Relationship With Food

I've become totally obsessed with the show "Supersize vs. Superskinny." It's got it's own channel on Youtube. It is a british television show, that addresses both ends of the eating spectrum. Basically, two people enter the 'feeding clinic' and swap diets for 5 days. This is all done under the care of a doctor. He monitors them and councils them on changing their eating habits. My favourite thing about this show is that it acknowledges that there are two different ends of the eating spectrum, and it encourages a healthy middle.

One of the people is usually quite overweight, but not quite to the point that they have actually experienced too many health problems. Usually they consume about 4000-8000 calories per day. The other person is a chronic under-eater. Eating anywhere between 800-1200 calories per day, usually just on the brink of developing serious problems such as a full fledged eating disorder. In the feeding clinic, they're faced with the embarrassing reality of their eating habits, when they have to watch the other person eat their food. So the person who is overweight see s that they can clearly handle being hungry, and understanding how much they actually eat. The underweight person sees that they can actually eat more than they thought, and they add variety to their diet. They are followed up by the doctor with healthy eating plans for 3 months afterwards. After the 3 months are over, they come back to the clinic and get weighed in with their partner, and see how they have done. I usually end up getting all teary at how well they've done.

Also, in the show there are a few different things they do every season. One season they had 'flab fighters' where they worked out enough to see what it took to burn the calories in their favourite treats, like chips or chocolate bars. A couple of seasons, they followed a group of people with eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia. They did several exercises that encouraged them to face their fears with food. One season, a lady went to LA to research different weight loss techniques.

Since beginning to watch this show, I've really looked at my relationship with food a totally different way. Since that's basically what they're doing in the feeding clinic. Usually after a couple of days into the feeding clinic, the two people sit down and look at photos from their life. They talk about where their relationship with food went wrong. Usually it started with some trauma or being bullied.

For me, I feel like I've had a terrible relationship with food since before my first year of nursing school. Before that, in high school, I barely thought about what I ate. That sort of carried over into when I moved and went to school. I clearly remember laying on my bed at school for hours on end, with a bag of cookies or gummy bears or something like that, reading my text books. After every page, I would reward myself with a cookie, or a gummy bear, and believe me, in nursing school, you read a lot of pages. I attempted to balance my horrible eating habits with exercise. I did a bit of walking to and from class, but more sitting. I went to the gym a couple times a week, but the saying is true:

I can't even express that enough.

Being from a small island that has almost zero access to fast food, I went a little crazy when I moved to the city.

One year, after returning to school after losing a bunch of weight during the summer, I remember that Reese came out with a bar form of their chocolate/peanut butter cups. They were huge! I bet I ate about 12 of them by the time that they stopped making them. I remember being so frustrated that I couldn't/wouldn't stop eating badly.

Again, we have no McDonalds, Dairy Queen, Tim Hortons, or Starbucks here. Nothing like that at all. So, after being immersed in a city that is full of those convenience foods, I basically had the mindset that I needed to at least try everything once. Not really a good way to live.

Unfortunately, when I go to the city, I still feel that way. Even Casey said when we were there last weekend that we can never come away enough to go all the places we want to go, get all the things done we want to finish, and eat where we want to eat. Even if that's just a new sub at subway (though it's more likely a blizzard from Dairy Queen!). I find myself avoiding going, just because I know what my eating will be like. I really shouldn't have to do that. I wish I could build up the restraint to just eat well while in the city, but it seems to be too difficult now. 

I've also had issues binge eating in the past. I still struggle with it now. Portion control. I could eat a whole bag of chips ahoy cookies, just because they're there and they're delicious. Nevermind just having a serving of 2. Who wants just 2 cookies? So, I don't get anything like that at all if I feel like my self control is weak or my motivation is low. Sometimes I can handle it. 

I would say my biggest issue with food, though, is eating because I'm bored. If I weren't bored, I could easily avoid most temptations. If I'm sitting around, watching tv, or not doing anything, my first instinct is to eat. 

I'm really working to remedy that. Exercise has helped a great deal. Since it takes up time and also burns calories. I can't say I'm bored a whole lot now that I'm the mother of a toddler, but it's still an issue at night. 

So, moving on to Weigh in Wednesday withHeather, Ash, and Erin! 

I'm happy to report a 1.4 pound loss this week. After my gain last week, and what looked like a continued gain until Friday, even though I was still working hard, I'm happy to see the scale move the right direction. 

Height: 5'3"

Last Week: 175.8

This Week: 174.4

Change:-1.4 pounds

Total loss: 35.6 pounds