August 17, 2017

Leaving food on the plate

Thank you all for the anniversary wishes! It's hard to believe it's been 14 years; but on the other hand, I can't really remember what life was like before Jerry. It feels like we've always been together.

Runs for Cookies

Yesterday, we had our first cross country practice. There are only two weeks until school starts! Renee and I are coaching third through sixth grade again. The sixth graders can choose to be on our team or on the more competitive middle school team (sixth through eighth grade). Eli wanted to be on our team again, which makes me happy.

I've been curious how Eli's running would go since he completed physical therapy and started wearing orthotics. The reason we even brought him to the orthopedist was because his ankles were always hurting him when he did physical activity (especially running). I also noticed that his gait was odd when running.

He went to physical therapy twice a week for about six weeks, and the measurements that the PT took improved quite a bit in that time. He has been feeling much better, but hadn't tried running yet. I was really hoping that he would be able to run without any difficulty; last year, he wanted to run more, but his ankles hurt all the time.

Anyway, we met at the high school track yesterday instead of the place that we have always had practice before. At the first practice, we always do a time trial--a one-mile run as fast as they are able. We like to see how fast they can complete a mile on Day 1 so that we can compare it to the end of the season when we'll do another time trial. Our goal is for everyone to improve their own times.

We have a great group of kids again this year--a lot of kids returned from last year, but we had several new faces, too. I blew the whistle to start the time trial, and the kids were off. My biggest concern was actually Eli--I was just hoping more than anything that he didn't have problems with his ankles after all he'd been through to correct the problem. He seemed to be doing really well!

I was super impressed with the kids' times. Usually, there are a lot of 11-12:00 minute milers on the first day; but yesterday, they all ran under 10:00! They are going to get pretty speedy throughout the season.

I was mostly shocked by Eli--he finished in 8:40! That was his fastest mile EVER, and he hasn't run at all since our last cross country season. He didn't have any pain at all, and I noticed his gait is much better. I can't believe what a huge difference the physical therapy made.

One of the dads of the kids on my team was actually a high school teacher of mine, as well as the DJ at Jerry's and my wedding. I chatted with him yesterday, and reminded him that the weekend of the blackout was when he DJ'ed for our wedding. Like me, he cannot believe it's been 14 years.

I did remember to do my Wednesday Weigh-in, even though I could have sworn all day long that it was Friday.


Another week of successfully maintaining my weight. It seems my body really likes this weight range of 131-134. I'm thinking that this is my body's "set point" (basically the weight that my body wants to be and functions best at). I'm excited that maintenance is going so well right now! I'm still very cautious about getting too excited, because I've been here before, and I know how easy it is to gain it back.

Somehow, I feel like this time is different. I'm finally not bouncing between mania and depression, so my emotional eating has stopped. I have energy and I've been staying busy, so I'm not eating out of boredom. The strangest thing to me is that I'm maintaining without counting calories or points, or anything else. I'm just developing good habits (which I'll write an example of below).

Today, to celebrate our anniversary, we decided to take the kids out to dinner. We planned all month for it, in order to stick to our budget, and we ate cheap meals for the last two weeks to be able to squeeze in a restaurant meal this month. I literally hadn't eaten a restaurant meal (even fast food) since May. I don't know if I've ever gone that long in my life without dining out (or at least ordering pizza)!

We went to Amigos, a Mexican restaurant that Jerry and I used to go to all the time when we were dating. I ordered flautas, which is what I've always gotten there, and they were absolutely delicious--the best they've ever tasted.

Amigos Flautas

I noticed something during dinner that I thought was worth mentioning here. There are three flautas, and after eating two and a half, I realized that the last one just didn't taste as good as the first. The first bite that I took was AMAZING. The second flauta was still very good. And halfway through the third, I realized that I was just eating it because it was there, but it didn't really taste like much.

It hit me that it's that same feeling I get when I eat at home and I stop midway through. It's not that I feel "full"; but when I've had enough, the food stops tasting as good. So, I stop eating it. In the past, I would have finished it just because it was there and leaving a few bites wasn't going to make a big difference in calories anyway.

When I was in Oregon, I ate out at least twice a day, but I didn't gain weight. I stopped eating when the food stopped tasting as good as the first few bites. I always wondered how people could leave food on their plates and not obsess over eating more. Now that I've realized that the food doesn't taste as good, it's so much easier to leave some on my plate. (I'd read about this in books about intuitive eating, but it has finally clicked for me.)

Later, when we got home, my stomach was not happy with me. Ugh, after not eating restaurant food for so long, my body just wasn't tolerating it. I had a stomachache all evening, and it kind of turned me off to wanting to eat out instead of cooking. My hands feel very puffy, too, from all the sodium I'm sure I consumed. It was worth it for a once-in-a-while meal, though--well, at least the first flauta was! ;)

I'm going to try to start paying attention to some other changes that I've made or habits that I've formed and write about it next week. I'm actually curious myself!


2 comments:

  1. So excited for you Katie--finding your happy weight and it's one YOU LIKE both mentally and physically. I think my body's happy weight (definitely not my mental happy weight) is 328 lbs. where I was for so many years. I swear if I ate like I want, I would be back there in no time. Seems like week after week your weight keeps dropping, must be nice. I am working so hard to drop this regain and my weight goes down so slowly.

    I am super impressed with Eli's mile time! WOW. I can't even imagine running a mile, but to run it in under 10 minutes like the whole team did? Double WOW! And Eli's time is definitely amazing! Hope the ankle pain stays away for him and he can continue to excel. Those boys of yours are sure growing up!

    I made homemade enchiladas with leftover taco stuff (from supper last night) today for lunch. I ate one, and it was more than filling. Of course I also ate a whole bunch of watermelon (NO WW points!). Glad you had a nice anniversary--good planning with your budget! We eat out altogether too much, perhaps that is why the weight loss is so slow, but I usually try to be super careful when eating out. Then again, you never really know what the cooks are putting in the things you order.

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  2. Bethenny Frankel talks about this inher first book! She calls it the "law of diminishing returns." The first bite is great. But the more you have- assess! Are you eating because you're really hungry and it tastes amazing or just because it's there? She says "taste everything and eat nothing." This may not make much sense without context or a little intuition, but with a big plate of a variety of foods, if you taste everything, suddenly you're satisfied. Be conscience and aware.

    I believe the book is "Naturally Thin." It was really simple, not gimmicky, no diets, just concepts. It made sense for real life.

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