Retraining your brain about food

Triathlon Forum
1

I have come to the realization that for me, food was as much entertainment and distraction as sustenance. I have been working to reprogram myself (as it were) by trying to watch for food-related thoughts, old habits and patterns, and so forth.

Example: I used to keep healthy snacks at my desk (raw almonds, apples, carrots, etc.) and would graze throughout the day. Net result: way too many calories going in my piehole. I would justify it as “but these are good for you”… and “but I ran at lunch”.

I stopped taking snacks to work, or have reduced the total snack volume by half. I have also forced myself to take smaller lunches (I am a “make lots at dinner and take left overs for lunch” girl). I used to eat all of what was in the Glad container, now I eat HALF and put the other half away for the next lunch. I don’t buy a lot of junk food, so it isn’t around to snack on usually.

I am trying to be conscious of my thoughts around food, and that is helping to curb the (what was IMHO) excessive snacking and too-frequent dietary slumming.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love a ribeye and nice bottle of red, but instead of putting myself in a calorie-plus situation well before lunchtime and then trying to dig out of the hole before having said ribeye and bottle of red, I am avoiding the work/daytime food demons.

OK, so why am I posting?

  1. I want to hear what other strategies or discrete changes or epiphanies helped other womens realign their food priorities. I know having a goal is one way to do it, but it’s a whole lot less effective on me :wink: (trust me I’ve tried)

  2. I needed to write this down so I can read it for myself (crazy I know).

Thanks in advance for any advice or similar to have to offer.

AP

2

First of all, you are taking the right steps to becoming a healthier, happier person and you will surely reap the benefits if you keep it up.

As for a tip: I started tracking my calorie intake and expenditure on a website application. There are several out there to choose from but a free one I really liked was www.thedailyplate.com. There you can track every food item you put in your body as well as workouts and activities you perform on a daily basis. It will not be 100% accurate based on only the height and weight you provide but it is a good guideline to help get you closer to reaching your goals. I found myself less likely to reach for that extra handful of chips or have a second helping of dinner just because it was there…all because I was accountable (even just to myself). It’s rather eye-opening to see the calories adding up from the handfuls and extras we consume daily. It’s also gratifying to watch the application subtract calories from your daily total after you add your workouts in. Once you use it for a month or so you will probably have a better understanding of what your body needs in order to lose, gain, or maintain and you can continue to work toward a healthier you!

I hope this helps and good luck!

3

Good idea, for sure, I use FitDay.com, have on and off for years, mostly as an “auditing” tool of my diet. That said, I found I was not keeping up the discipline away from the computer… it really is not about me keeping the log, so much as learning fromt eh log’s entries right? You’re right that it’s a guideline and not much more than that (just like the calories burnt as per our HRMs right?).

And good point about being accountable to yourself. Thanks for posting this.

AP

4

fresh fruit and veggies rock!

every single day at work, i will have very similar meals.

9am: 2 slices whole grain bread spread with my homemade hummus (only need to make it about once a month) and a sliced hardboiled egg. this lays a good protein foundation - i used to get very tired in the afternoon, then read/heard that to stop that, eat an egg at breakfast. i’ve had almost exactly the same sandwich (used to be on white bread with mayonnaise, though :wink: every workday for the last 9 years, and never felt the same mid-afternoon fatigue since. 253cal.

12pm: a banana, 1 other serving of fruit (berries, kiwi or mango), and a yogurt cup. 230cal.

2pm: 4 x 0.25" slices of baked eggplant, about a dozen baby carrots, 10 x 0.25" slices of cucumber, and either:
a) a single-serve tin of seasoned tuna (tomato & basil, lemon-dill, lemon-pepper, there are tons)
b) a tin of kippers (not everyone likes them, i know)
c) a tin of smoked oysters or mussels
total ~200cal.

if i’m hungry before 2pm, i’ll eat the eggplant earlier. at around 4pm, i have either a small container of leftovers (~1 cup total), 1 serving of whole grain cereal with 1% milk, or maybe a spinach salad or microwaved sweet potato. this is my pre-training meal, as i generally start my evening workout around 7pm. whatever i have will be about 250cal.

through the day, though, i make sure to fill up on fruit & veg - that’s 2 fruit and a minimum of 3 vegetables before i make a healthy dinner with at least 2 more veggie servings, so i’m already past the minimum level in the “6 to 10 a day” recommendation. the veggies provide bulk without a lot of calories, and consuming a bit of fat and protein with them keeps me from getting hungry between my mini-mealtimes.

cheers!

-mistress k

5

perfect timing. I used to think I NEED some sort of grain…grains are good! even in my work cafeteria they have the daily “starch” and as its “low fat” its GOOD! no! I found out I have celiac so cant eat wheat etc anymore. I now dont even eat rice or potatoes. I used to think bagels were healthy, or I needed a certain amount of carbs and not true at all and this is what kept me chunky despite all the training. It was hard to get used to thinking breakfast could be something other than toast or cereal. Now I have greek yogurt, or Imake baked goods with almond flour or pecans that I grind myself. The best besides losing a lot of weight is I really feel fantastic too! No need to be so drastic but if you cut out all processed food or anything artificial you WILL see a big benefit. But the hardest part was getting around the thinking I NEEDED rice, pasta, potatoes to train, and I NEEDED sugar during, and I NEEDED it after to recover…you DONT its a habit. I have found that you really can retrain yourself. Now breakfast is usually a vegetable fritatta with cheese…you can make ahead and eat all week. Nuts…yes they are good but stay away if trying to lose weight. Same with fruit, save that for long workouts.
By sticking to just protein and not from fake vegan stuff, real food and vegetables I have finally got to a point that I lost weight and feel great too. I sound like an infomercial sorry. But I totally relate to the breaking the habit thing. Try one week for fun with no pre ride or run food besides maybe a banana. Try eating just eggs and vegetables for breakfast. You will see that you dont NEED grains before a workout at all

6

Bingo. I have the added challenge of not being able to eat dairy early in the day (yog & schtuffs was my staple breakie for years - alas no more)… and I love veg, but two of my faves are now on the verboten list (broc and cauli). All of this crap due to hypothyroidism… but I LOVE spinach salad… so that’s my saviour right now.

your ideas for meals are great… I love how you pull some stuff we don’t normally eat out and make it work… :wink:

Thx

AP

7

Good for you! That’s great that you have found a path that works for you! Austin79 is also celiac, so I learned a lot from her too :wink:

Keep at it, it is amazing when you find what works for you eh? I’m still trying to find that out, but the first step is to not ALWAYS be thinking about food.

Thx for posting,
AP

8

Keep a daily food log and email it to Paulo every week.

It’s amazing how often you’ll reach for something and then reconsider… :stuck_out_tongue:

9

I’m coming at this from the opposite place but some of the ‘separating the emotions from food’ applies.

Stop, Swap, Console - if eating is a distraction or entertainment, how else can you distract or entertain yourself? In other words, STOP and think about what’s going on in your head, SWAP actions, the “console” part is more if it’s a negative emotion (ok, so this one might apply to me more… ie if I am anxious and don’t want to eat)… I like the phrase

If it’s needing something to chew on, gum isn’t terribly good for you but has a lot less calories than almonds.

Drink more water :slight_smile:

A lot of it I think you have figured out - paying attention to your thoughts and WHY you’re eating. I think someone mentioned a food log, but a food and FEELINGS one is really good too. Notebook, one column for food and the other one for what you’re feeling. You’ll quickly notice “bored while doing work” or something and recognize patterns.

Those are the only healthy ways to not eat I can think of :stuck_out_tongue:

10

a quote i heard somewhere may have some value for you here - “a meal doesn’t have to look like a meal”. my dad pops into my office and sees me munching veggies and using cucumber slices as “crackers” to eat a tin of tuna, and thinks i’ve gone nuts. he figures lunch has to be something like a soup and a sandwich, or meat/veg/carb on a plate - my little plastic containers don’t look like what a restaurant would serve him, so it doesn’t seem like a meal to him, but it still tastes great to me and fills me up nicely.

if you can’t do dairy early, how about veggies with hummus dip? it’ll still add protein and fibre to keep you full, and most hummus has some tahini or olive oil for a bit of healthy fat. once a week chop up some peppers, carrots, cukes, celery, mushrooms, maybe some snow/snap peas and pack them into containers so it’s grab and go. you can either bring a large container of hummus and leave it in the fridge (if you have one at work and don’t have thieving coworkers), or get some small (~1/4 cup) containers from a dollar store and pack individual servings.

could do the same thing with sliced apples or pears (coat with lemon juice to keep from browning) and ~1tbsp nut butter in small containers. i really like banana with peanut or almond butter, too!

cheers!

-mistress k

11

I started doing a big breakfast and cut back on processed foods. Sugar/high fructose corn syrup is in everything so the more whole foods you can eat the less calories and junk you are putting in. I also cook almost every meal we eat because eating out is spendy and usually results in calorie bombs. I saw this web site http://www.hungry-girl.com/ on TV the other day, I think she has some good tips for substituting bad foods for good.

I quit sugar when I was trying to get pregnant and I lost 4 pounds in 2 weeks. Obviously it’s not sustainable to eat low sugar for the rest of your life but it was a good lesson for me about how sugar keeps me chubby. Some people are really into elimination diets and quitting food groups and I think that type of stuff works temporarily but what we all need is a solution for eating for the rest of our lives, not for the next 2 months.

I also have come to the conclusion that I do not need ripped up abs to be happy with myself. I would rather have little treats here and there and carry a bit of chub around because life is too short to not enjoy treats. But that’s just me!

Good luck to you, I’m with you on this journey as I lose the baby weight!

12

i have one major issue with hungry girl - she doesn’t seem to believe in food. every one of her recipes has some kind of fake stuff in it: artificial sweeteners, “fat-free liquid egg substitute”, all kinds of things that your grandmother would look at and ask “is this what you call food?”.

i totally agree with cutting back on processed stuff, but hungry girl’s recipes will lead you in the opposite direction.

cheers!

-mistress k

13

I didn’t realize Hungry Girl was all processed. The TV spot I saw showed her substituting Greek Yogurt and other Tofu pasta so it looked healthy. Thanks for the heads up.

14

Here’s a very weird philosophy: I believe that if I start eating less, then my body will go into starvation mode and try harder to hang onto every calorie.

So, I eat what I want, which includes cupcakes, chocolate bars, chips. Since I am responsible for buying groceries, if I feel like being virtuous, I don’t buy any junk food. But I will also recognize cravings for junk food and buy or make them. On the flip side, I also don’t eat much when I’m not that hungry. Most of my food is nutritious, but I have treats at least once a day. When I’m not obsessing about food, I don’t overeat.

I am not a naturally skinny person. I am 44 years old, so any youthful metabolism gift I had when I was younger has left me. But I’ve always subscribed to the non-diet method of eating as much food as I want as long as I don’t overeat, not to mess up my metabolism. When I noticed my weight creeping upward to an unacceptable level two years ago, I had trouble losing weight when I first tried increasing my exercise volume. It was only when I started with high intensity exercise that the weight started disappearing. I also tried to recognize signals when I was actually “full.” I lost 17 pounds over one year. One year later my weight is the same (but went up at Christmas and down in January).

I started at 134 pounds and lost to around 117 for race season. I am at 119 now (5’3, muscular build, medium/large bones). I’ll never be a 100 pound person. I’m actually at ideal race weight, at around the ratio of 1.9 (1.8 to 2.0 pounds per inch is considered good).

I hope this is helpful… It is retraining your brain AND your body not to go into famine response.

15

So, I eat what I want, which includes cupcakes, chocolate bars, chips. Since I am responsible for buying groceries, if I feel like being virtuous, I don’t buy any junk food. But I will also recognize cravings for junk food and buy or make them. On the flip side, I also don’t eat much when I’m not that hungry. Most of my food is nutritious, but I have treats at least once a day. When I’m not obsessing about food, I don’t overeat. <<

Is is exactly what the book “Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything” talks about. I just read it and it’s pretty eye opening and thought provoking.

http://www.amazon.com/...ything/dp/1416543074

16

Thanks for writing this post… I’ve been thinking about this lately and still having a hard time. If I am truly enjoying my life I don’t struggle as much but when I am unhappy (as has been the case lately) I eat whether I am hungry or not.

Question for you on the broc/cauliflower, I am in the process of being tested for hypothyroidism and those two veggies are some of my favs… so are you cutting them out for prevention/worsening of symptoms or do you feel better when not eating them?

17

I am cutting them out./reducing them because I hate the feeling I get in my throat (goiter) and I’m willing to try anything to reduce it. They are known goitrogens. I never eat soy, never have, so don’t have to worry about that one. But you may be just fine eating them, wait til you get your bloodwork back and see how low your levels are…

AP

18

I recently read “The End of Overeating” by Dr. David Kessler, and found it to be eye-opening as far as how our brains are trained to respond to food cues. What has stuck with me most is that we have one split second in which we decide to eat or not eat what we label as our cues (sweets, salty, etc…), and if in that instant you say no, you’re much less likely to indulge in the food/cue.

For me it’s sweets, and I’ve tried this experiment when I felt I needed to slow down the sweets intake, and it truly works. If it’s not a choice, it doesn’t matter.

The good thing about this book is he isn’t trying to sell us anything (a diet, pills). It’s just a peek into why we eat the way we do.

http://www.amazon.com/End-Overeating-Insatiable-American-Appetite/dp/1605297852/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270597641&sr=8-1

19

I read “The End of Overeating” a couple months ago. It was also eye-opening how food processors/developers and restaurant chains use those cues.

20

Wow, interesting! I recently read a book called “Blink!” - similar but applied generally not just to food/eating - about how the brain makes split second decisions… I’ll check it out, thanks

AP