Going down...

Last night I weighed in at my meeting and I found that I had lost 2.2 pounds!

Mostly, I'm excited because last week was a pretty rough week for me emotionally...and there were many times that I felt lots of different emotions even within the span of an hour.

For starters, I got a really craptastic email from Joe on Monday where I'm not sure he could've been more passive agressive should he have tried.  This came in right around the same time that I received a text that brushed off Mr. Wonderful.  Those came right after I found out that my boss who drives me bat-crap crazy is now coming into the office full time.

So basically, Monday kind of blew...and even though I tried to make it better, the week just never really recovered.  But you know what?  When I was sad, I cried.  And when I was happy, I laughed.  And when I wasn't hungry, I didn't eat.

That's the trend I hope to follow this week... it's so easy to say, but it's so hard to do sometimes. 

So, in case there is someone else out there wondering how I did it, I'll share what helped me. 

I really just tried to be aware of what I was feeling.

I've heard countless times that people should ask themselves if they're really hungry before eating something.  That doesn't work for me.  I can't, when faced with a delectable dessert, ask myself if I'm really hungry or (taking it a step further) what I'm really hungry for.  It just doesn't work for me.  I'm too flooded by saliva to make sane decisions and I usually just dig right in and tell myself that I'll try to figure it out later.

What HAS worked for me is to practice asking myself how I feel.  I do it so often that I'm not even aware of me consciously having to think that.

The benefit of this regular check-in is that I'm at least partially aware of how I'm feeling before I start being faced with food.

Sometimes the answer just comes back as "tired."  Well, that's great information to know and be aware of...I mean, if faced with a donut and sugar-laden coffee later, I'd probably be overly tempted to consume it.  But if I'm aware that I'm tired, it's somehow easier for me to make a logical decision and pass it up.

If the answer comes back that I'm sad, I try to sit with that feeling as long as possible before "doing" something about it.  I've felt that a lot this past week - and each time I've done a little something different.  I've hugged my cat, I've called friends, I've watched TV, I've journaled, and I've done something nice for somoene else. 

I make this distinction, of trying to be aware of my feelings rather than aware if I'm hungry, because for me THAT way is easier.  I realize that it's a bit like the proverbial chicken and the egg scenario, but being aware of my feelings BEFORE temptations arise, helps me tend to myself quicker before I'm salivating and struggling with decisions.

Make sense?

This week, I have a lot of stuff going on.  Lots of appointments packed into this week and get togethers with friends.  Somehow I need to finish my Christmas shopping and maybe even send out Christmas cards.

So I can't promise that I'll track appropriately or even keep around my points target.  But I can make a concerted effort to continue what feels right and good...and checking in with myself, being gentle and kind to myself, feels like an excellent Christmas gift.

Rewarding behaviors

Alright folks, I need your help. 

Growing up, we celebrated EVERYTHING with food.  If we had a dance recital, a band performance, or any other "big" thing, the whole family would go out for dinner, ice cream, or some treat.  When it was our birthday, my mom put out a big huge red plate that said "You are special today" all around the rim of it - and we got to pick what we wanted for dinner.

If one of us kids had a bad day, sometimes we'd go out to eat or for a cup of ice cream.  If my mom had a bad day, we ALWAYS did.

It's been so ingrained in my life that celebrating with food is second nature to me.

A week ago, Joe and I were talking about this, and it sounded very weird to him.  His family never celebrated like that.  They never had restrictions on food in his house - candy, cokes, and ice cream were everywhere if they wanted it.  Which meant that they usually didn't want it.

It sounds foreign to me, but it made me really wish that his mom was still alive so I could find out how it actually worked.

Monday night, while preparing for the interview that I had yesterday morning, I said to Joe, "If I do well on the interview, we'll have to go out to eat tomorrow night to celebrate."  He quickly agreed.

And then I remembered that I didn't want to celebrate with food any longer...so I asked him what his family would've done in this situation.  He didn't know.  He suggested a treat of some other kind - like that we would go see a movie or DO something new to celebrate a new thing.

It turns out, I was so tired last night, that all I wanted to do was sleep - which is what I did.

But it prompts the question:

What DO healthy people do to celebrate big changes and good things in their life?

Help me out here...what do you do?  Is a food celebration okay or do you stray from it completely?  How have you made the changes towards celebrating good times other than with revolving around food?