Twitter's Stolen My Appetite

You would not believe the behaviors I am conquering just by taking pictures of my meals to share on twitter before eating. Doing this has led me to think about what I'm doing - sometimes cautiously and carefully. Here's how:

It underlines the importance of honesty.
Oh, I've had the inkling to deceive you by taking a picture before adding cheese to a scramble of some kind...but I didn't! Taking shots of eggs and bacon or whatevers every morning and plowing through with images of lunches and dinners has heightened my respect for my personal dignity.

I am more conscious of what goes in.
Changing my diet from a drive-thru and/or quick bites and big dinners lifestyle is a process for me. I'm not 100% there yet...but I've done some mental and social work to tweak my behaviors already (hosting a real foods group has been especially helpful) and am more aware of what is going to pass my lips. Taking a picture of what is about to end up in my stomach? Yeah. I am not going to want to share a picture of a sloppy burger and a heap of fries without having thought it through.

Note: I ate that very burger and gave most of my fries away the Friday night I went out with my friends. And I didn't feel bad about eating it OR tweeting it because I'm taking better care and attention of what I eat ALL the time now. That burger was awesome and a good choice. I make even healthier choices day to day, meal to meal, so I don't feel guilty.

I think about food differently.
And I can't say that tweeting what I eat is wholly responsible for the change in how I think about food, but it does have influence over presentation.

For a while I have planned meals and grocery shopping (as part of yet another group I started for people who want better home organization). I still do that...but because I am tweeting, I plan to make even nicer things to look at. I hate tweeting pictures of blobs of food. I do eat blobs of food sometimes, but I mostly want to make things that look delicious.

Portion control is spontaneous.
My -portion- size has trimmed on its own. It has! I am not going to send you an image of a heaping plate of spaghetti bolognese with two slices of garlic bread and a meager salad of not much in it. I did eat like that.

I don't now.

Just the other day I tweeted a photo of spaghetti squash with three meatballs and sauce. I skipped the garlic bread and the salad and was still satisfied, not left feeling hungry or wanting, which means I can eat less and feel just fine about it. Being aware of how much food is on my plate is all twitter's fault. I love it. I won't cheat myself by going hungry because that will just push me to binge eat between meals. I eat enough to satisfy my stomach but also appeal to my sense of pride (and embarrassment!) because I am tweeting what I eat.

I get to share my life.
Now I find myself excited to show you what I'm doing. I am not having but wanting to photo journal every day....and I get to avoid food logging the old fashioned way and I inspire people to cook more and I get asked for recipes. This feeds my slightly social personality.

I encourage you to try this for yourself in case you find the same benefits - or even better ones. #tweetyereats with me @wendytime

Veggies Now?

I give you a picture in lieu of a long post. This is left over corned beef and cabbage - the remains of which I had for dinner this evening. Before this diet, I'd never eaten the cabbage served with corned beef every St. Patrick's Day at mom's house. I can't say I LOVE it, but it doesn't make me gag the way I thought it would. Not in the least.

My friend Vet asked me if something has changed because a few years ago I said I really disliked vegetables...and I did. I don't know what's different now. Maybe that I like fresher foods? We were raised on (mostly) canned veggies and those are kind of yuck. Whatever has changed, I'm glad it has because I have to eat a lot of them!

My Three Goals!

Well, today is the day. I was up extra early to meet with my Yourishment group. We had a small meeting in front of La Taza (with the campfire going!!) before the sun had much of a start.

Coach Ivana handed out a basic do's and don'ts foods list to go by and led a brief session during which we made a few "first month" goals. I made three:

1) Exercise for 30 minutes 5 days a week.
2) Significantly reduce, if not eliminate, sugar and flour aka "white foods" from my diet.
3) Work on one activity away from the computer, AND away from work, while at home.

The first goal has been tough to do. I've been semi-successful at it since beginning the gym in February; however, I mean to step it up and get it done. 30 minutes for 5 out of 7 days really isn't that much time to take out of my day. If I'm eating well, and my thyroid starts behaving better, I may more readily have the energy to do this in the coming days so I have made it my want to be at 30 mins/5 days by 9/30/11. I have a month to conquer this. I started working out in February and have waffled my progress since, so this is a new start. I have LOTS of new starts in my personal file. What's one more?

Goal two is kind of ludicrous on the surface; however, I know that a lot of my problems can be pinned to glucose and I don't want to entertain any problems with glucose!! My mom, my grandmother, they are/were both diabetic. I have the genes to follow that path unless I figure out the way things work (or don't) in my system and eliminate what's not working for me.

So, step one is to reduce and eventually eliminate sugars, flour and other high carb foods from my meals. I've done so today and it has been hard to do! I'm realizing that there's hardly anything that exists in the world aside from celery that provides crunch when you eliminate flour from your diet. No crunchy pretzels. No crackers. No bread rolls with a crunchy top. Mouth watering yet? The no crunchy stuff but salads items is an annoying idea. I have a feeling I am going to go through withdrawal. You may need to shut me in a closet for month one. :)

Eventually, I may be able to reintroduce some carbs into my life... things with natural sugar like apples (which I love) and things like that. But, first I plan to make my body a clean slate - so to speak - and then introduce foods one at a time so I can gauge the reaction... does it make me tired? does it make my glucose go whacky? does it affect my blood pressure? etc. So, I'm calling this time period a cleansing. It may be a while before I get to eat doughy anything again...but let's see if I can swing it for the month. One thing at a time, right?

My third goal is to do something other than WORK when I'm at home here. I work so much. I work TOO much on all kinds of things and end up being scattered, leave things unfinished, don't have time for things that take time to nurture, etc. I want to choose a few things I enjoy doing and do them... like watercolor painting or just plain old painting items, or drawing, or put something together, or decorate something, or break out the hot glue gun - I can't sew a stitch, but I can glue anything!

I'd like to get into a few things I learned while at group, alas this is already getting long and I've got dinner going. I'll save that chat for the next time. :) What's for dinner, you ask?

Chicken and Bok Choy stir fry with a little vegetable stock, soy sauce, ginger, garlic & a tiny tiny sprinkle of sesame.