The fight with food!

I hate Walmart!  They don't put out the Easter candy 2 months in advance because they think people are wanting to get a jump start on decorating their Easter baskets.

They do it because they know we'll buy it and eat it - a lot of it!!

For me, exercise is the easy part.  I look forward to it everyday.  It is my 'me' time, my stress reliever, my therapy.

Eating healthy, now that's hard!  Everything just tastes so good!!!  But wait, healthy food tastes good too, at least the foods that I eat are.  I look forward to and crave all of my clean meals.  So why do I find my mind constantly dreaming of the Cinnamon Roll cart?

I had a revelation a couple months back.  I was standing in line to check out, just randomly looking around at all of the stuff they pack into the isles for you to grab at the last minute, and realized I'm not craving chocolate.  I wanted to check my temperature and feared I was getting sick.  Then I realized that I just didn't want any.

I'd always heard a myth that once you stopped eating junky processed food on a daily basis, you're cravings go away and you're body (or brain) doesn't want it anymore.  Turns out, not a myth.

That anxious feeling of being stared in the face by a succulent chocolate bar; you know that you shouldn't, that you don't need it, but every fiber in your body wants nothing more than to get one, or two and devour it before you get the rest of the groceries loaded - that feeling was gone.

I didn't have the inner struggle with the extreme cravings for candy or junk food.  And that made me so happy!

I will admit that it is much harder this time of year, and I sometimes have to not look directly at the seasonal isle or I hear it calling my name, but I have found some good tricks to overcome my battle with food.

• Save it for a treat night.  Weekends are always hard to control so I usually save them for my cheat
  
  meals.  So if I'm wanting something bad in the middle of the week, I'll tell myself that if I wait till Saturday I give myself permission to go crazy.  Odds are that by Saturday I've already forgotten about it or if I do indulge, I still go sparingly because that's all my body can handle.  It's still better than giving in and getting it throughout the week when I know I'm still going to screw up on Saturday.

• Find an alternative.  If I'm craving something sweet or chocolatey, I'll make a clean alternative like chocolate peanut butter protein bars (I'll post recipe below).  Or if I'm craving carbs, I'll make some protein blueberry muffins or Jamie Eason's lemon bars.  And I can't even tell you the last time I went to DQ for a blizzard; I've been hitting up Sweet Frog or getting some Ben and Jerry's FroYo.  

• There's always a healthier alternative that can quench your craving.  If you can't find it, then I'd say it is more mental or emotional eating.  If this is the case, stop and really assess what's going on.  Maybe its not even hunger at all.  Try to distract yourself, go for a walk, read a book or magazine, or talk to God.

• Take some time to see how far you've come.  Every time I start to want something bad, I think about the exercise I did that morning and realize that it will have been for nothing if I eat junk.  Think about how great you felt when you finally achieved a fitness goal; loosing those pounds, fitting into those pants, feeling the extra energy, or hearing your doctor say that you're health is getting better.  

I'm sure I'm not the only one who battles the constant fight with food.  Maybe your's isn't chocolate but cheese, pasta, bread, pop, starbucks, or pretty much everything... whatever it is just know that that fight can be won!  Note that above I said I had this revelation about winning the cravings battle only a few months ago.  That was almost a year into changing my healthy living lifestyle.  

The battle is hard, but it does get better.  And with persistence, you begin to see you are winning!!

This is the recipe I mentioned earlier.  I halved everything to make a smaller batch, but still be warned:  NOT FOR THE WEAK WILL-POWERED!!  I wanted to eat the entire pan!!

recipe from www.bodybuilding.com

WHITE CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER CINNAMON PROTEIN BARS

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Skim Milk or Almond Milk if you prefer
• 1 cup Low-fat Peanut Butter (chunky or creamy)
• 1 tbsp Honey
• 1 1/2 cups of Chocolate Cookie Whey-HD protein powder
• 2 cups dry uncooked Oatmeal (not instant oatmeal)
• 1 tbsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 cup White Yogurt Chips

Directions

1. Place the peanut butter, honey, and milk in a sauce pan.
2. Slowly warm over low heat.
3. Add the protein powder and cinnamon and stir until completely blended.
4. Add the uncooked oats. Warm the mixture just enough so that it's easy to stir. You don't want to cook it. If the mixture's too thick, add milk.
5. Press the batter into a 10" x 12" pan. Spray the pan with PAM to avoid having the bars from sticking to the sides. Sprinkle yogurt chips over the top and press them into bars.
6. Leave the bars out to cool.
7. Once they're completely cooled, cut into 12-16 individual bars.
8. Wrap each bar in plastic wrap to be stored. The bars can be refrigerated but taste best at room temperature.

NUTRITION FACTS
Serving Size 1 Bar
(Recipe yields 16)

Amount per serving

Calories 170

Total Fat9.8g

Total Carbs13.5g

Protein

Challenge Update

Wow, four weeks have gone by super fast.  I am incredibly sorry that I haven't given any updates yet, but the challenge start date coincided with the start date of what I hope is the most stressful grad school class ever!!  Then my daughter seriously injured her arm (thankfully not broken), which led to multiple doctors visits and an incredibly stressful week of keeping an active 2 year old from completely breaking it.  Then there's taxes and planning for my son's birthday party, yada yada yada, I've been super busy!!

So, just a brief recap of the first four weeks of the challenge.  The first three I've done super good.  With all of the stress from school I managed to stick with my diet and never missed an exercise.  I did have a couple cheat meals here and there, some planned, others not so much.  But the important thing is to pick right back up eating clean on the next meal.  Carb cycling has been fun, I can see progress and changes in my weight, but I will say that it is difficult to add more carbs without adding too many more calories.

Now, I have to admit that this past week was not so good.  I have been drained completely, I had to take an unplanned day of complete rest, and have eaten horribly the past couple of days.  Ok, let not completely horribly, but definitely not good.  (anything to make myself feel better)

But tomorrow is the start of a new week and a chance to prove to myself how strong I am.

I'll still be doing the same workout routine, but I'll be performing all exercises on each day as huge circuits, instead of super-sets, to keep the intensity and my heart rate up.

I don't 'track' my meals or calories, but I think I'll start writing down everything I eat again.  That's something I did in the last transformation that really helped and held me accountable to what I was putting in my body.  I also like to have a calendar and put a check for good days or an X for bad days to keep me in line (nobody likes to see a page full of X's).  I will also continue carb cycling throughout the next 4 weeks, and try not to screw up as bad.  And with this weekend being Valentine's Day and my son's birthday it will be a true test of strength.  I'll get through Valentine's Day ok, but I will eat some birthday cake!

I'll post my beginning challenge pictures and current progress pics later this week with my stats.

Hope everyone is doing good and keeping up with the challenge.  If you've slipped up or stalled out completely, get up and get back on it!!  MAKE YOURSELF!!