My Top 5 New Favorite Foods

Last night I posted my top 5 favorite bad foods. Tonight I thought I'd post my new favorite foods that I can eat without feeling guilty. I really don't miss the bad foods too much when I have all these new favorites on my list!

1. Watermelon is at the top of my list. It's the perfect summertime dessert. When it's served right out of the fridge it is so good, I don't even miss having ice cream!
2. Charcoal grilled chicken breast. When I have the grill fired up, I grill extra so it's always in the fridge. Grilled chicken on a leafy greens & vegie salad with a light dressing is so yummy at the end of a hot day. Not that we are having many hot days here in Seattle, but I can always hope!
3. Icy cold flavored water. It's a low calorie refresher when everyone around me is having a soda.
4. Grilled fish. I didn't even know you could grill fish until I started this diet. I don't like it as smokey as my chicken, so I don't close the lid on my grill while the fish is cooking.
5. Dill pickles. I love them icy cold and crunchy. They only have about 5 calories a serving. Yum!

Summer has to be the best season to be on a diet. All those yummy fresh fruits on the market these days. Fresh fruits, vegetables, and grilled chicken or fish. Yummy!

Emotional Eater

I finally got around to taking the SparkPeople.com diet personality profiler. I discovered what I already knew. I'm an emotional eater. Here's sparkpeople the profile and what they suggest I do to control my emotional eating.


The Emotional Eater Personality

The main problem you face is eating when you're not hungry or eating to satisfy something other than hunger. "Food for your mood" can cause your diet to vary a great deal. Too much of your eating is driven by boredom, stress, or dejection - you might even find yourself in the kitchen, open cookie bag in hand, and not know why. Mindless and emotional eating for you can be caused by any number of reasons. It is likely you have more weight to lose than most or have grappled with weight most of your life.

A tendency for this personality type is to yo-yo on dieting and swing through "all-or-nothing" extremes (e.g., I've blown it already this meal so why not have dessert?) A few spoonfuls turn into a snack turns into a binge…especially around the high stress holidays.

What Can You Do?

A diet alone is not the best option for the Emotional Eater. Emotional Eaters can become fixated on what's good and what's bad and grow obsessed about eating. The emotional eater needs to become more conscious of when and what they eat and surround themselves with the support they need to change. You will need to develop new skills for dealing with boredom, stress and/or sadness. You need a conscious connection to your hunger.


Confidence can be the missing ingredient and starting small is key. Consider starting a streak for a predetermined period (say two weeks) and focus on regularly reaching just one goal for that period. An example would be to drink 8 cups of water each day. This success will give you the new habits and confidence to try another goal. Emotional eaters do well with friends by their sides to help coach and maintain a degree of accountability.


How SparkPeople Can Help

For you, weight loss is more complicated than simply counting calories and it will take some investigation to get to the root of your eating habits. The SparkPeople support message boards and expert coaching will give you the strength and insight to overcome past problems. The circle of friends and the support group at SparkPeople will help you take the pounds off quickly - and keep them off! Our food tracker and reporting system of over 10,000 foods, when used with the online journal, can expose those mindless and emotional eating times and help you develop strategies for dealing with them.


Helpful Hints for Emotional Eaters

Surround yourself with positive re-enforcers, like pictures and goal reminders.

Track your eating patterns, including when and why you pick up food.

I NEED to Journal

It's been almost one month since I found sparkpeople.com and joined. I immediately started tracking my meals and snacks. Actually, I tracked every single bite I put into my mouth. Well, this past week I didn't track my food. I thought, I've got a handle on how much I'm eating, how many calories I'm taking in.

Wrong!

I didn't lose anything this week. Zip. Nada. Nothing. I didn't gain anything. I didn't lose anything. I've learned my lesson. I'm going to track my food this week. Every single bite, taste, lick, and sniff is going on the list.

Fruits of Summer

Fruit, oh glorious fruit! I love summer time! During the summer months, there is such an abundance of fresh fruit on the market. Speaking of market, our local farmer's markets are open on Thursday and again on Saturday. I love it!

The displays of cherries, strawberries, and raspberries are beautiful and they smell so good. It's hard to resist something that smells that yummy. But why would I resist? It's all so good for me! Right now I have a refrigerator full of fresh fruits and vegies from my local market. Mmmmmmmm yummy!

I purged the main kitchen of all the kid snacks. They are banned to a small shelf located outside the kitchen. The kids are happy, I'm really happy. I've overstocked my kitchen with healthy fruits and vegies so my snack attacks are easier to manage with a healthy choice.

So far I haven't had any snack attacks. I'm almost disappointed!