Posts Tagged dieting
Cool, Calm & Collected
Sometimes it just takes a nudge to get us moving again towards a goal.
I remember that feeling of being paralyzed about mid-way through my senior year of college.
I didn’t have a job lined up for after graduation, I
knew my then-boyfriend (now husband) was moving overseas after graduation to fulfill his military obligation in his home country, and my friends were all making their plans to spread out around the country.
I felt alone, lost and uneasy–fairly natural for most co-eds about to be tossed into the “real world.” I wanted to stay in D.C. but my internship at U.S. News & World Report wasn’t going to last past May, and even if I stayed, where would I live if all my best friends were leaving?! (more…)
9 comments January 19, 2009
Disordered Eating: It’s Not Just a “She” Thing …
How's that for a morning jolt?!
How many guys do you know are “on a diet?”
My guess (before today) is … not many.
Your guy might work out regularly and drink protein shakes… he might moan about his gut … and he might even eat oatmeal for breakfast (followed by a burger and fries at lunch).
But chances are, he’s not counting every calorie he eats or obsessing over every calorie he torches at the gym.
At least, that’s pretty much what I’d thought, too … until I read this article. (more…)
4 comments September 25, 2008
Diet: A Dirty Four-Letter Word
Image credit: lifedynamix.com
Topping the list is the word “diet.”
In its truest form, “diet” simply refers to what we eat.
From the Webster’s: diet –noun 1. food and drink considered in terms of its qualities, composition, and its effects on health: Milk is a wholesome article of diet.
2. a particular selection of food, esp. as designed or prescribed to improve a person’s physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease: a diet low in sugar.
I know I use the word in both those ways.
However, one could also argue I also use it in the third sense of the word: 3. such a selection or a limitation on the amount a person eats for reducing weight. (more…)
7 comments September 16, 2008
“Happy” Weight Vs. “Fighting Weight”
Call it the weight loss/maintenance limbo: “How low are you willing to go?”
A couple months ago, SELF magazine had an article/quiz about finding your “happy” weight.
I had to laugh when it said my “happy weight” was 135, which ironically, had been my original WW goal.
HA.
Their idea of a “happy weight” is my idea of a “fighting weight,” a weight that I might not reach without serious deprivation or over-exercising … and even if I got there, it wouldn’t necessarily be maintainable in the long-term.
How do I know this? Well, the truth is (shhhh!!!), the lowest I ever got on Weight Watchers (on my old scale) was 138.4 (Note: on my new scale I never saw below 144).
I saw that “beautiful 138.4″ twice, and nearly cried for joy seeing a “3″ in my stats (though in reality it was probably not accurate).
And you know what? Both times I shot up to 142 the following week. At the time, I didn’t understand it. Until then, I’d been losing steadily, so why did I hit that wall? (more…)
14 comments September 10, 2008
Getting Satisfied
The buffet we had at my husband's 30th b-day this weekend. Satisfaction guaranteed...or gluttony?!
But it is about satisfaction, and the air of entitlement I’ve felt when it comes to food since losing weight—which I feel has contributed to some of my disordered eating behaviors.
In many ways, I really do believe that ignorance is bliss. Granted, back when I didn’t worry about calories, I surely wasn’t the picture of health. But I also wasn’t obsessed.
To be honest, before Weight Watchers, I don’t know how I ate. I don’t remember; I just “ate.” Obviously I was chubby, so it was clearly “too much”.
But I know I didn’t think about food a lot. I surely didn’t weigh or measure anything, and I can guarantee I didn’t base my day around my meals.
I remember I used to drink two Snapples a day and have a peppermint-mocha and shortbread cookie after work at Caribou Coffee with one of my best friends a couple times a week. (What’s a calorie?!)
I don’t recall making breakfast a priority, and I ate lunch out most days (usually a sandwich from a café, or a salad). I didn’t cook much back then—I know that much!—so dinners were not planned in advance, and if an invitation sprang up, I jumped on it. Snacks were usually on a whim; I never kept food at work or in my purse for an “emergency”.
And while I can remember what being “stuffed” felt like (as in, falling into a post-Maggiano’s or Cheesecake Factory coma with friends), I honestly never thought about satisfaction levels or the emotional connection to food. It was just that: food. (more…)
9 comments July 15, 2008
