70 pounds and counting

This weekend my husband and son built me a raised garden bed for mother’s day. I am so excited to begin this adventure. Now, I have given this a try before and it was truly an epic fail! When my son, Samuel was little, I would buy him a cheeseburger meal from a local restaurant. They offered sustainable items for kids as a prize instead of a toy. It really was neat. One time we planted radish and carrot seeds that came with the meal. I planted them and waited and waited and nothing. I plant flowers every year on my patio, but most everyone knows I am not a green thumb. My grandfather was an amazing gardener. I remember raspberries, fresh green beans, tomatoes, and so much more from his lush garden. I hope he is smiling down on me as he saw me putting good rich compost soil in the new bed and planting. I planted yellow beans, green onions, cucumbers, and spinach to start. I will let you know how this goes.

I planted the garden for a few reasons. I want to see if I can grow my own food. I also want Samuel to know how to take care of himself and grow his own food too. This time in our lives has taught me that I need to be more reliant on myself and focus on what I can provide for myself and my family vs. relying on the store to have it fresh for me. That said, we have had no trouble getting fresh food, just something I’ve given a lot of though to. The other is even though I’m going to work everyday, I am finding I need something to occupy my time in the evenings and weekends.

I recognize many families are facing challenging financial times right now. I’ve been shocked the last several weeks at our grocery bill for three people. While we are fortunate to still have our jobs, spending money like this on groceries is not sustainable forever. It takes me back to my grandma’s stories about the depression and what it was like to put food on the table. Growing my own garden fits in with ideas about saving money and getting more vegetables in our diet. We’ve been buying a lot of junk food. I took a long look at our grocery items over the last several weeks and come up with some ideas and tips. This to reduce money we are spending so we can put more money aside for the future and to reduce the amount of calories and sugar we are putting in our body. I have some recipes to post over the next few weeks that focus on low cost, but high yielding quantities to feed our families.

• Make your own treats – we made a homemade cake from a simple box cake mix, pineapple, and whipped topping for about $5.00, sliced into 16 small slices which is a good serving size, this week we did not buy any candy
• Cereal – buy what is on sale and aim for something with protein and whole grains, does not have to be a name brand to taste good
• Peanut Butter is a great filling food with protein and makes a great addition to a few crackers or celery
• Cheese – I have been shredding my own cheese which guarantees it will be fresh and saves money too
• Frozen Pizza and Salad over take out – I am totally in favor of supporting our local restaurants and we do eat out 1-2 times a week. Personally though pizza is very expensive and I really like frozen pizza. We made a pizza and salad for less than $10 for the three of us.
• Eating out – When we do eat out, I’ve been looking for local places offering good deals, some places have smaller versions of the meals for only $10. Friday we got a platter of Street tacos, rice, beans, chips and salsa for $45 and it lasted for two meals.
• Leftovers – growing up I do not remember eating leftovers, but as an adult we do eat our leftovers in this family. I’ve shared before on Sunday’s I usually cook double so we have dinners throughout the week. I re-imagine leftovers too. If I make spaghetti sauce, sometimes I use the leftovers to make lasagna
• Plan your food day ahead of time – A few people have asked me how to manage eating when they are working remotely. I recommended planning your food day as if you were going to work and said go ahead and pack a lunch for yourself. Allow yourself to eat what you rationed out for the day. I use Tupperware rather than plastic bags to save money and the environment.
• Pack a lunch for your kids – when I told a co-worker what I was recommending for people working remote she said she packs a lunch for her son, gives him a routine and helps with appropriate portions of food
• Package up purchased chips, treats, and snacks after purchasing them – someone told me this week she heard about this idea and I think it’s a great one. I often way over indulge on a serving and then later realize the serving size is much smaller than I would imagine.
• Get your family involved with food prep and meal planning, teaches them life skills and helps them budget too.
• Now might be the time to teach your age appropriate children to cook. Samuel has been cooking and baking and I’m really impressed with his talent and independence with it.
• Storing food away – I used to hide food when I was a kid, but the truth is putting the extra food in a safe space out of reach is a good reminder to eat appropriate portions and make it less available for grabbing – It’s important to feed ourselves and our kids enough food, but I’ve learned these last few weeks, my son has too much access to food while I’m out. We are going to try the idea of planning out his meals ahead of time
• Reduce meat in some recipes – I have recipes like my Chili that I can reduce the meat by half and add more beans to save money and still get the protein

These are just a few tips and tricks, but I’m sure many of you have much more to offer. I would love it if you would share ideas with me too. I’m thinking of all of you. Stay safe and healthy.

Mandy

Finally, I am getting a chance to do some writing. For the last few weeks, I have thought about the blog posts I would write. I thought I would have much more time to focus on my blog. I am still reporting to work as an RN Manager and trying to help my teenager stay on top of his schoolwork. So, life has been busier than I imagined.

I hope you are all doing well although I’m sure some of you have been impacted by COVID 19 more than others. I am sending good thoughts and prayers your way for good health and peace. This has been a time like no other. I wrote a few weeks ago about going into a sort of preservation mode if you will. I stopped worrying about losing weight and just focused on staying at my current weight.

I have worked hard though to get my protein up more than ever and I’ve been really successful over all. Not perfect, but no need for perfection. I recognize if I let my body get run down and fill it with fuel it does not need, then I might weaken my immune system. I am still tracking on my Lose It app. Last night I even discovered that it tracks my habits. This is a really handy feature and I learned sort of odd facts about my diet plan. On the days I eat sour cream and yogurt, my overall calories are lower. For bread and pasta it told me I seem to have a good balance of carbohydrates vs. protein. When I eat lean protein for breakfast I have done better in my day. I was really fascinated that it had this feature. I was looking for something to do and spent about 3o minutes reading through this feature and learning about my habits that I would have never known.

Many people in my personal life and co-workers talk about working remote or even still working at the office or clinic and wanting to snack all day long. Some have asked me how I manage this. Although my bariatric surgery was successful and I’m now at a 95 pound loss, it is a tool. I am not immune to the stress of the world right now and some days I find myself wanting to consume more. Here is what I’m doing to stay on track, but not being focused on weight loss right now.

First, I am tracking daily very faithfully. I do not stick to the calorie recommendation of the Lose It app. I changed my daily intake to increase slightly right now because I am wanting to snack a bit more. I found a balance of what I could eat staying within my protein and carb intake while staying at the same weight. Also, some days it’s really okay to eat more. Your body is really designed to work better when you alter your calories from day to day and in fact this could help you out of a stall. I’ve been doing this for most of my weight loss journey this last year and it works! I first read about this from fitness expert Jillian Michaels a few years ago. Looking at my fitness tracker last night I recognize that I’ve been doing this pattern for a while and without realizing it. This has come from some part of intuitive eating though and even though I am tracking my calories I am allowing my body to set it’s hunger and full limits on its own. I am learning to trust my body with hunger and fullness. You can read more about zigzag dieting here if you are interested: https://www.openfit.com/how-zigzag-dieting-can-break-your-weight-loss-plateau

Second, I have been taking my vitamins faithfully as I can. I have missed a day or two here and there, however make it a daily habit. My dietitian and surgeon have me on a specific combination.

Third, if I do have a day where I let my body decide in favor of what I felt was too much food, I forgive myself. When I get in bed for the night I glance at my full day on my app and then say a quick prayer the next day will be better. Right then I take time to journal my food for the next day focusing back on my protein. Last week I had a day where I felt kind of sick from too much food. I made a plan and journal-ed ahead for the next day. I made my day to include peanut butter with an apple, low sugar high protein yogurt, nuts (Cashews and peanuts), Taco soup with cheese for lunch and dinner. Then I rewarded myself with some air popped popcorn. Just like that I was back feeling good again. Part of my battle is staying out of my head, staying focused on what I have accomplished, forgiving myself when I have overindulged, and reminding myself I have more control than I give myself credit for.

Lastly, I really miss my swim classes. With my Charcot Foot, swimming is really the only aerobic activity I am able to do. I have been trying to walk a little bit with my CROW boot on the weekends. I also walk my dog in the yard every evening. So, I am at least trying to move some. I am walking a lot at work which is where I am allowed to take the most steps. I do have chair exercises I can do and need to focus on doing these again. Many of my neighbors are taking advantage of walking daily with their family recognizing not only does exercise help us, but really helps our kids.

In closing, here is a resource that a dietitian I work with sent out this week. She came across this article and found it helpful. It is about eating while working from home and how to handle the day to day routine:

RD says staying at home can lead to “head hunger”Staying at home during the novel coronvavirus pandemic may lead to “head hunger,” where people feel hungry but may not be physically hungry, dietitians said. Registered dietitian Jennifer Kyser encourages people to practice mindful eating and track meals and snacks, while RD Alexandra Depriest suggests people use a rating scale to determine if they really are hungry or if they are eating for a different reason.Full Story: WLKY-TV (Louisville, Ky.) (4/17) 

Even if you are not working from home, this time is very stressful and therefore I think most of us can benefit from these tips. I also recognize for many of you thinking about food, how much or how little to eat is not a priority because many people are facing economic challenges and illness. I continue to be thinking of you and realize for many, first and foremost you just have to get through this. I hope you can all find the resources you need to ride out this storm. I read a great article this week that we are not all truly in the same boat. I recognize this and am not naive to this.

Please remember to check in with your healthcare professional or clinician about any questions you might have about intake and what types of nutrients or what types of vitamins. I wish you all the very best.

Mandy

Intuitive eating is a subject I’ve wanted to read and write about for some time. I first heard the term a few years ago from a co-worker. She described it as a new way of learning to eat, and a process. When she was describing it in relation to patient teaching, it really struck a chord with me. I recall her talking about intuitive eating as filling your body with what it wants to eat. She described it as having that piece of chocolate cake if that is really what you want in the moment. Eventually you are likely to get to that chocolate cake because that is really what you wanted in the first place. The average dieter though has proclaimed the cake as bad and will eat ten other things to avoid the cake and then in the end have the cake too. She said there is so much more to intuitive eating. That really over simplified the concept. As I’m beginning to research I’m realizing she is right about it being a process and I’m intrigued by it. I just used the example of the cake because I remember her describing that as an example of how chronic dieters assign labels to food and then try to avoid them because they feel they should not eat them.

I am going to give you some links tonight so you can do some reading as well. In the coming days to weeks, I’m going to continue my reading and get a better understanding so I can write more.

One website was recommended to me and that is a site called Be Nourished. The founders have many years of experience with body image and intuitive eating. The founders are Dana and Hilary and I am very fascinated with their work and cannot wait to learn more. Between them they are licensed therapist, counselors, fitness and nutrition experts, speakers, writers, and so much more. They have experience with body shaming, body image, weight bias, eating disorders, and chronic dieting. The Be Nourished site can be found at the following link: https://benourished.org/

They describe intuitive eating as an approach designed to combat years of chronic dieting and the side effects that go along with chronic dieting including rigidity. A chronic dieter often develops ideas of good and bad foods.

From my own personal lens, I completely understand this point of view. I’ve shared that I have been dieting since I was twelve years old. At least that is the earliest age I can remember going on a diet. My first diet was an exchange diet. I borrowed the book from my mom and it was called, “Eat and Stay Slim”. It was a really good book and the truth is mostly was a healthier way of approaching eating. The challenge though was I was so young and was already ashamed of my body. I then began to develop that exact mentality they describe on this site of a chronic dieter. I believed I had to be perfect on my diet. If I had a piece of chocolate or ice cream, I labeled it as cheating, which then led to more binge eating. Then I would start over the next day and try and be even more rigid. If I ate more than I should of, I would just keep eating more and more. In my head, I had ideas of good food vs bad food. I was stuck on counting calories and ignoring my own body signals. Intuitive eating is about trusting your own body and that I did not.

Intuitive eating is relatively new concept to me. When I started doing research though I realized this has been around since the nineties. I went to a website created by the original founders of intuitive eating. According to the authors the concept of intuitive eating has ten principles. As I continue my research we can explore those as we go along. The founders have extensive backgrounds in treating food disorders and are dieticians as well. They teach others how to train people in intuitive eating. What they state intuitive eating is not is a diet or meant to be a weight loss program. My understanding of what I’m reading is that it is meant to offer a natural approach to living with food and having a healthy relationship with food, trusting your own body to tell you what it needs. Helping people to get away from the concept of dieting to lose weight and getting out of that cycle. The link to this website is: https://www.intuitiveeating.org/

I realize as I write this that intuitive eating is not about counting calories, carbs, macros, fat, etc and that it is about letting your body do what it wants to do naturally. This is the exact opposite of what I’m doing right now. I’ve pondered that for a few days as I prepared to write this article.

Over the last several years I’ve tried just about every diet or weight loss program. As I’ve thought about this, the closest time in my life I came to intuitive eating was when I read a book about eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full. It was getting back to the basics of trusting your body to let you know when it needed nourishment and when it has had enough. There were no good or bad foods listed, just seeing food as fuel. I think it’s fair to say one could not sustain eating chocolate cake for every meal, however these concepts are not meant to deprive the body of certain foods.

After years of dieting and years of diabetes, my body changed and I had metabolic syndrome. Years of dieting and losing and gaining weight added to my troubles. My way out was to have bariatric surgery. So although I am currently counting my calories and my protein, I believe in the Intuitive eating process. My goal in writing this blog is to tell you about my journey, but also present other concepts to my readers as well. I feel it is important to call that out. Although I am did have bariatric surgery to lose weight there are other approaches. Also, healthy can come in any shape or size. I chose surgery as an approach. Perhaps though I can learn something new as we go along about trusting my new body.

I hope you will consider finding out more information about intuitive eating if this intrigues you as well. If you have years of dieting and want to stop the cycle, consider reading more. Both websites offer multiple resources.

I am going to continue to read and will focus more on the ten principles in my next blog post. Until then, may you all be healthy and happy.

Mandy