For January, I challenged my friends, fans, and followers to a "No Soda Challenge." This was just one month of no drinking soda. What brought this about?
Well, something personal came up in my life, and I emotionally ate. Growing up, I used to closet eat pretty bad and we used to go to restaurants to celebrate happy occasions or gather after sad ones. Could this have led to bad eating habits? Maybe. But, I can in no way blame anyone else for the bad habits I have as an adult. I consciously make decisions everyday on my own. Good and bad.
We all have skeletons in our closet and this is one that I had to face. Yes, I encourage and healthy active lifestyle. Yes, I practice what I preach. There are times however, when something triggers that bad instinct to have something to eat to what seems like "get my mind off of things." More so than a need to satisfy a nutritional or hunger need. Most people that are overweight/obese and even on the other side of the spectrum with eating disorders can relate to eating or not eating because of emotions. I do not claim to be an authority on mental eating habits so please correct me if I say anything incorrect.
On this day I had the revelation that I emotionally ate, I was particularly upset about something so I went to the grocery store and within a day, I had easily put away a 20 pack of cookies. I sat there at the end of the day like, "Whoah. What just happened?" I had other stuff too but, it's too nuts to want to admit. The next day did I still felt emotionally horrible and my body felt bad too. As both an athlete and as a person, I can't treat my body this way.
Obviously, when I have these "episodes" or whatever, I overeat, eat badly, or a combination of the two. So I thought to myself, what should I do? Clearly, I can't moderate what I was eating so I decided to eliminate it.
I started with soda. Mostly because it's really cheap, easy to access, and really easy to over consume. I wanted to see how my body felt after not having it for a month. I gave up soda for a year in high school but, I ended up replacing it with juice, punch, lemonade, tea, etc. Stuff with tons of sugar and no useful ingredients. I wanted to do better this time. I also have PCOS so I can't really process sugars the way a normal person could anyway. As a weightlifter, we get knee pains. I know that the carbonation is bad for your bones and teeth so I also wanted to see how my joint health felt too.
Because of how busy my schedule got and some other factors, I was training once a day during the month of January. So it's hard to tell whether or not my "results" are from not drinking soda, or less training, or both. I am going with both. I lost 6 kgs. Which is 12 ish lbs. So my body weight is where it should be for training and competition. It also means less weight pounding on my knees and better recovery. Was my weight fat or muscle loss? We'll see. I am going to give myself another month and get my body fat percentage done again and see where I am at.
February's challenge is "No desserts." For each person, "dessert" means something a little different. I am trying to avoid, cookies, cake, icecream, candy, that kind of stuff. This is making be very creative if I want to have something sweet without killing my pancreas. I am going to try and make my "desserts" more fruit friendly. Recently, I made a chocolate avocado pudding with avocado, honey, cocoa, and vanilla paste. It was pretty good. I am trying to moderate what I eat and when for anything that has a high amount of sugar in it.
Now you guys know a secret of mine. I hope this doesn't upset anyone into not following or believing in me anymore. I am trying to do my best to be the best every day even with my own personal struggles.
Who's with me in the "No Dessert's Challenge?"
Sarah
Can we have the recipe for your chocolate avocado pudding? It sounds delish!
ReplyDeleteSarah thanks for sharing with us! I gave up sodas with you last month and gave up sweets with Lauren Salter. I lost 8 pounds! Then I decided to do a Whole30! Paleo for thirty days! After doing no sweets, carbs or starches for two weeks it's a piece of cake! I made paleo brownies yesterday and though they are not my dream brownies, they are a lot better than I thought they would be! Since last year around this time I have lost 30 pounds and I feel great! Had three shots in my back last year but not a single one needed since May of '12! My knees don't ache anymore either. Had a meniscus repair in 2010 done two months after I loss my mom and I packed on too many pounds! After I yanked myself out of the depression I was in I decided to shape up! So, yes we all have things that cause us to emotionally eat and sometimes it just takes daily self examination to get yourself together! Just have to work at it every day! So stay strong Sarah! Not just for us fan, but for yourself!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome that you are being proactive like this! I've found my biggest challenge is resisting 'treats' when they are in the house. For whatever reason, I find it very easy to moderate my *purchase* of the food, rather than my intake. So when I'm grocery shopping, I just don't buy the stuff. Sometimes I'll ask my husband to get me something if I'm having a bad craving, but I make him hide it, and he helps me moderate. He knows I'm watching my diet, so he won't give in if I've already had the serving size. It helps to have a partner in healthful eating!
ReplyDeleteMy friend runs the site http://fatgrrl.com/, and has some good posts about emotional eating if you are interested in checking it out. She's been doing a lot of book reviews (she's studying to be a librarian), but you'll find her eating disorder posts if you scroll through.
I was going to suggest an avocado chocolate ice cream. A blogger/youtuber named Lilian's test kitchen has a video she did of the ice cream. http://www.lillianstestkitchen.com/episodes/chocolate-mousse-ice-cream-sandwiches/
ReplyDeleteI haven't cut out sugars or sodas but I have cut back a lot. I do try to use pure cane products instead of the super processed stuff.
I think I'll join you in your no dessert February. I made the commitment in January to get off of soda, and I made it. It doesn't mean that I haven't struggled with it--in fact, on my especially bad days, I picked up a can and just want to chug it. On the downside, I only lost 3 pounds from a whole month without soda. I thought I would loose more, but I didn't.
ReplyDeleteI find myself emotionally eating ALOT. When I have bad days or mother nature is a calling, I love to eat. Take today for example-- 100th day of teaching kindergarten, rain, chaos. All I did was snack on m&ms and fruit loops during the day. At least I can say that I stuck to my no soda rule. Now that I've stopped drinking my emotions, I need to work on not eating my emotions.
Good luck!
No soda is easy for me but no dessert...Le Sigh! Good luck ladies, I know you can do it :)
ReplyDeleteThefraniches.blogspot.com
cool blog!!
ReplyDeleteOne thing I try to remember in my own struggle with emotional eating: Don't settle for food when what you really want is something else (A shoulder to cry on, safety, comfort, something fun to do...)
Just a thought.