Category Archives: mindful eating

Beating the snack habit

Sounds like a lot of you had nice weekends! We actually were going to go to a free orchestra concert yesterday, but when we got there, the only way we could be seated would be to sit apart, which is not what we wanted.  So, we went out for coffee instead. I said to John that the next time, we need to go bowling.  Or start putting in new flooring…

I can’t believe a new week is here already.

The day started with a 1-minute muffin/waffle with blueberries.

Funny how I noticed how clean the cupboards were after I scrubbed them down yesterday.  I have to say that I like my Scrub and No Chub diet.  I think I might get the house extra clean now. Not that it is a sty or anything, but there are things that get put off, like cleaning the baseboards and wiping down picture frames and knickknacks. That really boring stuff that nobody notices (or I hope they don’t! 😳  )

Speaking of noticing things, I do note that one of my old habits had come back pretty hard, which is the snacking while preparing meals.  I really noticed that a year or so ago when I was reading the book Savor and it talked about habit energy.  Well, that snacking while preparing food became a habit again sucking up a lot of energy!  The urge to snack was very noticeable while I was making lunch.

I have been using my crutch again:

No, it’s not your eyes – blurry photo, sorry!

As I said before, I would rather pop 10 calories of mints than 200 calories of chips/nuts.  Good thing I bought a case of 6 of these, too!

I had a mid morning planned snack of a protein drink, but I was still quite ready for lunch.

That is a mix of green and yellow beans plus carrots that I sauteed before tucking them in this omelet (which laughing cow on top).  In retrospect, I should have just left the veggies on the side because I picked them all out and ate them, then ate the egg and cheese part.  I don’t think beans and carrots really go well in an omelet.  Live and learn.

Work was surprisingly steady for a Monday.  I was ready for the afternoon break.  I had half of a Zone bar with my latte today.

I’ve been trying to cut down on sweet stuff and doing pretty well at that, but I needed a few more calories with this latte and didn’t want more fruit.  The Zone bar does give some protein with it.

It was 45 degrees today, so I took a power walk before dinner.  I checked the ground to see if tulips were sprouting, but they aren’t.  Good thing because it is too early.

Dinner was a simple affair.  Chicken thigh!

With fresh pineapple.  I never thought I liked pineapple because I had only ever had canned or in one of those sickly fruit cocktails with the nasty maraschino cherry in them  (I hate cherries, my apologies if anyone likes the fruit cocktail!).  It wasn’t until I was older and had the fresh stuff that I realized how really, really good it is!

So, if it takes 21 days to break a habit, I have about 16 more to go since I had my last snack fest.  It’s getting easier every day.

I have my evening snack portioned out for later:

I got these because the mix is fun and also because I can sometimes have what I will call issues with cashews. Decided not to have that road available to even travel and got these instead.

Now to listen to John while he is playing the piano – one of my favorites: Sunken Cathedral by Debussy!

Bagels and busy

Busy!  I was thinking it wouldn’t be so bad today, but you just never know.  I was up for an early ride and of course, being Wednesday and all, I had to stop for breakfast!

This was a banana nut bagel.  Num!  Had a nice chat with the cafe owner this morning.  I don’t mind eating out alone.

Then I figured I would get an early start on my day.  Good thing I did, because work and the business were  both busy this morning! 😯   John owes me big time.  At least I managed a 14.5 mile ride today.

I took a quick break for lunch.  Nothing exciting on the food front today.

I put items up high while John is gone.  I do tend to want to snack a lot when I get busy and stressed, so I moved the cereal and cashews up high.  It’s too easy for me to nibble my way through the day. I also pushed the chocolate chips (John’s favorite snack) to the back of the fridge so they are out of my line of sight.  They would be up high, but it is hot, so they are in the fridge now.  I have given myself permission to snack on extra fruit today if I really want to eat.

Speaking of snacks, I made up an interesting drink today.  Using some coffee from Godiva as part of the Foodbuzz tastemakers program.  This was the chocolate truffle flavored coffee:

  • 8 oz of unsweetened almond milk
  • 4 ounces of cold chocolate truffle coffee
  • 15 grams of peanut flour
  • sweetener to taste (I used a little honey)
  • 4 large ice cubes.

Blended in my new bullet blender and I got a chocolate peanut butter protein smoothie!  I think you could just use PB2 in place of the peanut flour and not use a sweetener at all.

Slushy and good! And 9 grams of protein.  Yay!

One thing about being really busy – the day goes by super fast.  I was ready for dinner for sure!  I nibbled on a coconut flour cookie (will post recipe tomorrow) and assembled a quick salad.

Then it was back for more work.  I am done with my job for the day, so I am nibbling on some blueberries from this giant bowl:

After I hit publish, I need to go out and pack orders to ship out tomorrow.  I hope John gets me a nice present (hint, hint) for doing this :mrgreen:

I have not opened my Google reader since last night. I apologize for not getting to any blogs today.  I hope to catch up by tomorrow night or Friday.

Question: Do you eat out alone?

Eating what you want versus what you need

Monday Monday!  Hello to all the new people visiting after the Woman’s Day article was picked up on yahoo.com!  Ya’ll almost exploded my blog 😀  Welcome!

It was so weird having a whole weekend off where I wasn’t traveling somewhere.  I just relaxed and did fun stuff, which was nice.  Watched a lot of football and saw my fantasy picks just go out the window.  I owe someone dinner this week.

I am changing up my workout routine a little bit now.  Dropping down to 2 lifting days each week just to give my body a bit of a break.  My thighs were actually a bit tight from the squats I did on Friday, so I decided this week will be a Tuesday/Friday schedule.  That meant today was a run day!  I grabbed some dates to fuel up pre-run.

Then I did 3 miles at a nice easy 11:00 minute pace.  It felt good.  Just sweaty enough (okay, I still get really sweaty).  I came home to find John already up and making coffee.  Sweet!  Then it was time to play for breakfast.  I made some peanut flour waffles!

These turned out good, so I will be posting them as a recipe tomorrow.  Topped with banana/maple topping.

Deep thoughts ahead!!

I had a couple more thoughts on the issue of intuitive eating and the statement to eat what you want.  When I was talking about the WFG book yesterday, I referenced that I think there is a difference between eating what your body wants and what it needs.  This is where I think the true difference lies between mindful eating and intuitive eating.

Your body really wants to work on simple terms.  The body understands carbs, protein, and fat, with other essential vitamins and minerals.  Your body will take stock and say “Gee, we are low on amino acids after that strength workout – send up the request to the brain for more protein.”  So you body sends a hunger signal.   Now your brain says, “It’s time for lunch!” and you eat.  The body receives what you put in it and picks through what it needs.  I have this vision in my head that it sorts through all the things you eat to get what it wants.  Sometimes the foods you eat do not give the body enough of what it wants.  Like say the body wanted protein and you just ate a 100-calorie snack pack.  So your body will tell you to eat again.

Or an example of if you are stressed.  Your body understands the use of the adrenaline and cortisol response, just not necessarily why you have that response.  That is the brain’s job.  The body thinks you need quick energy, so sends out a request for glucose, which could be any simple carb, fruit, etc.  Your brain says “I am having a hard day, I’ll have some chocolate”.  See the difference?

Taking example of eating what your body wants and someone will say “I want a giant sundae.”  Honestly, your body does not *want* to have a decadent chocolate sundae.  It just wants nutrients.  It will take what it can from that sundae and dispose or store the rest (hello hips).   I think that is the sticking point people have with intuitive eating.  Okay, it is the issue I have with it.  My mind will say I want to eat a ton of chocolate or have that slice of coffee cake with my latte.  But I also have to acknowledge that my body itself does not need it.  Sure, having it on occasion is fine, but it’s also knowing how to properly feed my body (which includes indulgences and treats).  Trying to temper the need and want is the real trick.  Eating should always be enjoyable and purposeful.

That’s  enough deep thoughts for a Monday. Anyone still here? :cricket:

Speaking of eating mindfully…. Here was lunch for today!  I had sort of a desire just to eat a bunch of cereal.  However, I know that isn’t really what my body needed for lunch.  I made a wrap with chicken, laughing cow and hot sauce!

Tasty and satisfying!

Work actually was very busy from the start today, which is a bit unusual, but I  was quite happy because it meant a full day of work was available to me!  I think I might just make it with this other job alone and get pretty much full time until I start the cupcake, bagel, coffee, soap business decide what to do.  They can’t give me an extra account, but I am welcome to do as much as is available  with the one I have.  Thank you!

John set me up with my latte, which I paired with a mint chocolate cup:

Calcium, protein, and carbs for the body, chocolate for the soul…

At the store yesterday, red pears were on sale!  I got a whole bunch so maybe John might be able to have one before I eat them all.  Included in dinner:

And gotta love breakfast for dinner with egg/feta scramble.

Is anyone else up for more snow?  We are predicted around 7 more inches by tomorrow night!  Eeeep!  I hope I can make it to the gym for lifting tomorrow morning since I didn’t do it today.

So that means we are also going out to the cafe  for coffee and chitchat tonight.  Gotta prevent the cabin fever. :mrgreen:

Question:  Do you distinguish between needs and wants when eating?

Double dip ride and super foods!

Thursday is the new bagel day!  John plays poker on Tuesday nights and can’t get his butt out of bed, so we moved bagel day from Wed to Thurs.  It actually works a little better for me because I am not biking after a strength workout.  I had a protein drink and then we headed out at a nice clip today.  Breakfast outside, even though it was a little muggy!

I just could never give up my bagels.

Good ride home and I pushed it for the last mile going 20-21 mph.  We average 13.7 mph on the way home, which is pretty good.  When you don’t have road bikes, you can’t get huge amounts of speed.  John threw the gauntlet down when we got home that he was never going to wait for me again since I obviously have my speed back.  Guess I can’t nurse an injury excuse anymore. :mrgreen:

Just an FYI on that, I feel pretty good, and my left thigh is getting bigger again.  Now  it is only 1/2 an inch smaller than the right thigh.  I still have skin numbness over my knee, which I am beginning to think is permanent, but the knee itself is fine.  The only thing that bothers me anymore is running.

Worked job #1 for a while.  This job really sucks the life out of me.  The atmosphere is just not good.  If someone makes a mistake, they send out a blanket email to everyone to stop doing it, so we get multiple messages a day on what we are doing wrong, so you just doubt everything that you do.  I keep wondering if I am making these mistakes and it got my confidence down a little.  So when I got taken off QA after a week at job #2, that really justified that I am competent, thank you very much.

Lunch time!  Nothing too exciting, Just tuna salad and Wheat Thins Fiber Select (veggie flavor)

After lunch, I moved up to the bedroom and worked in there with the AC on rather than trying to cool the whole downstairs.  John made me a latte after a while.  I was thinking how decadent it was to work propped up in bed with a latte!  There are some benefits to working at home :mrgreen:

I had an email asking about the superfoods term that I use a lot, so I will do a refresher on those.  You see that term bandied about a lot, but I am referring to the book SuperFoods Rx by Dr. Steve Pratt.  These foods are nutritional powerhouses.  You can click on each on below to see more about each one’s benefits.  Each of these foods also have ‘sidekicks’ which are related, but not quite as good as the original.  Bolded ones are in my diet a *lot*.

Apples (pears)
Avocado
Beans
Blueberries (strawberries, cranberries, cherries)
Broccoli (brussels, cauliflower, kale)
Cinnamon
Dark Chocolate
Dried SuperFruits
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Garlic
Honey
Kiwi (pineapple)
Low Fat Yogurt
Oats (brown rice, quinoa)
Onions
Oranges
Pomegranates
Pumpkin (carrots, sweet potatoes)
Soy
Spinach
Tea
Tomatoes
Turkey (chicken)
Walnuts (almonds, cashews, peanuts)
Wild Salmon (tuna, clams)
I think I might try to address each of these foods with a recipe – that would be kind of fun.  Or at least the ones I eat.  Avocados will not enter my house!
Speaking of super foods – I filled my dinner with them!
Quick stir fry in coconut oil of chicken with broccoli, brown rice and ginger sauce.  With a side of blues!
I was really hangry for dinner.  Another successful no snacking pre dinner, either.  That made me pretty cranky, actually, as I was really hungry.  I hope it gets easier.
Done with job #1 for the week.  Yippee!  I wanted to do something, so what better than to hop on the bike for yogurt.  Double ride today.  At least I burn off some of the calories of the things I am going out to eat 😀
Rice pudding flavor yogurt topped with raspberry sauce.  Tell me you don’t want to lick the screen?
Ended up biking 25 miles today.  Good stuff.

Question:  What is your favorite superfood (or sidekick)?

Lifting Move of the Week

Lots of rain rolled through last night.  We needed it, too.  It cleared up for me to bike to the gym, though.  I first had a slice of bread with some nut butter on it as my pre workout snack  (okay, a little chocolate  fluff on there, too).

The routine:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Close-grip lat pulldown 3 sets of 10 at 60# Upper body
Barbell Squat 3 sets of 8 at 65# Lower body
2-point dumbbell row 3 sets of 10 with 25# DBs (50# total) Back
1-leg dumbbell deadlift 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Hamstrings and balance
Reverse crunches 3 sets of 12 Abs
Incline DB chest press 3 sets with 10 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Kickbacks 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Triceps
Face pulls 3 sets of 10 at 30# Shoulders

After that, I hopped on the treadmill. I ran 2 miles. I was going to do 3, but I was feeling a wee bit tired, likely from the blood donation yesterday, so I called it after 2 miles and biked home.

Lifting Move of The Week: The 2-Point Row. This is from the New Rules workouts. It is pretty much a dumbbell row at a bent angle instead of with a horizontal back. The other arm is behind the back, not sure why. Possibly to keep the shoulders from drooping. Or maybe just to be doing something with the arm other than let it dangle there.

Slow down Lori!! Geez! 🙄

I was really sweaty because of the run and the return of the humidity, after I biked home so I decided on a cold brekkie today.

Kind of looks like a typical lunch for me, doesn’t it? LOL

Got right to work.  Job #2 has released me from QA after only a week, so I can now work as much as I want.  I need to start thinking of ramping that one up and moving the other one down.  Need to make sure there will be enough work at job #2, though.  Sometimes you just never know.  In the MT world, it can be feast or famine.

Lunch time and I got to try a new find:

Have you seen these yet?  I put it on an scrambled eggs.

Very good.

Here is a funny picture of Pixie.  She has this  ear hair that is really long and curls naturally.  Reminds me of a older professor from  graduate school  – you know what I mean?


She needs a barber.

Afternoon snackage was some chocolate:

Plus iced latte goodness:

This is decaf for a change.  My latte blots out John from the background.  :mrgreen:

I’ve been doing really well on the not snacking while fixing meals, but gosh darn is it hard for me!  I mean really, really hard.  21 days to break a habit and I have 2 down.  I almost nibbled at the chicken that I was cutting up that was part of my dinner portion, but I am trying to break the habit altogether of snacking, so even if it is supposed to be part of my meal I have made it off limits.

It was worth the wait for the giant BBQ salad!

John was gunning for best hubby of the year today by stopping by a farm stand on his walk and bringing me a pint of blueberries 😀  Now I can make it until Friday.

This post is late tonight because we actual were out being social!

More decaf.  Watch I won’t sleep tonight.  I am already thinking about the bike and bagel breakfast tomorrow morning.

Tour de bagel and 7 steps of mindful eating.

Off to the Tour de Bagel this morning!  I had a protein drink and we biked it out on the roads to Panera instead of the path.  Really set a nice pace today, too.

I was ready for that bagel today!  Asiago cheese.  Num.

We chatted for quite a long time.  It was nice not having to grocery shop  afterwards like we normally do on Sunday.  Then we pushed it again on the way home.

Ride distance: 16 miles

Avg speed:  13.5 mph.  Nice pace.  On the rough path, we are usually about 1 mph slower.

Had the Tour on while I got settled in to work today (job #1 very busy today).  Poor Lance.  Not the way to end his comeback for the Tour.  My thighs were burning in sympathy for those guys at the end on the climbs.  I don’t know how they do it.

Guess the heat relief was short lived.  Hot again today, but maybe not as humid.

Lunch break!

Made some egg salad on a Tomaxico wheat wrap.  These are good and have a better texture than the Smart Carb wraps.

I haven’t weighed myself since July 1.  I go through periods where I weighed every day and then periods where I would weigh once a week.  I did it to note the number, but the fluctuations stopped bothering me a while ago.  It has now been 10 days since I stepped on the scale.  I actually don’t really think about it that much as of yet, although I was a little curious after the 100-mile ride as to what the scale said.  It’s funny how yesterday morning I was feeling thin and fit and I thought that maybe because I was only relying on my eye and not a scale number?  Then last night I was feeling chubby, so maybe not LOL!  My brain is so weird.

My barista is back, so he made me a latte today and I had some blues with it.

I just love the color of these berries.  I am smitten.  They are almost gone now.  Might have to pick again on Friday 😀

More review of Savor includes the 7 practices of a mindful eater:

  1. Honor the food. Meaning to think about where it came from. I am taking time to think about this before each meal
  2. Engage all senses.  Notice the visual appeal, the textures, the smell, etc., not just taste.
  3. Serve in modest portions.  You can always go back for more.
  4. Savor small bites and chew thoroughly.  I could do better with smaller bites.
  5. Eat slowly.  Really need to work on this one.
  6. Don’t skip meals.  Never, ever a problem here.
  7. Eat a plant-based diet.  Vegetarianism is not for me.  I do have days where I don’t eat meat, but not going to happen all together.  Eating locally produced meat is important to me.  I want to be an ethical eater.

That is one thing that is bugging me about this book.  The pushing of vegetarian and vegan way of life.  There seems to be no distinction of purchasing local farm meat products and factory farming.  Otherwise, I am learning some good things from this book.

In keeping with being mindful, remember how I mentioned my habit of snacking while preparing meals?  I decided to really try to not do that today.  Lunch is always easier than dinner, and I had no problem there.  With dinner, I had Altoids come to my rescue:

I put one of these in my mouth while I was in the kitchen to keep from nibbling.  I don’t even want to nibble on what will be on my plate because I want to get rid of that habit all together.  The ginger mint (I really love these, btw) really helped me with that.  Then it was gone and I almost reached for something on John’s plate and had to catch myself.  A lot of habit energy to divert, that is for sure.

What I did eat:

BBQ shrimp!  3 oz of shrimp looks a little dinky on the plate.  My eyes don’t like that portion size.  Really tasty, though!

I am done with job #1 today – yay!  Going to relax and enjoy a couple mindful pieces of this:

Question:  Are you a fast or slow eater?

Intuitive/mindful eating

So – I am finally posting on the intuitive/mindful eating.  This is probably going to be a rambling post, so be forewarned!

I have decided that I prefer the term mindful eating because I actually think I am pretty intuitive about a lot of things in life already, but I need to pay attention to some things more (being mindful).   This month is more about doing that than trying to lose weight (more on that later).  I actually think I have a fairly good relationship with food now, but sometimes I wonder why I snack out of boredom or overeat during holidays.  I feel my feelings.  I don’t have emotional scars or issues that I have buried with food.   I ate too much and too many of things that allowed the fat to pile up quite easily (note I am not saying I ate the wrong foods, reframing that).

I tend to be a somewhat regimented eater on a schedule because of my activities.  I try to eat every few hours so that I don’t get too hungry.  If I get too hungry, or what I call “falling off the cliff,” it is very hard to reign in the eating after that.  It is almost like I cannot get full.  I don’t really know if that is my body trying to regulate insulin or what, but I just do not like to get to that point.  I also have the habitual eating, like my afternoon latte, which occurs pretty much at the same time each afternoon.  I am not always hungry (usually I am), but I always have it or some type of snack.  Sometimes just as a forethought to avoid the cliff scenario mentioned above.  Is that mindful?  I don’t know.

Sometimes my body gives me hunger signals when I don’t want them.  Like in the mid morning and I feel really hungry, and I know it is hunger, but I think  “I just had a 500 calorie breakfast 2 hours ago, WTF??”  Shouldn’t that last longer when it is a good mix of carbs, protein, and fat?  So, that is something I need to explore.

I have been trying to listen to my body telling me what to eat as well.  And that means breakfast for dinner sometimes!  Like when I had oats for dinner after a big bike ride.  I really think my body wanted the carbs to replenish all that glycogen.

Then I wonder about how intuitive eating works when I know that I must eat, but I am not hungry, such as after some of those rides we did.  My appetite was suppressed, but I know that my body needed fuel.  How does one handle that in an intuitive/mindful way when I know that I need to eat?  Or is that being mindful in a different way? (Maybe I am over analyzing here).

And what about weight loss?  I know a lot of people think of intuitive eating as a way to lose weight, but I don’t really think that is the purpose for it.  I read that if you eat only when you are hungry, that your body will naturally become a “normal” weight.   If you eat when you are hungry, how does that work if your body has a set point of say… 250 pounds?  What if my body intuitively wants to be 250 pounds, but my brain does not want my body to be 250 pounds?  How do I reconcile or trust that?

So anyhoo – these are just some of the things rambling in my mind.  I have to admit that sometimes the notion of intuitive eating annoys the crap out of me, and maybe that is the real reason why I am looking into it.  Because I don’t know why it would annoy me.

I actually get along well with my body now.  In the past, it was always me versus my fat body.  Then I learned that my body is actually okay, it’s the fat that is not.  Now it is me and my body against the fat, which I have separated from being connected to who I am and what my body is.  We are like a team being healthy together and having to face some challenges (which we don’t always win).  It will be an interesting month.

July goals and being mindful

Wow was it cold overnight!  It was 48 degrees 😯   What a way to start July!  I decided to try to sleep in as much as I was able to and got up around 7.  I was going to go for a run, but with a high of 70 or so, I figured I would go later and enjoy.  That meant brekkie time!

Custard style banana cream of wheat topped with almond butter and preserves.

Since it was so cold, this bowl was extra yummy!   I then got an early start with work as I like to do on Thursdays.

Pubsgal asked yesterday how long it takes me to do my strength workouts.  While you all know how much I love my lifting, I don’t want to spend all day at the gym.  My strength workouts generally run between 35-45 minutes.  Yesterday was 45 because of the planks.  Those just add time to workouts because of the long hold times.  I rest for about a minute between sets and don’t dillydally around too much.

Lunch break was tuna with lemon pepper and a veggie egg roll (Kahiki brand and only 70 calories!).

And a golden kiwi!

I’ve never had one of these before.  It was sweet and almost tasted like a banana.  The texture was softer as well.  I definitely prefer the regular old kiwi, but this was fun.

Yesterday I did my wrapup for June and did pretty well for the month.  Here is what I have on tap for July:

  • Continue with at least 1 no-added sugar day a week.  This actually isn’t that hard, I have to say.
  • An 80-mile bike ride.  Gonna do at least that one, and likely finish out the 100 as well.  Kind of need to get that done so we can get back to normal biking 😀  Eeeep!!
  • Big challenge – I am not going to step on the scale for 30 days.  I weighed myself this morning and that is it for the month.  This goes along with the next item.
  • Really practice mindful eating and mindful being.  Funny how I like that term better than intuitive eating, and I listened to the 2 fit chicks podcast today and they called it the same thing!  Of course, I need my Lori rules for it, and I will explore those over the course of the month.  I am going to track calories, but more from the ‘what I ate’ standpoint than planning it out.

I have this book out to read as well:

So, those should be fun 😀  I am going to do a separate post on the whole IE/ mindful eating thing.  I started writing it in this post, but it really needs its own (and then people who are just here for food pics can skip that one!).

Snack time!  I had a latte and a couple dates:

After finishing up work, I decided to go out for a run.  I had half of a Luna bar to get a little extra fuel.

Even though I wasn’t hungry, I knew that I would need something to have enough energy for the run.  Still not sure how that really fits in with honoring one’s hunger, but that’s another post.

My run was really good.  This is about the most comfortable I have felt since before I hurt my back.  I don’t know why, but I’ll take it.  I did 3 miles and have no idea of the pace because I had walked to the post office before hitting the track and didn’t bring a watch.

Pretty happy when finished.  It was so breezy that my hair didn’t get totally matted with sweat, which is always a bonus.

I was hungry at that point, so I finished the other half of the Luna bar while fixing dinner:

In a mindful eating mode, I decided to only start with half a pear, as I thought a whole one might be too much since I had a sweet potato (topped with chicken and BBQ sauce).  I was correct about that – so go me!

It’s a chilly evening.  I am blogging from the front porch and John made cafe au lait for us.  We both have jackets on.  Is it really July??

More what’s blooming tomorrow, and probably an extra post on IE/ME.

Question:  Have you ever stepped away from the scale?