Another 365 Day Come to a Close

Christmas has come and gone and so to has my experiment with mentally over eating to prevent actual overeating. I made a concerted effort at this on the Sunday prior to Christmas when my mom and I made (Great) Grandma's Molasses Cookies. On the bus ride over to my mom's, I imagined eating 30 of these cookies. I picked each one up in my mind, felt the weight of it in my hand, took the correct number of bites and chewed. Around the twenty-first one I actually started to feel nauseous. I made it to 25 before I elected to stop because I just felt too sick. I'm all over trying the mental experiment, I'm not all over throwing up on a bus to complete it!

My imagination didn't do these delicious cookies justice!

I would like to say that the experiment was a success and in a way it was, but not for the reasons that I think the original experiment was successful. The original experiment had people eating less because they felt full of the item of food after imagining eating it. I ate fewer cookies that I did in previous years because this experiment was running through my head the whole day. Every time I thought about eating a cookie, I thought about my experiment results and opted not to. In the end, I had a grand total of three cookies over 8 hours. That's why I'm calling it successful even if not in the way it was intended.

Christmas Dinner ends with Lemon Meringue Pie. I love traditions!

I did fairly well over Christmas in general when it came to food. I did enjoy a few sweets but they were generally few and far between. After a relaxing Christmas Eve/Christmas Day with my Big Bro at our mom and stepdad's (and a visit to my dad's), I headed up to Nanaimo on Boxing Day for some time with my stepmom and Baby Bro. The rain in Nanaimo kept us indoors more than we had originally planned but that's okay because we had Sherlock and Doctor Who to watch and Rummy and FIFA 11 to play. Also, staying at the house meant a very limited amount of food to be consumed so I was happy with that aspect of it.

Even the Aloe plant got some festive lights.

Every year I make resolutions. They're usually concrete goals with vague ideas of how I'm going to achieve them. This year, I'm changing that. I've written up a few resolutions, now I'm siting down and mapping out how to make them a reality. A few of them are health and fitness related so they will be making it onto here soon but for now, I need to get ready for my rocking night in! That's right, I'm staying in. I was supposed to go to a friend's house party but while coming home from a board meeting last night at 9:00pm, I realised that I haven't been home for longer than a few hours (not including sleep) in the past eight days. My next two weekends are pretty full so tonight I'm just going to cuddle with my kitties and watch a few movies. Right now it's a toss up between Hot Fuzz and Office Space.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Christmas is Coming, The Goose and I Are Getting Fat

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat

Please put a penny in the old man's hat

If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do

If you haven't got a ha'penny, God bless you!

It is safe to say that the end of 2010 did not go as well as the start. Knee problems then a hip problem then getting knocked sideways by a flu have left me sliding backwards as far as my goal go. Clothes that were loose are feeling a big more snug. There are a few shoulda-coulda-woulda moments in the last three months, but I also cried on three separate occasions from the pain and discomfort in my hip so I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I'll just pick myself up and move on from here.

I attended a Christmas get-together in my apartment building last night. Our awesome building managers put out quite the spread along with their homemade wine and kid-friendly punch. I came away from the afternoon realising that other than a grand total of five plain chips I ate very healthy. Maybe the holidays don't have to be a worrisome time of year!

I am making Grandma's Molasses Cookies with my mom today. Grandma always had these cookies all year round so I'm not quite sure why it became a 'Christmas Only' cookie in our house but they're one of my favourite traditions of the season. To be honest, this is one treat I always overindulge in so I've already started mentally eating my 30 molasses cookies and seeing if it stops the random snacking throughout the afternoon.

Mindful Eating

I went for a 'run' on Sunday and again on Monday evening. I use the term run very, very loosely as I have pretty much lost any sort of cardio I had and found myself struggling after a few minutes. It reminded me very much of my first couple of times out running with THR last January. It was such a struggle and I remember thinking that I would never been a runner. My one saving grace this time around is that I know I can be a runner. I love it now and as much as I struggled, it will get easier and I will be able to push myself further. My hip, which I was worried might be sore after two days, felt fabulous. Running is officially back in my workout regime.

I have made no secret of the fact that I am a geek (or nerd, dork, dweeb... I'll answer to any variation thereof) both on here and on my other blog. As a result, my RSS reader is filled with both health and fitness blogs as well as science-geeky blogs (that's the technical term). Today in my reader, I found this article about mentally overeating the food you're about to consume so you eat less of it. I, of course, found this fascinating.

When I think about the mental aspects of eating, it's about the choices I have to make. How do I make a salad seem exciting when those fries smell sooo good? How do I convince myself that I'm satisfied when there's still food on the table/plate? Is it possible, however, that I've actually been overlooking a simple step to help control my eating?

I wanted to read more about the study, but the link provided in the article goes to the study and you have to pay to read it. It's $15US just for 24 hours access. Not going to happen. Still, the article has given me a lot of food for thought *rim shot* about how much I may have overlooked the mental aspect of weight loss. It's definitely a self-experiment that I'm going to try out over the next few holiday weeks. At the very least, it can't hurt to try, right?

Question: Do you have any mental tricks you use when it comes to food?

I'd Jump For Joy But I Might Break Something

Somewhere over the very busy past five days, I stopped limping and started walking like a normal person. My hip is still sore, but it's that dull ache from over-compensating it for so long and that seems to get less and less every hour. I had my ergonomic assessment on Tuesday and regardless of if that was the cause or it was just added to an underlying issue, I'm really happy I had the assessment done. Even after just two hours in my adjusted workspace, my body was feeling better.

I was really looking forward to taking my much-less-sore hip to West African Dance tonight except I was out very last last night at a very awesome Leonard Cohen concert so I came home, opened my email and fell asleep sitting upright on my couch. That's what 5 hours of sleep does to me.

When I awoke 40 minutes later (with my fingers still over the proper keys, I may add), I decided a short walk was in order as I missed the dance. I didn't go to far, but I walked for 20 minutes then even ran for 2 minutes. I am very happy to report that there was no pain. It did feel a little tender and sore, but gone was the tear-inducing pain of my last running attempt. Could this be it? Could my days of feeling like an invalid finally be over? Could I actually be back to regular runs before the end of 2010? Could Ross really be the one for Rachael after all this time?

I don't want to get my hopes up too high but my body isn't 100% yet (and given my track record, I'm sure I'll pull a back muscle tomorrow) but things are definitely looking up.