). 90 days to study for boards, find a job, and get my life back in order. And the best place to start is tracking my food and getting my health back on track.

Starting Weight: 222.6
Today's Weight: 222.6
Lbs Lost: 0

Wish me luck!