Jewish Musings, Wednesday, December 7, 2016

[peachymom1]

What’s on your mind – how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.

Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:

Angelika
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy

[peachymom1]

Good morning! After my eating disaster of the last two days, I hope that starting a new week today will help me kick-start myself into doing better. Wish me luck!

I know we all have different food triggers and challenges, but if you could have one specific thing changed magically about your food issues, what would it be? No fair saying, “Perfect eating habits.” I’d like to know something particular to you.

Until this week, I thought my magic wish would be to truly enjoy all vegetables, instead of having to struggle to find ways that I can enjoy them or at least tolerate them. But I think now that I would wish that cookies were not a trigger food for me. I wish I could either eat a reasonable serving of them or be able to take or leave them, instead of having them create such a stumbling block for me. If I could just manage the cookie demon more easily, I think that would be a big help. I know I have to do the work in this area myself, but some help would certainly be welcome.

What about you? What’s your dream? To lose your taste for French fries? To gain a drive for exercise? To automatically eat only small portions of chocolate? Have fun with me in this fantasy!

[gazelle18]

My hardest time of staying on track is when I have a big chunk of time to myself, and I'm at home not doing much of anything. My mind starts to wander to food, and the next thing you know, I am attacking the pantry. So my dream would be this: to have the control to be by myself, even for an extended period, and not feel the need or urge to binge. I find that if I am with DH, or someone else, it's easier to control my intake.

Good questions,

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well today. I'm feeling pretty good and the sun is shining, so I'm hoping it will be a happy day.

If I could change one thing about my eating issues, it would be to make myself think that it is easier to cook a healthy meal (especially fresh vegetables) than to just settle for whatever happens to be readily available. Don't misunderstand me, I really make an effort to keep good food around --- but a lot of times it just doesn't get used as quickly as I think it should be. For example, I have raw broccoli and carrots sitting in the fridge. I probably won't use them until the weekend, when they will be past their prime. I would like to be able to say to myself, hmm, I need something extra to go with lunch or dinner, I think I will steam those vegetables.

Anyway, I'm working on it. I've gotten H to use more vegetables in his cooking and that helps a lot.

I'll be back later to see what everyone writes. Have a peaceful day, Lee

[savtele]

Boker Tov All! I tend to be an "all or nothing" kind of person. So - if I could change 1 thing, it would be that my satisfaction level would kick in at some point before pain! 4 cookies left in the package? Fine, I'll eat 1 & then have 1 for the next 3 days to look forward too! Package says 1 serving is "about 3 pieces?" Great - I'll eat 1 now & have the other 2 this afternoon, or even tomorrow! Unfortunately, my mind goes the other way: 1 serving is 3 pieces, there are 2 servings left in the package, might as well finish them off & not have to worry about them anymore!

I realize that so much of "self-talk" is old habits talking. I also realize that in the evenings, when I'm tired and often in a bit of pain (because I'm trying to time my meds to get a good night's sleep) I'm vulnerable to whatever may be lurking in the pantry!

My very favorite "pantry disaster" was a few months ago, when I suddenly heard a crash in the kitchen. Went running in there & discovered that 1 pantry shelf had fallen down. As we were cleaning up the mess, we came across a box of Trader Joe's licorice - 1/2 eaten, must have been in there for at least a month. We had both forgotten about it - and now it was stale, so we threw it out. We both laughed "who LIVES here?!!!" (not like us, to forget about TJ's candy in the pantry!)

I need to check road conditions & whether or not the pool is open (we had a snowstorm the other day, most of the snow has melted off, but the temps dropped last night & it could very well be icy.) And then today the guy from Dish is coming - our Dish stopped working during the snowstorm. That's not unusual, but it IS unusual for there still to be no reception after the snow is gone!

Have a good day ladies!

[louise]

The best thing I could do for myself is STAY CONSCIOUS! My worst eating is usually of food I won't even remember having consumed. Like who put those candy wrappers in my waste basket?

[happysavta]

Peachy and other dear Musers, From what I know, cravings dissipate with time and distraction. So, lets figure out how we can help one another.

So why don't we exchange phone numbers so that when we are about to step into the sugary quicksand, we have someone to call in the moment. And it would be good to inform our spouses or close friend that we have a special phone list to use when we are about to dive into the cookies and have him/her prompt us to start a call. The rule should be you have to call not one of us, but all of us, in turn. That way, it will take you some time to get through all those phone calls and by then, the craving might start clearing up and clear thinking return. Also, if we do decide to exchange phone numbers, we should also develop a list of 5-10 things we ask you to do while we are on the phone with you to distract you from the cookies and overcome or minimize the craving.

For example:
1. Drink a glass of tea
2. Drink a bowl of clear consommé
3. Cook a hard-boiled egg and eat it
4. Drink a glass of no sugar added cocoa (or a glass of water),
5. Take a 5 minute walk inside your house or a 5 minute walk outside your house
6. 10 deep breaths, 10 stand up and sit back down in a chair
7. Sing one song (I Will Survive, for example)
8. Do the Cha-Cha or the Twist for 3 minutes
9. Tell a joke or read a joke
10. Do a self massage, either with one of those self massage tools or with you fingers.

If we decide to make such a list, I'm sure you can come up with many other suggestions.

And whoever you have on the phone with you has to stay with you until you complete at least 2 items on our list. Then the next person on the line can guide you through 2 more items on the list, etc.

Again, from what I know, cravings lessen with time and distraction. We're all tried to do this, but the difficulty is that you can't do it by yourself. But if you can make 1 phone call, you have someone at your side who will hold you hand, get you through the list and time will pass and the craving will lessen until you are back in the driver's seat.

What do you think?

[happysavta]

To answer today's question, I'm the one who would like to acquire an innate drive to exercise. I would wish for the automatic "ugh" thought-response to change to a pleasant "ah" of anticipation of pleasure.

[peachymom1]

Hello again everyone. I am happy to report that I had a good "health day" today. I weighed and measured myself this morning, but didn't go to the gym; I was still feeling a bit overwhelmed. But I did do my dance DVD and my stretching DVD when I got home from work, and I did well with my eating. I feel very good about my new beginning.

I also finalized the menus for the baby shower dinner on Tuesday and the holiday lunch on Thursday, and I feel that I will be able to do all right with my eating, now that I've done some planning. I really appreciate all of you listening to me get through all this. Thank you!