How Does Being Hot or Cold Affect Your Food Cravings and Intake?

Saturday, January 31, 2009

I have noticed that when I stay cold for a long period of time I eat more. I think what makes me eat more when I am cold is the need for food to heat up my body for a prolonged time in the cold along with the thoughts my body conjures up of foods to relieve the cold. I do drink hot liquids to try to chase away the cravings and that works to a degree. However, I really crave foods that burn hot in the winter like chili, fatty and/or cheese laden hot soups, hot chocolate, etc. This year I decided I would stay warm no matter how many layers of clothes it took and to my surprise I don't seem to crave the hot fuel foods so much or even food in general.

On the otherhand, I don't eat much in the summer. It is too hot to eat and I crave cold food items like salads, cold meats, cold boiled shrimp, raw fruits and veggies and cool liquids. Some people have problems cold sugary treats and ice cream in the summer but I don't really like ice cream that well. However, even with cold treat temptations, I have to make myself eat enough to reach my suggested calorie intake in the summer.

After posting my personal observations I have found that different people have different reactions to hot and cold with relationship to food cravings and intake. How does being hot or cold affect your food cravings and intake?

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"NO! Bad Food, I Am NOT Letting you Get a Toe Hold in my Food Chain!"

Friday, January 23, 2009

I need support!!!! I need you girls (and guys) to keep me in line here. Ever since I lost the 2 pounds I needed to reach my 30 pound weight loss goal around Christmas time I have been eating within my calories, but I have not been making good healthy food choices. This means that if I am not careful my progress could not only come to a screeching halt, but it could crash and burn completely!

I have come to realize that I must learn to recognize teeny potential problems along the pathway, before they become full blown and looming monster problems and know when to say "NO! I won't go there!" I know if I don't I won't be able to maintain what I have gained in progress toward reaching my goals before summer or be confident that I can maintain my desired weight thereafter.

So I am saying "NO! Bad food, I am not letting you get a toe hold in my food chain!" I am saying "NO!" to the subtle little "just one cappuccino with whipped cream on Sundays when we eat out," or " just one cookie, today," or "just some jam and butter and bread" when tempted even though I am gluten intolerant and it is going to make me sick, or " just one cup of coffee" even though I have been off coffee since last July and don't drink it but rarely, and you get the picture...

You see, it is these "just one mores" that start adding up to one too many bad food choices a day. Next stop is two bad food choices a day, and so on, until I would be tolerating major bad food problems "every" day. Now that would start putting on pounds and do some serious damage before I could get in control again, and that is what landed me here in the first place.

So before it gets to that point, while I am still eating within my calories, I have decided and am determined to be watchful, first, and then put an end to it as soon as I see a little problem set foot on my pathway. That watchfulness will have to become a lifestyle for me, a daily habit, so I will not go up and down like a yo-yo but stay steady and consistent and I also know that the response of doing something about it as soon as I see it will have to become a habit in my lifestyle, too.

So here I am. Looking on the outside like everything is going great but knowing on the inside I need your support, girls! guys! Prayers would be good, too. Check with me and make sure I am following up. Hold my feet to the fire if need be, and walk with me as body guards if you will, so the bad foods who want to be my best buddies will keep their toes out of my food chain and off my path!

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On the Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

This was one of the most memorable days in my life and the life of our nation and I could not let it go without a comment. I am so proud to be an American!

President Elect Barack Obama was sworn in today as the 44th president of the United States of America. President Obama is also the first African American president of the United States. It's funny, because I don't think of him by color or race, if indeed I ever did, but simply as a fellow American. He has been coming into our living rooms with us on our TV sets for at least 2 years and I have come to know him as a man with principles and a desire to help his fellow man. He has called on us to strive for truthfulness, honesty, integrity, and the return of respect for America, and I believe in those things.

Today, President Barack Obama extended a hand of friendship to all who will seek peace and a warning to those who would seek to destroy us. He said that we are entering a new era of responsibility and respect as a nation. He put us and the world on notice that our nation is now ready to lead once more. He told us the truth, in that times are not good, but he reminded us that we are all neighbors with a common love for our country, and we need to pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off, and go to work.

He called for us to work together, helping one another. He called for a return to values and encouraged us to give back to our communities in community service. He told us that the time has come to set aside childish things, to set aside our differences, and hold on to our common strengths to help build this country up in strength and unity once again.

What this president has to offer our country is not only level headed leadership in troubled times, but an example for all American citizens, that we can achieve our dreams irrespective to our condition of birth, a realization especially encouraging and uplifting to our African American youth who until this day had no such tangible example when it came to the highest office of our land. In the swearing in of this president a signal has been sent throughout our land and even throughout the world that the barriers of prejudice have been torn down, or at least been given a mortal blow. The freedom that comes through this release from prejudice translates to freedom for all of us. Once we are free of prejudices we are all free to respect and be respected simply for who we are and what we stand for as individuals and Americans.

We know we will have differences, every family does, but we must come to realize that even in our differences we all love our country, and we must not allow those differences to destroy our brotherly love for one another. No functional family can harbor or allow bitterness to thrive and gnaw at it and still remain functional. Now is the time for us to shake hands, agree to disagree if need be, and move forward.

We are challenged to recognize that change comes through respectful communication, courteous debate, and an attitude of seeking truth and common ground on the issues. We will not all get our way all of the time, but we will get our say if we address one another with dignity, respect, love, and humility, and strive always to keep positive communications open.

So once again it is a time to begin again in our country with new leadership, new ideas, and new hope. It is the American way. For those who will accept this extended hand of friendship and brotherhood, what a great opportunity we have to work with one another in a spirit of unity and neighborly love and commitment once again!

In closing here are excerpts from President Barack Obama's inauguration speech.

" The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit, to choose our better history, to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea passed on from generation to generation, that God given promise, that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness."

"Let it be said by our children and our children's children that when we were tested that we REFUSED to let this journey end. That we did not turn back, nor did we falter, and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."

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Starting the New Year 30 Pounds Lighter

Thursday, January 08, 2009

It is hard to believe that a year has passed since I started Spark People. Actually it is a little over a year since I started on December 12 of 2008. I weighed 185 pounds then and carrying it on a small frame. I knew good eating habits but too much was happening to me that required meals out and I hadn't dealt well with that.

Now it is 2009 and I am starting the New Year at 155!!! That is 30 pounds lighter. It is as if the weight of the world came off me with that 30 pounds. I told a friend the other day that "Now when I look in the mirror I can finally see "me" looking back!" It was like for so many years the person I had known most of my life as "me" had been held hostage inside a much larger body fighting to get out.

It had been even worse before I started Spark People. I had managed to make 205 pounds at my heaviest. Now you might say that being 185 was pretty good for having been 205, but I had been 167 and briefly touched on 165, but suddenly was making a fast break for the top again and might have reached it if I had not thrown on the breaks.

Now 10 pounds lighter than my lowest previous weight and 30 pounds lighter than last year I am beginning this new year in uncharted territory. No, it didn't make my FM go away but it has made me feel better about the way I look. I have friends asking me how I did it and I tell them about spark people. Any time you go into uncharted territory you need to take a friend. Otherwise you could get overwhelmed and find yourself headed back to the familiar ground you just left. Here are some of the things that worked for me.

1. Don't ban all foods that put on calories. However, don't keep them around your house to tempt you when your will power is low. Do remove temptation and when you encounter it unexpectedly flee from it!

2. Never go into uncharted areas without a friend to watch your back. They are watching your back for 2 reasons:
a) They are their to keep you moving forward when you despair and want to turn back to your old non-productive ways.
b) They are there to support you when the the memories of the false pleasures of overindulging call out to you or present opportunities for you to rush back the way you came. For those of us who have no one to support us in our dieting or limited support, SP is a great place to come to tap that resource.

3. Don't lose sight of your goals. Remind yourself where you are headed on a regular basis.
Look at a dress a size smaller, think of how nice it will be to join others in activities and not puff for air.

4. Mark your journey. Keep a journal or at least chart your progress in case you need to find your way again. If you lose track of your goals and haven't marked your progress by entering what you have eaten and your fitness every day, you are likely to not only lose your way but find yourself wondering in circles which continue to loop backward away from your goals and dreams rather than toward them.

5. If you reach a place that you can't seem to leave don't despair. If you are not going backward you may just be gathering yourself together the provisions you need to move forward to the next point of your journey. Take the opportunity to adjust to living that weight and maintaining. This practice will come in handy in the future when you will have to know how to maintain to stay at your goal weight.

6. Don't get too comfortable. Some hovering is a good thing because it allows your body to catch its breath and adjust, but past that point it is time to move on. If you find yourself "hovering" rather than moving forward take inventory and make changes:
a. Change your work out routine and/or exercises themselves , increase the difficulty or length of your work outs or
b. Make sure you are stay within your calorie limits and drop your calories down to the lower range.
c. Make sure you are getting plenty of sleep and water. Eight is the magic number for both of these, 8 hours sleep and 8 glasses of water a day. What you put into your body in 8s makes it less likely for you to say you "ate" the whole thing because your body will be full of the other energy building 8s and won't be craving so much of the dangerous food "ates."

7. Make short term goals in reaching your final goal, and reward yourself when you reach them. Reward is crucial to success and progress so "celebrate" but not with food. Buy a new outfit, do something you always wanted to do, check out a movie, etc.

This may not cover everything, but these are the things I did to get me going and keep me going. I hope they help you in your journey, too. Have a great journey to health and don't let the things of the past trip you up.

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GPS Units and God

Friday, December 19, 2008

Today I had a friend to write me about GPS units. Sometimes the strangest things will get me to thinking.

What if you set your GPS and then ignored what it told you to do. Do they have backups for that? Does the GPS unit have a nervous break down? or will eventually a voice come over the GPS unit that says, "Hey, wake up, Dummy! YOU'RE LOST! Go to the nearest gas station or inhabited place, if you can find one, and get directions or I quit!" "That means NOW!!!"

Okay, maybe I have entirely too much time on my hands to think of these things, but someone has to do it.

Now the deeper side of that is that God is our GPS unit and more often than not we do ignore Him. Amazing how we know the direction we need to go, and life would go so much easier if we did listen to His instructions, but often we had rather not go that way but a way of our own choosing. Instead of fleeing the devil we follow along and meet up with all that the devil offers and in the end we know what that is. It is not our intended destination at all.

So the moral of this story and today's thought is: Don't mess with your GPS unit if you want to get to where you are going without a lot of grief. You could even miss your desired destination entirely. Now think and choose carefully....

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