Can You Tell a Craving or Emotional Hunger from True Hunger?

One question that I get often is how to tell the difference between cravings, emotional hunger and real hunger. For many people knowing how to identify real from false hunger makes all the difference in their life and health.  We all have that “gee, I really want something to eat” feeling that happens even though we suspect that we aren’t actually hungry.  My craving voice used to run my life.  The cravings would sneak up on me in the middle of the afternoon and tell me that I needed a little something starchy.  Until some of my girlfriends acknowledged that this happened to them too I thought I was crazy.  Now I know that there are many things that cause these cravings including: hormonal fluctuations; eating too much sugar, fat or salt; emotions; dehydration and more.  However with time and a lot of experimentation on myself I learned how to deal with this demon and I want to share a few ideas with you in case you are suffering with cravings in silence.

Hunger is it Real or Not?:

When I get hungry but suspect it isn’t true hunger I always pause to figure out what is happening.  All of us get into trouble when we just feed the hunger without trying to figure it out.  There are a few questions that I ask myself to determine if I am experiencing a craving, emotional hunger or true hunger.  These questions are as follows:

1.       How long has it been since I ate?  If it is less than three hours I am usually experiencing a craving or possibly it is emotional eating.  However if it is has been more than 4 or 5 hours since I ate then I am usually actually hungry.

2.       Do I have any physical signs of hunger?  Does my stomach feel empty?  Am I getting a little dizzy, do I feel light headed?  Sometimes when I am very hungry I get a sensation in the back of my throat. All of those things strongly suggest that I am actually hungry.  When I don’t have any physical symptoms of hunger I delay eating.

3.       Would a piece of fruit or some hummus and veggies satisfy my hunger? When the answer is no again that is another sign that this is a craving.

4.       Do I want something very specific to eat?  For me this would usually be something starchy or possibly dark chocolate.  I seem to crave both bready things and chocolate when I am repressing some emotion or possibly experiencing hormonal fluctuations.  Other women have told me the same thing happens to them only with chips, salty snacks and soda.  I find that these specific cravings are almost never actual hunger.

5.       Have I been exercising and eat healthy whole plant-based foods?  Something else that happens is that when you eat things which contain a lot of sugar, fat and/or salt you body starts to crave those things.  When I am eating a healthy diet and I am active I don’t have many of those cravings.  Have you read "The End of Overeating?"  The medical doctor does a nice job explaining the addictive nature of sugar, fat and salt.

6.       Did the hunger come on quickly or did it build slowly? Hunger that takes time to develop is more likely to be true hunger.  I have found that cravings or emotional eating can happen in an instant and true hunger doesn’t do that.

7.       Could there have been a trigger for the hunger like a commercial on TV, a disagreement or a habit?   Commercials that show pasta or chocolate get me every time but I know this so I can ignore them. Many people have told me that a disagreement (repressed feelings) cause them to eat.  However habits are sometimes harder for people to spot. I know one woman who eats in the middle of the night and has done this a long time so it is now a habit. The only way to identify habits is to keep a food journal and if you suspect that you have unhealthy habits you may want to keep a journal for a while.

8.       Is it possible that I am dehydrated?  I realize that most people are chronically dehydrated and because I know that I get myself a glass of water or a green tea if I suspect that I am dehydrated and that is causing in my hunger. You will be surprised how often fluid will be enough. However don’t get something to drink that has a lot of calories like soda, fruit juice or a sweet coffee beverage since those are providing calories and sugar with little or no nutrition.

The most important thing that you can do to get control of false hunger is to not give in to it immediately. There is nothing that says you have to eat right away although sometimes it feels that way.   Stop, step back and think about what is happening.  At least half the time I find that by asking myself the questions above I am able to figure out easily that I am not honestly hungry and I don’t act on the urge.  Other times it takes me a little while to understand what is going on and sometimes I am actually hungry.  ;-)

I know that I am not the only one who has cravings since all my girlfriends talk about this now.  Until I started to talk about this with friends I felt like I was alone with my crazy cravings. I think it is important to realize that these cravings are normal but that you can get control over your behavior in response to the cravings. Since we all have these cravings let’s share what we have learned to deal with them.  What suggestions do you have for dealing with cravings? Do you have different tricks, tips or questions that you ask yourself? If you do have any suggestions please share them with the rest of us.  Here is short video from WebMD that you might want to check out on the subject.

Book Review:  Strength Finder 2.0

I have been doing a lot of introspective work lately trying to understand myself better.  My premise was how could I help other people overcome their challenges if I didn’t understand myself. With this in mind I bought a copy of the book StrengthFinder 2.0 and took the online test to find out what it would indicate were my strengths.  Honestly I didn’t expect much from a 30 minute online test where you had to answer a series of questions with your gut reaction each in 20 seconds.  However I have to say that I was shocked by my results.  Both Dan and I believe the test absolutely nailed who I am as a person. I wanted to share this with you because I think it will give you a ton of insight into what makes me tick. But I also think it might encourage you to find out what are your strengths. The premise of the book is that we will all be more successful if we use our strengths rather than trying to improve our weaknesses and this makes a lot of sense to me.

According to the online test my strengths are as follows:

1.       Input

2.       Learner

3.       Strategic

4.       Achiever

5.       Intellection

Since those are just titles of the various personality components I will briefly explain them so that they make sense to you. 

Input simply means that I have a strong craving to know more. Gee, really? That doesn’t sound anything like me! Yes I am being sarcastic about that.  It also said that I would like to collect information.  Funny how a simple test figured that out isn’t it?  There are reams of information at our house. I have binders full of articles about health and nutrition as just one example.  I never grow tired of collecting information about subjects that interest me which is exactly what this trait would predict.

Learners like to continuous learn and grow. How does an online test know that I spend hours every day learning?  This clearly explains why I am always reading and why our house if full of reference books on many different topics.  I spend hours every day studying something. I am definitely an information junkie, just ask my husband.  One of my favorite topics is nutrition but there are many other subjects that interest and one the most recent is Buddhism.  Yes, I do realize that I am a bit eccentric.  ;-)

The strategic trait speaks to my ability to put together creative solutions to problems and the ability to spot patterns and issues.  I can’t tell you how many people have commented on my ability to put things I learn about nutrition into practice and I think this may explain why that comes easily to me.  I have always been a big picture person.  I think this trait is the reason that I was able to make the connection between nutrition and health so quickly which is what caused our dramatic dietary shift years ago. It also explains why I am frequently surprised that others can’t add A plus B and get C.  My poor husband has to listen to me talk about this all time.  The man is a saint; you know idea how difficult I can be.  LOL

Achievers are described as people with a lot of stamina who thrive on hard work. This type of person takes great satisfaction from being productive and that also describes me quite accurately.  When I worked in corporate America I would routinely work 12 hour days.  While I was never a morning person I was almost always the last one out of the office by many hours.  I have never had a problem putting in the time to get something accomplished.  Dan used to show up at the hospital after midnight with dinner and try to drag me out of the office so I could get some sleep.  I have been a hard worker my entire life.  Even when I “retired” I still continued to use a to-do list so that I could get a lot accomplished. I am definitely one of those people who had to learn to relax since getting things done is very important to me.

Intellection is used to describe people who are characterized by their intellectual activity.  This group is said to be very introspective and to appreciate intellectual discussions.  Once again I am guilty as charged. I love to figure out why I do certain things or what makes me and others tick.  I love a good conversation about psychology, philosophy or anything else that is outside my usual area of expertise.  Anything that takes me out of my comfort zone and causes me to think in a new way or about a new topic I love.

Anyone who knows me was probably nodding in agreement as this read what the book predicted are my strengths. I am still a little shocked by how accurate that test actually was.  If you are thinking about changing careers or just want to find additional satisfaction in your current profession this book would probably be a good idea for you. This isn’t a book that you can check out from the library however. Each book has an individual code in it so that you can take the online test.  You use the code to set up an account for yourself.  If you are someone who enjoys introspection I would recommend this book.

Have any of you read this book and taken the test?  If you did what were your top 5 strengths?  Did you feel like they accurately described you? I was very pleasantly surprised by how the test really seemed to peg me, particularly the first few traits.   A little piece of me had expected to see “positivity” show up in my top 5 traits but I also understand why I got the ones that I did. Other than that one missing item I didn’t really see any surprises.

The interesting thing about the results of this book was that it crystallized for me things that I knew about myself at a gut level.  The other book I am reading about marketing also asked me to list my strengths.  The reason that the when we use our strengths a few things happen. By leveraging our strengths we increase the probability that we will be successful. When we use our strengths results come easily and this increases overall satisfaction.  One of the things that I do well is my ability to remember facts and seemingly unrelated facts particularly involving nutrition.  I can talk about nutrition for days which all my friends can attest to.  This is one of the reasons that wellness coaching makes so much sense for me.  Do you know where your strengths lie?

Bean Cookbook:

Given that I have no come out of the closet in terms of my “need for information” you probably understand why I am always reading.  Yesterday morning I was reading Epicurious and came across this link for a bean cookbook.  I try not to add too many cookbooks to my collection now because it is completely out of control and I don’t really use them.  In fact when I buy a cookbook I read it like a novel and then it goes on the shelf where it will probably remain. I am definitely not someone who cooks from recipes; I don’t use my recipes or those from anyone else.  Cooking for me is more of a go with the flow experience. I like to taste, adjust and tweak as I go.  Are you starting to see why it is difficult to get me to actually write down a recipe?

When I was reading this article about the bean cookbook my first reaction was, I need this book.  Why?  Well I love beans and we eat them every day after all.  However I suspect this book will be like the all the others I will read it like a novel and it will go immediately to one of my bookcases with all its little cookbook friends.  The reason I am writing is twofold.  First if any of you have this book I would love to hear what you think of it.  Do you recommend purchasing the book? Second if you are stumped for bean ideas I wanted to let you know that this book exists. If you do buy it please stop back and share your thoughts on the book, I am sure that I am not the only one who would like to know more.

Saturday:

What happened to our 71 degree temperatures which started February?  Saturday was cold, snowy and incredibly windy.  Due to the weather we spent most of the day inside our nice warm house.  Snow is always more pretty when you are inside look out but that is particularly true when the wind is blowing.

Breakfast at our house was things you have seen before.  First we had some no-sugar and no-oil granola with homemade almond milk and fresh fruit. This is an old picture which shows bananas but I used blackberries today instead.

Dan and I shared a green smoothie (kale, cherry, banana, walnut, cocoa, cinnamon, vanilla with a little stevia).

I had savory oatmeal for lunch. This time it included mushrooms, onions, garlic, Italian seasonings, nutritional yeast and I added thinly sliced Brussels sprouts at the very end of cooking. Since Brussels sprouts are part of the cruciferous family I try not to cook them much either to maximize the nutrition that we consume.

We met Lauren for dinner at our usual place and had a great time.  We started with the Middle Eastern plate.

Then Ian came to the table and we chatted about food.  He made some suggestions which sounded delicious to us and that was what we went with.

First there was a blood orange, hearts of plan, and avocado salad with sesame which was delicious.

Then we had a smoky grilled asparagus with a habanero salsa which I loved.  However I do have a secret love affair with habanero peppers so that may explain why I enjoyed this so much.

However we all agreed that our favorite dish of the night was the grilled oyster mushrooms which were drizzled with a sauce of:  balsamic vinegar, truffle oil, and sweet soy.  The mushrooms were served over baby arugula and came with pickled kumquats.  This is delicious!  Lauren and were both taken with the mushrooms and the kumquats.  It always amazes me that Ian feels like he doesn’t do vegan food well, because we think it gets it right every time.

Lauren definitely fits right in at the restaurant and is getting to know everyone.  She told us that the girls on th nursing e unit were getting together next Sunday to celebrate the February birthdays and she suggested the restaurant.  We might just have to stop in for dinner that night to say hello to everyone since we were there so long we feel like part of the crew.  ;-)

Happy thoughts:

There are so many things to be thankful for each day if you are open to the good things that happen in all of our lives.  Here are the things that I have been happy for lately:

·         We had a lovely dinner Saturday night with our new friend Lauren.  It is fascinating that we have so much in common with her since she is young enough to be our child.  However knowing people like Lauren gives me great hope that maybe the health of this country can be turned around.  *fingers crossed*  We lingered over dinner while we spent time talking about everything and nothing.  I love evenings like those don’t you?

·         Saturday the predicted snow and rain mix was nothing more than flurries though it was fairly windy (we had guts of 40+ degrees and it felt like I was back in Chicago). Thankfully the weather wasn’t bad enough to derail our dinner plans with Lauren.

·         Sunday Dan and I had a lovely relaxed day together. We did a lot of nothing and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The weather was cold and windy and it was definitely a great day to stay inside.

·         Monday I had planned to have lunch with a friend but I hurt my knee and thought it made more sense to stay home and keep the knee iced. While I am not happy about my knee I am grateful that I was able to stay home and keep my knee elevated and iced.  Being somewhat immobile I took the opportunity to get a little reading knocked out. You are shocked by that I know LOL.  Before you ask, no I never get tired of learning it is what I love to do.

·         Tuesday I am having lunch with my girlfriend Deirdre. We haven’t had a girl’s lunch in months. I can’t wait to hear what she has been up to.  There are few things in life that are better than spending time with a good girlfriend.  Can’t wait!

·         Wednesday I get to go to the dentist.  What, why is that a happy thought?  Okay so I am not weird and in fact I actually have a bit of a dental phobia from a bad childhood experience. However the people at our dental office are so nice that I don’t mind going in to see them and even enjoy it. The time at the dentist is more like seeing old friends than having work done.  What, you don’t email the people who work on your teeth?  Yes, I really do pick up new friends wherever I go.  Are you starting to see how much I love people?  LOL

Signing Out:

I have a crazy busy week planned with something planned everyday this week.  Yikes!  Someone seems to have overbooked her schedule again.  I will try to be pack at least once or twice this week with posts but it is going to be difficult. Please understand if you only hear from me once.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and that your Monday was a good one.  Have a happy and healthy week and I will talk to you again as soon as I can.  Ciao.

31 Days to Better Health - Day 26

Happy Thursday!  *woo hoo*  We are getting very close to the weekend now.  Have you noticed that I love weekends yet?  LOL  ;-)  Are you as happy about the approaching weekend as I am? 

Fortunately Thursday wasn’t overbooked like most of my week.  I am very happy to have had a reasonably low key Thursday.  The only must do on my schedule today was webinar in the evening.  *yay*  Unfortunately today was cool, grey and rainy.  However you know me, I didn’t let the weather dampen my spirit.

What did you think of yesterday’s post?  I hope that something that I wrote caused you to reflect on the negative self talk that doesn’t serve you well.  I truly believe that the words that we use make a huge difference in how we process what happens each day.  For those of you who are just joining us here is the recap of what we have accomplished so far to remind us all of how much we have covered during the first 25 days of January:

Day 1 – Defined Success and What is/was Holding Us Back
Day 2 – Determined our Purpose and Looked at Passion
Day 3 – Listed Our Goals for January
Day 4 – Listed the Things We Have Needed to Work on for a While
Day 5 – Looked at Optimism vs. Pessimism and Fear vs. Intuition
Day 6 – Practiced Conscious Eating
Day 7 – Hara Hachi Bu
Day 8 – Taking the Stress Out of Meal Time
Day 9 – Acknowledgments
Day 10 – No Excuses, Do it Anyway
Day 11 – Is it True?
Day 12 – Have You Really Connected With Someone Today?
Day 13 – Motivation is a Decision
Day 14 - Successfully Navigating Dinner at an Unfamiliar Restaurant
Day 15 - What Do You Want, Have You Asked?
Day 16 – Treating Others as You Wish to be Treated
Day 17 – Food as a Budget
Day 18 – Silence Your Inner Critic
Day 19 – Replace I Have to With I Want to
Day 20 – Identifying Your Rituals
Day 21 – Face Your Fears
Day 22 – Give Up the Diet Mentality
Day 23 – The Meaning and/or Purpose of Food
Day 24 – Trigger Foods/Situations/People
Day 25 – Words Have Meaning

What did you think of yesterday’s post about words have meaning?  Did you enjoy the exercises?  If you came up with a powerful personal slogan please share it with us. I am sure that I am not the only one who would love to read it.

Lose All-Or-Nothing Thinking:

This is a topic that is very meaningful for me because it used to describe how I approached most things in life including diet.  I would be very gung ho and follow rules to the letter, no deviation. Then when I did something “off plan” (which I considered wrong) I would throw in the towel, blow my “diet” and say I would start again the next day, next week, etc.  Needless to say this not the healthiest approach.  For years I thought I was the only one who did this. However based on the people whom I have talked with about food it is also very common which is why I wanted to address it on the blog.

Why would any of us ever think that we needed to follow a program exactly?  Where does this come from and why is it so common?  I blame diet books that demonize other diets for the dogmatic way that most people follow a new plan or program.  Life is not meant to be that rigid in my opinion.  It would be wonderful if we could all eat perfectly all the time but that isn’t real life.  Not to mention sometimes everyone needs a little splurge to make life worth living.  ;-)  To understand how we got here I am going to briefly review recent diet history in this country.

During the low-fat diet phase everyone avoided eating fats which were considered “bad”.  In response to this idea that “fats are bad” the food manufacturers developed fat-free baked good. Does anyone remember Snackwell cookies?  In the early 90’s those cookies sold like wild fire and when you read the nutrition panel they had similar calories to cookies with fat the difference was they had more sugar.  While this trend was bad there was merit to some of it. Saturated fat is not healthy and oil provides nothing but fat without any of the fiber or micronutrients which are present in whole foods.

Fast forward to the late 90’s and now we had the low-carb craze.  Suddenly fats were fine and sugar was bad.  Now we had people eating steak, bacon, and eggs and staying away from fruit and tomatoes.  The Snackwell cookies were replaced with ones that were high in fat.  These new cookies were made with copious amounts of fat, nut flours, sugar alcohols rather than wheat flour and sugar.  Like the low-fat phase this one also had valid points.  Consuming refined foods and foods which contain a lot of sugar is also bad for you.  However consuming whole fruit is not unhealthy.  As I mentioned to one of my friends who was following a low-carb diet and was worried about fruit, no one ever got fat eating a piece of fruit.

Today we have people who believe that raw food is the way to go.  Now people think they can eat anything as long as it is raw. This means that saturated fat, in the form of coconut oil, is fine as long as it is “raw”.  In this regime there is no concern about carbs in the form of produce.  Like the other two plans this one also has some merit.  Most people don’t eat enough raw produce.  Since some nutrients are heath sensitive eating part of your produce raw is important. However it is also important to remember that some nutrients are better absorbed when food has been cooked. 

What do all of these ideas have in common? They look at nutrition from a narrow perspective and set up a distinction between good and bad.  You can eat sugar but fats are bad.  No, fat is fine but sugar is bad.  Wait, raw is fine but cooked is bad.  STOP the diet merry-go-round I am getting off!  I am picturing some of you saying, “but wait a minute you have rules”.   Yes I absolutely do have rules, but mine are based on a ton of research and that research was combined using old-fashioned common sense.  Additionally I also leave room for bending (but not breaking) those rules from time to time which I will explain below.

When we changed our diet and lifestyle the reason was to improve our health.  Losing weight for us was a side effect of improved health but it wasn’t the reason we changed how we ate.  When I followed the science it because clear to me what we should concentrate on consuming more:  vegetables, fruits, beans, seeds, nuts and whole grains.  Things that were detrimental for our health:  meat, dairy, oil, sugar and salt were moved out of our food.  Then we had the grey area which included processed foods like flour (yes even whole wheat).  When we are eating at home it is easy to avoid those things which are detrimental (and by that I mean they are generally inflammatory) and include only healthy (anti-inflammatory) foods.  However when you are eating out this becomes nearly impossible even when you have a chef friend.  We recognize that when we eat out we are getting a little oil, some salt and sugar and that is okay as long as it is an occasional indulgence.  I now believe that your overall dietary pattern is what matters not any one specific meal.   

Since I am sure some of you are wondering I will explain the things that I try to remember when I making food decisions, these are:

·         Produce is always good, and I try to eat at least half of it raw (or lightly cooked) and half of it cooked.  Some nutrients are more easily absorbed in cooked food, and some are destroyed by heat.  By having some produce cooked and some raw you are covering your bases.  If you don’t like raw produce cook part of it very lightly to minimize nutrition loss.

·         Beans are a fantastic source of plant protein. They fill you up, contain a lot of fiber which binds to cholesterol in your GI system, and they are versatile. I try to include beans in our food every day.  This won’t work for everyone since some people have trouble digesting beans. If this is you one approach is to cook them very well (think super soft) and add them to your diet a little at a time.  Your digestive system may do fine with them after a little “bean training”.

·         Mushrooms are another food that we try to eat each day.  They help boost the immune system and have been studied for their ability to fight cancer.  Not to mention I love the taste and texture of mushrooms which is a bonus.  Mushrooms are a great whole food way to mimic meat which is nice.

·         All foods in the alium family (onions, garlic, shallots, and leeks) have also been shown to fight cancer.  They add a lot of flavor to food and work in every savory dish that I can think of.  We also eat these each day.  When you are going to cook them be certain to chop them and allow them to sit for 10 minutes before cooking so that the chemical reaction has time to take place.  If you are going to eat them they might as well be as nutritious as possible. I always cut my alliums set a kitchen timer for 10 minutes and come back when it beeps.  This has become a habit and I don’t even think about it now.

·         Add leafy green vegetables anywhere that you can.  I add raw kale to my savory oatmeal, shredded kale goes into salad, straight raw kales goes into the Vitamix to be included in our morning smoothies.  Basically if I can get a raw leafy green in I do.  Cooked kale is also good, but some of the nutrition is destroyed by heat so I try to eat this raw or lightly cooked whenever possible.

·         Quinoa is a wonderful substitute for pasta or rice.  I love that is cooks quickly.  Additionally it is a complete plant protein (contains all 8 of the essential amino acids).  Quinoa is something that I always keep in the house.  If you of a friend belong to Costco they sell 3 pound bags of organic quinoa for $9.99 and I always pick one up when I am there.

·         I know that I need to add nuts and seeds to my veggie meals to increase the absorption of the fat soluble vitamins and this something that I am working on. We are all a work in process when it comes to nutrition.  ;-)

I hope that helps to give you some ideas of what I try to include in our meals.  Our diet is essentially a whole food diet.  You won’t see us eating things like soy hot dogs, commercial faux meat, and commercial faux dairy because these items almost always contain soy protein isolates which we do not consume.  Additionally we stay away from high fructose corn syrup and agave since fructose is hard to digest.  As I think of other things that I think you should know I will include it in future posts but this gives you a good idea of how I make food decisions.

Today’s exercise is:

1.       Go back to your food journal that you started a few days ago and review what you have been eating. Does anything stand out as something that needs to be changed?  If it does make a note of it and put a plan into place to change what you are doing.

When I looked at my food journal I can easily see that I am eating too many grains and I am still not getting enough seeds and nuts. Additionally I know that I need to be eating more leafy greens and raw fruit. This is why it helps to have what you are doing on paper.  I am going to make it a point to have a salad for either lunch or dinner and to include seeds and nuts on that.  Also since it is citrus season I plan to have a piece of citrus every day.  These two changes should crowd out the grains.  If will reexamine my eating habits in a week and if I am still having too many grains I will make another change then.

Progress on my goals:

1.       Newsletters - Wednesday was also hectic and the newsletters didn’t get any time.  L

2.       Body Bugg – I continue to wear my bugg and I have gotten back into using it the way I had intended when I purchased it.  Go me!  J

3.       Date with Dan – Dan and I have been going for a walk each night after dinner. We are using this time to get away and talk as well as to add some movement and fresh air to our day.  One of our neighbors was out late this evening and mentioned that we were making a habit of walking.  J

4.        Measuring calorie dense food – I am making a little progress on this but I really need to focus on it with every veggie meal to help my body absorb the fat soluble vitamins.

5.       Working on my business – My schedule got in the way of this too.  However, knowing that I will be sharing it with you on February 10^th has definitely moved it up on my priority list.  I will be working on this over the weekend.  Accountability works for all of us, including me.  ;-)

How are you feeling about your progress so far?  I hope you feel like you have made a few lasting changes this month.  J

Random Thoughts:

The information continues to come out about the resveratrol research fraud.   I wonder if everyone who claims to be drinking red wine for their health will now stop consuming it?  Somehow I doubt that will happen. Worse yet it appears the problem goes beyond the first group.  I still don’t understand why the researchers felt the need to commit fraud.  The only thing that I can think of is the research funding but it still doesn’t make any sense to me.  I guess I am just not wired that way.  *shakes head*

Dan and I are continuing to go for out evening walk and talk through the neighborhood. We also stopped at the grocery store this evening and picked up kale, bananas, frozen cherries and arugula.  The people at the grocery store only ever see us buy produce and tofu. They still must be trying to figure out why we are “so granola” as Ian puts it.  It is good to keep people guessing isn’t it?  LOL  ;-)

While we were out walking I couldn’t help but notice our neighbors recycling which included Whole Foods bags and organic packaging.  I always find that odd since she also gets Chem Lawn every few weeks from Spring thru Fall because I close up my house on that side the days when they come to spray.  Why doesn’t she make the connection that chemicals on your lawn is not a good idea since you kids and dog roll in the grass. Some people really aren’t good at connecting the dots.  *rolls eyes*

Acknowledgements:

Have you made any progress writing acknowledgements?  I hope you are working on this exercise and enjoying it. I find that it helps me stay positive and recognize the things that I do every day.  Here are my acknowledgements:

·         I spent a few hours listening to RMT lectures and taking notes. I am definitely a little out of my element but in a challenging way.  At this time there is no thought of asking for my money back during the 30-day guarantee window. I love a good challenge in case you hadn’t noticed.  ;-)

·         Dan is enjoying having tofu lasagna in his lunch this week.  It is so nice to see him so happy about lunch.  I need to make tofu lasagna for his lunch more often since he loves it so much.

·         I have been getting a little better at adding seeds and nuts to veggie meals. I am still not perfect but I am improving.  J

Wednesday:

My food on Wednesday was stuff that I could make quickly since I didn’t have much time.  Everything that I ate you have seen before. Given my time constraints I recycled pictures to save myself some time.

Breakfast for me was Italian savory oatmeal which is quick and nutritious.  Love that!

 Lunch was pizza veggies which is another favorite of mine. This is another super fast meal.  I use frozen veggies, top with red sauce, Italian seasonings, nutritional yeast and hulled hempseeds (or you could use pine nuts).  You can use any frozen veggies that you have on hand.

Dinner soba noodles with veggies in black bean sauce.  I cooked the soba noodles in a broth that consisted of dried mushrooms, thinly sliced red onion, sliced garlic, minced fresh ginger and a little fermented black bean sauce.  When the soba noodles were cooked I added shredded kale and thinly sliced celery for about 30 seconds. I used tongs and a spider to remove the noodles and veggies to a bowl and topped the dish with sesame seeds.  If you aren’t a fan of black bean sauce you could also use miso, vegetarian oyster sauce or a little chili oil instead.  This is one of those use what you have on hand meals.

Happy thoughts:

Have you gotten into the habit of writing your happy thoughts?  I find it helpful to remind myself how often things go well and that I shouldn’t take these things for granted.   As always there are so many things to be thankful for that I almost don’t know where to start. Here are my happy thoughts:

·         I am really enjoying RMT (Robbins-Madanes Training) so far.  It has definitely pulled me out of my comfort zone but in a very good way. I can’t wait to share some of the things I am learning with you.  I love to share.  J

·         Both last night and this evening I may quick and healthy dinners which Dan really enjoyed.  It makes me smile just to think that Dan and I both have embraced healthy food.  I still am amazed by how far we have come in our transition.  If we can do this anyone can.

·         We are both still going for our evening after dinner walks together and we use that time to talk, reconnect after being apart all day and get our heart rate up.  It is great to spend some time outside after dinner.  This evening it was still 49 degrees at almost 10pm.  We are enjoying the nicest weather; it doesn’t feel like winter at all.

·         Yesterday we had a beautiful day with blue skies and I even saw some spring flowers blooming.  It was one of those gorgeous days where it just great to be alive.  J

Signing Out:

Thursday was another busy day but it was also productive. I had appointments and quite a bit of study time.  I love staying busy so it was a good day. 

Sorry this post went up so late. I had a webinar from 8-9pm, then dinner, followed by a long walk and a trip to the grocery store. After all that I had to finish this post.  I definitely waited until the last minute to finalize this post.  I hope to have tomorrow’s post up much earlier in the evening.

Tomorrow is Friday!  *happy dance*  I am so happy that the weekend is almost here.  We don’t have any particular plans but I am just looking forward to 48 hours of time with my hubby.  I hope you are also looking forward to your weekend. Talk with you again tomorrow.  J

31 Days to Better Health - Day 24

Happy Tuesday, I hope the week is still going well for you.  We managed to get through Monday without any drama or crisis which was extremely nice.  I could use a little dullness in my life for a while so that I can relax and recharge.  In fact I used my down time to get in a little meditation time. It was a very relaxing way to spend a cold, dreary and often rainy Monday.

(Luca looking innocent)

However Tuesday morning was not smooth sailing at my house. Sometimes I think if it weren’t for my cats I would have nothing to do.  Luca was in the kitchen with me this morning when I was making Dan’s smoothie. I headed to the freezer to stash his smoothies and just as walked by she swished her tail. I didn’t want to step on her and lost my balance dropping one the glasses of chocolate smoothie which smashed on the floor. She stood there looking at me indigently like “why did you do that”.  Then Luca decided that she wanted to leave the kitchen and go through the broken glass and chocolate.  *ugh*  I got the cat out of the kitchen without getting any chocolate on her and had to close all three cats in a room while I cleaned up the mess.  Poor Dan only got half his normal breakfast this morning and now my slippers are covered in chocolate.  By the time Dan had finished getting ready for work and had come downstairs for breakfast all evidence of the chaos had been removed.

(Nicco....under that white fuzz is a little brat, but we love him)

After I got his lunch packed I decided that a nice bath was in order to chill out.  I had planned on relaxing but Binky jumped up on the edge of the tub and slipped into the bath with me.  His back feet got wet as did the end of his tail. When I called for Dan Binky dripping wet tail and all ran out of the bathroom and met Dan in the hallway. Dan had to corner him and dry him off with one of my towels.  Yes this is what life is like at my house in the morning.  Who said life is calm and peaceful when you don’t have children in house?  Fortunately Masi was sound asleep in our bed because we had turned on the electric blanket for him. At least one of our cats wasn’t a problem this morning.  ;-)  It definitely pays to have a sense of humor at our house.

Now that you have a vivid picture of morning at my house let’s get back to the work of improving our health. For those of you who are just joining us here is the recap of what we have accomplished so far to remind us all of how much we have covered during the first 22 days of January:

Day 1 – Defined Success and What is/was Holding Us Back

Day 2 – Determined our Purpose and Looked at Passion
Day 3 – Listed Our Goals for January
Day 4 – Listed the Things We Have Needed to Work on for a While
Day 5 – Looked at Optimism vs. Pessimism and Fear vs. Intuition
Day 6 – Practiced Conscious Eating
Day 7 – Hara Hachi Bu
Day 8 – Taking the Stress Out of Meal Time
Day 9 – Acknowledgments
Day 10 – No Excuses, Do it Anyway
Day 11 – Is it True?
Day 12 – Have You Really Connected With Someone Today?
Day 13 – Motivation is a Decision
Day 14 - Successfully Navigating Dinner at an Unfamiliar Restaurant
Day 15 - What Do You Want, Have You Asked?
Day 16 – Treating Others as You Wish to be Treated
Day 17 – Food as a Budget
Day 18 – Silence Your Inner Critic
Day 19 – Replace I Have to With I Want to
Day 20 – Identifying Your Rituals
Day 21 – Face Your Fears
Day 22 – Give Up the Diet Mentality
Day 23 – The Meaning and/or Purpose of Food

What did you think of yesterday’s post about the meaning and/or purpose of food?  Did you learn anything about yourself through the exercises?  If you don’t like how you view food and want to change it but don’t know how let me know either by posting a comment on the prior post or by sending me an email.  I changed how I view food and I know you can too.  Once you begin to view food as fuel everything else is easy.  J

Trigger Foods/Situations/People:

This idea was inspired by Christy’s comment about not being able to stop eating chocolate.  I remembered her comment yesterday when I was writing about my addiction to Italian comfort foods (bread, pasta and pizza).  However for some people it goes beyond specific foods and triggers also include particular situations and sometimes people.  I think most us have foods that we find difficult to control ourselves around.  Do you know what those foods are for you?  Do you know if you also have situations and people who are problematic for you?  Do you have strategies to handle these foods, situations and people?  That is what we are going to talk about today.

I am going to assume that you don’t know what foods you crave because I didn’t always know what those foods were for me. However there are some easy ways to figure it out but you will need to use the food journal that we set up yesterday.  Look at your journal and see if there were any foods that you ate when you weren’t hungry. If there were foods that you ate even though you had a hunger level of 0 it is a good bet those are your trigger foods.  If there were no foods that you ate yesterday when your hunger level was 0 either this isn’t an issue for you, or it shows up differently.  Were there any foods that you over ate while you were keeping the journals. These would have showed up as items you ate that resulted in your being full on the scale of 2 or 3.  Reaching the 2 scale may mean that you need to eat more consciously and slowly or it could be the result of consuming trigger foods.  If you reached a level 3 on the fullness scale I would say you have found your trigger foods.

The next question is do you have a problem one food or more than one?  My trigger foods all involve high carb items that are savory in nature.  I can easily pass up cookies or desserts but fresh baked bread is a killer for me.  I also have difficulty with pasta, pizza, potatoes, anything starchy as you can see. 

Now that we have identified the foods that trigger us to over eat what do we do about it?  For me the answer was very simple I take the easy way out and keep those items out of my house.  However I also know that I can have them in moderation when we are out and that is enough to satisfy me.  The problem comes when Dan wants pizza or bread.  Since I know that I have nearly zero self control around these things, but I don’t want him to be deprived due to my issue I make certain that he is home when I make them. I know myself well enough that I wouldn’t even consider preparing these during the week when he was at work.  Fortunately Dan and I talk about everything so he knows my weaknesses and understands that I need his help.  Can you do something similar with your trigger foods?  Maybe your family can have them when they go out, or they can be a special weekend meals instead.

I alluded to the situation that I have difficulty with above. I am much more likely to eat something that isn’t in my best interest when I am alone.  I think this is because being around people holds me accountable to myself.  My husband knows me as well and sometimes better than I know myself.  We talk about everything and he is always there to give me a gentle nudge when I need it.  Having a built in support system works very well for me.  What about you, do you know what types of situations are problematic for you?  I have talked to many people who have the same issue that I do eating things they shouldn’t when they are alone. However I have also heard from people who have difficult in the opposite situation. They are extremely disciplined when they are alone but you put them in a group and they feel like they need to fit in.  Other people have problems when they are eating where there is a buffet; parties are a common danger spot for people.  I have also talked to a few people who have difficulties staying on track when they go out to a bar. Apparently having alcohol reduces their discipline.  As varied as these situations all they all have solutions. The important thing is to identify what your specific issue is so that you can do something about it.

For example if being alone is a problem then keeping the trigger foods out of your house works well.  If you know that you have difficulty sticking to your plan when you go out due to peer pressure then you need develop phrases and strategies that you can use.  You could eat before you go so that you can honestly say you aren’t that hungry and salad is enough. Alternately you could explain that you are watching your weight (or are concerned about your cholesterol) and you need to stick with a salad.  In this situation all that is required is that you have thought about how you will handle things so you are prepared.  If you have difficulty with buffets at a party I have a few suggestions.  You can do what I do and scan the buffet before picking up a plate.  This way I know what looks healthy and what doesn’t.  Another tip that works well for me is to eat before these events so that I am not hungry when I arrive. I also like to carry a drink (usually club soda with lime) so that I don’t have a free hand. Most people are too busy doing their own thing to notice that you aren’t eating.  The last suggestion I have for buffets at parties is to go in telling yourself that you won’t get something until a certain time (near the end).  This way you have delayed eating and even if you get something that isn’t in your best interest there won’t be much of it.  If you problem is eating the wrong items when you are at a bar (or are drinking) this one is a little more tricky.  I could give you the obvious answer of don’t drink because it isn’t good for you but that probably isn’t what you want to hear.  The only thing I could think of for this was to eat before you go out. This will do two things, a full stomach will keep the alcohol from be absorbed as rapidly and that should help you make better choices. Also a full stomach will mean you have less room for unhealthy bar food.  If you have any other suggestions for this situation please share I would love to hear them.

The final area where I have heard people have difficulty with being around specific people.  I was surprised the first time I talked with someone and they told me that they make healthy choices all the time except when they are out with a specific person.  However after I heard this a few times I realized this was much more common than I expected.  The commonality in what people told me was that they had a specific friend where food was their bond. They would go out and eat unhealthy items like pizza, maybe they would go the bar and have beer and wings, or meet at Starbuck’s cappuccinos.  If you have this issue I have some suggestions.  You can find a restaurant that has both the healthy fare you want and things your friend will enjoy.  Our chef friend Ian fills this need beautifully for us.  I am sure there are places near you that can do the same.  Alternately you could get together at your home instead and that way you had complete control over the food.  What about meeting for a picnic and you both bring your own food?  My favorite idea is to get together for a non-food activity. You could meet an exercise class, a run or a walk.  What about a movie, or a concert?  There are many options here to get away from unhealthy food gatherings with this particular friend.  If they are a close friend you can confide in them that you are watching what you eat and ask them for their help.  Most people want to help and when you share something that you are struggling with usually they are more than happy to do what they can to be of assistance.

Today’s exercises are:

1.       We are going to return to the food journal that we started yesterday to identify the problem foods, situations and people.  You will need to keep track for a little while in order to identify the areas that you need to be aware of.  For some people a week may be enough time and others may need a month. After you have collected at least a week of data review your results. Does anything stand out as being a problem?  The important thing is to identify the things that are problems for you so that you can develop strategies to deal with them.  If nothing jumps out as a problem continue to keep the journal and come back to it in another week and look again.

2.       Once you have identified your problem foods, situations or people now it is time to brainstorm how you will handle these situations.  Write down as many possible solutions as you can think of.  Put these ideas into practice at each opportunity to determine which ones work best for you. 

Were you able to identify the situations that are problematic for you?  I hope that you were.  Knowing what the problem is in 90% of the battle.  Remember that everyone has things that they struggle with, you are not alone. Now that you know what you need to work on the rest is easy.  J Like always if anything that I wrote is unclear or you think that it requires clarification please don’t hesitate to let me know either by commenting or sending me an email.

Progress on my goals:

1.       Newsletters – Monday I took the day off to get a few other things accomplished. 

2.       Body Bugg – I continue to wear my bugg and I have gotten back into using it the way I had intended when I purchased it.  Go me!  J

3.       Date with Dan – Dan and I have been going for a walk each night after dinner. We are using this time to get away and talk as well as to add some movement and fresh air to our day.  Dan wants to get a little caught up at work but then we will be getting back to our date plan during the week.

4.        Measuring calorie dense food – I am making a little progress on this but I really need to focus on it with every veggie meal to help my body absorb the fat soluble vitamins.

5.       Working on my business – Monday I took the day off from working on the business.  The January posts are taking me many more hours to write than usual. As much as I love these posts I will be happy to see February arrive since I really need a little time back to work on other things, the business being one of them.

How are you feeling about your progress so far?  I hope you feel like you have made a few lasting changes this month.  J

Random Thoughts:


When we went for our evening walk last night we got on the topic of meditation. I told Dan how much I have been enjoying the meditation course from The Great Courses and how surprised I am that I feel somehow connected to Buddhism.  It is very strange for me since I was never interested in Asian religions in the past.  If you have read any books on Buddhism that you would recommend please share.  I would appreciate any suggestions you wish to share.

Another topic that we discussed during our walk was not sweating the small stuff.  It always surprises me how often someone will tell me about seeing one of my recipes on someone else’s site without any credit back to me.  The funny thing is that I could really care less about this.  I know that anything that I put on the web basically fair game for plagiarism. I share my recipes freely to help others to cook more healthfully with the hope that they will be able to improve their health.  Is it annoying that people will blatantly rip off my work?  Of course it is.  However in the larger scheme of life it is not significant.  If they can live with the idea that they stole there is nothing that my anger will do to them.  This is something else that I have learned from meditation.  The only thing that any of us can change is our behavior. We can give others information but in the end they are the ones that need to want to change. In the case of someone blatantly stealing they are obviously not concerned with what other people think. There is no reason to waste my time being upset.  Is there anything that upsets you that maybe you need to let go of? 

Speaking of recipes I noticed this weekend that my vegan mayo has over well over 10,000 hits now.  You have no idea how much this bothers me. When I figured out how to make this I was very pleased and wanted to share it with everyone.  About 6 months later I stopped using oil and haven’t made it since.  I really wish that people weren’t going to this so often because it makes me feel like I am contributing to their unhealthiness. I considered taking it down for that reason but decided that I shouldn’t since it is a least a tiny bit better than regular mayo. I have a question for you; if I can come up with something similar without oil would you be interested?  How many of you still use mayo with oil but would like a no-oil product?  I haven’t used mayo is so long that I don’t miss it but if there is a need for a healthy product I would be happy to work on a recipe.  Just let me know what you think by commenting here or emailing.

How many of you were surprised by some of the things we used to eat?  I thought twice about writing that but realized that most people haven’t been vegan their entire life and it is part of who I am.  There are many things that I have consumed in my past that I wish I could undo.  However I choose to view those as learning experiences rather than mistakes. I hope that you are starting to understand more about the experiences that shaped who I am.  As I have told you many times before I have not been healthy all my life, or even most of my life.  I truly believe that if I can get healthy anyone can do it.

Acknowledgements:

Have you made any progress writing acknowledgements?  I hope you are working on this exercise. I find that it helps me stay positive and recognize the things that I do every day.  Here are my acknowledgements:

·         It was nice to spend a little time in the kitchen on Monday.  It felt good knowing that I had a jar of bean soup in the refrigerator for lunches.  I love having cooked beans in the house because I feel so much healthier when I eat them every day.

·         Monday was a little busy and I almost didn’t make a batch of lasagna for Dan.  However since he hardly ever asks for anything I stopped studying and got the lasagna prepped and into the oven at about 6pm.  When Dan was enjoying his lasagna I was very happy that I make it for him.  He liked it so much that he had one and half servings.  When I see him enjoying it that much I am reminded that one of the reason I like to cook is that it makes Dan happy to eat.  It is wonderful knowing that I can make healthy food that he loves enough to have an extra helping.

·         It felt wonderful to have a little time to listen to another two lessons on the meditation DVDs.  So far this is definitely my favorite DVD from The Great Courses.

Monday:

There was no exciting food on Monday, sorry to disappoint you. I had my Asian savory oatmeal for breakfast. You have seen it so many times that I didn’t bother to photograph it.  The picture above is one of my prior ones.

My lunch was what was leftover of the kale and walnut sauce.  It was still delicious even as a leftover.

Dinner was Dan’s favorite lasagna the one that I posted here.

I also made a big pot of the French market bean soup which I documented here. The version I made today did not include any seitan sausage.

Happy thoughts:

Have you gotten into the habit of writing your happy thoughts?  I find it helpful to remind myself how often things go well and that I shouldn’t take these things for granted.   As always there are so many things to be thankful for that I almost don’t know where to start. Here are my happy thoughts:

·         I get excited each time we add a new follower to the blog. Since January 1 when we started the 31 Days to Better Health series we have picked up 24 new followers in 23 days.  *woo hoo*   Thank you to all of you who take the time to read.  If you ever have any questions or suggestions please let me know.  I am happy to share any tips or tricks I have learned with you and I love it when you share your tips with me.  It is my goal that we all change our health for the better.  I want all of us to end 2012 healthier than it started.  Each of us is stronger together than we are alone.  J

·         It is 5:20pm as I am writing this and the sun is just staring to set, and it is still 54 degrees I might add.  *woo hoo*  I can remember not long ago when it was completely dark before 5pm.  I love that the days are getting longer. Come on spring, hurry up and get here I have a sailboat calling my name.

·         Tomorrow is the first teleclass for RMT which should be fun.  I am looking forward to getting started with the next round of training. Thankfully I can do training through my smart phone since the class ends just about the time we are due at a doctor appointment.  Isn’t technology wonderful?  What did we do before we had mobile technology?  Sadly I am old enough to remember life without PCs if you can imagine.  LOL

·         Our weather has been lovely today. The temperatures were back up in the mid-50s, the rain disappeared last night and all the snow from the weekend is gone.  It definitely felt and looked a lot more like spring today.  The weather people are predicting this warm spell will stick around through at least Saturday.  Nice!

·         I got a nice email from Lauren at Hopkins early this morning.  We are going to try to get together next week. We thought lunch would be nice and I want to introduce her to Ian. He will want to kill me I am sure since he claims he doesn’t do vegan.  Oh well he will get over being mad I am sure, well at least I think he will.  Wish me luck, I may need it.  You know how temperamental artistic people can be.   LOL

Signing Out:

Tuesday was another busy day for me.  I still marvel at how many things I have on my to-do list given that I don’t work “outside” the home.  How did we ever get things accomplished when I did?  *scratches head*

The emails about IIN continue to come in daily.  I certainly had no idea so many of you had even heard about the program let alone that you were interested.  If you have specific questions email at veganepicurean@gmail.com please don’t be shy I promise that I don’t mind answering any questions that you have. 


I hope your week started well and that you have some nice things to look forward to this week.  At the very least take time to enjoy the little things in life.  J  Talk with you again soon!