Supersize me

At my daughter's sleepover party last night, the girls surprised me by choosing to rent "Supersize Me".

I had seen it before, but it was certainly an added bit of motivation. Last time, I thought it made fast food seem gross. This time, it drove home the fact that it is truly toxic.

I related to it. I was clearly in the grip of a junk food addiction, in which my mood would briefly elevate as I was eating, followed by a dip, weird depression, general anxiety and other weird feelings. Honestly, I feel like the past few weeks have been a detox session.

I'm sleeping better. The bloating is gone. Most of the cravings have passed. I had tons of energy this weekend. My waist is at least an inch smaller.

I don't know why I had so many false starts, but this feels like lasting progress. It's not been just about having willpower when a craving strikes. It's been about having a plan, so that the cravings are stopped in their tracks. I've also been really trying to cut through the denial to truly appreciate the dangers of certain foods and ways of eating. The soft drinks obviously had to go - they were the most drug-like. I'm trying to make sure that I always have my water bottle now. I only use 1/2 cup juice/day now, just for the smoothie. The rest was also way too much sugar. Cutting out the grains felt extreme, but I can't deny that I feel better. I wonder if I was sensitive to it all along? I may increase the grains a bit once I'm at the goal weight, but I'll keep remembering portion control. All the fibre and whole grains doesn't do any good when you overeat.

I've stopped the fast food, pretty much cold turkey, and I don't buy myself things from convenience stores anymore either. It's gradually getting easier, as the new way of eating is coming together as a habit. That's really what I need - it has to be on auto-pilot for me. I can make a morning smoothie without thinking about it, with stuff that is always in my kitchen. This past week, I made twice the amount of greek yogurt, so I had plenty on hand for both smoothies and dips. I love the baby carrots, because they are so easier to grab. The pre-washed baby spinach takes no effort to stuff into a plastic container. I already know that my designated daily grain is a whole grain tortilla with hummus. I just need to prep the rest of the veggies and the proteins. I baked extra Thai green curry chicken thighs on Friday and froze them, so hopefully those should be good meals this week.

My challenge in the upcoming weeks will be to integrate "my" food with the rest of the family's meals. I'll include my husband with my meals this week, since I think he would benefit too. He will just need a bit more, since his activity level is higher. Also, it would be great for healthy eating and fitness to be a joint venture, instead of separate obsessions (he's a fitness nut). I also want to continue to improve the kids' eating, without going overboard. They are young, and following my food plan clearly wouldn't give them enough energy. OTOH, Supersize Me drove home, yet again, how we are really letting our kids down if we don't give them healthy meals. The school is a lot better than it used to be, and is really pushing fruits and veggies as proper snack choices (and they provide time for morning and afternoon snack in addition to lunch). I need to find a way to keep sugar and carbs under some sort of control, and up the protein. My son has figured out that too much sugar makes me puke. It gets challenging when I have restrictions on what I can send with them - no nuts, no meat, and something individual restrictions on eggs and fish, depending on what allergies classmates have.