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The Slimming Pool Weight Loss Blog: Hey, I was Eating That!

Thursday, January 29, 2004

I'm hungry this morning

Good thing I'm not a "breakfast skipper" or this would be a rough day. Nah, I always eat the most early in the day anyway, so being hungry is expected. Having my stomach gurgling like a flooding riverbank is another story.

Sometimes when I wake this hungry, it's as if nothing I eat will satisfy me. I'll have my usual cereal (I nearly always have cereal and milk for breakfast), then I'll start eating fruit, then I'll have more fruit or a yogurt with Grapenuts, then maybe soup, then a bagel perhaps? Then ...

I eat like this sometimes all morning, and usually by early afternoon I find I'm okay - I lived through another huge appetite morning. When you feel like you're starving, even though you know you are not, eat real food. Fresh, wholesome food, not fake fat, not denatured crap, but fresh food. Fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans? Anyone eating beans? I love beans, soups, stews. This time of year a hearty soup with a big piece of heavy (I mean heavy in your hand) whole grain bread is so satisfying.

I don't mean to make you hungry - I apologize. I tend to get carried away talking about food, I do love it so.

The trick is learning that hunger is a signal from your body to eat. Feed yourself well, and the signal will stop. Feed yourself poorly and the signal just keeps coming. Also, a huge tip? Drink water. As soon as your stomach starts gurgling or doing whatever dance it does, go get a glass of water and start sipping. Give yourself five or ten minutes from the first hunger pangs to finish drinking a nice glass of water. After 10 minutes, if you still feel hungry, get something to eat, but often you'll find either you forget you were hungry entirely (I get busy and forget) or you'll not feel anywhere near the powerful urge to gorge, just mild hunger.

Hunger is not a disease. Do not fear hunger. Embrace hunger. Sit with it. Nurture it. Live it. It's okay - you're okay. Take a deep breath and say, "Even though I'm afraid of being hungry, I deeply and completely accept myself anyway," let the air back out, and relax.

If you don't know how to use EFT, which I refer to often, then get yourself some materials and learn it. It's easy, and effective. Start at the beginning to learn, download the free materials at OneMoreBite for using EFT for weight loss and get started today.

Posted by OneMoreBite-Weightloss on Thursday, January 29, 2004

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

Net Carbs - Slowly Driving me Insane

If I hear one more person say, "I need to give up carbs," I think I'll scream.

Please, people, hear me now: Give up junk! Not carbs. Whole food carbs are good food, necessary food. Carbohydrate is your body's primary fuel source. You don't give up carbs - you choose better carbs.

The Atkins grocery is also a pet peeve. How is it helpful to provide tons of "low carb" cookies, cakes, pies, breads, cereals? It's helpful to the Atkins Corporation's bottom line but not your bottom. Those products are not a whole lot different than the real thing except they're expensive.

Choose good carbs - whole fruits and vegetables, whole grain breads (100% whole grain, not just labeled whole grain), beans, brown rice (yes, rice), potatoes (?). Food that grows in the ground and on the trees - not grains that have been pulverized to a fine powder with all the bran removed (white flour), with a few vitamins added back for good measure then passed off as food.

If you are convinced you need more protein and less carbs, that is fine, but choose good carbs and avoid the heavily processed foods and you'll be ahead of the game. Go through your cupboards today and see how many boxes you have of foods that started out wholesome but are now ... dead. Check your grocery receipts next time you shop and see how many whole foods you buy compared to how many processed? Your grocery costs will drop substantially when you buy more produce, less boxed, pre-made foods.

How to Calculate Net Carbs - This question is asked because people want to be able to eat bread again, so they see a label that says "2 Net Carbs!" and they notice it is bread, but they think, "Hah, the label says it's only 2 Net Carbs, so that must mean it's okay," and they go ahead and eat twice as many slices, because, it's not very many carbs, after all. Guess what? They could do the same calculation on the regular bread and come up with the same result! You don't need the special "low carb" version, they are just labeled that way. It's junk science - a new name for a bogus way of counting your nutrients. Stop driving yourself crazy with counting every little nutrient - just make better choices.

Today's Advice: Eat Citrus

Choose fresh fruit over juice, and real juice over soda pop. Avoid artificial sweeteners - eat a piece of fruit if you want a sweet. Drink more water. Wean yourself off sugary drinks. Even artificially sweetened drinks still cause you to crave sweets - get off them. If you drink four diet drinks a day, switch to three and one tall glass of water. Add a squeeze of lime if you absolutely must have flavor, but remember, if you lived in the forest, with no stores nearby, and you had a fresh stream of clear running water, it would be enormously pleasurable to take a nice, cold drink from that stream. We are meant to have pure water, and fresh food - let's get back to basics.

Use EFT to get past the sticking points, especially if you have trouble with the idea of eating more fresh foods and less processed.

"Even though I hate drinking water, I deeply and completely accept myself."

"Even though I can't stand drinks that aren't sweet, I deeply and completely accept myself."

Think about what you eat that is artificial and what you eat that is real.

Posted by OneMoreBite-Weightloss on Tuesday, January 27, 2004

Saturday, January 24, 2004

Video Game that Causes People to Shrink!

How can a game help someone lose weight? When the game involves bodily movement, that's how.

Today I came across Tanya Jessen's story and how she eventually lost 95 pounds playing DDR. Awhile back I'd mentioned hearing about Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) after seeing a clip on TV about a girl who'd lost a lot of weight playing a video game.

Ever since, I've wanted to try DDR myself but my husband is being a bit of a prig about it. Seems he thinks I spend a wee bit too much money on every whim that comes my way. Where's he get such ideas? Anyway my enthusiasm must have worn him down because he said he'd go rent it for me today.

If your kids already have a PlayStation, PlayStation 2 or XBox go down today to the video store, rent DDR and try it for yourself. What have you got to lose except some weight?

Ignition Dance Pad - This is the pad we bought and it's been great. The kids love it, and so do I. It even has a workout mode.

Posted by OneMoreBite-Weightloss on Saturday, January 24, 2004

Friday, January 23, 2004

Getting it Out-of-Your System Eating

Face it. You're never gonna get it out of your system. I once tried to eat myself sick of plain M&Ms; hoping it would cure me of my fondness for them. Didn't work. I ate so many I didn't want anymore; couldn't force myself to eat anymore, but never came anywhere close to sick. I once ate a whole jar of bread-and-butter pickles when I was a child and couldn't eat them again for years after, but it just didn't work with the M&M's. Damn, those melt in your mouth, not in your hand candies!

I quit smoking and substituted M&Ms mixed in with salted mixed nuts. A lethal mix. No kidding, it should be against the law to eat that mix. Why the M&M's company doesn't sell their candies mixed with salted nuts, I'll never know because once you try it, you're hooked. (Trust me, just do not try it or you'll be very sorry and hate me forever).

I gained 15 pounds eating a few pounds of this mix a week. It was much more difficult to kick the M&Ms and mixed nuts habit than the smoking. Much harder. I'm dead serious.

I still look adoringly at that alluring deep chocolate brown wrapper - it's been over 20 years since I gave that mix up and I still want it. Luckily for me they've been screwing around with the color of the packaging and I simply do not find those pastel colors appealing in the least. It's not what's inside, it's the color of the package that gets me.

I'm also strangely attracted to fire engine red. Don't know why, but it's true. I once couldn't take my eyes off a passing truck to the point I feared for my own safety - like a young man ogling a tempting lass, I could not pry my eyes from that red truck. Weird.

I'd go get some nuts and mix it some M&M's except for one thing: fear. I'm terrified I'll never be able to stop. I advocate eating what you truly love but there are limits and there are some things over which you may have no control. Facing those facts is a good thing. Deciding you have no control over any food though is silly. You can't love everything like I love fire engine red or deep chocolate plain M&M's wrappers. It's true love, not just lust.

Posted by OneMoreBite-Weightloss on Friday, January 23, 2004

Florida Citrus Growers - Big Cry Babies

They're at it again. Blaming outside forces for ruining their profits! Woe to the Atkins dieters. Threats to the South Beach Diet book. As if a book saying don't drink orange juice because it's got a high sugar content would actually cause people to do so. They must think we're a bunch of sheep.

I'd venture that those who enjoy a cool, frosty glass of orange juice still drink it. I'm particularly fond of mixing it with champagne, which if you haven't tried it, goes down a little too easily.

Did you know it's against the law to talk bad about food? That's right. They'll haul you out in shackles. Oprah Winfrey was sued for talking about beef in a disparaging manner - actually she never did so and was finally acquitted, but still - what are they thinking? Her guest, Howard F. Lyman who wrote MAD COWBOY: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat, was also sued. I'll bet Oprah never invited him back either. I'm reading Mad Cowboy for the third or fourth time - great book.

There was a recent case of a winery suing a newspaper for printing that their wine resembled merde. Oops, not nice. Free speech is all well and good, but don't talk smack about food or you'll be sorry.

Remember way back when the Florida Citrus growers sued Anita Bryant and basically killed her career. She was the evil woman who said something nasty about orange juice.

So, is orange juice okay to drink? I'd prefer eating the whole orange. Nuff said.

Posted by OneMoreBite-Weightloss on Friday, January 23, 2004

Thursday, January 15, 2004

Talking about Hunger

Yesterday I felt hungry all day. I decided it was because I felt trapped. I didn't have a choice about what or where to eat - I couldn't leave my house because there were a few inches of ice literally on everything outside , so I did what any normal, sane person would do. I ate. I might want to work on this issue since if I were ever truly in a situation where the food supply was limited I'd hate to think I'd wipe it out in one frenzied day of panic.

I didn't eat junky stuff, but I did eat far more than usual. For instance I had a wheat bagel, sliced with raspberry honey. I never slice my bagels, and never put anything on them, so that was odd by itself. I have a very regular schedule of hunger, I eat generally around 7 AM, then again around 10 AM, again around 12 noonish, and maybe 4 or 5 PM is dinner. Thursday I had my usual breakfast, then snacks, then more snacks, then a big lunch, then more snacks, then a big dinner. I popped a few chocolates that day as well.

Basically healthy food but it still adds up. I had a mixture I hadn't had for a long time where I get out a bowl and toss in granola cereal, raw almonds, raisins and carob chips. That sounds nice and healthy but those calories add up. I mentioned last week it was nearly 4,000 calories that day, of reasonably healthy foods, so I proved you can overeat on good food. I also ate two bananas, one on my cereal in the morning and another in the afternoon as a snack, so I wouldn't faint from hunger, I guess.

I never used EFT that day. Thinking about it later it seems I had a fear of not having enough, of running out, of thinking I'm being controlled by outside forces, and of not having a choice. One thing I did not do that day was berate myself in any way shape or form. I do not say mean things to myself - I never have, except for the occasional, you idiot type of stuff but never in a serious way. I don't do that, and if you do, stop now. Just stop. If you hear yourself saying something unkind to yourself just stop.

Since I didn't pay any attention to my hunger, I ate non-stop. Okay. It's over. Today's a fresh day. That Friday, I felt back to my usual self. My appetite was normal, I felt fine, good in fact. I was happy, satisfied, maybe wider than usual, but happy still, and that's what counts, to me. Being happy in my own skin is far more important than fitting someone else's idea of my ideal image. You have to love yourself first.

Next Daily Bite look for my list of my favorite foods and a bit on tracking your hunger levels. I promise to post my hunger level worksheet so you can see that I'm not perfect either. I maintain a reasonable size and shape by eating like what I call a normal person. I don't obsess about it, and I do overeat sometimes (witness last Thursday), but one overeating episode does not frame my whole day nor does it color my life. It's not me, it's just a behavior.

Posted by OneMoreBite-Weightloss on Thursday, January 15, 2004

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

Taming Your Eating Triggers

I'm sitting here at home on a rare Portland, Oregon snow day, and it's cold. Yesterday the weather man said it was 20 degrees but "felt like four." I had to laugh. That's putting it in plain English I guess. Instead of saying, "The Wind Chill factor is 4," they tell us what it "feels like." Can you tell the difference between 20 degrees and 4? Neither can I.

So, I'm cold - I'm usually cold, so this is nothing new, but it's especially cold to me. I've got on layers, two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, three shirts, and I'm still feeling brrrrr, shivering cold. I'd put the heater higher but my husband likes this arctic chill, so I'm compromising. Being chilled I suddenly thought about getting something to eat. Not because I'm hungry, but simply because I'm cold. Moving around would feel nice, eating would warm me too - that's the thought that ran through my mind, and it makes sense. Eating stokes the metabolic fire, after all.

So, there I've just discovered an eating trigger for me. Being cold makes me want to eat something - not a bowl of cereal, or a sandwich. I was thinking along the lines of chocolates, or nuts - something simple I could just pop in my mouth and commence chewing. Ah, but then I remember, today is the second day of my big plan to eat a "clean diet." I've been talking about it for a month - letting people who know me in on the plan in an effort to help me do it. I eat a pretty healthy diet but I've let my weight creep up this winter, so I need to nip it in the bud right now.

Now nuts are okay on a clean diet, but the salted peanuts we have in the house are greasy and very high fat (raw almonds would be a better choice), and I know I'm not really hungry, so no amount of nuts is going to satisfy me. I just want to chew. It's one of those, "eat until they are gone" type of hungers. So my new goal for this week is to wait for real hunger before eating. That's all - just wait until I'm hungry first.

So I did a couple quick rounds of EFT: (Remember, if you need EFT instruction, here are no-cost materials to help.

"Even though I'm ultra cold, and I want to eat something, I deeply and completely accept myself."

I always start on the P.R. point (side of the hand - karate chop point) and say the set-up three times. Then I do a series on the usual tapping points with the shortened words: "too cold."

"Even though I don't want to wait until I'm hungry, I deeply and completely accept myself and will wait anyway."

"Don't want to wait."

Notice how you can add any words you like at the end of your statement? Go ahead and embellish the wording, speak to yourself in a kind manner, and the words will come to you.

While tapping I was thinking about my issue - how being cold is making me want to eat. Is that true, or was I just having a knee jerk reaction? I remember being offered hot chocolate as a child, with those little marshmallows on top, "Here, have some nice cocoa, it'll make you feel better." Smiling grandma fades out. So many memories intertwined with food.

There's nothing wrong with having memories around food - food is an important part of our lives, and I'm not advocating stopping that practice - no way. I am interested in discovering my triggers though: those times I absentmindedly put something in my mouth because of a triggering event, such as the cold feeling in my body. Being cold is not the same as being hungry.

How to Wait for Hunger

Waiting for hunger isn't so difficult but the hunger itself can be elusive and you may wish it would come sooner. The more nutritious food choices you make, the less often you'll feel true hunger. Waiting for hunger isn't so difficult, you just need to find something else to do when the urge to eat strikes without hunger. I'm busy working, so that's no problem.

You'd be shocked if you waited for real hunger - assuming you eat nutritious food when you eat, that is. I ate breakfast at around 7 AM, nice big bowl of oatmeal and raisins with a sprinkling of brown sugar and non-fat milk. Around 10 AM I decided to eat an apple. Nice, sweet, juicy apple. Crunchy, excellent snack, IMO. So, now it's likely I won't be hungry again for another couple of hours.

Oops, I wandered off in the middle of writing this and ended up peeling and eating a Clementine while standing in the kitchen admiring the snow (a Clementine is a type of seedless tangerine, I think). Anyway, it was good. So I wasn't hungry just then, that's okay. I'm not a robot - it's a plan, not a life sentence.

The nice thing about waiting for hunger is you can estimate it - so if I want to plan for lunch, I know sometime between noon and 1 PM will probably be when I'll get hungry. Unless I'm busy doing something, in which case I might decide to wait. My husband just offered to make me some soup and a sandwich and I said, "No, thanks. I just ate an apple." I could eat a sandwich, but today, I'm going to wait for hunger. Try it yourself, and see what happens. You may be surprised.

From now on I know that if I'm cold I may want to eat something, so I'm going to wait for hunger. Simple. It's about being aware, that's all. Notice what's going on around you, and use EFT for the obstacles.

Posted by OneMoreBite-Weightloss on Tuesday, January 06, 2004

Monday, January 05, 2004

New Year - New You!

That's the title of last year's January workshop and here it is another January. The year's keep flying by and what did you accomplish last year? Did you make those little changes you kept talking about, or did you watch time slip away, all the while wishing and hoping something, somehow would change, if only...

If only you'd get up a half hour earlier, think of what could be done? A quick early morning workout perhaps, or time for a real breakfast? I eat breakfast every day, and have long credited that habit with being instrumental in getting me off the nighttime snacking habit and into the eating for health habit. If only I was consistent with my exercise - I was once in very fit shape and the secret? Regular, consistent exercise.

I saw a TV program yesterday about a girl who'd lost a lot of weight and she'd done it by playing a video game. Yup, a video game. The game is called DDR, Dance, Dance, Revolution and it involves a vinyl platform on the floor in front of you with squares, X's and Triangles, and by following the game you move your feet and/or arms in the direction indicated, effectively causing you to dance. She danced away about 90 pounds before she even realized what was happening. Find something you enjoy and do it consistently, and it can work for you too.

If you're like me, you start every January with the same hope and promise. This year it's going to be different - this is going to be the year I (fill in the blank). This year my goal is to adopt a clean diet habit - the same eating style I used to create a healthy frame with 14% body fat many years ago. It wasn't difficult but it took effort - effort to give up some of my less than healthy habits like eating junk food for instance.

I'd like to invite you on my journey. I'm starting a blog to keep a journal of my progress which will enable you to see my techniques using NLP and EFT in action. I will write my thoughts, my failures and successes as I go through the next few weeks, so you can see exactly how I overcome issues such as not wanting to get up earlier, not wanting to take the time to cook, not wanting to do what I say I want to do. I face these same issues as you, every day, but I have methods to overcome them, and I put my methods into action.

Do you take action? Do you have methods that would work, if only (fill in the blank).

If only is something to strike from your vocabulary this year. My resolution? To stop saying "if only" and to start saying, "now that I."

Now that I get up earlier I can get more done.
Now that I eat a clean diet I feel so much better.
Now that I exercise every day...

Get the idea? Join me this year, in finding your way to effectively put into action all your plans. Let's make 2004 a year to remember!

Posted by OneMoreBite-Weightloss on Monday, January 05, 2004

Gaining Weight: Stop Seasonal Eating

I notice a distinct difference in my eating patterns during the winter than the summer. I've worked with clients who specifically addressed this issue as they wanted to avoid the seasonal weight gain loss cycle from now on. Do you notice this phenomena, and what, if anything, can you do about it?

The first step is noticing what's happening, and the second is deciding to do something about it. You may walk up your front steps every day, thinking about how you really should get out and clean of the leaves, but yet, you don't. Why? It's not that you wouldn't like the job done but ... It's warmer inside, your routine is to walk straight in and relax and you want to relax, don't you? You don't want to go inside only to change your shoes and come right back out, so you don't. Despite your wish that the job were complete, you don't take the first step toward getting it done.

It's the same with our eating habits. We just think about making a change. Day after day, there it is, that though. "Oh, I'd like to make a change, I'd really like to, but something just stops me." That something is inertia, plain and simple. You do the same things in the same way because that's how it's always been. That can change, if you want it to. A simple decision is the first step.

Do you keep your word? When you say you are going to do something for someone else, do you follow-through? Can other people trust you to do as you say you will? If you answered yes, then what about yourself? Do you give yourself the same consideration and can you trust yourself to follow-through? That's a more difficult question to answer because we all have let ourselves down at one point or another. We're afraid to make a commitment and then not follow through. We're afraid.

Two things for today:

1) Think of fear of failure. If it is something that might be a factor for you then do EFT on that today:

"Even though I'm afraid I'll fail, I deeply and completely accept myself."

"Even though I might not make it, I deeply and completely accept myself."

"Even though I'm not sure I want to do this, I deeply and completely accept myself."

Remember if you need a refresher, or don't know how to do the EFT process, there is a link at the bottom of this message for information. You can learn to do EFT.

2) Today choose one habit in which you'd like to make a change. It can be as simple as cutting back on the frequency of certain foods. For instance, a client had a Wednesday morning doughnut challenge in her office. She said she'd eat donuts whether she wanted them or not, and couldn't seem to resist. We used EFT on that issue, and today she says, "I might have half a doughnut, or not, but I don't grab one every time I pass the try like I used to." Great success, right? Wrong. She's not satisfied. She thinks she shouldn't ever want a doughnut again, but that's not necessarily correct. Success is that she no longer feels she MUST have a doughnut, but now is able to choose if she wants one. She might eat part of a doughnut - not many can do that.

Give yourself credit when you make progress. The simple habit change of eating one doughnut instead of four, every week, eventually means a few pounds lost over time by that change alone. It's the total effect of what we eat, not one single meal. Make changes you can live with - drastic dieting plans don't last, but small changes do.

As time goes by, some people may eventually stop eating many things they used to, but it is generally done in a progressive fashion. Telling yourself you can never have another doughnut is not likely to help you learn to eat less donuts, but knowing you can have some if you want, and choosing when you want them, does help you to eat far less.

Choose one thing this week that you usually eat or drink to excess and decide now to make a change. Certain days of the week, certain hours of the day, quantity, whatever will work in your situation, but choose now to make a healthier choice and work on it all week.

Do EFT daily, three times a day on the issue. By this time next week, that may have become a non-issue and you might be ready for another small change.

Posted by OneMoreBite-Weightloss on Monday, January 05, 2004


		Kathryn Martyn Smith, M.NLP Body Mind Therapy, Weight Loss Coach 210 NW 78th Street Vancouver, Washington 98665 360-695-3184

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