Solving Diet Issues

My diet has changed in time. What I did two years ago was great for loosing weight (10lbs in 14 months) but not sustainable for the rest of my life. Two years later, here are the issues that got in way this Winter:

1. Lack of Variety
2. Seasonal Depression
3. Lack of Willpower

Lack of Variety:
There are a lot of healthy foods but the problem is there aren't EASY healthy foods. They all require more work then opening a bag of chips and putting some reduced fat sour cream in a bowl. There also is a lot less dishes with the 1/5th a bag of chips approach and all of those dishes go in the dishwasher. For weekend lunches, I just needed something easy to make for lunch since I do eggs on Saturdays and pancakes on Sundays for breakfast. I have no cooking motivation for dinner if lunch was too much work. Now, I have options.

For Saturday lunch: Sushi (1/2 tuna roll 1/2 California roll with low sodium soy sauce)

For Sunday lunch: prepared food unseasoned grilled chicken on a grocery store salad with 2 slices of whole wheat bread (roll style).

For bedtime snack: baby carrots and reduced fat sour cream (guess what I really was craving, that's right, the sour cream).

Seasonal Depression:
I'm such an outside girl. If it's a feels like 45 - 90 degrees I can spend the day outside as much as humanly possible. I was planting Pachysandra in 95 degrees last July. But we have had two issues this Winter. The first is that it's been so cloudy. That sunshine is crucial to my happiness. I think we've had 7 sunny (and not windy) days since Christmas. The other is that if it's not cloudy it's windy so I might still be able to walk for exercise but it's less enjoyable when it's so windy. I hate when it's both cloudy and windy. Between it slowly warming up and my Garden officially being back to growing season I have been outside more and watching my garden more. Those two things are keys to stress management for me and I am finding the little issues a lot easier to deal with this past week (today's snow being the exception). Next year it will help to have plants in the Garden in the Winter. Plants that I have to keep an eye on and might even need to water sometimes. A big help has been planning the garden my Mom gave me at her house.

Lack of Willpower:
When I see an article about dieting and exercising, I read it. The problem is, I'm not seeing anything new. I have either tried it and do it, tried it and can't do it, tried it and it didn't work, or won't be trying it. If you tell me lettuce with creamy dressing and nothing else is an unhealthy salad, you have lost credibility with me. If you imply baked potatoes are as bad as potato chips, you loose credibility. Here are two things that are important to know.

1. Never tell an Italian to try Whole Wheat pasta.
2. Never tell an Irish person to have sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes.

I'm 3/4 Irish and 1/4 Italian. You should see me eat a baked potato with reduced fat sour cream, low sodium bacon bits and chives! I am good with whole wheat bread and brown rice though. Those are sustainable changes.

I have already discovered the things that I just can't give up:

1. Salami (although I have 5 thin slices with my sandwich now instead of 6 with cheese)
2. my daily can of coke (2 on Fridays)
3. My nightly wine (red wine so at least there are health benefits)
4. My decaf coffee (1 cup but with 2 equal packets and creamer)

But I have given up a lot of things. The problem is balance. I can go without chips mostly but when do they fit in? I can't go the rest of my life without chips. I know I can have small desserts at parties so I don't feel like I'm missing out when it comes to sweets (and we will do M&Ms on Easter, dark chocolate no other candy but small gifts). But when is it okay to do my chips and sour cream? It was my greatest weakness in January simply because there is no reference I can use to say "I can have it at (insert day/occasion) so I can wait".

I went through a phase where I microwaved a baked potato for a bedtime snack each night. That was simply solved by having potatoes instead of rolls with Salmon from November 1st - April 30th. I already had been having one medium one with London Broil but I just couldn't go all week without it. I haven't wanted it for a snack since making this change. My cravings are met. I went from at least six a week to two.

I don't know how long the carrots and sour cream thing will work for bedtime but I think it would be easier if I had a reference for a time to have chips with sour cream. The chips were bought to have with burgers instead of fries but I like them with sour cream which is how I ended up with so many, some with the burger and some later with sour cream. Once I was cutting an apple for a bedtime snack and found myself crying because I really wanted those chips. I have apples all the time for daytime snacks (which I'm good with).

It became easier to solve these diet issues when I thought about my needs and options. Early in a diet we say we'll change our behaviors and see results but it's hard to sustain some behaviors because the original behaviors developed in the first place for a reason. That's what fits your life. A diet starts working when it fits your life. The diet needs to adapt to you, you can't adapt to it. If it's near your dry cleaners, you are more likely to regularly go to the gym for the foreseeable future because it fits your life. You won't be able to sustain going to the gym regularly if it's not near a different place you regularly go to. It's a "since I'll be at that plaza anyway" kind of thing. When making life changes to loose weight keep your habits in mind. If you like that afternoon snack you won't be able to give it up. But a string cheese or grapes is a better option then a candy bar. It's about being satisfied. If your needs are met, then the health swaps you make will be sustainable and it doesn't become yo-yo dieting. You'll still see results.

I tried those intense exercise routines, and they worked, by each ankle has been fractured, my right foot has been fractured in the same place twice and a third time I walked on the stress fracture on my left ankle because it was unclear why my right hurt but right was worse then left. Don't forget my weak knees. I have learned I can handle walking an average of 1 hour and 15 minutes - 1 hour and 30 minutes a day. If I do 2 hours I have to limit the next day to no more than 1 hour. If the temperature is in the 20s I can only do 30 minutes in a stretch so some days that's all I get. Small but sufficient exercise days mean 45 minutes - 1 hour. My body can't handle the gym and dance routines.

That will be a road block for me. Being able to do the more intense stuff is more productive at fat burning. My body is also in survival mode permanently thanks to the eating disorder. The hard part is will power. While I know my family loves me, a more positive encouragement would help. It helps to talk about gardening but not being able to do that in January with anyone but Josh and Zach was a major hindrance. Josh isn't interested in Gardening so he listened to help because he knew it makes me happy but wasn't that engaged. His roll in gardening is mostly carrying the soil. It's been easier. On Sunday my Mom and I made a deal..........Zach goes to church with her on Easter and does the egg hunt (Episcopal) and I can talk about Gardening all I need to. That's been working. I had a rough day on Tuesday and almost caved twice but didn't. I was thinking about the Garden instead. In January I would have caved. I'm an emotional person and most of my bad eating is emotionally related. Gardening is a real and healthy solution to dealing with stress. Counting calories won't work for me. That probably would make it worse. I need to enjoy my eating. If it becomes too much work, I get lazy and have the bad stuff.

Support to help with willpower isn't just not offering dessert, it's also about letting the struggling person do what they need to. In my case, talking about Gardening here and at my parent's house was an excellent distraction. All I needed was to be allowed to talk about it and the planning I have done for it. My Mom wasn't "ready" before (actually, she isn't ready now but she really wants Zach in church on Easter). But if she had just let me talk about it I may never have developed Seasonal Depression. I hope my new-found willpower sticks!!! It's working for now. I learned from the doctor that it takes 4 to 6 weeks for changes to show on the scale. I lost a pound. It's only been two weeks since I started most of these changes (Monday for the carrots) so we'll see how things are on April 15th, assuming I keep it up. I have a doctor's appointment that day. But it's good to know little changes I made at the end of January are working.