Summer of Heroes - June 2017 Lifestyle/Weight loss Challenge

Sorry for being so absent again. Last week was horrible. My mother who has Alzheimer decided to escape on Wednesday and we did not find out until Thursday where she was (in the hospital because she had a fall and hit her head) because nobody got the idea to contact us despite having our contact details with her and us getting the police involved. This was by far the most stressful 14 hours of my whole life!! And then work got crazy and I am just scrambling to get back into normal life...

So sorry you had to go through this and so glad to hear they found her (relatively) safe.
 
Saturday 10th of June!

Suggested topic for today - pattern interrupt - avoid cue.
In the next week I will go over various approaches of pattern interrupts, and I do not suggest all cues are suitable for avoiding - but are there any that you can avoid?



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I would say eating at night. I think I will always have a snack at night but maybe instead of the tortilla chips it could be fruit instead.

Sunday 11th of June

No question of such - but are you doing any planning to make it easier for yourself for next week?

I leave you with reused quote "All or nothing rarely get us All! It usually get us nothing" " Don't let the perfect be enemy of the good"


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I have done this before. I am working on not having this mind set. I have gotten better over the past year or so. Just because I have a crappy lunch does not mean I can't eat what I have planned at home for dinner. My husband really keeps me in check with this most of the time.

12th of June

Pattern Interrupt - Scramble approach. Are there any foods, or quantities of foods that you often eat and don't support your goals and you are willing to question the meaning/pleasure you have associated with from your cue list?

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Scramble approach to a interrupting a pattern requires questioning the positing meaning assigned to a cue. It could be something as assigning negative associations to unhealthful food or quantity of food. It also requires to amend mental focus to attach positive feelings to healthful food or and behaviors.

Eating behavior is driven by the desire to avoid pleasure, and desire to avoid pain. After we eat, we experience the consequences of eating. Positive consequences (a great-tasting food, genuine hunger satisfaction) will tend to cause to repeat the behavior because the brain is always looking for ways to gain pleasure. Negative consequences (the food adding fat to the body, feeling overfull, sluggish, tired, uncomfortable) will tend to cause not to repeat the behavior because the brain is always looking for ways to avoid pain. There is also recency factor. Consequences that happen right after the behavior (a great-tasting food) have more power than delayed consequences (the food adding fat or making us feeling tired and sluggish).

Example – big dessert after several courses meal when already overly full. We don’t want to miss out on the dessert – the pleasure, and we know that we are already full and eating more will make us feel uncomfortable after. As the pleasure comes first it often takes our focus.

The scramble approach suggest working on the association we assign to how much we eat and what we eat.

I will explain what this meant for me, and also have few more approaches to put up for discussion. This one is really not for everyone!

I love cookies and cake and ice cream. On Friday we had cookies for my bosses birthday. The cookies didn't look great to me so i decided I was not going to have one. It was not worth it to. I really like ice cream in the summer. I am not sure that i really love it though. I think the mind set I have is it is hot out and it is a nice treat to cool down. Lately I have been eating ice cream way too much. I need to slow down and only eat it here and there. I have some learning to do in this case.

Sorry for being so absent again. Last week was horrible. My mother who has Alzheimer decided to escape on Wednesday and we did not find out until Thursday where she was (in the hospital because she had a fall and hit her head) because nobody got the idea to contact us despite having our contact details with her and us getting the police involved. This was by far the most stressful 14 hours of my whole life!! And then work got crazy and I am just scrambling to get back into normal life...

I am so sorry to hear you had to go through this. My grandma has Alzheimers and it really sucks. I hope your mother recovers from the fall and that the place she is staying at gets better at contacting you.
 
This weekend was pretty good. Saturday after my son got done with Karate first thing in the morning I worked out. Yay!!! I ate decent all day too. I also treated my daughter and I to a manicure and pedicure. So it was a nice day.

Sunday was ok. My daughter wanted to buy herself an outfit so we went to Target while the boys went to the batting cages. She is learning that clothes are not cheap. After we were done we stopped at Dairy Queen to have lunch (her choice) since the boys were eating out. Eating was only ok yesterday. After that we came home and watched some TV together. She needs to rest her foot so I sat down with her because if I didn't she was going to follow me around everywhere. Did go grocery shopping after my husband got home. I never realized how nice it was to go shopping by myself. No kids trying to buy every bit of junk food or a husband say are we done yet and we need to move faster. We cut up everything salads for dinner but we didn't eat it last night. We just were not hungry enough. Kids and I just had a small sandwich. I did make a salad for lunch today. We also made and egg casserole for breakfast for the week. We also have a good plan for food this week.

Today I will not get to the rec. We have a baseball game and PT this afternoon. I am going to try and get as many steps as I can at work today. Hopefully I can get about a 15 minute walk at lunch. I only have 30 minutes for lunch so 15 will still give me enough time to eat. Tomorrow I should have no problem getting to the rec. I feel My husband and I are getting back on track this week and have set ourselves up for a good week.

@HappyGrape What day do you need me to start again. I need to get this on my calendar.
 
Sorry I'm back tracking here a bit since I wasn't able to log on during the weekend. I started rehearsals last night so I spent yesterday afternoon in a flurry of meal prep activity. I've got all my breakfasts and lunches either packed and ready, or at least planned out. I cut up a bunch of fruit and veggies to have ready for snacking during the week and I made a list of dinner ideas since I have about 30 minutes between when I get home from work and when I need to leave for rehearsals. This is going to be a trying time for me, food-wise but I think that I'll be able to stick to my good habits if I do enough prep. As busy as it made my Sunday seem, I felt so satisfied going to bed last night knowing that I didn't really have to worry about food for the rest of the week. I know exactly how many points are in my breakfasts and lunches, and I have plenty of wiggle room if I need it for my quick dinners. What a great feeling!

I'll be honest in that I don't know if I fully know how to answer today's question. I do know that I associate pleasure with any form of dessert- and not only that it 'feels' good when I eat it but that I will be missing out if I don't. And this is on a regular basis. My husband grew up with a mom who is an amazing cook, but she also had dessert ready almost every night after dinner. So after eating dinner (which I usually try very hard to make sure is full of veggies and lean protein and not too much crap) he tends to pull out the cookies/brownies/what have you out of reflex. A few months ago, I would generally join in. Now I'm realizing that A. I'm usually not still hungry after finishing the meal B. That if I am still hungry, it would be a bigger benefit to get another helping of veggies or some fruit to satisfy my needs and C. Giving in now means giving up something later. It's amazing what tracking your food can do to the way you think about eating. I used to think a cookie here and there (and this was every day, folks) was no biggie. But now if I eat a cookie I see 4-5 points disappear and I'm thinking "Shoot! I have to eat raw carrots for dinner or I'll go over!"

I do not intend now or ever to completely give up my sweets and junk food but I'm learning how to moderate and more importantly- enjoy them when I do allow myself to indulge.
 


@Zhoen Here is a quote from book I really like on excessive should I shouldn't I food debates and very good explanation on how stress can build up form it


"Lean Habits For Lifelong Weight Loss: Mastering 4 Core Eating Behaviors to Stay Slim Forever" by Georgie Fear


But then you spot the tray of brownies. Thick, fudgy, walnut-studded blocks of temptation, and your palms start to sweat. Your mind starts going, “I want one. I can’t have one. Yes, I can. But I shouldn’t, not if I want to lose weight. Well, one won’t hurt. Yes it will. Just walk away. Eat some celery …” An hour and a half later, you have eaten the veggies and hummus and shrimp you intended to, but your mind is still fixated on the brown


“I’ve held out this long, but I’ll never make it through the second half. I’m eating one. No! Don’t do it! You’ll regret it!” You keep looking at the tray, thinking that if you pick the smallest brownie, it won’t be so bad, or if you just break off a piece … you see other people looking happy and enjoying the game while you stew. You are tired of being unhappy, tired of not getting what you want. Resentment builds. You head over to the table, already feeling like a failure for giving in before you get there, so you shut out the shameful feelings and go into numb autopilot, grabbing one brownie with each hand and quickly darting into the kitchen so nobody sees you scarfing them down

More likely, you don’t feel satisfied after the first round, and want to eat and eat and eat, as you feel increasingly horrible about yourself and your behavior. What happened? Why does a seemingly normal social situation end in a dozen brownies and a silent car ride home during which your baffled husband tries to figure out what on earth has gotten you so upset that you look like you’re about to cry? The problem is not that you have a character flaw or weakness. The problem is not that you “can’t control yourself” or that you are “addicted to sugar.” The problem is the food debate.

Georgie’s Law: the duration and emotional amplitude of your internal debate over eating a treat is proportional to the urgency and desire for massive quantities you’ll feel. In other words, the more minutes you spend vacillating back and forth over eating (or not eating) a food item, and the more impassioned you get over it, the more likely you are to consume a metric ton of it.

As a food debate progresses, the craving and tension you feel become less and less about the actual food and more about relieving the stress of the deliberation.

And if you decide even for one second “I’m going to eat it,” it’s like a doorway to feeling better just opened. So you sprint for it, consuming the contentious food hastily and in half awareness, as you fight to get it in before the stinging guilt sets in. The food is hardly ever satisfying because after all, you inhaled it and were primarily acting to escape the debate, not enjoy a sensory thrill. Since you’re left unsatisfied, it’s enticing to just keep going, thinking that it simply will take more of the food to feel better. As you can see, your thoughts are what drive compulsion or craving. It’s not a random thing like a hailstorm that just happens to you (and never happens to some others). You can learn to opt out of this thought pattern and stop suffering massive compulsions to eat all the ice cream. Once you stop giving yourself hailstorms in the form of emotional food debates, losing weight is easier. The experience can be “I ate it, I enjoyed it, I moved on.” Or, you can choose to pass on it, put it out of your mind and go back to the rest of your life. The key isn’t whether you say yes or no, but to make a decision and be done with it. Recognize that no one food decision is all that important, and there is no right or wrong way to use your treat budget. If you get twitchy and can feel tension rising about whether to eat something or not, remember what will really make you feel better is not the food, but ending the debate so your mind can be at peace."
 
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Sorry for being so absent again. Last week was horrible. My mother who has Alzheimer decided to escape on Wednesday and we did not find out until Thursday where she was (in the hospital because she had a fall and hit her head) because nobody got the idea to contact us despite having our contact details with her and us getting the police involved. This was by far the most stressful 14 hours of my whole life!! And then work got crazy and I am just scrambling to get back into normal life...

I am so sorry you are going though this. It's such hard illness to have to deal with, not only for your poor mum but everyone.

:(
 
This weekend was pretty good. Saturday after my son got done with Karate first thing in the morning I worked out. Yay!!! I ate decent all day too. I also treated my daughter and I to a manicure and pedicure. So it was a nice day.

Sunday was ok. My daughter wanted to buy herself an outfit so we went to Target while the boys went to the batting cages. She is learning that clothes are not cheap. After we were done we stopped at Dairy Queen to have lunch (her choice) since the boys were eating out. Eating was only ok yesterday. After that we came home and watched some TV together. She needs to rest her foot so I sat down with her because if I didn't she was going to follow me around everywhere. Did go grocery shopping after my husband got home. I never realized how nice it was to go shopping by myself. No kids trying to buy every bit of junk food or a husband say are we done yet and we need to move faster. We cut up everything salads for dinner but we didn't eat it last night. We just were not hungry enough. Kids and I just had a small sandwich. I did make a salad for lunch today. We also made and egg casserole for breakfast for the week. We also have a good plan for food this week.

Today I will not get to the rec. We have a baseball game and PT this afternoon. I am going to try and get as many steps as I can at work today. Hopefully I can get about a 15 minute walk at lunch. I only have 30 minutes for lunch so 15 will still give me enough time to eat. Tomorrow I should have no problem getting to the rec. I feel My husband and I are getting back on track this week and have set ourselves up for a good week.

@HappyGrape What day do you need me to start again. I need to get this on my calendar.

Could you please start next Monday or next Wednesday?
 


another quote I like from same book

"Emotion is a far more powerful driver of behavior than knowledge. Thinking about your own life experience, you probably can come up with several examples of times when emotions were much more powerful than facts in governing your behavior. Even if you know something is safe (such as flying or being hungry), if you’re afraid of it, you are highly likely to make efforts to avoid it. Even if you know wearing high heels isn’t great for your posture, dang it, if you feel sexy and incredibly confident in heels, at least from time to time you’re going to put them on anyway. Feelings are powerful, so when you want to mold your behaviors to sculpt a leaner, healthier body, you need your emotions to be on your side, not just knowledge. Negative emotions about the behaviors you are trying to cement will poison your motivation to do them.

If you start to feel deprived or rebellious, think about what you are choosing, not what you are turning down. Every choice in life means letting one option go. We are always saying yes to one thing and no to another. Focusing on what you are saying yes to keeps your mind-set positive and reminds you that you are in the driver’s seat. Thinking that you “have to” eat vegetables or “can’t” eat a dessert is not true. No one is taking anything away from you or forcing you to adopt these habits.

Remind yourself as often as needed that you do not have to do this, you want to do this. If you are hesitant to make a change because you think about how much you enjoy the food you’d be giving up or having less of (your afternoon snack or beers on Saturday, for example), ask yourself if keeping your current behavior is worth more to you than a leaner body, and give yourself the option to choose either. It really is 100 percent up to you. Remember that predictions about a potential change are often more dramatic and negative than the change actually is"
 
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QOTD- I would say that there are a lot of foods I love that do not support healthy living, losing weight. All the pastas, sweets, sugar, chocolate...bit I started to dial down the amount of all of them a few yrs ago. I now try to swap for healthier version, like last night I had shrimp scampi made with zucchini noodles. Just as yummy to me, the 3 men all had with whole grain pasta. I know the cookies, even when it is just 2 milanos can start a downward spiral, really anything too sugary or fatty seems to trigger it. I am still struggling every day to make better choices. I would not say there is any 1 thing but I will say that there are sooo many things that derail me. I find I will vary what I eat, but it still has the same effect...gaining and losing the same 2/3 lbs.
 
Hi! I'm back... haven't had a chance to read thru everything yet, but it looks like there's some good discussion going on.

I had a lovely time at the retreat, it was both relaxing and invigorating and I do feel more anchored and centered as I had hoped. While there I realized I've never really spent much time around lakes, water for me has mostly been the ocean or the sound where there is a lot of movement... the serenity and stillness of a lake was a new experience. I learned some new things and met a lot of wonderful new people: I'm still digesting and internalizing the experience. I got home at 1am this morning and in to bed around 2am but the cats weren't settled so I tossed and turned for quite a while. I had given myself permission to sleep as long as I needed to and just call in to the office saying I'd be in later, but Whitehall started fussing at 4am, and after an hour of pushing her fuzzy little behind out of my face I got out of bed at 5am per a normal work day. So we'll see how far into the day I get on about an hour's worth of sleep.

Now it's on to developing new (healthy) eating habits. When I met with my doctor, she suggested a food delivery service that does prepared foods, and I really like that idea but I think I'm going to do elimination again for several weeks to clean my body up first. She also gave me some stuff for allergies and it seems like it is working, which will be a nice improvement... thyroid test came back OK, but she is thinking my adrenals may not be working properly, so I have a test to take for that. All in all, things are looking pretty OK.

Hope everyone has a happy and healthful week ahead of them!
 
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Thank you! :) I think I'll start with an easy goal of walking (any amount of time - I just started this) on my treadmill 6 days a week. Would that work?

Of course, any goals you think that will help you will work! It's pretty free format. There is daily topic/question but everyone post pretty much whatever they want any time they want

:)
 
Could you please start next Monday or next Wednesday?

Monday works

Thank you! :) I think I'll start with an easy goal of walking (any amount of time - I just started this) on my treadmill 6 days a week. Would that work?

Welcome!!! This is what I do. I try to get 10,000 steps a day and I also track my calories. Some days I go to our local rec and walk on a treadmill and other days I walk around my neighborhood. It all depends on what is going.
 
:welcome: @Liberty Belle !!!

also I use the excuse that it is a quick easy grab meal - when in reality some nights it means a 20-30 minute round trip from home to the 2 nearest McDonalds plus ordering and collection time - so in all reality can take 40ish minutes -

This is sooooo true! And something that took me way too long to come to grips with myself haha! Keeping some veggies prepped and some sort of protein on hand ready to go has helped in that it's quicker for me to throw something together than to drive out to restaurants and pick stuff up.... or wait for pizza delivery! But it's the planning ahead and prepping that's the problem sometimes!

If you get twitchy and can feel tension rising about whether to eat something or not, remember what will really make you feel better is not the food, but ending the debate so your mind can be at peace.

Never thought about it this way before but I can completely see how this plays out in my life. Thank you for sharing that! I'm certainly going to be more aware of the debate aspect going forward.

I know the cookies, even when it is just 2 milanos can start a downward spiral, really anything too sugary or fatty seems to trigger it.

SAME! Even now, I am pretty focused and don't have cookies in the house but that doesn't mean the sugar craving is gone... :rolleyes1 I may or may not have driven to the grocery store to pick up watermelon, not once, but twice, in the past two weeks to satisfy the sugar craving.... I know it could be worse, but if it ain't the cookies, it's got to be something else!

When I met with my doctor, she suggested a food delivery service that does prepared foods, and I really like that idea but I think I'm going to do elimination again for several weeks to clean my body up first.

Prepared food can be great. I do that off an on for lunches at least. Since DH usually does his own thing, it's hard and frustrating to meal prep for one. So I get prepared food. It definitely worked for me to kick the take out habit- that's for sure!

QOTD: CARBS -- so many carbs. I know in moderation they are fine, but I love love love breads and pastas. I've never tried the scramble approach, but I can see how effective it can be. Well..... maybe I am in my own version. I'm in a place right now where I am feeling really good about the changes that are happening (I'm finally at the point where family is starting to notice!) and it's giving me my own sort of buzz. Plus the new clothes sizes, and zipping up old dresses that have been retired for a few years.... all of that comes to mind when forced with a decision on what to eat and makes me happy for my progress not for the food. For now at least, I am able to use that to deter me from the worse choices. I hope it will last for me as long as the lady from your gym in your story!
 
Sorry for being so absent again. Last week was horrible. My mother who has Alzheimer decided to escape on Wednesday and we did not find out until Thursday where she was (in the hospital because she had a fall and hit her head) because nobody got the idea to contact us despite having our contact details with her and us getting the police involved. This was by far the most stressful 14 hours of my whole life!! And then work got crazy and I am just scrambling to get back into normal life...

I am so sorry to hear this :hug: I hope she recovers quickly - sending hugs and thoughts to you and your family. Ageing parents is such a hard thing to adapt to.

The part I’d never heard before was the idea/theory that we stress eat to FORCE our sympathetic nervous system to “shut up.” Stress eating can feel good, it can be food we associate with better times, and certain foods like chocolate actually stimulate pleasure centers in the brain (which is why most women love chocolate more than most men, we actually have more of those specific chemoreceptors in our brains… yep, it’s legit!) But this theory I’d never heard before goes back to the two systems “competing” all the time. When you are stressed, digestion is slowed/stopped, which is why when things are really awful, we sometimes lose our appetites. The theory is that we stress eat to FORCE digestion to resume, which FORCES the sympathetic nervous system (the stress system) to back off and let the parasympathetic system (the rest system) have a turn, which doesn’t just affect digestion, but all those other associated systems as well.

Biologically, it makes sense. Of course you can force the same “flip” with meditation or a hot bath or other methods, but if you think about it this way, then the next time the comfort food is calling you, you might be able to stop, think, and choose another road to the same destination… Or not… sometimes the stress of resisting the pizza is worse than the pizza itself…


Interesting! Thanks for sharing :-)

Thank you! :) I think I'll start with an easy goal of walking (any amount of time - I just started this) on my treadmill 6 days a week. Would that work?

:wave: Welcome we love having new friends on our journey - good luck with your goals.

I had a lovely time at the retreat, it was both relaxing and invigorating and I do feel more anchored and centered as I had hoped. While there I realized I've never really spent much time around lakes, water for me has mostly been the ocean or the sound where there is a lot of movement... the serenity and stillness of a lake was a new experience. I learned some new things and met a lot of wonderful new people: I'm still digesting and internalizing the experience.

Sounds like you had a great time - the lake sounds amazing - like you most of my water experiences has also been with the ocean.

I may or may not have driven to the grocery store to pick up watermelon, not once, but twice, in the past two weeks to satisfy the sugar craving.... I know it could be worse, but if it ain't the cookies, it's got to be something else!

You are making so much progress this year - sneaky watermelon trips instead of cookie runs :rotfl2: but seriously love it, good for you :-)
 

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