Vacation is No Excuse to Eat for Two

Vacation is No Excuse to Eat for Two

Going on a vacation when you’re trying to lose weight is like going to the Land of Plenty. Plenty of Temptations to eat more than normal. Plenty of Good Reasons to justify eating.

Part of me dreaded vacation. I’d spent two weeks renewing my mind to only eat when I’m hungry and stop when I’m satisfied.

What if this trip to Seattle became a roller coaster, rousing my senses—sight, smell, taste—to incredible heights until I couldn’t resist. And then plunging me into a sea of gluttony and condemnation from which I’d never recover?

So I packed my Bible verses to remember who I am in Christ rather than identify myself as an anything goes tourist on holiday.”

First day in the city, my family walked to the Bay where the salty sea air wasn’t the only thing I breathed in. Asian, Italian, and Seafood restaurants lined the wharf where customers dined outdoors…savoring their meals in plain view.

I tried to shield my eyes from the culinary temptations, but the smorgasbord was everywhere. Ice cream waffle cones, fried fish and chips, shrimp cocktail, sushi, calzone, clam chowder. I felt like Pinocchio walking through the midway of food booths at a fair.

In the Public Market, food—cooked and raw—were displayed on ice or slanted trays like crowned jewels. People—hungry or not—lined up to satisfy their appetites. Until Thin Within, I never realized how food monopolizes our day.

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Waiting until I was hungry to eat, wasn’t the problem. It was the mental debate before each meal: what I wanted versus what I was capable of eating before I reached a five. 

In the olden days, I might have postponed my diet or played the martyr…eating a house salad while my husband and son devoured the Seafood Sampler. However, Thin Within isn’t a diet, it’s a lifestyle. So I asked for the smoked salmon on a side salad instead of as an entree. Even so, the salad portion was larger than a fist.

“Food is fuel,” I said, and scraped half my salad on my twenty-year-old son’s plate. I took a tiny bite of my husband’s crab cakes. And I only had one slice of fresh sourdough bread. By allowing myself to taste different foods, my taste buds were tickled and my stomach had “enough.”

Initially, I thought I might lose weight because we never ate more than two meals a day. Never snacked between meals. Burned more calories by walking than we ate.

However, my diet declined as the week progressed. My battle wasn’t a lack of self-discipline as much as listening to my family.

“Eat what you want. You’re on vacation.

“You can eat smart next week.”

“You should try my Belgium waffle.”

“I can’t eat all this pizza. Do you want some?”

“I thought you were going to help me eat this Chocolate Brownie with vanilla ice cream.”

“Is that all you’re going to eat? Don’t you like it?”

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Instead of saying, “I’m trying to lose weight,” I’d tell them, “I’m not hungry.” 

Not being hungry empowered me as opposed to sacrificing food to lose weight.

Portion control was my worse enemy. One afternoon, I ordered fish tacos from the appetizer menu thinking they’d be smaller portions, but the waitress brought three large tacos. I was satisfied after I ate the first taco. But my son refused to be my garbage disposal and eat the other two.

“Clean your plate & Don’t waste your food” were ingrained in me from birth. I made myself eat the second taco. My stomach groaned. “You’re not eating for two.”

So I tried a childhood trick. I picked at the third taco with my fork to make it appear like I’d eaten some of it. Then I placed my cloth napkin on top of my plate so the waitress wouldn’t see the uneaten food. 

Some folks might wonder why I didn’t ask for a Doggy Bag. 1) We never ate near our hotel, and didn’t want to carry it around. 2) Our room didn’t have a microwave to reheat the food. 

By the last meal, I stopped inventing ways to eat or not eat my food. Not knowing when I’d eat next, (another excuse) I ate both halves of my croissant breakfast sandwich despite being full. Rather than justify my actions or live in condemnation, I focused on the positive. 

  • Everything I ate was delicious.
  • I tried to limit my food.
  • I did better than I anticipated considering how little control I had regarding meals.
  • Thin Within exposed the false reasons that made me think I deserved to eat with abandon during vacation. 

I’m home now, and happy to announce, “I didn’t gain weight.” That’s a first for me! 

http://KarenFosterMinistry.com

Photos: Karen Foster

  

7 Strategies for Holiday/Vacation/Weekend Success (repost)

Image Source: iStockPhoto

Image Source: iStockPhoto

Need some strategies for managing through the holidays, weekends or traveling? Consider these tips:

1. Figure out why you are going to a social occasion like a party or family gathering. (See chapter 25 in Thin Within.)

– Write down your purposes in attending and plan accordingly. Most of us, once we have decided to surrender this area of our lives, don’t go to parties intending to overeat. So ask yourself if it is because you want to connect with family, friends and co-workers, it is easier to accept that food isn’t required for that.

– Then, when you get to the event, achieve your goal! Socialize or network or whatever it might be!

2. When planning to attend a social event that includes food, plan to be at a zero (stomach totally empty) by eating a smaller meal earlier in the day.

– It may be unreasonable for you not to eat at some events–like sit-down holiday dinners and the like. If your event is at 7pm, for instance, and you get hungry at 5:30 pm–you are definitely at a 0 at 5:30pm–then have just a few crackers or a cup of milk or something that will just remove the hunger. You don’t need to eat to a 5. This way, you will be more likely to arrive at your holiday dinner at a 0 and ready to eat.

– You can also “ride the 0” a little while unless you know yourself well enough to know that you will have a hard time eating slowly if you get “too hungry.” Sometimes, when we eat too fast, it is easy to eat way too much.

3.) When you are eating 0 to 5 at a holiday party and there are TONS of choices from which to choose, you can look at all that is offered and evaluate before you choose the foods you will eat which choices are most likely to be “teasers,” “pleasers,” and “whole body pleasers” (see chapter 18 in Thin Within). You want to be “picky” about what and how much of each “pleaser” or “whole body pleaser” food you select.

– Identify which foods offered are teasers and don’t even “go there.”

– If something is available all year long (like fresh french bread) you may want to forego selecting it in favor of something that is a favorite at holiday time.

4. ) Look around the party or dinner for a naturally thin eater and note their behaviors. See if you can spot someone who is naturally thin, but who is enjoying the party without overindulging. (This may be tough as most Americans use holidays as an excuse to eat way more than we need.)

5.) Sometimes people give gifts of food. It is true that some people “love on” others by giving food any time of the year–all the more during the holidays! In Thin Within, there is nothing wrong with having a small piece of whatever food that you receive, of course. If you know that you can withstand temptation to overeat it, feel free to have it in your home, of course! But if you know that you can’t handle the temptation, then here are some suggestions:

– When someone wants to send you home with a bunch of treats 🙂 either politely tell them “No, thank you,” or oblige and state (or not) that you will be glad to share the treats with others…then re-gift them as soon as possible before temptations lures you into eating them.

– When you end up with treats anyhow…THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH FLUSHING THEM DOWN THE TOILET THE MINUTE YOU WALK THROUGH THE DOOR! If you are like me and sometimes need “permission” to do something so drastic, consider this a blanket permission… “Flush the cookies, cakes, pies, candy, whatevers…down the toilet!”

6.) Put the fork down between bites when you are eating out or at a holiday party. This helps slow me down quite a bit any time…not just for holiday parties.

7.) Maybe most importantly, EXTEND GRACE to yourself. If you “blow it” for a party or a meal or even for a day or a week…just OBSERVE and CORRECT! This isn’t a diet, so you don’t have to feel like you “blew it!” Instead, you just had a step or two back on your path…but forge ahead “forgetting what is behind!” Remember this is a journey…a life long journey! God extends grace to you in all things, so extend some to yourself!

What about you?

Do you have strategies that have helped you make it through the holidays? What are your plans for this weekend?

 

“Holiday/Vacation Time! Let’s EAT!” & “Darn, I Blew It!”

Image Source: iStockPhoto

Image Source: iStockPhoto

Do you ever hear yourself saying those words?

Or, maybe if not those words, then these? …

It’s Friday…Time to EAT!

It’s Monday…Time to EAT!

It’s a holiday…Time to EAT!

We’re on vacation…Time to EAT!

Then, have you ever experienced this sequence of events? That once you gave in to eating because it was a holiday, vacation, or weekend, you felt like a failure and it made you want to eat more?

Let’s kick this “left over” from our dieting days TO THE CURB!!!

This week, Week 11 of our Renewing the Mind Bible Study, we will have a look at these motivators for eating outside of physical hunger and satisfaction. We want to continue to scrutinize our thinking, expose the lies, dismantle them, and replace them with truth.

Monday

1. Time to update your “memorial stones” again in your journal. I am asking this question for the umpteenth time, but it bears repeating. Are you convinced…is it a conviction of your heart…that God is calling you to 0 to 5 eating?  If the answer is yes, write it down (yes, again!) in your own words in your journal and sign and date it. We are soooo prone to forget our convictions! If you aren’t resolute today, but have been in the past, go back through your journal and find an entry (or two) when you were convinced and wrote it down. Spend time with the Lord, asking him to restore that conviction.

2. Evaluate “Commitment.” The point of a commitment is that we do whatever it is, even when we don’t feel like it. It is the same with “Boundaries.” A boundary is a demarcation that we might stray across if we didn’t have the boundary there to protect us from veering. It is something we know is best for us. So, if you have said in the past that you are “Committed to eating 0 to 5” (or something similar) or that you have a “Boundary of 0 to 5” (or something similar) when you don’t FEEL like living that way is when your commitment or boundary is tested. That is the point of a commitment or boundary! That is when you really see it for what it is. Think about it this way…when you tell your child to wrap up the leftovers after she is done eating and she does it because she thinks it is a great idea so she can enjoy the leftovers again another time, is her submission to your authority really tested? Not really. When she doesn’t see a good reason, or doesn’t agree with you, but does it anyhow, that is when obedience or submission is really seen. Likewise for us. If the only time we are obedient is when we feel like it, if the only time we are committed is when we feel like it, then we aren’t necessarily committed. We may need to spend some time with the Lord on this one, so that is why I am including it as part of today’s assignment.

Tuesday

1. Visit Barb Raveling’s website and complete her study on Holiday or Vacation Eating.

2. The reason we are doing this study now is Labor Day is next Monday here in the United States. As you journal your answers to Barb’s questions, try to be as practical as possible. If you aren’t in the US, then consider strategizing about an upcoming holiday that you will celebrate.

3. Share with us here any strategies you will use next weekend to celebrate.

Wednesday

1.  Make a plan for what you will do if you “fall off the horse” during this week or the upcoming holiday weekend or a vacation you have coming up. What can you do to minimize the damage and to get back ON the horse? What plan will you have in place so that you will NOT beat yourself up?

2. Visit Barb Raveling’s study on Failure Eating. Read the introductory paragraphs, Self-Condemnation section, and the section under the subheading, “Does it Have To Take That Long?” Journal any thoughts that you have that are triggered by what Barb shares in these paragraphs. Can you identify with what she has shared?

3. Feel free to click any of her other links and explore the resources she has there.

Thursday

1. Depending on how much time you have, visit Barb’s Failure Eating page again and select one or both of the bible studies she has in her “Bible Study” section to complete.

2. You can also read the article that she refers to. It is encouraging, too.

3. Add any new truths to your truth cards.

4. Share with us here any new insights you glean!

Friday

1. Visit Barb’s Failure Eating page again and complete her Failure  Questions.

2. What truths can you add to your truth cards?

3. What is your VERY PRACTICAL plan to be victorious TODAY as the weekend begins?

Summary

Consider vacations and holidays a training opportunity. Many of my coaching clients and bunches of the emails I get mention the concern that weekends are very challenging. Each weekend there is a change in the routine, a change in structure (there may not be ANY structure). We may have attitudes of CELEBRATION!!! Then, when we give in, we beat ourselves up and get caught in continuing to break our boundaries because we are stuck in that old dieting mentality of “I already went off my ‘program,’ so I may as well forget it…” Let’s use THIS WEEKEND (be it a holiday, vacation, or just a normal weekend) to practice rejoicing in the pleasant, wonderful boundaries that God has established for us! If we fall off that horse, let’s get back on QUICKLY and rejoice that his mercies are new each minute!!! NO failure eating! You with me? 🙂

WLBS Review: Holiday/Vacation Eating and Emotional Eating

I Am Crazy! But GOD is AWESOME!

I dunno, but this lady looks nutty like I feel today. I saw this picture and there was something about it that screamed “ME!” Can you relate? For me, it is because of…well…have a look at this video (if you dare). It is more of a rant than a teaching video. Truly…it is Heidi letting her hair down if you will. SCARY.

See why I said I am this woman? She looks like she is prepared to travel. Like she is putting a lid on all her emotions…but they are ready to surface at any given moment. I need TRUTH to put my feet on the ground! I need TRUTH to keep me from freaking out when I travel at all, let alone for 16 days. I need TRUTH to keep me from letting my emotions run amok with me!

So, as I prepare this post ahead of time, I am preparing my mind for action–for obedience. Right now, as you read this, I am in New York. If you watched the video, you know how I feel about this! LOL! But I am preparing now (while I am still home writing this) for obedience. I am speaking TRUTH to my spirit daily as I prepare for the trip and the emotions and other stuff that all go with traveling!

Holiday/Vacation Eating –  I am planning to do the following WHILE on my trip:

  • Daily – I will wake up each morning to have a quiet time and first on my list after warming to Jesus’ welcome to the day will be to use  My Affirmations about 0 to 5 eating list to renew my mind.
  • Because this list travels with me everywhere via Evernote, I will also pull it out mid-morning (before lunch) and mid-afternoon as a reminder about what is really important to me.
  • I will remind myself that vacations are a wonderful time to train myself to keep my boundaries no matter what happens in life. Life will be filled with all kinds of challenges and opportunities. I want to train myself for godliness, for obedience and that I can “celebrate” with means other than food and overeating!
  • I plan to shoot an email to my accountability partner each day that I have internet access.
  • I will ask God daily to open my eyes to His Wonders so that I might keep track in my gratitude blog. If internet access isn’t available, I will use my 1000 Gifts app on my phone to take pictures of the gifts God brings my way. It is pretty tough to give in to “entitlement” or “justification” eating (what typically travels with me on vacations) if I foster a humble spirit grateful to God for all his gifts and blessings!

What strategies will you plan to use when you next go on vacation or have a holiday? Mother’s Day and Memorial Day are coming up. What challenges might face you and what will you do to plan for victory? How will you make provision for obedience?

Emotional Eating Barb encourages us to make use of Renewing Your Mind Tools that she has at her website so that we can overcome the temptation to eat out of emotions. I have included that link here. Barb has written a full-length workbook called Freedom From Emotional Eating. While it is from a dieting perspective, I found it valuable when I went through it a few years ago. Please, though, if you are struggling with the dieting mentality, don’t run out and order this now. There is time later! But if you feel you have some distance and space from the dieting mentality and feel somewhat confident that your 0 to 5 boundaries won’t be derailed in favor of counting calories or points any time soon, then by all means, order her book!

Many of us are habitual…can I say this…drama queens! Ok, maybe you aren’t, but I know I have been. God is really working on training me to diffuse the drama rather than INFUSE the drama (with extra fuel). It is really helping! The video was just an example of a mild version of  how dramatic I can be! Crazy, huh?

The truth is…TRUTH MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD.

At the heart of emotional eating one simple truth diffuses my tendency to go to food:

Food won’t meet the need of my heart.

It just won’t.

What strategies will you use to diffuse emotions that might lead you to look for comfort in food? Please share with us any victories you have experienced recently and/or any questions or even prayer requests you have about an upcoming potential situation.

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Note: This is our final day of the “Ditch Your Scale” Challenge. Some of us bailed early. Some of us bailed mid-way through. Some of us made it all the way through. No matter what, let’s celebrate that GOD IS DOING A NEW THING and prayerfully ask him to show us the importance we place on the bathroom scale. If we are living according to His leading, eating 0 to 5 as he directs us, do we really need to be concerned with our weight? The truth is, we will land on a healthy size and stay there…without worrying about keeping ourselves “honest” with the bathroom scale. Just a thought. Would love to hear from you about this. 🙂

How To Travel and Stay Within Your Boundaries

Disneyland Lover1

Disneyland! Hubby and I LOVE Disneyland. Even though we live 400 miles away from Disneyland, we are annual pass holders and enjoy multiple visits to “The Happiest Place on Earth” each year.

So, when Bob announced that he had to travel to Oxnard (not terribly far away from Anaheim, the home of Disneyland) for business, we knew that we needed to add me :-), another day, and a side trip to Disneyland (he has a Companion Pass for me to fly free with him on Southwest). Tonight (Tuesday night) and most of Wednesday, we plan to visit the park.

This is a wonderful opportunity to share with you how we maintain our boundaries of eating 0 to 5. It also will hold us accountable!

The only thing more exciting to me than being in Disneyland is hubby joining me in videos for you. This is the first of at least a five video contract. LOL! Seriously, he will be providing the guy’s perspective in future videos.

Hubby is successful using Thin Within principles to release weight, having recently lost 25 pounds. While he isn’t a big fan of the spiritual/emotional element of the program, he has the “mechanics” part of it down with his own unique approach added to it. I would say he is definitely in “phase 2” of Thin Within, using information about food to make wiser choices. That means he considers nutrition and caloric density in his foods. He has never dieted a day in his life, so he doesn’t have the challenges with this that some of us have (including me!).

If you know any men who might appreciate hearing Bob’s take on this approach to weight loss and maintenance, let them know that Bob intends to be a part of the blog and the intention to continue to support Thin Within participants.

Below is a video we made of our lunch out at El Torito and how we go about doing that together. For some of you, this is old hat, but for others of you, it may be a new way of doing things, of thinking about food and eating out! I hope you enjoy! (Stay tuned for another vid or two about Disneyland!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LExq_hWe1iY?rel=0&w=640&h=360

How about you? Do you have someone you travel with or go out to eat with who will enjoy sharing meals with you? Do you struggle at all with vacation eating? Do you get an “entitlement” mentality that  says that since it is a special event you can toss out your boundaries? What do you think? Does that work for you? Or does it set you up for failure, making it more difficult to return to your boundaries after the trip or meal out is over?