Archive for November, 2007

We are here in New Hampshire visiting Rob’s family for Thanksgiving.  The weather is a little dreary, being that it’s rainy and cloudy, but it is nice to be here again.  It’s been almost a year since we’ve been back, which is the longest time we have let pass.

Even though I’ve only been here for less than 24 hours, I am already faced with weird food situations.  

I’m the kind of girl that loves change and can usually adapt to any situation.  This is important because I usually stick to my usual food no matter where I’m at.  Well, already things are a little difficult and I admit that it’s going to be a long two weeks.

Last night Rob’s aunt gave us chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies - My favorite.  Her cookies are the best and I had two of them.  No big deal.  Well, for the next 3 hours we were there I kept thinking about having another cookie.  I didn’t and the urge isn’t there like it was when I was bingeing, but I have to admit that it wasn’t a good feeling to want another cookie.  I just keep thinking about the next 2 weeks - I don’t want to have 2 cookies per day!

This morning when we woke up, like every morning, I want breakfast and coffee right away.  I’m hungriest, it seems, when I first awake and I look very forward to eating my breakfast.  The hotel we are staying at supposedly has a breakfast and I was happy about having some cereal and coffee, perhaps a banana too.  The great breakfast consisted of bagels and muffins.  The coffee was a machine that produced cafe mochas, vanilla lattes, regular lattes, hot chocolate, but not regular coffee.  You could say that I was diasppointed.

The difficult part comes into play because we are staying at a hotel.  We have limited options.  We do have a little refrigerator (think: like the one you had in your college dorm room), but there’s hardly enough room for the four bottles of water we currently have in there.

We’re going to have to figure out something.  I have clearly become a food snob, which I’m proud of, but it makes my life a little hard at times.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I love lattes from Starbucks, but I can tell them what I want in my drink and what I don’t want.  I have options and am in control.  With a machine, I am not. 

Being from and living in Houston, we don’t have a “true” winter.  Living in NH briefly in 2006, I learned what a true winter is like.  I learned how people (including myself) can become a little grumpy due to the weather.  I also learned that it’s very easy to pack on the pounds when you have to stay bundled inside because it’s too damn cold to go outside.  I am determined not to fall into this category for our 2 week visit!  Sure, there isn’t a gym at our hotel and it’s cold and rainy outside… BUT you can bet that I will be outside walking and running no matter what! 

I have worked so hard to get to where I’m at, and believe me, just because I’m out of town my life doesn’t change.  I will still make healthy choices because that is what I enjoy.  However, when in a different place (and I mean different!), I find that it’s hard to find the same choices that I am used to at home. 

I want to know:  When you go out of town, are you faced with this same thing?  Are you the type that believes that you are on vacation and can eat whatever you want? 

As if life isn’t crazy enough with planning a wedding…  we are going to add moving to the situation as well! 

Whew, it’s going to be crazy, but I’m so excited!

We found a great lil’ house and we will be moving into it at the beginning of December… about 3 weeks before Christmas.  I just hope that I will be able to still decorate for it - It’s my favorite time of year.

I’ll post some pictures after it’s all finished, but here are 2 pics.  One from the early stages of the house being built and another with the landscaping done.

Grocery shopping… 

Something that we all have to do on a regular basis. 

Something that people either love or hate…  and something that can be really difficult for a person with binge eating disorder. 

I remember way too many times going to the grocery store to prepare for a binge.  I would stock up on tons of candy, chips, dip, and anything else I could get my hands on.  My cart looked like I was on my way to filling up a vending machine.  Obviously, I’ve learned a thing or two now that I’m free from binge eating.  I want to share a story from May of this year with you…

While we were away for my birthday, we went to a grocery store to pick up a few items.  For quite a while now, I have been following the same advice that I tell you on in my eBook, which is that I just stay around the perimeter of the grocery store.  I do not go down the aisles that have junk food.  It’s just a habit for me now.

We had never been to this grocery store and we wanted to buy some crackers for the cheese that we got.  We were very unfamiliar with where things were located, so we were going down every aisle.  I found myself just staring in awe of all of the goodies that I didn’t eat and didn’t even know about.  Cookies, crackers, goldfish, etc.  There was so much junk and it all looked good to me. 

It just got me thinking how much better it is for anyone to stay away from these aisles.  If you don’t know what you are missing out on, you don’t think about it.  After all, you just don’t know.  After you stroll down a chip aisle, you see everything that you don’t have and your eyes just get bigger and bigger.  Even though I don’t eat or buy this kind of food, I found myself asking Rob if he wanted to buy cheese nips or goldfish.  Thank God he didn’t say yes.  He told me “you don’t really want that” and he was right.  I didn’t.  It was just there right in front of me and it looked appealing.  Also, I was hungry and that’s a time that is the worst to go grocery shopping.  Everything starts looking good to you.

Well, we made it out of the grocery store without purchasing any junk.  

If you are the type of person that doesn’t really trust yourself around binge food – don’t tempt yourself by strolling down these aisles.  Don’t purchase this kind of food and keep it in your house if you are trying to regain control of your binge eating.  

You’ll be doing yourself a favor by making a grocery list of what you need and not perusing the inner aisles of the store.  Never, ever, ever go grocery shopping when you are hungry.  Make sure to eat first because, believe me, everything will look good to you (and your tummy!).   

Practicing these two things really helped me.  After all, if you don’t have binge food in your house, how can you eat it?  Yes, you might be tempted, but look at everything it would require – getting dressed to go in public, getting in your car, driving to the grocery store, walking around to try to find things that you want, getting back in your car to drive home.  It’s exhausting!