Have you ever noticed how when you start eating carby snacks you can’t stop? Betcha can’t eat just one…
Same with fatty treats. Given the chance, I think I could easily eat my own body weight in chocolate.
Protein is different. No matter how I try, I can’t eat too much chicken, or beef, or eggs. It fills me up.
More critically, I’ve noticed the best way to stop the binges, when things look like they’re about to spiral out of control, is to eat protein.
Protein stops a binge dead in its tracks.
Doesn’t matter if it’s a protein bar, or a piece of meat, or some pre-cooked chicken breast. It stops the binge. It kills the cravings and crazy eating.
Give it a try, next time you’re about to work your way through a family sized bag of cookies. Pause, and eat a protein bar instead.
Yesterday I managed 70 kgs (154 pounds) on bench press. Not bad for an old chick!
I also managed 100 kgs (220 pounds) on the hammer strength decline press machine. Another personal best.
I was really pleased with both.
I’m putting on a lot of muscle at the moment, and the fat is coming off. My stomach is almost flat, and I’m no longer embarrassed to be seen in light summer clothes.
I can thank Overeaters Anonymous for so much of this. They’ve given me support through everything, a sensible approach to food, and a plan to follow that got me away from the binge eating and overly large portions. OA is a part of my life now, because it works. Add in regular exercise and sensible eating, and I’m a completely different person to who I was a couple of years ago.
Success doesn’t come from fad diets, or from eating well for a short time until you reach your goal weight, then you’re “done”. Success comes from genuine change – reaching a point where you don’t want to go back to those old habits and old ways of being.
I don’t want to ever go back. I’m happy where I am now. Sticking to the plan is easy, because I’m happiest when I do.
Foods like rice, potatoes and quinoa are okay – although they’re quite addictive and I really have to be careful with my intake.
Processed carbs are completely different. Pastries, biscuits, bread, pasta – these kinds of foods are hugely addictive for me. I start eating them, and my body has no idea when to stop.
I could quite easily each a couple of loaves of bread and it would only be when my stomach actually hurt because it was so overloaded that I would realise I’d had enough.
Carbs are cheap, plentiful and useful, especially if you’re on a budget with a bunch of kids to feed, but if you’re overweight they can be a huge impediment to losing weight.
These days I see overweight people on the street, and I don’t think “that’s a greedy person”. I think “that’s a carbohydrate addict”.
I’m starting to doubt whether it’s even possible to become overweight without basing your diet on carbs.
I think this is why poor people are fatter in Western society – carbs are cheap, so the poor eat more carbs. Then they get fat. Then they get sicker, fatter and poorer. A vicious cycle.
So these days I avoid carbs and the fat is pouring off me. I’ve upped my protein intake, found cheap veggies I enjoy, and I’m feeling and looking so much healthier.
It’s Saturday. So I decided to make myself the Breakfast Of Champions.
In other words, an omelette.
My 3 egg omelette, cooked in a teaspoon of butter, with tomato ketchup, because that’s essential for me! Yum.
Eggs are a great start to the day, as they’re so high in protein.
The butter makes my omelette super delicious.
However, these days I don’t “eyeball” my food and guess at the measurements. Instead, I weigh and measure everything except my green veggies.
It’s really easy to think you’re cooking in a teaspoon of butter (32 calories), only to measure and find out it’s a tablespoon (102 calories). Portions can be misleading.
I’m getting used to eating well, and have figured out where I went wrong all these years – it was portion sizes and snacking.
I’ll talk more about these in my next post, but it seems like I was just confused by years of experts giving bad advice. I believed snacking was healthy, variety in my diet was a Good Thing (it’s not), and portions didn’t make a difference as long as what I ate was healthy (portions do matter).
I was wrong about pretty much everything, and couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t lose weight.
I was that person. The one who would order a “hunger buster” value meal (Big Mac, cheeseburger, large fries, chocolate sundae, large soft drink) and ask for a diet Coke with it.
I can be really dumb sometimes.
My logic was that I could easily avoid the calories in the drink, but I still wanted my junk food. It was non-negotiable.
Then I’d get on the scale at the end of the week, and wonder why I hadn’t lost weight.
Things have changed. These days, when I get a craving for junk, I go a cheeseburger or a whopper jr. That’s it. And it’s enough.
I make sure I always have a water bottle on me, so I don’t need a drink. And when I don’t need a drink it seems a bit pointless to have a meal deal (add-on fries and soft drink) when I don’t need or want half of it.
A small burger is enough. By itself. I get my junk food itch scratched and I’m happy. And I’m a lot thinner and still losing weight!
What I realised is no matter how much junk food I ate, it was never enough.
Junk food is not about portions with me. It’s about getting a fix.
I knew – when I began to be honest with myself – that no matter how much I ordered, I’d always want more. I’m perfectly capable of eating two hunger busters, probably. Maybe three. That hole inside me never seemed to get full, no matter how much junk I shoved down my neck.
I realised – and admitted – that I’m an addict. Just like an alcoholic can’t control their booze intake, I can’t control my food addiction.
However, if I only have a burger, by itself, I seem to not go so nutso on the junk food.
I can’t control having large amounts, but I seem to be able to manage small amounts.
Plus, to be honest, I really believe the addictive part of junk food isn’t the burgers. It’s the fries and drinks.
That’s the case with me, anyway.
So these days, if I go with friends to a junk food place, I just order a small burger. Nothing else. I enjoy the experience, and my eating stays in check. I get my fix – because I’m still an addict – but I’m happy.
A whopper jr contains 340 calories. A McDonald’s cheeseburger contains 313 calories. That’s about right for a lunch for a woman who is trying to lose a few.
Compare that with the calories in a McDonald’s “hunger buster”: 1587. Or a Burger King whopper meal: 1620. Either is my whole day’s calories in a single meal. No wonder I wasn’t losing weight!
I know it’s not socially acceptable to believe we can eat the occasional burger and still lose weight.
I know it’s also true that some people are so addicted that they can’t even have just a burger yet avoid going nutso.
I find that this works for me. Maybe it will work for you too 🙂
I’ve been back at the gym for over a month now, and the weights I’m lifting are still going up nicely.
I’ve been doing a slightly altered version of the StrongLifts program, where you start with virtually nothing then add 2.5 kgs each time you do that exercise.
Bench is now up to 57.5 kgs, and deads are up to 75 kgs. I do leg press instead of squats (due to an old back injury) but overheads are up on 30 kgs, which is not too shabby for a female.
I’m enjoying feeling stronger and healthier, and the gym is helping me shed weight – people at work are noticing I’ve lost a bit and am looking better.
I’m also noticing my general health is improving. I remember a few years ago, when I was a gym junkie, I was never sick. I’m hoping returning to the gym and eating better will help me to build a stronger immune system.
In all, it’s all going well. I’m happy with my improvement, and look forward to more improvement as time goes on.
After just over a year on OA, and working hard to improve my eating and exercise, things are finally falling into place.
These days, I eat 2-3 healthy meals a day, exercise roughly 5x a week at the gym, and am attending OA meetings regularly.
I’m feeling better, eating better, and the muscle that atrophied over the last five years of not exercising is coming back.
It’s taken – is taking – a lot of dedication and consistency, and the results are starting to show.
Gone are my old habits of eating family sized blocks of chocolate and litres of Pepsi Max every night. Instead I drink plain bubbly water (thanks to my soda stream), and when I feel like a snack I have a piece of fruit or some low calorie jelly.
It’s nowhere near perfect yet. I still occasionally binge, and I’d like to be able to say no on our weekly workplace morning teas, but I’m getting better.
It’s true what they say about consistency. You just have to keep coming back to OA, and keep practicing the good habits instead of the bad. It’s not easy – not one bit – but it will become a lifestyle if you keep working.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m meal prepping regularly now.
I divide the week in two (Sunday through Wednesday; Thursday through Saturday) then one half of the week I do veggies, while the other half is salad.
Then I just add a protein, which I also cook in batches. Common proteins I use are chicken, steak, pork chops, eggs and fish, and I’ll typically cook 2-3 days worth at a time.
I also prepare sides for the kids (I have three teenagers at home) in batches. Common sides for them are salad, roast veggies, couscous and rice. Common proteins for them include chicken, pork chops, eggs (omelettes), fish and mince meat (often in tacos).
The kids are having fried rice tonight and tomorrow. I’m having chicken breast and Greek salad.
I try to double up as often as possible, so most of the time we all eat the same pretty much, but when they have something a bit junkier as their protein (for example, fish with batter or home made hamburgers, I’ll have steak or seafood instead with my side.
Batch cooking (meal prep) is a gift for busy mums like me. I don’t typically get home until 6:30-ish, and I’m out three nights a week with activities, so having healthy meals organised in advance for everyone makes things much more manageable.
As for my husband, he’s doing the carnivore diet, and he just makes his own meals, often in the slow cooker (set and forget).
This all works well for us as a family, and we’ve reduced the junk food/eating out habit down to maybe once a month.
I’ve been busy this afternoon, prepping meals for myself and the kids for the next few days.
I made fried rice for the kids, which will do them tonight and tomorrow night.
For me, I’ve cooked two chicken breasts, and made a Greek salad.
Both are easy to do – the chicken is plain but I’ll probably add seasoning when I portion it out. The salad is dead easy – a cucumber, two tomatoes, orange pepper, about half a red pepper I had left, a quarter salad onion, 100g (4 Oz) of feta and about 10 olives. Chop it all up and mix together. So easy!
Chicken breast and Greek salad
The chicken and salad will last me 4-5 meals. It’ll be dinner tonight and lunch and dinner for tomorrow (Monday) and Tuesday.
I’m learning that portion sizes are important. You’d think I’d know this, but apparently all these years I didn’t. I’d just eyeball it and figure”that looks about right” without ever weighing and measuring.
I’ve now learned from experience that not only were my portions waaay too huge, I was also eating waaay too much altogether.
For me, as a female in her early 50s, I need about 150 grams (3-4 ounces) of protein per meal to keep me satisfied while losing weight. I can pretty much have as much salad or veggies as I want to go with it, but I’m avoiding sauces and dressings (which get out of control really quickly!) and instead opting to shake some seasoning on instead when I need to.
I am using lighter, more intensely flavoured dressing on occasion (I love Japanese sesame dressing and a little goes a long way!) but I’m avoiding anything creamy or mayonnaise-ey.
The good thing about Greek salad is it needs no dressing. The olives and feta give it heaps of flavour for few extra calories and not much added fat, which is way better than having a green salad then dousing it in creamy dressing.
Meal prepping is working very well for me. I’ll talk about how I’m managing it in a coming post, but it’s meaning I’m spending much less time in the kitchen, and wasting much less food.
I’ve found some terrific apps that I’m using to track my progress. They’re all free, and they work well.
My Fitness Pal. I’m tracking everything I eat – before I eat it. That’s the clincher. Tracking afterwards doesn’t work for me. I find I forgot what I ate if I track after the fact. Before works brilliantly though!
Fit Notes. This is a great free app for tracking progress with weights. It’s nice watching the numbers go up!
AA Big Book. The big book of Alcoholics Anonymous is available for free download. It’s advice, stories and prayers work equally well for Overeaters Anonymous.
I use all three regularly, and am finding the first two indispensable.
fit, fed and fasted 