Food rules: throw them in the garbage!

In September and October I took a break from tracking. This was the first time since I was a WW member where I did not consistently make an effort to track. Those two months furthered my journey into thinking it was time to step away from WW. I felt a sense of ease surrounding food that I had not felt in years. I took the break because I was training for my half, and knew that I would be going over points daily. I also knew we were going to London for 10 days and I just didn't want to think about trying to track while on vacation. I just wanted to fully embrace and enjoy the experience.  During that time I began to discover food rules that I had that I didn't realize I had. Because I had convinced myself that the items I chose to not eat were not worth the points. Or that I didn't really like them that much. Or I convinced myself that I really liked the things I was eating. But it just wasn't true. And taking a step back helped me realize that. Here are just a few examples of food that I either was restricting, or eating but not really enjoying:

Bagel and cream cheese: I LOVE bagels and cream cheese. Love them. But I never ate them. I didn't know how to incorporate them without feeling like I had blown a whole day. A bagel on WW ranged from 8-12 points, depending on the bagel. Cream cheese was like 4 points for a tablespoon. What I have found is now that I allow myself to keep bagels and cream cheese in the house, I actually am super reasonable with them. I'll use a bit of cream cheese on a turkey sandwich, or I will have a bagel before a run. Its amazing how allowing these items into to life, I have now gained control over them. Before, it was such a treat that I devoured it, didn't actually enjoy it, and then felt massive guilt for the rest of the day.

Raisins: Nothing makes me happier than putting raisins in my bowl of oatmeal, along with a bit of cinnamon and a bit of brown sugar. To help myself be reasonable in the portion of raisins, I do use the small boxes rather than just scooping them from a bag. I actually cannot tell you how many points raisins are without googling it, and WW does a good job of not making that information easy to just google. I know at some point I searched for raisins in the WW app and they were so high in points I just wrote them off immediately. 

Granola: Granola for me is like raisins. I had cut it out of my life completely. The points are crazy, something like 7 points for 1/4 cup. Reminder that I got 18 points a day when trying to lose weight. Similar to bagels and raisins, I have found that when I actually allow granola into my life, I am super reasonable with it. But the points were so high that I didn't even try to keep it in the house. 

Peanut Butter: Jif PB is something like 4 points for a level tablespoon. I went years without eating real peanut butter. 

Edamame: In the most recent version of WW, edamame had points. Yup, edamame. And because edamame suddenly had points I stopped eating it. 

Nonfat Plain Greek Yogurt: This one is the opposite. I ate it A LOT. Like, daily. Sometimes twice a day. It was no points, and filling. After time I got used to the taste. I would add fruit, and it was fine. But if eating something every day, I should really like it. I like it with honey and granola and fruit. But with 2/3 of those things being high in points, I never did that. Last week I bought flavored yogurt for the first time in a long time. Delicious. 

Whats the point of this post? It is me continuing to share and just work through my relationship with food, and my journey to having a healthy relationship with food. A relationship that is based on eating foods I enjoy, and foods that fuel my body, and finding appropriate moderation in that. 

Here are a bunch of pictures of the delicious things I have made and enjoyed over the past week:
Greek yogurt with honey and granola

Edamame!!

Thai peanut pasta salad (with lentil pasta)

English muffin with half avocado, vanilla yogurt with granola





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

That post race feeling

Image
After my Olympic Distance tri this past weekend, I was on Cloud 9. For a couple of days. Its been awhile since I had that feeling though that sometimes comes a few days after a race. That feeling of moving slow towards getting back going again. That (dare I say) lack of motivation. The itching feeling of a lack of consistency after recovering for a couple of days. For me, that is all being compounded by a work trip, and some killer allergies that just have taken me out of my rhythm.  I am working towards giving myself space with it. I think an aspect of this also is that after feeling what I gave on Sunday, and what it took out of me, part of me is doubting if I can do the 70.3 Or rather, do it well (by my own definition of well). How can I finish it feeling strong and like I emptied the tank, when I just did that and it was only half the distance? I can tell myself logically that I won't be going as hard since it will be longer. But I don't think I am yet at a place mentally t...
Read more

Pelofondo and Challenges

Image
After a few weeks of not writing, I have accumulated a few things to write about.  First and foremost, Pelofondo. Last Sunday was my fundraiser ride. In the month leading up to it I did a fundraiser for Relay for Life, and was overwhelmed at the support. We raised over $1,100. Yea. Crazy.  I structured the fundraiser in a way that offered "Sponsorships" for different donation amounts. Different sponsorship amounts would get you different benefits. For example, an Ironman Level ($75) sponsorship would get you baked goods of your choice, and I would lip-sync a song of your choosing via FB live. Every hour at the top of the hour (starting at 11a and finished just before 3p) I would go live and do an update of # of miles rode, sing a few songs, and talk about the people that donated. All of this was on the seven year anniversary of mom's passing and in her memory. In total I rode 62 miles in 3 hours 54 minutes.  Other fun stuff has happened since I last wrote too :) I have of...
Read more

Little update: 2 weeks until race day

Image
 I am two weeks out from my triathlon and to say I am getting excited is an understatement.  Today I had a 70 min ride and 20 min run on the schedule, and I was supposed to do it at race pace. This was my third time on my bike and it went really smooth. I was able to go faster than I have yet on the bike, getting up towards 18 mph at times. It just felt awesome to move that fast, I felt like I was flying.  After the ride I headed right out on the run and I still cannot get over how weird it feels to run after riding. Mainly that whole feeling of running through molasses. Because I found myself yet again just crushing the pace (for me) and feeling really awesome. I finished 2 miles in 17 min 25 seconds. This blows my mind. When I was running previously I would have be thrilled for a 10 minute mile. I 100% know that it is strength training and cycling that has helped my running tremendously. The turn over of the pedals when riding really feels like it helped my running, bec...
Read more