I Get by with a little help from my friends

Aren't they darling!? This is my friend Angeleah...
(I was thinking about how much I learn from my friends - what would I do without them!? So I thought I would periodically share some of the things I have learned from them and then you can learn them too :).

I have always struggled with my weight - and tried SO many diets. I guess you could say I yo-yo with my weight. Angeleah shared some great thoughts with me, and I thought I would share them with you :).

Here is an email she sent. Enjoy!

Hey,
I thought that I would write down a few of the things I have learned over the past few years so you don't have to try and remember it all.

1. There is no " bad " food. If I really want to eat something, I just eat a serving of it and move on.

2. If I notice that I am picking at something a lot ( like a pan of brownies ) I'll just move them to the top of the fridge or put them on a top shelf in a kitchen cabinet. It is amazing that " out of sight, out of mind" really works!

3. If I've made something that nobody in the family but me really likes, I'll just keep out a portion for myself and throw the rest away. It saves me from feeling like I have to eat all of it in order for there not to be waste. I also do the same thing at Christmas. If people bring over a plate of treats and my family doesn't love it, I just throw it away instead of thinking that I have to eat it just because it is there.
( My health and happiness are more important than a pan or plate of food )

4. I had to remind myself that I am an adult now and that if I really want something I can always get in the car and go buy it at the store the next day. I don't have to eat it " right now" before it's gone. I would tell myself that I am lucky to live in the U.S.A. , be a member of this church, and I have a lot of friends, family , and neighbors. This means that I will never starve or never have enough food to eat. It will always be available.

5. I drink a lot of water all day long and I rarely drink anything else. A glass of orange juice is a treat to me.

6. I stay away from white flour as much as I can because I realized it didn't make me feel very good after I ate it and I wouldn't feel very satisfied. Eating whole wheat and whole grain products make me feel more content and satisfied.

7. I started to realize that I had more energy and felt better if I didn't eat very much at one time. I pictured myself like a truck making deliveries all day. If I load the truck down with a bunch of cargo ( food) at one time than I would be so weighed down I would drive very slow for a while until all my cargo was dropped off ( food digested). If I kept just a small amount of cargo in my truck all the time than I would never be weighed down but still have enough cargo to keep me busy and going.

8. If I find myself mindlessly eating than I ask myself - Am I hungry or bored, anxious, tired, depressed? If I realize that I truly am hungry than I get myself something to eat and sit down to eat it so that it registers as a meal in my brain. If I realize that I am not hungry, than I do something else that makes me feel better.

9. I used to try and keep a schedule like this:

8:00 am -- 250 calories
10:30 am -- 250 calories
12:30 am -- 250 calories
3:00 pm -- 250 calories
5:00 pm -- 600-700 calories
8:00 pm -- 100-200 calories

This trained me to eat more often and at the times I found I was most naturally hungry. I never felt deprived and always felt in control because I knew that the next meal was only a couple of hours away. Also, If I wanted to have a 250 calorie Snickers bar as one of my meals I could and I didn't feel a bit sad. Sometimes, it was actually really fun to see how much food I could eat for just 250 calories. You'd be amazed !! I never worried about counting fats or carbs or sugars. I do eat in moderation because it makes my blood sugar levels steady and makes me feel better and have more energy.

10. Exercise has always made me feel better in so many ways but I knew I couldn't have any rules about it. Some weeks I would work out 5 times and next week just once. I learned to be okay with that. I also realized that there are lots of ways to get exercise besides working out. From the beginning of time people got their exercise from working hard and playing hard. I definitely do that a lot more now. I rarely ever sit down longer than a few minutes at a time during the day and I try to take my kids outside a lot more, dance around with them, and just stay busy.

I hope this helps!! It's really exciting to make a few small changes and see how much they can help.
Remember, you have to change your brain before you can change your body.

P.S. I always weigh myself once a week - not to beat myself up but to keep me in check!