Weekend Woes

The weekend did me in. I ate recklessly and without much thought. And tonight I'm paying for it with a headache and icky stomachache. Went to Fenway park last night to see the Red Sox play the Yankees and it was a fabulous game but park food is not the healthiest. DUH!
Tried to think about what I was eating but it took too much effort. So pizza, hot dogs, soda, french fries, popcorn and you can understand my ickiness today. Ugh. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Gut Instinct: Pack healthy foods for baseball games.

Time Flies

I can't believe it's been 5 days since my last post. The days are whipping by and I haven't been on the computer much. For the past week or so I've been eating a partial raw diet and felt great on it. Monday I started eating some carbs and more protein. And honestly I feel that heavy feeling again in my gut. I'm going to go back to the veggies and fruits for the day and a regular dinner at night. It just feels better eating that way. I felt lighter. I felt healthy. I felt full without any cravings. Since I added in carbs this week I've noticed I'm craving more carbs and sugar. Since I am a pre-diabetic, low carb is a good way to eat and thankfully I'm not a huge pasta, bread and rice fan.

I eat what I like and I like fruits and veggies and protein like meats, bean, cheese. I do like sweets and sugar but I don't like the way I feel after I eat them.
I borrowed a book on Cognitive Therapy used in losing weight called the Beck Diet Solution. Since I really don't follow a "diet" I almost didn't pick up the book, but after reading through it. It talks about changing the thinking" around eating. I'll let you know how it is when I finish reading it.

Gut Instinct for the day: Sugar and sweets taste good, but they don't make you feel good.

Spring Renewal Challenge

I keep forgetting to explain the Spring Renewal Challenge. This great local alternative/new age store has a spring renewal challenge with a list of things to incorporate into your life to become healthier and happier. You earn points towards massages, reiki, discounts on books, etc. Some of the challenges that I am doing are:
*no eating after 7
*8 glasses of water daily
*food journal
*detox or a colonic which I am considering
*meet with a nutritionist
*walking 30 miles this month
*clean cabinets of unhealthy foods

I already feel better and it's only been about a week or so. I'm also going to add some vitamins. I had been taking them, but I got out of that habit too.

Gut Instinct of the day: Eat well. Feel well.

Busy week

This has been a crazy busy week, I write for a local magazine and had a deadline on Friday, I taught a feng shui class and I had to work a couple of days and Friday was my youngest's birthday. Phew. Glad it's over. I did pretty well staying on mostly raw food, ate protein and carbs (very little) only at dinner. It's hard to not eat after 7 and I succeeded except for my daughter's birthday party.
Guests didn't get here til 7 so I did eat salad and a piece of chicken and a teeny teeny bite of cake.
This morning I felt so light that I wanted to weigh myself. That's always a dilemma..to weigh or not to weigh. Most "diet" books recommend weighing once a week, some once amonth and some say never. So I will use my intuition. I will weigh myself when I feel like I've lost or most definitely if I feel like I gained. I want to catch any weight gain before it gets out of hand. But inside I truly feel I am going to be successful in getting trim. It's almost as if I can feel it already. I even had a guy at the grocery store check me out. He might have been looking at my ass and thinking "She's got a fat ass." But he might have also been thinking, "Sweet Butt." Granted he didn't do anything for me, but I did feel good about myself today and people can sense that.
But anyway, back to the scale...I weighed myself and I lost 5 pounds!! 237!! YAY!

Gut Instinct for the week: Stay busy; eat less.

Second Day

Yesterday (Monday) was the first official day of returning to an intuitive way of eating. Had to take my oldest to the eye doctor and naturally we got up late and had to hurry so no breakfast. For me I need protein and a little carb to keep me going in the morning...took me years to figure out that if I just eat just a bagel for breakfast I'm hungry an hour later. When we got home I had a boiled egg left over from Easter egg coloring, some fruit and a little yogurt.That filled me for the whole day. I had an iced coffee around 3, slump-time. I had to work last night and I didn't eat dinner beforehand so at 6:30 I took a break so I could eat before 7. Usually I eat when I get home which can be between 10-10:30. Not a good thing to do before bed. Instead I went to Dunkin Donuts and grabbed a smoothie, probably more sugar than I need but it has redeeming qualities of protein, fruit and antioxidants. OhmyGod I just now went to their website, a small smoothie has 70 grams of sugar!!!!! Only 360 calories and 1.5 g saturated fat and 7 grams of protein....but 70 grams of sugar!! What is that, like 17 1/2 teaspoons? I feel sick...I had another one this morning when I drove my daughter back to college. Okay no more smoothies from DD or at least no more than one a week. I can make my own. Usually smoothies fill me up but I got hungry a couple hours later. Trying to eat only fruit, veggies and grains so I had a salad with raspberries and a little feta cheese for the protein. If I'm eating intuitively, I eat when I feel hungry. And I was hungry then and now I am still a little hungry, probably because I didn't get enough protein and fat. I'll have a boiled egg, an apple and a little peanut butter. Getting all my water in too. Working on earning points for a Spring Renewal. More on that next post.

Just started blogging tonight. It's 11:30 p.m. and I should be asleep. But I am a night owl. Not a morning person. But this is when I eat for comfort. I've been widowed 12 years (and I'm 45 so it was too soon) and I feed myself and my soul food when I'm alone and lonely. Ice cream, cookies, nachos are my favorite midnight snacks. But tonight, I'm not alone. No, no boyfriend. My oldest is home from college and she's a night owl too. So we watch TV together and right now she's calling me to play cribbage with her. She watches my diet (she wants me to have a long life) and will get mad if I snack. I am going to have a cup of tea while we play cribbage. But the real reason I am blogging right now is to make this promise to myself (and put it in writing for all to see) and not eat anything after 7 p.m. I signed up for a Spring Renewal challenge (more on that later) and I can earn points by adopting that rule. So I'll drink tea or lemon water or coffee. But no food. Is that being intuitive? I don't know. But I'm going to try it. Either that or I have to get to bed earlier. I'm not a sleep-eater.

Night all. Be Mindful.

SPRING: New Beginnings

I've been thinking about starting this blog for awhile. Had to come up with a good name, then I found the term "gut instincts" in a novel I was reading and AHA! that's the perfect name for my blog. You see, about 4 years ago I decided to stop dieting even though I am well over 200 pounds. I've been on many diets in my life. Weight Watchers. Diet Workshop. Jenny Craig. NutriSystem. Cabbage Soup Diet. Slimfast. Best Life Diet (if Oprah can do it, so can I). Abs Diet. Dr. Phil's Ultimate. Hi-Protein, Low Carb. South Beach. Atkins. You name it, I've tried it. Yes, I did lose weight on them, but the minute I went off the diet, I gained the weight back. Like food are magnets and I'm a fridge (or at least the size of one...haha).

Sometime in 2003, my doctor sent me to a nutritionist because she demanded I lose weight for health reasons...she threatened gastric bypass as an alternative. Scared, off to the nutritionist I went. Skinny bitch, oops, I mean the nice nutritionist recommended I read a book titled, "Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program that Works." On that day she weighed me and I was at my highest weight ever...254 pounds on a 5'3" body. I weighed more than my 5'11" brother. I bought the book that day and read it in one sitting. It made sense. I could do this...for life. I started eating Intuitively that day. I lost 30 pounds...it took a year but I didn't care, I lost weight. I was on my way...

FAST FORWARD to:
Easter Sunday 2007, a day we celebrate Christ's Resurrection. A day of new beginnings and renewal. For me, a day to reflect...on what the hell am I doing to my body? Today, my daughters, my sister, brother-in-law and I ate a delicious Easter dinner, ham, mashed potatoes, boiled onions, corn, asparagus, salad, and a myriad of desserts, molten cake, almond cake and tiramasu. With my full aching, bloated stomach, I put away leftovers, gave some to my sister, washed the dishes AND vowed to eat better and eat less.

Somewhere along the line, not sure when, I've gone back to overeating and not listening to my body...not eating intuitively. So today I pledged to myself (yes, once again) this is the year I lose weight and get healthy. Tired of feeling tired and being fat. The scale has been creeping back up for awhile and today I did a brave, or maybe it's a stupid thing...I weighed myself 5 hours after dinner....and I'm almost right back to where I was 4 years ago. Another brave thing...being honest about my weight on a blog...242 pounds...a mere 12 less than my highest weight and lowest point. I'm ready. I'm hoping this blog will keep me honest, motivated, supported and I hope it helps someone else out there struggling with their weight.