Mindful Eating.
It was safe to say that I was a full blown skeptic. "Mindful" anything seemed kind of like a crock. Except for when I'm out in public surrounded by strangers, where I am particularly mindful of my actions and how they affect others, for my own self it seemed rather... illogical for lack of a better word. I mean, of course I'm mindful of what I'm eating - it's not like don't I know that I'm eating, right?!
Well, when I finally came to the realization that hunger was controlling me and not the other way around, I knew I had to figure out how to change my habits somehow. I was reading an article, and I forget if I found it in the Greatist blog email or on Myfitnesspal, but she was discussing leptin and ghrelin and the role they play - which I already knew - but then she talked about hunger. She described hunger as a child having a tantrum; and that resonated with me in my dislike of children. I thought: well, I'd never let a 2 year old win a tantrum - why should I let my stomach do the same?
You see, I was giving in almost immediately to even the possibility of a hunger ping. Like I wasn't even sure if was a real feeling of actual hunger before I was jumping up and looking in the fridge for something to eat, and that had to stop. It was almost like a literal switch flipping in my brain. I'm not sure how else to describe it. The only thing I really changed was just employing strategies I already knew - like waiting 20 minutes to gauge if I'm feeling actual hunger before I go to eat. And waiting 20 minutes after I ate before I decided that what I had wasn't enough food. In this way, I am being "mindful". I'm sitting there, asking myself how do I really feel? Is this hunger, or is it boredom? Is it hunger or is it that weird in-between feeling I get sometimes that goes away within a few minutes?
Using this, plus a couple of tricks to help me along, has allowed me to stay in roughly 1300 calories a day without feeling deprived. I've been doing it for over a week now without changing any of the food I eat on a daily basis (besides drinking less alcohol). I've always known that my downfall has not been what I eat, but how much, because I was letting hunger control me.
The biggest trick that I employ is PYY, or Peptide YY. It is released by your small intestine (normally during digestion) which tells your brain that you are full. Research has shown that coffee, particularly decaf (they know that it has nothing to do with the caffeine) increases PYY production. Unfortunately for you non-coffee drinkers out there, research really hasn't found a substitute; in fact, they don't even know why decaf is more effective at triggering PYY production. And honestly, I'm glad decaf is better for it because using coffee for appetite suppression is not always going to be the best option; especially right before bed.
So trick #1 is Costco, who is my best friend when it comes to large quantities of whole bean coffee, especially decaf, which is hard to find. I use their decaf in both my nespresso machine for a 30 calorie 8oz almond milk latte, and as a cold brew mixed with almond milk and a scoop of Idealshake for a double-whammy punch, usually around 7pm when I'm starting to feel hungry again after dinner.
Recipe for espresso
2 - 2 ounce servings of decaf coffee using an nespresso reusable cup like these:
4 ounces of heated unsweetened almond milk
1 splenda packet
1 tsp of non-dairy creamer
and froth the milk like crazy
Or, you can just make decaf coffee in your drip machine. For me, it generally comes out to about 30-40 calories due to using non-dairy creamer in my 16oz cup (when I make my 16oz cup in the morning with regular coffee, I add a scoop of collagen too, just to get a dose of protein in there.)
For the cold brew, it's very easy to do at home and my method makes it taste exactly like the Starbucks cold brew that you can buy in their bottles, plus as an added bonus you get either 10g of protein with a scoop of idealshake, or you can use vanilla-flavored whey for 24g.
Since I'm not making cold brew for the caffeine, the ratio to coffee/water isn't that strict. I use roughly 150-200g of whole bean coffee (coarsely ground) to a 64oz container (of water) like what you find at Costco with the Mixed Nuts. In fact, the lid is pretty important because you want to shake it a few times during the infusion process. Use filtered cold water, but instead of putting it in the fridge forever, leave it on your counter for 6-10 hours. And that's it. You can filter it any way you see fit. Personally, I have one of these:
Which makes the process a lot easier.
Cold Brew Recipe:
I use 8oz of cold brew and 8 oz of almond milk, 1 scoop of powder, and 1 splenda packet shaken in Contigo cup. I sometimes also add a bit of water to equal about 20oz. It's freaking delicious. Using the idealshake, it's only 130 calories.
When my stomach is in one of those confused states of "I think I'm hungry but I'm not sure", which happens to me almost consistently after my work lunch, I drink a cup of coffee, and that stops that feeling immediately. It's a pretty cool trick. I also like [light] string cheese as a snack because it's a nice dose of protein and unless you're a crazy person who just bites into it, it kind of forces you to eat it slowly and MINDFULLY (omg).
Anyway, let me know what you guys think of this strategy. Have any of you tried these methods? Have you found that eating mindfully has helped you on your weight loss journey? Let me know in the comments!
I was reminded recently of something I did in Junior High that had me laughing as I was re-telling the story to my friend Brenda.
I went to Cedar Heights in Port Orchard, (home of the Raindevils... wooo) and I had a teacher that I had hated from day one, back when he was a sub. His name was Mr. Simonson, and I hated him because he had subbed in the class I hated most - math - and at the beginning of class he'd done something infuriating. He kept moving back and forth in front of the classroom and waiting for people to pay attention, (which I was obviously refusing to do) and he said "I'm going to keep moving because the eye is attracted to movement." and I looked up. And I've hated him ever since (dammit; present me is impressed tho).
Anyway, that's the backstory. Fast-forward to present day JH and now Mr. Simonson was my language arts/homeroom teacher (Pretty sure I screamed nooooooo!! in teen-aged angst when I saw his name on my schedule and begged office staff to switch me to a different teacher). So one day, one of the students was selling fake parking tickets, and I have no idea how or why I decided to buy one but I did. (Maybe I had a little devil on my shoulder telling me who I should use it on). Our classroom was in a portable within clear view of the 2nd floor cafeteria, and I knew which car was Simonson's.
I hatched a plan.
Sneak out there during lunch, and slap that bad boy right on his windshield. I'd never see him find it, but that didn't matter. He parked right next to the portable. I'd be in and out in seconds. No one would ever know.
Except, being a nice kid who never played pranks on people, it wouldn't be that easy for me as it turns out. I walked out there all suspicious-looking and stood next to his car for an absurdly long amount of time. I was hesitating because I thought, well what if his car had an alarm - (it was a clunker, there's no way it would, I know that now) - he was parked feet from the portable window!! He would run out here and catch me! And then he'd think I was vandalizing his car! (I know now that this is my mind being anxious and had no idea this was not a normal brain process.) I remember looking up at the cafeteria windows and seeing everyone staring back down at me. No one probably cared, but I thought they were silently judging me. So, I finally puffed up my chest and quickly stuck it under his windshield wiper and walked away.
THERE. TAKE THAT, MEAN TEACHER.
(Who wasn't actually mean at all lol)
My first and only prank that almost never was. How riveting!
I've been doing this blog for a number of years now, through a tumultuous marriage and eventual divorce, and during a couple of my dating escapades. All through them I've done a couple of "Raising Awareness" posts. I wanted to go back and revisit them to give some people advice on how to cope.
My very first blog post ever was Raising Awareness of Dyspareunia. I was never officially diagnosed with it, yet it was definitely a thing I was dealing with at the time. My life has changed drastically since this blog post was written, and I'm happy to say that it's no longer an issue. It turns out that, despite my constant self-talk of "everything is okay", it was definitely not okay and nothing was going to convince my brain otherwise. Now that I've moved on from my not-so-great marriage and dating a couple of other guys, I can safely say that it was my horrible relationship that caused the dyspareunia. This just proved further that women are emotional beings; they need that connection, that love, that commitment (unless you're just horny as crap and find any guy you can find - which is definitely not me), and if you're having issues in your relationship, that can easily carry over into your sex life. It's quite a relief actually because, if you read the blog post, I was pretty depressed about ever being able to find someone to love me with an issue like that (if I ever needed to). It's good to know that it wasn't a permanent thing.
The next one I wrote was Raising Awareness of Gallstones. This is another happy ending. I finally broke down and had a consult with a general surgeon about getting my gallbladder removed, which was mentioned in an update I made to the original post. It cemented my belief that I shouldn't go through with it. I was never having constant, like weekly attacks. They weren't even monthly. They were easily managed with Vicodin. I brought up my concern of that fact that each person (who spoke about their gallbladder removal) had a different experience in the aftermath. Some were perfectly healthy. Some could never eat fatty food again. Some had to basically live their life in the bathroom after every meal. And, I self-diagnosed myself with IBS (which isn't really hard to do, to be honest. I'm surprised I never wrote a "raising awareness" post about IBS), and my biggest fear was that removing my gallbladder would exasperate my condition. The surgeon obviously couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't. He also told me that it was completely my choice. I chose to leave it in.
Anyway, this is all beside the point. Along with not having any gallbladder attacks, I haven't had an IBS attack in a very long time either, and I'm going to contribute this to my healthy diet. My diet is quite low in fat, which has been known to exasperate both conditions. I do believe that I essentially "cured" myself with a good diet, 100%.
The next post in the series was Raising Awareness of Blepharitis, which is basically the inflammation of the eyelids, and is annoying as f*ck to treat and often reoccurs anyway. I only ever had the issue when I was wearing my contacts because that's when it became very noticeable, and I could not treat the issue (with the antibiotic ointment) with my contacts in, so wearing my contacts at all became a chore. There is no cure for it, but a lot of people on forums and other more legit research articles say that doing one thing or another (like taking fish oil supplements) helps decrease attacks. I found that not to be the case, but let me share my "cure" with you. I have been doing these two things for a couple years now and it basically brought my attacks to zero:
I wash over my eyelids during every shower with a Clarisonic brush. The type of face wash I use doesn't seem to matter. I just think using it to wash my eyelids in this manner helps keep the pores from being blocked and the eyelids from getting inflamed.
The second thing I do is use my own mixture of coconut oil/olive oil/vitamin E oil/almond oil/essential oil blend as an after shower moisturizer for my skin and pay special attention to my eyelids. Coconut oil is probably 80% of the blend (so it stays solid at room temperature) and it has anti-microbial properties. I think that helps keep my eyelids clean as well. I've been able to wear my contacts issue-free for a long time. I'm quite confident that I won't have another flare-up. Also, this moisturizer is pretty bomb and I recommend anyone with dry skin to make their own. I also use it in my hair after I shower as well.*
*I wrote this a long time ago (this post has been sitting in my drafts folder forever) but I figured I can keep it for those that might be suffering; because as of August of last year I actually got the LASIK procedure and although I hadn't had a blepharitis attack in a long time, I won't even have to worry about them messing with my contacts ever again!
The last one I wrote about was Raising Awareness of PVCs. There's not really much to mention here besides the fact that I haven't been getting them anymore. It might have something to do with a better sodium to potassium balance.
[Hardly anyone gets enough potassium in their diet even when they're trying - a banana has 400mg, and you need around 4,000mg. Even supplements only give you 99mg because they will disrupt your, um, bowels if you have too much at one time. This is why people complain of getting sick when they're using Keto-based BHB salts that bind with potassium.
Also, off topic here but you know that stuff you drink when you're going to have surgery in order to clear your system? Magnesium citrate? Yeah, too much magnesium will do it too!]
Anyway, besides committing to a standalone potassium supplement and keeping my intake of salt pretty decent, I'm getting more potassium in my diet with avocados and such as well. So I'm hoping that contributes to a healthy heartbeat.
Well, I hope y'all learned something today. I'll keep writing more "raising awareness" blog posts if and when I get new shit going on as I get older. I'm sure it's bound to happen.
The biggest trick that I employ is PYY, or Peptide YY. It is released by your small intestine (normally during digestion) which tells your brain that you are full. Research has shown that coffee, particularly decaf (they know that it has nothing to do with the caffeine) increases PYY production. Unfortunately for you non-coffee drinkers out there, research really hasn't found a substitute; in fact, they don't even know why decaf is more effective at triggering PYY production. And honestly, I'm glad decaf is better for it because using coffee for appetite suppression is not always going to be the best option; especially right before bed.
Since I'm not making cold brew for the caffeine, the ratio to coffee/water isn't that strict. I use roughly 150-200g of whole bean coffee (coarsely ground) to a 64oz container (of water) like what you find at Costco with the Mixed Nuts. In fact, the lid is pretty important because you want to shake it a few times during the infusion process. Use filtered cold water, but instead of putting it in the fridge forever, leave it on your counter for 6-10 hours. And that's it. You can filter it any way you see fit. Personally, I have one of these: 
