Thursday, February 7, 2013

Remember STRESSED spelled backwards spells DESSERTS

                I have recently fallen victim to stress eating. It has been happening since the Super Bowl.
Allow me to give you the gruesome details:
                Jamie and I have been eating clean, without feelings of deprivation or despair for about a month. In that month we have allowed ourselves 2 cheat meals, 1 for Jamie’s cousin Andrea’s birthday and 1 for the super bowl. Now the birthday cheat meal wasn’t too bad, we ate at a steak house and did avoided fatty cuts of meat and had veggies as a side, the Super Bowl however went pizza to pizza, munchies and… BROWNIES! ***GASP***
                What’s done is done, and in all honesty it wasn’t hard getting back on the saddle, said saddle being eating clean. But my job has been particularly stressful especially in the last week or two. Normally the stress doesn’t affect my diet too much but I made the mistake of bringing in my buffalo chicken wing dip for the rest of my office mates and have since had a little every day.  Meanwhile, my office mates have had none. Last night I shared it with some students just to get rid of it and today I dumped the rest out, but not until I ate just a little bit more.
                I have been thinking about my stress and usually I can control my stress eating better, so why have I been having such a hard time? PMS? Sure, I am a little PMS-y and that coupled with stress here could definitely make for a tornado of bad eating decisions.
(To clarify: Stress at work is so much extra stressful because I can’t do anything about the decisions that are being made way above my pay-grade, for example, a teacher get slammed by a door intentionally, what happens you ask? NOTHING!! Why? Because high LTS (long term suspensions) make our school look bad. REALLY????)
So, how can I combat it?
Webmd says:
·         Read a book, magazine or listen to music
·         Go for a walk or jog
·         Take a bubble bath
·         Do deep breathing exercises
·         Play a card or Games
·         Talk to a friend
·         Do housework, laundry, or yard work
·         Wash the car
·         Write a letter
·         Or any other pleasurable activity that will take your mind off eating
I pretty much already do these things to combat stress and last night I actually said to Jamie “just let me play my game, I need to not think”. Ouch, that can’t possibly be nice to hear but I actually felt like I needed to turn my mind off. Alas, stress is all part of the game of life. When I find something that helps curb my desire to feed my stress, I will promptly share it with you all. For now I will just stick to games on my Kindle, working out and looking up healthy recipes on line…Thank you RUZZLE!


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

On the right track

The truth is I have been a very busy bee lately. With January 2nd starting our (my husband and I's) getting lean program (who starts anything on January 1st, in my world that is a day for gluttony) my brain has been filled with clean eating, and training, then of course thinking about eating, and food, and more food, then let’s not forget about my job and house…

The holidays were not terrible in terms of weight gain; I only suffered a 4lb increase in weight. I went from 169 to 173. I have been eating clean for 17 days or so and I have since lost the 4lbs. Katie and I have switched our gym routine to include more calisthenics and HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and I am looking forward to seeing the changes in my body.

The plan I have been trying to follow is written below:

Breakfast (by 6:45am)- Whole wheat English Muffin, Natural Peanut butter
Snack 9am- Strawberries or almonds
Lunch 12:30ish- Chicken & veggies or Tuna & Veggies
Pre-workout snack- Banana & Protein Bar
Post-workout Recovery- Visalus Shake with strawberries & bananas
Dinner- Chicken and Veggies, complex carb (Brown Rice, Quinoa, etc.)

So far, it hasn’t been too hard to follow, but I intend on modifying my breakfast. I plan on swapping the whole wheat English muffin for Ezekiel Bread and adding eggs & egg whites. Eating this clean is a new venture for me, I have done weight watchers in the past and had much success with it. I decided to stop because I was working out so hard and often I could virtually eat whatever I wanted.

My goal for 2013- lose my gut, and get down to 25% or less body fat. Jamie and I are entering a competition for body building.com. Hey, you never know winning some cash to obtain my goals might offer even more incentive than a 6 pack!!