My Clothes Are Getting Tight
Oy! It's uncomfortable to feel like you're squeezing into your clothes every day.
My mom's weight has fluctuated her entire life from thin to obese. I have a similar body type and a similar relationship to food (I over-eat if I'm bored or stressed or trying to fill a void in my life), so it's something I pay attention to.
What's going on in my own life?
- I'm not eating a healthy lunch. I think the first thing I need to do is set aside time to actually eat lunch. I'm not doing this, and I need to. I get really busy during the day and run from thing to thing and stuff food into my mouth whenever I can.
- I'm eating junk food that's lying around school. It's always easy to find unhealthy snacks laying around a school whenever I'm hungry, and I'm frequently hungry because I'm not eating a full lunch or a snack. I need to be intentional about bringing healthy snacks to work with me each day.
- I'm having trouble drinking enough water. I'm going to set the intention of drinking a whole bottle before lunch time, filling up at lunch time, and drinking it throughout the rest of the day.
- I'm eating homemade cookies multiple times a week. Yes, Matt is now in the habit of making chocolate chip cookies every single week. It's terrible for me! I can muster up the willpower it takes to resist junk food at the grocery store, but I cannot resist homemade baked goods at my own house.
On the positive side, I'm finally making more time for exercise! I'm going to the YMCA at least once a week and still trying to run at least once on the weekend.
I'm also going to my dance class once a week this month!
So I'm going to start by:
- Trying to run for 30-40 minutes at least twice a week.
- Bringing a healthy lunch and snacks to school each day so I can resist the junk food that's all around me.
- Asking Matt to stop making homemade cookies so frequently.
- Drinking at least 80 ounces of water a day.
I'm feeling pretty good about those concrete next steps. We'll see how they go and what kind of impact they have on helping my clothes fit better!
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7 comments:
Working in a school is the absolute worst when it comes to readily-available junk food!
i agree with the above comment. i ate a cupcake with frosting at 8 am yesterday (there were some left over from friday...yes, i did). Right after I walked into the teacher's longue to put my lunch away!
I've always worked with kids- camp counselor, teacher, sped teacher, and currently nannying. The "kid food" (sad that it's so often concentrated around children) is a huge problem for me. Like you, I never buy cookies, crackers, or candy in a grocery store with my own money. But when it's sitting in front of my face, I can't control myself. Bored, stressed, tired, mindless eating has always been a struggle. I sometimes think if I didn't work in junk food heavy environments it would be better. Or would my bad habits find a way? Anyway, I too have to be conscious of this all the time and it's always helpful to hear from someone having a similar experience!
if he still wants to bake, how about making smaller batches, or fruit based things (apple/berry/rhubarb/etc. crisps, crumbles, bars). Or just cut up fruit. I 100% understand the "I had a crummy day and need to bake" craving, it's about control and having something come out well and just how you expected it to. Sometimes trying to peel a whole fruit in a spiral gives me the same rush of satisfaction with less processed sugar in the process.
-Someone who also struggles to not EAT ALL THE THINGS just because they're there
I'm really not one for diets, but I just tried this "challenge" called Whole30 that I would recommend to just about anyone. It's just one month of specific food: produce, meat and eggs; no dairy, sugar, grains. There's a lot of online info, support and recipe ideas, and I found it really appealing that it was a challenge and just 30 days. I was the only one in my family on it, sometimes there were cookies in the house that I chose to avoid because I had promised myself I would just for that month. The whole thing was inspirational for what kinds of foods I can make and how unhealthy "health" foods can be. (and I lost weight, 10lbs, - but the energy and experience were my big take aways).
Just throw'n it out there :)
Ah - the workplace can be a real devil when it comes to eating within caloric expenditure. It's particularly bad for me under the circumstances you just described, rushing from meeting to meeting, feeling overwhelmed, not being able to find the time or being too exhausted to exercise. Two coping mechanisms worked well for me when it came time to deal with my weight gain a)I joined weight watchers which helped me adjust concepts of portion size and caloric trade offs (this cookie for four apples etc) (this system is not for everyone. It just worked well for me at the time. I never did gain that weight back, and I only attended 6 session 17 years ago) b) saying "hold up, this is my time" when it came to exercise. That was hard when I stretched the most thin in terms of time and responsibilities - but adopting the attitude that everyone else can manage themselves for this 45 minute pocket 4 days a week really, really helped. If I managed to squeeze that 45 pocket into my day before 7:00 am, it worked even better.....but again, this is just what worked for me.
Regardless, happy to hear you are working out a plan to put yourself on a track where you will feel better. Planning is half the battle. Best wishes.
...though I should add, after I had a kid that 45 minute pocket became harder to defend. Lots of guilt for trying to carve that time out for myself. I now maybe get that 45 minutes 3 days a week (as opposed to my pre-kid life of 90 minutes 6 days a week). If I get 3 session of 45 minutes I consider that a huge victory.
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