Diet Renegade

Follow me as I eat real food, stop binge eating, and lose 100 pounds

Archive for January, 2009

I ate a hamburger and my stomach was like whoa

Jan 25

Posted by Gina in Compulsive Overeating, Emotional Eating, Food Obsession, What I Eat | 2 Comments

I had the weirdest and most unpleasant thig happen to me the other day.

I decided that since I’ve been so good lately – eating super healthy, exercising, losing 30 pounds – that I’d splurge and get my favorite fast food hamburger as a special ‘I deserve it’ treat.  You know, a really greasy delicious one with bacon, double cheese, and mayonnaise.

Well when I took it out of the bag my first clue should have been the grease dripping off the wrapper.

My second clue was the stabbing stomach pains I endured about 2 hours after I ate it.

Yes, that sucker was super tasty, But I was sooo sick for the next 24 hours.  My stomach was all gurglely and painful and I felt like my stomach has a brick lodged inside of it.  I had heartburn and was lethargic and super cranky after that, and I couldn’t sleep that night or the next day.

So I’ve come out of this with 2 lessons:

1. Don’t reward yourself with food

2. Don’t eat anything that drips grease and is 710 calories in one sitting

So what do I think happened?

Well I’m pretty sure that my body has gotten used to eating healthy foods these past few months.  I mean most of what I’ve been eating is fruit, veggies, lean protein, low fat diary, and whole grains.

My body likes these healthy foods and has become used to the low amount of work it takes to digest them.

Then I go and have a stupid moment, throw a heart-attack-on-a-bun in my mouth and my stomach was like whoa…why did you do that?

I think this really illustrates how bad our Standard American Diet is for us.  Well I’ve certainly learned my lesson.

Has anything like this happened to you?

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Yay, I’ve Lost 30 Pounds!

Jan 25

Posted by Gina in Motivation, Reasons to Celebrate | 3 Comments

I’m proud to report that I’ve finally lost 30 pounds.

This one has been a really hard one to obtain.  I’ve teetered so close to it, up and down, up and down, for about a month now, so it feels extra special to have hit this goal today.

30 pounds has always been that milestone that was a very symbolic goal for me to pass.

In the past, I was usually able to lose 15 pounds or 20 pounds, but after that I’d lose my resolve, gain it all back, and have to start from scratch.

But not this time! Now that I’ve lost 30 pounds my motivation is stronger than ever and I feel so confident that I can push on and get to 40, 50, 60…and more.

At this point I have my two main goals…

1. To lose 50 more pounds by my wedding

2. To lose 100 more pounds as my final goal

But since both of these goals are enormous and intimidating, I break them up into small parts.

First off all I’m not even thinking about my final goal – that’s just too daunting right now.

I am intently focused however on my wedding weight goal.  I’m pretty obsessed with it actually and that obsession helps make 50 more pounds seem not as bad as it could be.

But then to make it even easier on myself, I break it up into 10 pound increments.

So really my next goal is not to lose another 100 pounds, or even 50, its just 10 more pounds.

And I know I’ll be an even happier camper when I’ve lost 40 pounds.

Cheers to that!

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Holy Crap, my Cholesterol is 117

Jan 11

Posted by Gina in Reasons to Celebrate | No Comments

I’m so stunned and yet so proud that I had to share.

Several weeks ago I donated blood and as a thank you gift, United Blood Services checks their donors’ cholesterol for free.

Well I just remembered that and I thought I’d check the results.  And can you believe this, my cholesterol levels are 117!

I’m so happy about this because super high cholesterol runs in my family (and my father died of a heart attack) and I’m currently 100 pounds overweight.

I think this really signifies what proper diet can do.

Yay!

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Feeling Beautiful when Feeling Fat

Jan 9

Posted by Gina in Feeling Beautiful | 3 Comments

Sorry, I absolutely hate the word ‘fat,’ but it really applies here.  Since I am overweight, Its hard to feel beatiful.  Sad but true.

I feel ‘fat’ all the time.  Bloated, big, flabby, and just overall yucky.  I don’t want to be so hard on myself, but that’s how I feel.

Now I know that when I do feel this way, its really hard to get up the confidence to go out and enjoy life.  What adds on top of this is that I don’t feel like keeping up my outer appearance.   I mean who wants to get all dolled up when you feel like crap?

But really you and I should feel beautiful inside and out.  Not only are we entitled to feel good about ourselves, but it absolutely helps the weight loss effort.

Why?  Well when you feel confident about yourself, you are much more apt to make better food and fitness choices.

And I know for a fact that when I feel like I look good on the outside, my self-esteem gets a big boost and I end up following my ‘diet plan’ much better than when I feel awful.

So how do you go about feeling beautiful when you feel ‘fat’?

For me its all about pampering and prettying myself up every day.  I’ve stopped saying to myself “oh when you get skinny you can wear nice clothes” or “when you get skinny you can do your makeup, hair and nails.”

If you say those things to yourself, please stop!  Don’t put your life on hold until you get skinny.  I know I’m not.

From this moment on start looking the part – put on the clothes, makeup, hair, nails, and accessories that you’ve been waiting to wear.

I started doing this months ago and its amazing how its boosts your confidence.  When you take care of yourself on the outside you naturally feel good about yourself on the inside.

One major thing that gets in the way is that its very difficult for larger people to find trendy, fun clothes.  Well, I’m going to help you out in that department.  Here’s a list of some of my favorite clothing stores (online and offline) that make fun, stylish clothing for plus-size people.

Women’s Plus Size Clothing:

Lane Bryant

Avenue

Kohl’s

Kiyonna

Silhouettes

Don’t forget you can also find some great clothing at Target and Walmart if your budget is a bit tight!

Women’s Plus Size Lingerie:

Hips and Curves

Plus Size Plum

One Stop Plus

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The Importance of Keeping a Daily Food Diary

Jan 7

Posted by Gina in Compulsive Overeating, Emotional Eating, Food Obsession, Motivation, What I Eat | 2 Comments

I have battled with this subject for years.  I’ve tracked my food while ‘dieting’ in the past and whined every step of the way.  I absolutely used to hate keeping a food journal.

But no more.

Usually after the ‘honeymoon’ of the diet was over I’d start to slack on keeping my food journal.  At first I’d skip a meal here or there, then a day, then a week, then I’d totally lose control and be off of the diet.

I’d justify this in my head saying ‘well, normal people don’t track everything they eat, so if I’m trying to be normal, then why should I track?’ Or I’d say, ‘well I won’t be doing this for the rest of my life, so why should I do it now?’

Then I had an epiphany and everything became so much clearer.  I am not normal and I never will be.  Therefore, I need to keep a food journal and I do need to keep it for the rest of my life.

‘Normal’ people have a normal and sane relationship with food and I definitely do not.  I binge eat, compulsively overeat every chance I get, I turn to food for everything.  That’s not normal.

So now that I’ve realized that, I feel like this big weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.  I feel like now that I’ve accepted that I have some major issues with food, I can now move on and finally deal with them.

So ok, back to the food journal.

I’ve realized that I have to stay accountable to myself with every single bite of food that I put in my mouth.  I have to keep track of what I eat and how many calories I should consume everyday.  If I don’t I will overeat, it’s as simple as that.  If I force myself to write everything down, I’m constantly on track and moving forward towards my weight loss goals.

And I know that since I will always have a completely abnormal relationship with food, I will need to keep a food journal every day, forever: even after I maintain my weight.  This will be to stop me from reverting back to old habits.

Now most people might not need to be that strict and vow to keep track of food intact for the rest of their lives…and that’s ok.  I just know that I have so many severe issues that I have to do it if I want to break free from the painful cycle of losing weight and gaining it all back again.

My advice is to keep it simple and just get in the habit that as soon as you eat something, you write it down. That way you don’t forget and you don’t feel overwhelmed if you have to write everything down at the end of the day.

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Visualize Your Perfect Body Every Day

Jan 4

Posted by Gina in Feeling Beautiful, Motivation | No Comments

Its hard to stay motivated all day every day.  Well, only if you lose sight of your goals.

If you stop thinking about what you want on a regular basis, then its much easier to give in to temptation or brush off that workout.

Why? Your motivations lose strength when they aren’t constantly in your mind.

So what do I do to keep my desire for health and weight loss burning in my head everyday?

I visualize several times a day what I WILL look like when I reach my goal weight.  Its important to distinguise here that you say to yourself “I will look like this” and then visualize your perfect body in your mind.

Your desire won’t be as strong if you instead say to yourself, “it would be nice if I looked like this again,” or “maybe someday.”  No, you say to yourself with conviction ” I WILL look like this.”

Then you will feel a change within yourself and its so much easier to take on all the challenges of the day – you’re so ramped up from your mini-mind pep talk, that you become unstoppable.

Don’t let a day go by without this: you’re mindset is the most important factor to your success!

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Links I Love: New Year Edition

Jan 2

Posted by Gina in Links I Love | 1 Comment

I’m such a web junkie.  I’m constantly reading articles and blogs about health, weight loss, and fitness.  So I thought why not share the really good stuff I find with you?

A regular feature of Diet Renegade will now be a weekly re-cap of all the goodies I find on the web…this is going to be fun!

So let’s start it off right…

From CNN Health:

The top 10 healthiest diets in America

Sugar substitutes may make weight loss tougher

Can eating a big breakfast help you lose weight?

Holiday bring challenges for eating disorder sufferers

Weight loss goals: 10 tips for success

From Diet Blog:

Diet Coke Plus Faces FDA Warning

From MSN Health and Fitness:

10 Secrets of the Effortlessly Thin

From Medical News Today:

New Strategies for the New Year: Resolving to Break an Addiction? Help from Harvard Medical School

From Diets in Review:

25 Most Popular Diets of 2008

From Roni’s Weigh:

My Top 20 Posts from 2008

From MetroWest Daily News:

Reaching their goals: Two stories of dramatic weight loss

From Fitness Black Book:

Fat Loss – Strong Motivation is More Important than Details

From Mark’s Daily Apple:

The Primal Blueprint Sneak Preview

Oprah Hits 200 Pounds. Again.

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Wow did I splurge this holiday season

Jan 1

Posted by Gina in Compulsive Overeating, Emotional Eating, Food Obsession, Motivation, What I Eat | 1 Comment

(I wrote this Decemeber 29, 2008.  Sorry for posting late!)

Ok so I’m finally over the Christmas holiday.  I totally blew it, stuffed my face for days before and after, and threw tracking out the window.  Oops!

But its ok I promise.  Because today I got a hold of myself and let it all go.  I told myself that I splurged for the holiday and that was fine, but its now time to move on and get back on track.  And guess what…I’ve had a fabulous day.I’ve eaten very healthy today and kept track of everything I’ve put in my mouth.  I feel good about myself again and my attitude is back to being positive.

So my conclusion is….

That mindset is everything!

The holidays are so hard to get through.  There’s temptations everywhere and it seems so impossible to stay focused on healthy eating.  Especially when you have so many parties, gifts, and just general opportunities everywhere for eating goodies.

But why is it so darn hard to snap out of it once they are over?

For me I’m thinking its all part of my food addiction and in a way I start to feel sorry for myself on the holidays.  What I mean is that the holidays allow me to splurge a bit, but then once I get the thrill of splurging I don’t want to stop.  I almost feel entitled to splurging day after day and I get mad once I realize that I can’t continue.

So it takes a heaping mound of motivation to snap out of it, realize that I’m never going to accomplish anything if I keep whining about not being able to eat all I want, and just stop going crazy.

So that’s where I’m at today.  I have absolutely snapped out of it.  It almost feels like I was in this sugar-induced stupor for the past week or so – clouding my judgment.

Well anyways, I’m good now and I feel confident in my ability to keep track for the rest of the day and then do it all over again tomorrow and the next day and the next day…

As a recap, here’s what I’ve eaten so far today:

Breakfast – 2 Wasa Crispbread fiber crackers with 2 tablespoons of light cream cheese and 1 apple

Lunch – Grilled chicken strips, low fat cottage cheese, 1 banana, 1 apple, 23 raw almonds

Dinner – I’ll probably have a low fat Ceasar salad and some low fat chicken tortilla soup

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I did take a walk this weekend.  My fiancé and I took the dogs for a 30 minute walk in the desert.  It was a lot of fun, but that’s about the only exercise I’ve gotten in the last week.  Oopsies…I’ll have to take a couple more walks at the end of the week.

(And I wrote this December 30, 2008. Again so for posting late!)

Today has been a great day.  Yesterday I had finally snapped out of the holiday food daze and got back on track with my healthy eating plan.  Today I followed suit and I really do feel in control again…what a relief!

My food diary is pretty uneventful since I usually eat the same stuff on the days I work.  But here goes…

Breakfast – 2 Wasa Crispbread fiber crackers with 2 tablespoons of light cream cheese

Lunch – chicken strips, low fat yogurt, 23 raw almonds, 1 banana, 1 pear

Dinner – turkey sandwich with a low fat Cesar salad

Wow, boring!  But hey its working so I can’t knock it.  And I do actually enjoy eating this way everyday. As a bonus I know that if I eat these foods I’ll lose weight at the end of the week.

I am a bit worried about tomorrow though.  My coworkers and I are getting breakfast in at this fancy little café and everything looks so delicious!  I was so tempted to order the Quiche Lorraine until I looked up the calories online…holy cow…600 calories per slice!  I think not!

So instead I’m going to order just straight up scrambled eggs with whole wheat toast.  That will keep me on track and eggs are always yummy.

New Year’s Eve won’t be too hard to get through.  I am going out with my fiancé to a comedy show (Lewis Black rocks!), but we’re not planning on going out to dinner or to any parties afterward.  And since we’re both consciously eating good now, we’ll probably just have a healthy dinner and some sparkling cider at midnight.  I can handle that!

If I don’t get the chance to post tomorrow, I wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

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