The Evolution of a Thinner Me

And the saga continues…

The phrase “emotional eating” always scared me and I never wanted to blame my weight gain to that… Emotional eating to me meant that you’re eating over your limit because you’re a basket case, you had a tough childhood, you’ve gone through or are going through some crazy traumatic experience, or you’ve got some deep-seated issues that only food satisfies… And that may be the case for a lot of women that are obese or overweight and I completely understand that… But I’ve slowly come to realize that “emotional eating” is much more common & much more simpler than I thought… at least that is what I’ve finally understood about myself…

During Phase II I noticed 3 major reasons that have triggered my cheatin’, my eatin’ and my self-esteem beatin’ and because of this revelation (it truely is a revelation, because it’s like WOW and DUH, cecilia!) I can move forward as a stronger woman in pursuit of her Best Life…

STRESS // These past few weeks I have been stressed out at work trying to figure out these new accounts that I’m responsible for… trying to learn more about my role… trying to understand the nature of the business… trying to deal with co-workers that I’ve never worked or met before… trying to absorb all the challenges I am faced with on a daily basis… just trying to keep my head above water… so what keeps my head above water? CHOCOLATE!! POTATO CHIPS!! PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING UNDER $1 IN THE VENDING MACHINE!! Argh!! I eat because emotionally I’m frustrated, upset, feel helpless or extremely challenged and indulging in foods takes my mind off of things for a moment…

I’M NOT SMOKING ANYMORE // This is huge… I never really thought about it until now (yes, at times I am extremely slow to the obvious)… but now that I’m not smoking (yay for me)… I find myself focusing on food more often than usual… I used to hear that people were afraid to quit smoking because they didn’t want to lose weight… I didn’t really understand that because for me, I already ate like a pig when I was smoking and the ciggie was my dessert? Smoking didn’t take the place of eating, it topped off my meals instead!! LOL that’s pretty sad… But now after I eat, I don’t have anything to top it off with, so then I just focus on my next meal… Or actually have a real dessert instead!

PMS & ME // PMS and having my period every 28 days is probably the BEST excuse for me and any woman to eat whatever we want! Our hormones are out of whack, we are about to BLEED for 5 days for Pete’s sake, we experience “water retention,” we are cranky, we are irritable, we crave sweets, our backs ache, we get these awful indescribable cramps, our mood swings more than a 5 year old in a playground, we are in tears to the sound of any cheesy lovesong on the radio and we are screaming at the top of our lungs at the idiot driver who just cut us off… We can eat whatever the heck we want during this time, dag nab it!! LOL!! I am on an emotional roller coaster right now and those glazed donuts are the only things that will stabilize me right now, so get out of my way!!

Having acknowledged these 3 major and obvious reasons for my own emotional eating these past couple of weeks, I take full responsibility in the fact that the scale hasn’t really moved from 159… at least it won’t until this “period” is over… I talked to Janis about the whole period episode and asked how it affects weight… She has advised that it is normal for a woman to gain 3-5 lbs during their period… 3-5 pounds!! of what??!! Is this what is meant by water retention?? Again, for most of you readers, I am sure this is obvious but for ME, I never really weighed myself that often to even realize that I’ve gained a few pounds during that horrid week?? It’s news to ME!!

And I know I have to work on my crazy snacking… My plan of attack: Choose Fruit instead!! I will be more mindful of what I choose to take my stress out with at work… And I’ve stocked my fridge, freezer and pantry up this week with healthy choices of foods to chow down on That always helps!!

So now, I understand that I haven’t lost weight this time around and I’m okay with it… And I also know that I’ve been working out so much I can be in my own at home workout video, so part of the reason why I haven’t lost weight is because my muscles are working and getting pumped up   The good thing is, I haven’t GAINED more weight This is what we all have to realize my dear and beautiful readers… The Best Life Diet isn’t a race… it isn’t the who-can-be-the-best-at-losing-weight-in-12-weeks program… It’s a great introduction on how to better your health, your state of mind, your entire outlook on life… it really is a GREAT start to finding out the positives about yourself that you never thought you had in you… it’s about LIVING and GIVING to yourself and to your loved ones… Living and Giving the Best of YOU

’til tuesday…

~ cecilia