Stress Eating... Nom Nom Nom



The scene at the hospital cafeteria.  This was for FOUR of us.



Recently, my dad underwent an emergency surgery. He's had a myriad of health issues over the last three decades, so it was nothing new for my mom, my sister, and me. What should be new, however, is how we handle the stress of these situations.

Many of us overeat in times of stress as a means of coping with the crappy times we are facing. As my dad was being wheeled off to the operating room, we passed many signs for the cafeteria and we realized we hadn't had dinner. So we went and got dinner... Enough dinner for 8... But there were only 4 of us there. I tried to be good and counted all of my points and tried to steer clear of the fried, greasy comfort foods the cafeteria had available. Despite my salad from the salad bar, I still ended up with a few not so healthy choices on my tray, and a few more in my purse for the long night I knew we were in for.



The next day, my dad was out of imminent danger, but I had eaten way too much that night and I was feeling gross. I went to the gym and literally ran the fastest 5 miles I've ever done. I realized that the stress (and my disgust with my overindulgence) was amping up my run. The next day I ran my fastest treadmill 5k ever and I felt great afterward. My weigh in today was surprisingly good, which I attribute to luck and my turbo speedy runs.

I don't know why we turn to food in times of crisis. It's comforting, sure, but we end up so much more upset after stress eating because we are disgusted with ourselves. What I should have done in that cafeteria was stop and assess what I was doing. I should have walked around the halls of the hospital or played a game on my phone or pulled out my weight tracker or done anything else that would have helped me clear my mind without snacking. I ran the stress off over the next couple of days and felt infinitely better. We need to remind ourselves that food will not solve our problems. Food fuels our bodies, it should not be used as a temporary solution for our problems. Next time I'm faced with a crisis, I'm grabbing my running shoes, not a bag of popcorn.

Perceived Failure Vs. Real Failure

First of all, I've said it before, but I should say again: NONE of our views or opinions are those of WW.  Well, they might agree with me on stuff, but I am not speaking on behalf of WW ever.  So just know that.  Anyway, with that being said... I started working for the big W last week.  I've had a particularly stressful few weeks recently both with work and life in general, and I'll admit, I've been sort of stress eating.  I'm still tracking my food and activity, BH is still tracking, but we are pretty sucktastic when it comes to being 'Viva'.  And we know we aren't alone in our perceived failures.

Today, As I was checking in members for our meeting, almost every single person that stepped on the scale said something along the lines of "I've had a horrible week," or "I know I'm up this week."  And you know what? ALL of them, except ONE person were down.  Some of them were down 2-3 pounds when they thought they had been terrible.  What impressed me more than their successes was that despite their perceived failures, they came in and faced the scale.  This is what I've found to be the key to my hitting goal this time compared to all of my failed attempts at WW in the past - just keep going.  No matter how I think I did in a week, I did not miss a weigh in.  I didn't skip a week because I didn't want to see a gain - that's a slippery slope and usually the beginning of the end.  I needed to know what I was facing in the next week and I either wanted to celebrate my success of a loss, or get smacked in the face with a gain if I had been slipping so I could pick myself up and do better the next week. 

One of today's meeting members, despite being down .6 pounds this week was disappointed with her results.  She was saying how hard she'd been trying but that she wasn't seeing results that she wanted.  My mentor (trainer) and I both knew that she had just come in from a doctor's appointment, so we asked her how her testing had gone - cholesterol, blood sugar, etc.  She said, "well, it's all looking really good and I'm a lot healthier."  We had to remind her how fantastic that is - that the scale isn't reflecting all of her success.  We gave her some tips on how she can have a better week next week (she's not drinking enough water, just coffee!), and told her that if she is really as diligent as she'd been leading up to today and added in more water, she'd have the success on the scale that she'd been looking for.

The only way to truly fail at your weight watching endeavors is to give up.  If you are actively trying - even if you're only tracking WHAT you're eating, not the amount or PP value, that's still something.  If you just show up to weigh in, not even staying at a meeting, that's still something.  BH and I have to remind ourselves that we are still exercising, we are still tracking, we are still trying.  Sure, we might be disappointed with our lack of will power because we are eating our kids' goldfish crackers or too much pizza or drinking too much wine or whatever.. but we are still trying.  We have to remind ourselves that we can't be having real failures if we are still trying.  We have to be kinder to ourselves than we have been.  Would I tell a member that their efforts aren't good enough?  NO.  So why are BH & I being so mean to ourselves?  We are all our own worst critics.  It's time to start treating ourselves, yourselves, as you would your best friend.  Encourage yourselves like you would your best friend.  Start making a healthy lifestyle a priority, treat yourself right.  I guarantee you'll start to see results if you do.

Winter Blahs, Cabin Fever, And The Munchies

Dear Wintertime,

We are so over you. You, with your cold weather and your shitty driving conditions, and your dreary, dark, short days.... Sure, the first real snowfall of the year is pretty, but after that, you suck. We don't get to run or bike outside with the warm sun on our faces (and if we do run outside, we risk frostbite, chapped faces, and broken ankles). You force us to sit inside with food and cupboards filled with cookbooks and baking supplies, desires for comfort foods, and cabin fever. Going to the gym and running on treadmills like hamsters and riding spin bikes in classes next to grunting, sweaty guys isn't the same as a run outside on a 75 degree day. Don't tell us we should go outside to enjoy winter sports. If you've met either of us, you know we aren't coordinated to even stay upright on cross country skis, let alone risk death by skiing down a hill. The only outdoor exercise we do is shoveling, and that is NOT fun. No, even Major League Baseball players rupture their spleens shoveling that diarrhea you call snow.

No, Winter, we don't like you. You flip some sort of switch in our heads, telling us that we want to eat everything in sight, because we might have to hibernate and live off of our fat reserves for another 6 months. In the past week alone, I've baked a cake ("for my kids" with homemade frosting that was "tested repeatedly for quality"), cookies ("for my friend".. Never mind the dough I accidentally ate), pancakes, waffles, and not to mention comfort food dinners like tater tot hot dish. I've been buying snacks like the Unreal Candy and popcorn to munch on, because my favorite fruits aren't very good during this time of year.

Winter, you're lucky we have unlimited texting, because we constantly text each other with our perceived weight watching failures, since we can't stop munching on crap food because you are depressing us. If we could send you a bill for our cell phones and for therapy & anti-depressants, we would.

And the cruelest thing you do to us? After you're done with us, we feel a little chunkier. When your much nicer sisters Spring and Summer arrive, we feel too flabby to wear season appropriate clothing and we roast hiding our extra L-B's under long sleeves and pants because your bitch ass force fed us for months.

So, you evil bastard, we ask that you leave us and our weight watching efforts alone. Make way for our favorite fruits an veggies to grow and taste good and not be all smooshy and gross. Let us get back on our bikes and let us walk our kids to the park without bundling them up in 48 layers. Let us get back to craving fresh crunchy salads and not calorie laden casseroles. You're no longer welcome here.

Respectfully yours,

BH & BH

Freaking Fabulous: Unreal Candy

Aside from just trying to lose/maintain weight, we've also been trying to live healthier lifestyles in general.  We try to eat more nutritious/whole foods, we exercise, we drink more water.. yadda yadda.  Our freaking fabs aren't just finding foods that are less WW Points Plus, but also, finding healthy substitutes for the junk that we crave - like the sour patch grapes when we want some candy or the turkey pepperoni and the wraps Tracy makes when craving pizza.  We are not paid in any way to endorse these finds, we just love them so much that we feel that our readers really should be made aware of them (if they aren't already.)

Yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday.  Neither of us wishes to discuss the amount of points we consumed yesterday, but we will be proud to tell you we counted them.  Well.. Tracy counted all of them.. I got lazy after I had some wine.  Oops.  As I was saying, yesterday was probably one of those days that we all use as an excuse to eat, and in an attempt to at least be healthy about what we were consuming yesterday, I came across the most amazing candy yesterday.  It's not sugar free.  It's not fake.  It's not full of artificial junk that could potentially be bad for you.

I was strolling along (KID FREE) at Target yesterday before the game, taking my sweet time grocery shopping without having my kids whining, fighting, and throwing stuff in the cart, and I noticed something new.  I know my local Target like the back of my hand, so when something crops up that's not part of the normal scenery, I tend to take a second glance.  Sitting there, on the end cap, with what seemed to be a glowing aura around the display and the faint sound of angels singing, was candy.  But I'd never seen this candy, so I took my aformentioned second glance. 

It was called UNREAL Candy, their tagline is 'candy unjunked.'  I figured out the Points Plus value of the ones I thought about buying - the chocolate caramel nougat bars and the peanut butter cups - 2 PP per serving (5, if you accidentally eat two servings, 7 if you accidentally have 3... you get the idea).  Granted, the servings are small, and they really aren't that different than normal candy points values... BUT! for those 2 PP, you are NOT getting artificial sugars, you're not getting corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils,  GMOs (genetically modified organisms), gluten, or preservatives.  And? THEY'RE GOOD.  My husband ate them.  He ate a lot of them.  And he LIKED them.  My kids gobbled their pb cups up.  And I didn't feel bad giving my family a bunch of garbage. 

Yes, I know it's still candy.  There's still sugar, there's still fat, you still need to exercise moderation when eating it.  In the contact area of their website, it states:

Is UNREAL™ a “healthy” candy?

We don’t consider candy to be “healthy” for you. It’s a delicious treat that we love. What we’ve done is give people a better choice, so that when they go looking for candy, they have the option to avoid the junk.

That's exactly what I'm talking about - you can at least feel good knowing that there are some less-bad-for-you candies that are still delicious.  Go find some - NOW.  You're welcome.