Ways to combat stress and weight gain

Life and stress have a well established courtship - and it's a proven fact that stress can lead to weight gain! Daily we are bombarded with new stressors and no matter how hard we strive to develop and maintain a low stress lifestyle something stressful always seems to pop up unexpectedly!   

When I am dealing with life's stressors I can choose to manage it in a healthy manner or I can choose to let it extract it's painful toll on my overall health and wellbeing.

For the vast majority of my life I let stress win!  I would self sooth during stressful situations by eating high sugar and fatty foods and unsurprisingly I am not alone with my response.  According to a Prevention article entitled "7 Ways to Beat Stress Fat," Elissa Epel, PhD, a researcher on stress eating at the University of California, San Francisco noted, "we crave sweet, salty, and high-fat foods because they stimulate the brain to release pleasure chemicals that reduce tension."   

This explains why when faced with stressful situations my knee jerk response is to bury my face in a pint of ice cream or a bag of crunchy snacks.  However, while the stress might seem to abate while eating the unhealthy foods it is really only gaining momentum as I gain extra pounds, which in turn causes more stress!  

Thankfully I am learning new ways to cope with stress. I am learning ways to change my overall lifestyle (not just my eating habits).   As I become healthier as a whole I am developing the right tools to adequately cope with stress.   A good friend of mine once gently reminded me that "I can't give what I don't have!"  Keeping that sage piece of advice in mind I am striving to set healthy boundaries in my life.  

I have chosen to start being kinder to myself! I am learning to step back and leave stressful situations in God's hands.  I ask for help when needed and call on friends to pray with me when I am struggling.   I am finding healthy ways to increase my activity levels.  

I am taking time to incorporate more fresh air and sunshine in my life.  And most importantly, I am learning to give myself grace when I stumble eating wise.  As soon as I become aware that I am starting to slip back into old unhealthy eating habits I choose not to wait until the next day to get back on track, instead I seize the next moment and start a fresh right then and there!

If I am longing for something sweet a few dates or figs will usually still my sweet tooth.  If I am yearning for something crunchy and salty I enjoy a bowl of air popped popcorn tossed with a scant teaspoon of olive oil and a generous coating of nutritional yeast, along with a sprinkle of sea salt.  These flavor filled healthy treats will help to chases away the junk food cravings and the extra pounds! 

Wishing you prosperity in your journey!

Sharon

The Simple Secret to Weight Loss

Our Creator blessed us with an abundance of simple and healthy food choices that heal and satisfy the body.   With each passing day of this new lifestyle I realize more and more that simple eats, straight from nature's bounty, are my best friends!   

Six months ago, prior to changing my overall outlook on food, I would breeze past the produce section in search of my favorite calorie rich instant foods and sugary treats, however, now I am thrilled when a new produce season starts. 


This past week while stocking up at the store I was so excited to see fresh whole greens on sale.   As I stopped my cart in the middle of the climate controlled produce aisle to "pick a mess" I was mentally transported back to my childhood days of gardening with my parents. We lived on a rural four acre plot in North Central Texas.  As an adolescent I thought it was cruel and unusual punishment that my parents asked me to pick green beans in the warm Texas sun.  At times I was a very remiss green bean picker!   It is with embarrassment that I admit to occasionally picking the WHOLE green plant (roots and all) and tossing it over the fence into the neighboring pasture to avoid gleaning from it on my next go around.   Now, as a seasoned adult struggling with an autoimmune arthritis, I would be overjoyed to have the physical fortitude to raise my own produce. 

Thankfully though I live in an area that grows a lot of great local produce and spring is just right around the corner.   With those April showers come a cornucopia of fresh mouthwatering and satisfying fruits and veggies to look forward!  

The great thing about going vegan with fruits and vegetables at the helm of your diet is that you can keep it simple. I truly believe the secret to maintaining any healthy lifestyle is to not allow it to become cumbersome.  Once it becomes too time consuming and difficult those of us struggling with food additions tend to want to throw in the towel and revert back to our old fast food ways. 

One of the quick and easy dishes that I enjoy on a regular bases requires no recipes or measuring cups.  I call it South of the Border Potatoes (big thanks to my friend Kathy for introducing me to this dish)!  I boil yukon gold potatoes and mash while they are hot with a little soy milk.  I then toss the mashed potatoes with fresh diced green onions, corn and black beans.  Next toss in some minced cilantro and salt and pepper to taste. If you like your dish spicy you can add in some freshly diced jalapeno peppers.   

Within 30 minutes of putting the potatoes on to boil I end up with an amazingly yummy main dish which I usually eat with either grilled vegetables or fresh carrot and celery sticks on the side.  

Wishing you prosperity in your journey!

Sharon

Deceptive Eating - Staying Clean and Coming Clean

Honesty is a trait society values, however, I would venture to say that 99.9% of morbidly obese individuals are dishonest at times about their food intake and I am no different!  

Like my fellow extreme chunky monkeys I struggle with keeping it honest about my eats.   And even to this very day, despite successfully losing almost 50 pounds since December, I still want to keep my slips a secret!

 So, since I am blogging about honesty, I must admit I would greatly prefer to keep my pride intact and my poor eating choices to myself, however, I believe it is more important for my overall recovery to keep it honest.  After all we are all human and we are all going to occasionally, during a new eating plan, make some unhealthy choices. 

Recently I spent some amazing time with my family in Kansas and Missouri and throughly enjoyed it!  While I technically I stuck to my vegan and gluten-free diet I am thinking there is a good chance I might have inadvertently had wheat in the soy sauce that was used to make the Szechuan green beans with rice that I had at a Chinese Restaurant while on vacation.   

Also, with this trip came exposure to some of my old favorite food items, such as soda!  It was a warm sunny afternoon and we were at the park - everyone was off playing and enjoying the unseasonably warm March weather.    I was hanging out at the picnic table with a bottle of water and entertaining myself with a mindless game on my phone while soaking up the sunshine.   Off to my right was a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper that keep calling my name.  At first I resisted, but as the minutes ticked by "my old happy being fat self" started to whisper in my ear....."You know Sharon, Dr Pepper is vegan and it is gluten free!" and "You don't have to tell anyone....as technically you will not have broken your commitment to eat vegan/gluten free."   

I am sorry to say that I caved and ended up pouring half of a can of Dr. Pepper into a glass and downing it!  But the most surprising thing happened - it tasted sickeningly sweet and rather unpleasant.  Wow!! My taste buds had changed and I was shocked when I realized that I no longer liked the taste of soda.  Hallelujah, my body had actually learned to not enjoy the taste of sugary soda and I for one was not going to try it drinking it again in the hopes of reconditioning my taste buds to enjoy it again!  

Despite the slip, I am happy to say that I did not feel compiled to throw in the towel, as I would of in the past, and have a proper binge.  I now realize it is just not worth undoing the weight loss and the health benefits that I have achieved to date - I DO NOT WANT TO START OVER! 

The secret I am now trying is to learn is to not let the occasional unhealthy food choice define who I am going forward!

Wishing you prosperity in your journey!

Sharon

You Can Vacation Without Vacating Your Healthy Eating Plan!

Recently I enjoyed a long weekend relaxing in the the pristine snow capped Colorado Rocky Mountains.  This was my first time vacationing since starting my new healthy eating lifestyle.  


In the past whenever I went on vacation I was salivating before I even hit the open road at the endless variety of new foods I was going to try in each city I visited. However, with a determined spirit I made a concerted effort to maintain my new healthy eating lifestyle on this trip!  

Two years ago I was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA), a debilitating auto-immune arthritis that affects the joints and tendons throughout the body. Everyday is a struggle to move with PsA and not even the wearing of a weekly prescription pain patch abated my pain.  However, in December when I started eating vegan and wheat free I noticed a decrease in my inflammation and pain. On this trip, I knew for the sake of my health I could no longer afford to go into vacation eating mode! 

Eating vegan and wheat free while traveling is not without its challenges.  You must plan ahead and for someone like me who is the polar opposite of a planner I had to adjust my fly by the night way of thinking.   Before leaving home I researched the best grocery stores enroute to the mountains and stopped at a Trader Joe's in Boulder to stock up on healthy provisions. Fortunately the friend I was meeting up with for the weekend mountain vacation was also eating vegan, so the two of us decided to rent a condo with a kitchen so we could prepare most of our meals in house. 

We also had the the good fortune of finding an amazing vegan restaurant in Denver.   This lovely vegan restaurant called Watercourse foods offered mouth watering vegan comfort foods with a plethora of gluten free options!  While we were in the mountains we enjoyed spicy tofu scrambled breakfast tacos in corn tortillas and homemade vegan cream of potato chowder!  We also found a yummy pizza shop that served a vegan gluten free pizza on a vegan/gluten free zucchini crust with your favorite toppings and soy cheese.  

Just because you are eating vegan and gluten free and striving to lose weight does not mean you can't enjoy your eats too!   So if you are struggling with a chronic illness, especially an auto-immune one, and have not tried vegan and/or gluten free yet I would truly encourage you to do so! I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how easy it can be to maintain and how much better you will feel in the long run!

Wishing you prosperity in your journey!

Sharon

A Lot to Lose

It's been two years since I last blogged and during my absence I have fallen off and on the "dieting wagon" more than once. 

I started and stopped Weight Watchers, Fooducate, bi-weekly visits with a personal food coach and veganisn.  During my failed dieting attempts I gained and lost the same 30 pounds over and over and in the end I still sport the same weight as a very healthy female adult grizzly bear.

Recently I read a meme that said, "I would do anything to lose weight besides exercise and eat healthy."  For me, there has never been a finer truism.  

Sure, I would prefer to be slender and sexy and have optimal health, but the reality is that I have not learned yet to not equate food with love and comfort and thus I continue to battle weight.  Deep down in my soul I crave and yearn for sweets and rich highly processed fatty foods. Even though I am a vegetarian I rarely eat fruits and vegetables.  And since I do not hibernate during the winter months there is no way my body can burn all of the junk food and soda I consume.  Once again I am realizing that I am going to have to feel the temporal pain of junk food deprivation and embrace a whole food eating lifestyle for the remainder of my life....if I want to stop the damaging effects of morbid obesity and the rapid march towards an early demise.   

The funny thing is....whenever I start a healthy eating plan within days I start to freak out and have panic attacks and most of the time I run for the Swiss Roll laden hills.  I try to live in the moment and not think about the fact that I am NEVER again going to have xyz food! I know logically I will be healthier and happier eating whole foods, but, on a base level, my mind is frantically wanting to cling to the unhealthy way of life. 

Health wise my back is against the wall and the clock is ticking away. Almost everytime I visit the doctor, which is all too frequently, I discover I have a new comorbidity.  I am to the point that because of weight I am unable to have some diagnostic tests ran at the local hospital and unless I want to start getting my MRIs ran at the zoo, I better start paying attention to what my body is telling me.  While many of the comorbidities are reversible with weight loss, some of my health issues, such as compound fractures due to the excessive weight on my spine, will leave painful lasting mark.  

Thankfully in my life I am blessed with an amazing set of loving and selfless friends and family who care more for me than I care for myself.   Recently one of these friends accompanied me to an appointment with one of Houston's top bariatric surgeons.  The reason for the visit was to the discuss complications from a previous unsuccessful bariatric surgery that was preformed 12 plus years ago by another surgeon.  

During our office visit with the doctor, he emphatically said I needed a radical 2nd bariactic surgery to fix my first unsuccessful bariactic surgery.  I told him that I did not want to have another surgery, but instead wanted to start a healthy vegan eating program and to work hard to emotionally get to the root of my compulsive overeating.    He looked me straight in the face and said "it's IMPOSSIBLE at your size for you to lose your weight by healthy eating!"   And he went on to add that, "at the rate you are going you have about five years to live."  

WOW!  Never had a doctor told me I could NOT loss weight and the strangest thing happened....I left his office motivated to show him wrong.  My friend who had accompanied me to the appointment, together with her husband, graciously offered to open their home to me for a month to help me start on a real food healthy eating program.   Despite it being two weeks before Christmas I took them up on their offer and on December 7th I started.   

The company is amazing and the food has been yummy but emotionally it has been very hard...I am grieving my old comfort foods.  But I am actively working on my emotional issues and ready walk through the pain, sadness, anxiety and panic I experience while adjusting to new lifestyle...because I know it is going to open up a whole new world for me.

Next week during this journey I want to delve into and blog about all of the things in life I will be able to do at a healthy weight. 

Love and peace!