( hungry )

So I picked up this book called Hungry by Allen Zadoff, months and months ago somewhere. I can’t even remember where, but at the time it just sounded interesting to me. It was just a little memoir written by a man who lost about 100lbs and has kept it off for about 10 years now. It seemed like his struggles were similar to mine, where he just lost control when it came to certain foods. Anyway, so as I was at my doctor’s appointment and then my hair appointment yesterday I got about ¾ of it read. And he’s got some interesting stuff to say. By no means is this a “diet” book. And he stresses numerous times that this was something that worked for him and he was not suggesting for other people to try it.

Anyway, he mapped out his food patterns similar to a traffic light. He had food put into 3 categories. Red, Yellow and Green.

The Red foods were any food that caused a sort of “trigger” in him where once he started eating it, he found it nearly impossible to stop. Boy, could I relate to this. Um.. hello pizza!

Then he had the Yellow category. These were foods that sometimes caused the Red Food reaction, but not always. He could keep it in control most of the time.

Then the Green category were all the foods he had no problems with at all.

Also in the Red category, was not just his trigger foods, but his trigger places. Like for him it was eating in the car.

So as I was sitting around waiting for my doctor to come in, I got out my pen and made my list. Red. Oh, silly little Red foods. How I love and hate you at the same time. Obviously pizza and tortilla chips were on the top of that list. I also added any and all fast food. I am aware that they have healthy fast food, but I am not sure I’ve ever actually chosen that when I’ve gone. As far as my trigger places, it was basically all those foods listed above, but eating them while I'm alone. I can have a piece of pizza when I’m around other people and not over eat. But if I’m alone? I’ll eat the whole damned pizza. So 'Eating Alone' was on that Red list. Late night eating, was also on my Red list.

Yellow list was more of pasta’s, cheese, baked goods like cake, brownies, cookies. Any chocolate. I’m sort of half and half on these. Sometimes I’m ok with them, sometimes not.

I won’t list my Green foods, because I think you can guess what they are.

So after I did this, I continued reading. He basically put it like this. An alcoholic will abstain from any triggers that would cause him/her to drink. Going to a bar, being at a party, etc. Well, he has put the foods on his Red list, on a banned list of foods. Since he cannot control his actions once he gets a taste of it in his mouth, he’s got to do without it. He then makes up his daily meals with foods on his Green and Yellow lists. Obviously using just a few of the Yellows as to not get into trouble.

 I found this very interesting. I can relate sooooo much to his descriptions of his Red foods. I am the same way, through and through. The thought of banning something completely, scares me. I am afraid that it may cause a backlash of sorts. And the author was the first to say, he’s had setbacks throughout the years, as anyone would.

So this is what I’m thinking. I think I should ban those Red foods too, when I’m alone. Since I don’t seem to have too much of a problem with them when I’m with people. So Red foods, GONE if I’m alone. And I’m alone a lot, since my husband is a pilot and travels a ton. But I think that this will be a scary fun experiment. I’d like to see if this helps with my binging. Because as always, I’m either great or binging. And that is just NOT healthy.

Also, late night eating? Gone! I’ve gotten into a bad habit lately of doing this. Even if it’s healthy food, I don’t need to be eating at 9pm at night. So I think my cut-off will be 8:30pm (and that is only because sometimes I don’t even get a chance to eat dinner until then). But basically after dinner, no food for me. It’s not needed.

One last thing. He also said that he sent a list of all the foods he ate during the course of a day, to his nutritionist. Every day. They didn’t discuss it or anything, but it was just something he did, no matter what. I do track my calories on MyFitness.Pal.com. But I cheat sometimes and don't always put that quick "handful" of M&M's I shoved into my mouth. So I think that I am going to start doing that too. I think that at the end of each post, I am going to write what I had that day (or the previous day, if it was a non-work/non-blog day). I don’t expect you to read this, I can only imagine how boring it would be to read every single thing I’ve put into my mouth. So I’ll put it wayyyyy at the end of my posts. But I like knowing it’s there and that maybe, someone will read it. I'll also throw my workout on there, just for good measure.

So there you go. I thought this would be an scary fun thing to try. It’s still such a daily struggle for me with this food thing. And unfortunately, I think it always will be. But I’m just really trying to bring myself to a healthy place. As my kids get older I do not need them seeing and experiencing all my food issues. I don’t need S growing up seeing her mommy binge and starve herself. I want her to be healthy with her eating, so I’m going to try this.

-V

Foods I’ve eaten today:

Breakfast:

Protein Shake

Lunch:

Weight Watchers Smart Ones Frozen Meal: Slow Roasted Turkey Breast w/Gravy
1 cup cottage cheese

Dinner:
Didn't have dinner b/c I went to a 'Denim Party'
2 glasses of wine

Snack:

Almonds
4 pieces of cheese
1 mini peppermint patty

Workout:

Spinning - 30 minutes