Emotional Eating Alternatives

To an extent, we are all emotional eaters. From the day we are born, food is linked with love, comfort and safety. As we get older, our families and culture implant ideas about food and celebrations, food and feelings, food and guilt. It is impossible to completely separate food from the things it is besides fuel for our bodies, and really, we wouldn't want to. Taste, touch and smell and sight are all engaged by our food, and eating well is a wonderful experience, as long as we don't convince ourselves to feel bad about it.

However, many of us use food in inappropriate ways, mistakenly trying to meet our emotional needs with physical food. This leaves us feeling badly and impacts our health negatively. It becomes an vicious cycle: we eat, we feel bad about it, we eat more to stop feeling bad, etc.

The first step to stopping this cycle is conscious thought. When suddenly hit with a food craving that's not physical hunger, we need to stop long enough to recognize that it's not food we really need or want in that moment. Then, we need to supply ourselves with an alternative outlet for filling whatever emotional need is behind the urge to eat.

Here are some ideas. It's best to sit down and write your own list, and experiment to figure out what works best for you. Remember, if you end up not being able to avoid the urge to eat at first, treat yourself with compassion. Getting angry at yourself only furthers the vicious cycle and leaves you back where you were: feeling badly and not knowing what to do about it except eat.

Think about trying these:

When you're feeling anxious and in need of comfort:

-write your feelings down.
-call a friend and talk about what's bothering you.
-take a walk and breathe deeply.
-get a hug from someone you trust.
-problem-solve whatever is going on - figure out a step by step plan to fix the problem or prevent whatever you're worried about.
-turn on some soothing music.
-meditate.
-try a warm shower or bath.

When you're feeling devastated or sad:

-see all of the above.
-count your blessings - write a list.
-go ahead and let yourself cry.
-call your mom or a friend who will listen and commiserate with you.

When you're feeling angry or frustrated:

-see many of the above.
-punch a pillow or punching bag, or shadow box. Get all your frustrations out. Picture your problem or the person causing your problem and punch them in the face! (In your imagination, of course.)
-Write a letter you never intend to send airing all your anger. Then tear it up or burn it.
-turn on angry music and stomp around your house.
-channel your anger into something productive that you've been putting off, like cleaning. You'll have enough energy to get it done and barely notice the task.

When you're feeling happy and accomplished (and want to eat to celebrate):

-get some friends together to do something non food related but fun: shopping, bowling, rollerskating, whatever!
-use your happy energy to exercise.
-turn on upbeat music and dance.
-call your friends and tell them all about your success.
-do a random act of kindness for someone.

When you're feeling bored:

-Get out an old project you've been putting off.
-Research something you've been curious about.
-Find a new video game, iPod app, or something to play with.
-Read a book or watch something you've been wanting to.
-Play with a child.
-Try a new exercise or workout (videos are a great source for this).
-Try a new (or old) hobby like playing a musical instrument, making art, etc.

Again, brainstorm and think of things you think will work well for you. Keep your list handy so you'll have it when you need ideas. New habits take awhile to stick, so don't worry if changing the way you react to emotions is slow to change. Keep at it, and eventually your new coping skills will become ingrained.

ZombieFit

This is my friend Rose, in her zombie costume.

A friend sent me this link this morning. ZombieFit. These guys have it EXACTLY right.

They take principles from Crossfit and Parjour, and add ZOMBIES.

Crossfit is a system of exercise that belives in major "muscle confusion". Do something different, interesting, and difficult each day, and you'll build an awesome body with very few weaknesses.

Parkour is a sport developed in France and spreading over the world. It is a system of movement that states there are no barriers, only obstacles, all of which can be overcome. People jump, flip, roll and mount objects like rails, stairs, walls, etc, making the urban environment a playground and an amazing training ground for the "flight" part of "fight or flight."

ZombieFit takes these concepts and combines them into a system that promises optimum fitness for when the zombie apocolypse comes and we need to run, jump, fight and survive in a world of flesh-eating animated corpses. I haven't attended a class, but I imagine there's a huge amount of crazy fun involved. In the area of extreme fitness, it's a great new concept, and I can't wait to experiment with it!

Act.

Planning is important. If you don’t have a plan, you don’t know how you’re going to get from point A to point B, and you risk not getting there at all.

However, sometimes we get so caught up in making the perfect plan that we never really start the journey. Or we wait for the conditions to be just right in order to begin. We have to “feel like it,” be “in the right headspace,” have every resource available, have the answer to every question before we are ready to move forward.

This is a recipe for never getting anywhere at all. I can be a control freak at times. One of the most important lessons I’ve had to learn is that there is no perfect time to start anything, and while preparing and planning are positive things, they can impede us just as much as they help us. Am I implying that you should skip planning and preparation altogether and go after what you want completely blind? Of course not.

But stop waiting for the perfect time, the perfect day, the perfect plan. Stop derailing yourself and starting over completely because something didn’t go the way you thought it should. Adapt. Move forward. You’ll never get where you want to be by standing around and thinking about how you’re going to do it. Life is messy and uncertain. Get over it. Act. Choose not to be a bystander on the sidelines of your own life. The only way you will get anything like the life you want is by taking action every day to get there.

Good luck!

Excuses

Today, boys and girls, we are going to talk about excuses.

Excuses sabotage everything our "best" selves intend for us. They're part of human nature. When we don't really want to do something, our very intelligent brains come up with dozens of reasons why we can't or shouldn't. The dumb thing is, we tend to spend more time futzing around with excuses and thinking and getting mad at ourselves and then soothing ourselves... we might as well have saved ourselves the time and trouble and gone ahead and done whatever we should have in the first place!

I'm going to use exercise as an example because it's what I hear the most excuses about, but you can apply this to whatever you tend to make excuses not to do. Try the following strategies to steamroll right over your excuses and create the habits you really want.

1. Problem-solve.
Many excuses are logistical in nature. "Lynda, I don't exercise because I don't have any time." Yes, you may be very busy. But everyone has a few minutes stashed here and there. It's a matter of figuring out where they are and how you can harness them. We make time for the things that are important to us. You don't have to exercise for one uninterrupted hour each day - that might well be unrealistic for you. But can you take a 10 minute walk on your lunch break, take the stairs at work, take your kids to play frisbee in the park while you're watching them, march in place while your working on dinner? Actually, once you actually go through your day, you probably have more time than you think. Don't take your excuses at face value. Think it through and find a way.

2. Argue with your negative thoughts.
"I can't exercise because I'm embarrassed, I look like hell, it hurts to move, I'm clumsy and feel like a dork." We're so mean to ourselves! You wouldn't say those things to a friend, or even a stranger, but chances are you have your own torturous way of thinking about yourself that holds you back from the things you really want to do, especially when it comes to exercise. Argue with those thoughts! What would you say to a friend who had heard these insults? You'd probably get mad on their behalf. Get mad at your own inner demons, and set out to prove them wrong!

3. Trick yourself.
"I really don't feel like exercising today." If you've made a commitment to yourself to exercise, you should try to follow through. Tell yourself "I'll do it for 5 minutes, and if I still don't feel like it, I'll stop." by the time you've gotten dressed and started working out, it'll feel kind of silly to stop after 5 minutes. Tell yourself "5 more, just to make it worth it." By this time, you're probably done whining anyway and just focused on getting it done.

4. Distract yourself.
Work out with a friend and chat while you do. Listen to music. Have a tv on in the background or a magazine on the treadmill. You need to focus to a certain extent, but we tend to get bored easily in our overstimulated world. Have something to hold your interest while you get the work done.

5. Enlist an accountability partner.
Make a deal with a friend, relative or coworker. Each of you will commit to the habits you're tying to create, and give each other regular status reports. If you missed a workout, you have to explain why. Make it someone who will call you on your crap, and do the same favor for them.

6. Focus on the results, not the task.
Okay, so you don't really want to exercise. But your probably DO want the benefits that come with it - increased energy, reduced stress, feeling good in your own skin, etc. The long-term results are hard to focus on, but you can also focus on the immediate feeling of accomplishment that always comes after you've fulfilled a promise to yourself to take action on something at any given time. Think how good you're going to feel after that swim class, and go do it!

21 days to make a habit

Studies have shown that it takes about 21 days to break or form a new habit. Personally, I think 30 days is a good, round number, and gets any last stubborn resistance out. :) Think about that. 30 days from now, you could have a new habit you've been talking or thinking about forever and not really doing anything about. It just takes a little bit of action every day. Chris McCombs, a self-styled fitness business mentor, talks about taking "massive action". That's awesome, and hey, if you can do that, go for it. Personally, I believe in small, sustainable steps. Trying to do too much all at once tends to result in getting overwhelmed and backtracking as fast as possible to return to one's comfort zone - the old habits you've been stuck in forever. So aim for balance. Challenge yourself, but don't expect to reach perfection in 30 days.

I'm thinking about this concept because I'm participating in Jeanette Cates' 30 Day Blog Challenge. I'm supposed to write a new blog post every day of 150 or more words and then post it to Twitter. I've had this blog for awhile and it's not like it's *hard* for me to write - I was an English major! (Don't use that to judge my grammatical errors and typos, please!) I just haven't made a conscious effort to form the habit of writing in it on a daily or almost daily basis. By doing this I hope to get some good, informative writing done, make more connections and ultimately identify some more people who can benefit from training with me and want to take that step. So, while I'm working on this blog thing, why don't you think about trying to form a habit over the next 30 days. Maybe it's drinking your 8 glasses of water, or walking for 20 minutes a day, or changing the way you talk about your body from negative to positive. Maybe it's increasing your endurance until you can finally run an entire mile without stopping. Or maybe it's replacing a big bowl of ice cream for dessert with fruit. Maybe it has nothing to do with your physical health and fitness, and that's fine too. But pick something you've been meaning to do for awhile and take a little action on it every day for the next month. You've got nothing to lose, and plenty to gain!

Healthy Convenience Foods for People Who Hate to Cook

For those who love to cook, there’s never a shortage of great, cheap, healthy recipe ideas.

Personally, I hate to cook.

I get home at night and want my yummy, healthy dinner *now*, not 45 minutes of cooking from now. I hate the “easy” recipes that involve 20 different ingredients. I hate scrubbing out the slow cooker. Even the George Foreman grill, with its runnels of grease, is a nightmare to me.

Sometimes, my wonderful boyfriend cooks for us both. Sometimes (VERY rarely), I suck it up and cook something. The rest of the time, I count on a variety of healthy pre-made foods marketed to the uber-busy or lazy health conscious person. Here are some staples I count on in my kitchen:

1. Jimmy Dean “D’lights” breakfast sandwiches. These are under 300 calories, use egg whites, turkey bacon and whole grain English muffins, and taste really good. They’re ready in 2 minutes in the microwave, and are cooked wrapped in paper towel instead of the plastic wrapper, for those concerned about possible carcinogens.

2. Amy’s frozen meals. These tend to be more expensive than regular frozen meals, but if you find a sale, stock up. They have a great selection of organic, nutritious, delicious entrees. My favorites are the Stuffed Shell Pasta Bowl, the Teriyaki Bowl, and the Mushroom and Olive Pizza (the single serve version has 450 calories, which is great for a satisfying and not diet-busting lunch or dinner). I also have to mention the Toaster Pops, which taste like mini pies and have twice the protein, 50 fewer calories and 6 fewer grams of sugar than unfrosted Pop Tarts!

3. No-Pudge! Fat Free Brownies. Okay, this is a delicious dessert that is fat free and only 120 calories per serving (vs. 190 in Betty Crocker Fudge Brownies from mix, prepared). Plus, you only have to mix in one item – fat-free vanilla yogurt. And this is the best part: for a single serving, all you have to do is stir two tablespoons of the mix and one tablespoon of yogurt into a small bowl and microwave it for a minute. Easy!

4. Kroger Meals Made Simple Fully Cooked Turkey Bacon. You can microwave the strips or serve them cold, by themselves or on simple sandwiches. They provide 40 calories and 3 grams of fat per 2 strips, vs. 104 calories and 9 grams of fat in regular bacon. They taste good, too.

5. Dr. Praeger’s Veggie Burgers. I like veggie burgers that don’t actually try to taste like meat – there’s something creepy about that. These veggie burgers know they’re veggie burgers and taste good as veggie burgers. At 100 calories per patty and a couple minutes in the microwave to prep, they win for me.

6. Birdseye Steamfresh Veggies. They’re veggies you stick in the microwave and they steam right in the bag. There’s some concern over cooking in plastic and the nutritional content of frozen vs. fresh veggies (though several respected sources do state that frozen is fine). For now, I think any veggies are better than none, and these are very convenient in helping the lazy or busy cook include them in their diet.

7. Trader Joes Organic Jasmine Rice and Organic Brown Rice. This rice is really, really good and microwaves in 3 minutes. For anyone who’s cooked rice, especially brown rice, you know how much of a time saver that is. Jasmine rice, by the way, is one of the healthier white rices, with a lower glycemic index than regular white rice.

8. Trader Joes Turkey Meatballs. Trader Joes is full of awesome and nutritious easy frozen stuff. These frozen meatballs are low in fat and calories and high in protein, and they taste great. I toss them on top of the microwaveable rice and toss some veggies and a little teriyaki sauce on top. Good stuff.

Know some other great healthy convenience foods? I’m always on the lookout, so let me know!

What a personal trainer is and isn't.

If you’re looking for help, results, motivation and information in your quest for better health and fitness, a personal trainer is a great resource. Trainers have a wide range of expertise and are generally respected professionals (do be careful of uncertified trainers, but that is another blog post entirely). However, many people expect more of trainers than they are actually able to provide. Eager to give their clients what they want and need, some trainers fall into the trap of trying to sell services they are not qualified to provide. Consumers can save themselves a lot of frustration by knowing what to expect, and what NOT to expect, from a qualified personal trainer. Here is a short list of things personal trainers are and are not.

A personal trainer IS a great sounding board for your health and fitness challenges and trained in problem solving for these issues.

A personal trainer is NOT a psychologist. If you have an eating disorder or deeply seated issues that are keeping you from changing your habits, you may need additional help from one of these professionals. A good trainer will refer you if they believe it is necessary.

A personal trainer IS a good source for general nutrition information. Your trainer might help you use food diaries to address your eating patterns, educate you on nutrition and diet concepts and help you change to healthier nutritional habits.

A personal trainer is NOT a dietician or nutritionist, unless they are separately certified or licensed for these. It is out of the scope of practice for a trainer to prescribe specific meal plans or supplement regimens. Be careful of trainers who push a specific supplement or meal replacement line heavily. Some have done the research and truly believe in the products they offer. Others just want the extra cash.

An experienced personal trainer CAN make suggestions and give you exercises that may help your injury or pain patterns. A good trainer is armed with lots of information and exercises for general things: sore backs and knees; inflexible areas and general range of motion issues.

A personal trainer is NOT a physical therapist, unless separately licensed as such. Specific rehabilitation is not in the scope of practice of a personal trainer, so if you’ve just had surgery or a bad injury, ask your doctor whether you should be going to physical therapy.

A personal trainer is NOT a doctor, either. If you have any serious medical issues or suspect you might, talk to a doctor before hiring a trainer. A good trainer will get your fitness and medical history before you begin and refer you to a doctor if any red flags come up.

Within their scope of practice, trainers are great at getting results and helping people change their lives for the better. That’s why most of us got into the business in the first place – to help people. The best trainers will “stay in their lane”, refer to other qualified professionals when necessary, and focus on what they can do to help their clients get fit, strong and healthy for life.