Thursday, January 19, 2012

Emotional Eating (by Andi)

The first two weeks were great. Really great. This week has been good but the weight is coming off a bit slower. I am down 7 pounds. I continue to get up in the middle of the night (okay 4 am) to workout before work. I still enjoy the feeling during and afterward. I even added something new to my workouts...running! Well, some would call it jogging. I have started running for 2-3 minutes and walking fast for 1-2 minutes. I keep it up for a total of 30 minutes. I do arm weights after that. I'll try adding time to the running part little by little and maybe, one day, I'll be like those "old salts" I mentioned before! I am very excited to report that my bigger clothes are starting to feel better. Not tight anymore. Most are plain comfortable! So great! I remember reading "nothing tastes as good as being thin feels." Gag. There are days when I could argue that! But having clothes that do NOT feel tight is a wondrous thing!


I have continued to cheat now and then on the diet part. I had a lunch meeting (lunch provided) the other day and it was really yummy. They had small gourmet sandwiches from Udi's and chocolate chip cookies by the ton! The same day, turned out to be a generally rotten day and I ended up getting home feeling pretty glum. It was one of those days that would have normally called for a glass (or three) of wine, had we any. We did not. So what did I do? I ate crummy food. Yes, I stood in front of the pantry and ate nilla wafers, trail mix (mostly the m&ms and nuts) and an oreo cookie. And as I ate the crud, I could FEEL my anxiety go down. Weird! A bona fide emotional eating episode. OH! And I made BBQ pizza for the kids and they decided they did not like BBQ pizza "anymore" and so I ate a whole lot of it. Bad night for eating. But I got up the next day and worked-out again. And then I was back to healthier eating. It did not derail me. Another small victory!


That night, as Tug and I compared our day, I told him of my emotional eating episode and he had no idea what I was talking about. He understood how having a glass of wine might decrease ones anxiety but he could not equate that with food. I could not explain it. I just know that I felt better. I have read that one should replace food with something else enjoyable like exercise (riiiiight) or a bubble bath (suuuure). Sorry but although exercise feels good during and afterwards, I would not chose two workouts in one day for just about anything. Sounds like a fast trip to an eating disorder to me. And bubble bath? No thanks. Like I need to soak in the tub with my kids running around the house. Now shopping...that's an idea. Another feel good activity! Especially shopping and finding a great deal! Anyhow, the breakthrough is this: I never considered myself an emotional eater until then. And now that I know what that feels like, I am prepared to confront it next time with some other activity. Maybe a shot of rum. Kidding! Well...


Being fairly new at this daily workout routine, I had a funny thing happen to me today. I worked out at a satellite office this morning. It's a workout room I am completely unfamiliar with. I was wondering the building at 5 am looking for the room. I finally found it (thanks to the help of one of the grave shift co-workers of mine). About halfway through the workout, I realized there were probably no towels here. I was right. And I did not bring any. I am thankful there was a generous supply of paper towels! Too bad the paper towel was in one of those wave-your-hand-in-front-of-it-and-get-a-few-inches dispensers. Lesson learned! Eight minutes late to work! Nothing like making yourself feel like a dummy before the sun comes up! Okay, it's pretty funny.

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