Did you miss it??? And.....MEMORIES!

In case you missed it. Check out what I saw on the scale on Tuesday.

FINALLY! 50 pounds gone and under 200!

I woke this morning early. Kids went to school 2hr late. I spent my early hours exercising and getting things ready for the day. Packed my snack and kids lunches and back packs.  Got kids up and myself ready for work. Nanny arrived and I took my little one to school, just the two of us.

My little one is....well....a pistol. She is always speaking her mind. She is always telling you how it is. So last night we're sitting on the sofa. She crawls up in my lap. She says, "Mommy. You're belly is too big. You need to not eat so much."  "Yep." I say, "I'm trying."  Then..."Yeah. I know. You eat really good food and your belly is lots smaller now. Plus you do Tae Kwon Do and that helps your body. It helps mine. BUT, I'M a higher belt than you anyway."  Don't you just love the things kids say.  See even my 5year old knows that eating good food and exercise is good for your body.

 Can I just say my ASS hurts?  All those weighted squats and lunges and such the other day made them sore. And today at TKD we learned a new kick!  A turning hook kick. It's kinda fun and kinda hard and it hurts your ass.  This morning I did the challenge exercises despite my sore ass and they didn't help the soreness any, but they'll help the scale. I did do a lot of stretching today, but alas, my ass is....well...grass?

All the ass pain makes it hard to get around and do what I need to do. Taking the girls up stairs to bed was an experience. on the bright side, sore ass means smaller ass and THAT I'll take. Today I wore my size 12 black pants and they are getting baggy in the ass.

I ate well today. I enjoyed the food today. Especially that blast from the past.........RICE CAKES. OH how long has it been since I tasted one of these!?!?!?  Years and years. Since high school. When my BFF and I were trying to lose weight and not eating we would eat only rice cakes all day. I got to the point that I never wanted to see another one again. In fact when I saw them on the menu as snack today I pretty much turned up my nose and wasn't going to eat them. But, I got them at the store and thought I'd give it a try.

I could just hear Allan's voice in my brain, "Use the plan. Don't try to tinker. People way smarter than you designed this and it works. It has to. Do the math. Do the math, blah blah blah." You know what I mean. Ha ha ha. Soooo. Today I got out the rice cakes and the peanut butter and made my snack.  On the way to TKD I always drink a large glass of water and have a snack. I don't get to eat on class days until about 1:30pm and I'm starved, esp after all the work we do in class. I usually don't have time to eat the snack, except in the car. That's why I always try to pack it ahead of time.

So today. I whipped out one of the rice cakes w/ peanut butter and MAN! That was tasty. I was instantly transported to 1987.  Sitting in my car at lunch w/ BFF talking about boys and eating rice cakes. Holy crap I HATED those things after a while. But today. I tasted it and it was kinda good. Crunchy and with the peanut butter it was yummo. Plus it brought a smile to my face remembering the good ole days. Ha ha. Isn't it funny how food can do that. Transport you right back to where you were the first time you had it. Or what you were doing.

See, those emotional connections to food are a double edged sword. It's amazing how the brain works. It's memories are released by things like taste, smell, sight, sound, touch.  It's like those things are the passwords to your memory data base. Believe me there are smells that can send me right back to memories. Especially of medical school, ewww!  We sure know how music is a memory trigger.  Just think of the song that played at your first junior high dance. See! It's true.  To this day I can see a picture of a newborn and I smell that baby smell.  To this day I see a rack of ribs and I'm transported to anatomy class. I know sick, right? But it's a fact. They look the same. And the memory is tied to whatever emotion you had at the time.

The problem is that our brain is tricky. Sometimes the food or smell of food triggers the emotion and skips the memory step. So when I smell french toast  I feel happy. I want it. I don't always realize that it is because I think of my uncle on summer mornings fixing us kids a special breakfast. 

The trick is to resist the urge to eat when the emotion is triggered. For a long time I didn't want to see French toast and god forbid smell it. It triggered my memory and emotion and I wanted to eat. Now I can think of French toast, even make it for the kids and not lose control and eat it. Why? Because I've made the connection. I've slowed the process down. I can enjoy the memory without the urge to eat.

One theory on how our hunger drive works and why some people are always wanting to eat is that their brain is wired so that they need that input from their senses like taste, smell to open those memories. Over time the emotion imprints with the taste and smell and that leads to over response in the hunger center of the brain causing them to eat even when they should be full. It's like the emotion over rides the input from the stomach trying to tell their brain they are full already.  There are hormones released in the brain that regulate this. Maybe someday this will be a lead on how to help fight obesity.

In the mean time, I'm stuck doing the work the hard way. Craving hits...analyze. Why? Am I really hungry? No....then...why? What am I feeling? Why do I want to eat? It'd be so much easier to take a pill. But, no such luck. Until then I'm stuck thinking of...... well....my ass. If I want it to get smaller, no eating French toast.

What foods do you struggle with avoiding? Have you thought about WHY and the emotions and memories that might be triggered by that food? How do you handle emotional cravings?