Am I bummed? Of course I'm bummed. But I made it through two big weeks for me.
The first of those weeks was spent dealing with some considerable emotional stress (which I navigated quite well in terms of food), then preparation for vacation, and then four days in Palm Springs. Tom and I, along with a group of friends, rent a house there every October. It's always a time of creativity and refreshment.
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| I did art journaling every day we were there. This was my favorite. |
It's always one of culinary pleasures, too. I went in feeling a bit anxious about eating. Everyone usually brings a ton of snack food, and I don't keep snack food in my house. While processed salty and sweet snacks are typically small in size, if you put enough of it together, you can end up eating twice as many calories in an hour as you needed all day. On top of that, each couple takes a turn cooking breakfast or a dinner while we're there... which means that if I choose to go along with our plans, my nutrition is in someone else's hands. And I don't know if you can tell by reading this blog, but I rarely - if ever - put my nutrition in someone else's hands.
Lucky for me, I have some very thoughtful friends who either made food that was healthier than our standard fare, or who warned me that they would not be (so I'd know to provide for myself.) With very few exceptions, I was able to eat in moderation, and supplement with my own fruits, veggies and protein. And over four days, I kept the snacks down to one fun-size candy bar, a few triscuits, an ounce of peanuts, and an ounce of candy corn. (Considering what else was there and how much of it there was, I feel pretty proud of that.) And while those processed snacks probably played into the weight gain, I'm doing my best to be patient with myself.
The second week - last week - was spent laid flat with an unpleasant coldy-flu bug that specialized in body-aches and sinus pain. Having just returned from vacation, the kitchen was a mess and Tom was working his usual crazy hours so he wasn't around to pitch in with cleaning or cooking (except late at night.) In my exhausted state, I ordered delivery comfort food - lots of salty soup, lots of bread. There was typically veg in the soup and I got fruit from watered-down OJ I was using to hydrate and load Vitamin C... but it was still unbalanced.
In discussing it with my therapist, she pointed out that I had trouble when I was feeling ill after my surgery, too. It may be when my willpower is weakest, so we put a plan together for keeping a stash of very easy-to-prepare foods at the ready for the next time I'm ill. I need microwaveable soups, frozen dinners, anything that I can make quickly and help me balance and stay moderate when I have a harder time making that decision.
As my strength returned, so did my desire to put my nutrition back in my hands.
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| One of the first things I did, as soon as I felt well enough, was to art journal this to remind myself of it. |
And I'm taking that effort. It feels great.
I'm back to Slimmons tonight, for the first time since Palm Springs. I did exercise well on vacation - I swam for at least 45 minutes every day, and did free weights and floor work every other day. But I haven't exercised much since I got sick. I'm sure the usual 90 minutes with Richard will be grueling... but that's how you get strong, after all.
On another note, I keep seeing a couple of different images on Pinterest that sound like an easy quick-fix for weight loss. Negative-calorie foods!
Except for one thing... there's no scientific evidence to prove it, and a fair amount to disprove it. The mostly widely purported "negative-calorie" food is celery, which - according to Wikipedia, if you trust it - only requires 10% of its energy to digest. That means 90% of its energy stays with you - hardly negative.
One of the lists - which I can't locate now (the trouble with Pinterest) - claimed that honeydew melon has negative calories. I actually responded to that link, to let them know that not only does honeydew have more calories than cantaloupe, it has less nutritive value.
Is it better for us to eat honeydew - in moderation - instead of, say, toffee? For damn sure. But it's in no way calorie-free, let alone calorie-negative. And fruit, while it has terrific nutrient value, is still high in sugar, and should be consumed in moderation. (Like anything else.)
Goes to show that my friend Honest Abe was right all along...
Do your research before you trust something you read... and take care of you!
