Food is for Fuel

How many times have I heard this statement or some variation of it? 

How many times have my ears transmitted this information to my brain, where my cognitive processes broke down the meaning, only to have the application department of my mental faculty file it under, "Huh?"

Let's see... the answer is: LOTS.

So imagine my surprise when, at the encouragement of my friend KP, I joined an amazing little website called MyFitnessPal www.myfitnesspal.com, and after entering in all my information I suddenly realized that FOOD IS FUEL!!! (Cue Hallelujah chorus!) Now I don't want to give credit where it's not due. I really enjoy the simplicity and user friendliness of MFP, it's definitely been the avenue through which this "EUREKA" moment happened, but I'm going to venture a guess that the real enlightenment came because of God's perfect timing and my (finally) readiness to mentally and emotionally digest, as well as apply, this bit of information about how the human body - MY human body - works. 

God is good! (Can I get an, "All the time!"?)

Now, I don't know if I'm going to be able to fully capture the "A-ha" moment exactly as it happened. God really does, after all, work in mysterious ways. What I can tell, you, however, is that I have really connected with the concept of my body being like a car that needs fuel to run. I'm no mechanic, so some of my analogy may not be totally transferable between humans and motor vehicles, but again, this was my realization and as long as it works for me I'm gonna roll with it.

My body requires a certain amount of fuel each day to do the basics. My body's physical systems and minimal activity require approximately 2900 calories per day to maintain my CURRENT level of performance, as well as my current weight. This number is reached (the website did it for me but I think I could do the math if I had to) by considering my current weight, age, and level of activity. So if I'm a vehicle - we'll say I'm a Ford dually pick up truck - then I know that it takes 29 gallons of gas to get me around town and do the things I need to do on a daily basis. (Remember, this may not make auto sense, lol.) BUT! As luck (yeah, not) would have it, I happen to have some fat stores on my person!!! For the truck we'll say I have "reserve tanks", ha ha ha, and the fuel in the reserve tanks is old and causing a lot of damage to the truck. After all, lots of fuel can be heavy and carrying all that extra fuel around is hard on the engine and so forth, which means I really should use up that reserve fuel first before I fill up on new fuel. Plan of action? Rather than put 29 gallons in my main tank tomorrow, I'm only going to put 19 gallons! Coincidentally (not really), I'm only taking in 1900 calories each day right now! Once that 1900 calories is gone (by way of normal physical systems) my body is going to automatically start using my fat reserves as fuel. Subsequently, as my fat reserves are depleted (and the Ford's reserve tanks have less fuel in them) fuel efficiency becomes better (my body does what it has to do while taking less effort and causing less damage) and I lose weight!

MyFitnessPal is set up so it calculates for an average loss of two pounds per week. I am in LOVE with this. I have been on SO many diets, and more than a few of them have focused on drastic calorie reduction. I understand that there is a place for this: people who are (as I commented to a friend the other day) deathly obese - in other words they're so fat that they are going to die pretty soon from it - need to lose weight as quickly as possible. Despite some aches and pains from being overweight, however, I'm halfway healthy-ish for my size, and as I mentioned in my last blog, my blessing of having always been fairly strong and having a decent muscle base under all this excess fat, has kept me fairly mobile for the most part. Losing weight fast isn't something I have to do, and many healthcare experts agree. I look to the Mayo Clinic website for a lot of my information and I've included a link to one article that has info regarding slow but steady weight loss. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/weight-loss/HQ01625


Okay! Now for some thoughts that came about after I made the connection I explained a paragraph back. I know the explanation may not be that great, but maybe, Lord willing, one of these thoughts will be YOUR "a-ha" moment and all of this will be more than just words on a blog. 

• What happens when an engine gets too much fuel? It floods and the car won't start. The same thing happens to me when I eat too much... I mean, I can still move around and stuff but what's crazy is that I don't WANT to. Overeating, for me, causes a mental and emotional flooding of sorts. I can tell the difference in how I physically feel, too. When I go WAY over the limit - when I binge - my body doesn't feel right, and I believe that is how God made me - how He made US. 
• The opposite is true, too. When I eat way too few calories, or no calories at all (barring illness or something like that), it doesn't feel right. I get light headed  and jittery, and I get GRUMPY! OH MY do I get grumpy. If you try to start a car with no gas in the tank it might run for a bit - because there may be residual fuel in the engine - but I guarantee it's not going to run for long. Heaven forbid you end up on the side of the proverbial road somewhere unable to function. Worse yet, what if the car stops running, you lose control, and you crash - metaphorically speaking of course. Ever heard the term "running on fumes?" It's not good for the car and it's not good for us, either.
• Some days I DO choose to go over or under the 1900 mark, and it's okay because I'm not basing my success on one day's calorie intake. But DECIDING to go over or under1900 calories one day is totally different than going crazy with calories on a binge or starving yourself because you feel like you messed up on your diet. What makes sense to me is how Weight Watchers www.weightwatchers.com has daily calories and weekly calories. (WW is a good program that works for many, but I personally refuse to put another penny into any more "programs." That being said, do what works for you!!) A lot of healthy weight/sized celebrities do this, too. I think I even read an article on Heidi Klum where she said she adjusts her calories based on what she has going on in her day to day life. SO! If I choose to go over my 1900 calories one day - let's say I'm going to a birthday party and want to have cake but would rather plan for the calorie overage tomorrow - then I do just that. I reduce tomorrow's calories so that between the two days I've still only taken in 3800 calories. For me it's about ALL of the race, not just that one lap or that one turn...

I didn't really get into types of food on this post, but I will on the next one. I kind of feel like it deserves it's own day, and I've got a lot to say about food choices. So I'll end this one by saying what I have always said, "It took me 42 years to get here, it's not going to be over in a day."

Choosing PHAT over FAT,

Stephanie

Practicing Health And Talking about it.

First let me just say that I'm pretty excited about this!

Up until now I've been fairly secretive and/or vague about my desire to be a healthy size, and more recently, about my weight loss and changed way of thinking about dieting. I haven't kept it totally under wraps; I've told some family members, I'm being accountable to some friends on a website that works for me (thanks for the head's up KP), and I've responded somewhat openly to the few people who have asked if I'm losing weight. (Apparently you can see a slight change in my face at the time of this writing.) But for the most part I haven't said much about the recent success I've had. Y'see, at the end of January this year I started something that seems to have stuck, or maybe something started in me that stuck. Either way, I had this low-key, sort of "Doh!" kind of moment where a lot of things I had heard or read over the years finally clicked and I feel like, for the first time ever, I get it.

I know! See? That's one of the reasons I'm excited about "this."

I mean, "this" has been a long time coming! I've talked about my weight before... After all, once you get past the 300 pound mark, unless your 6 foot 7 and playing offense for the Oregon Ducks, denying that you're overweight becomes a little ridiculous. I've been over 300 pounds for a looooonnnnnnnggggggg time now. I don't care how strong I was when I tipped the scales back then, I was OH-BESE, and I had the medical (not to mention the social) diagnosis to back that up. So from that point on, without sharing any actual numbers, I would regularly acknowledge the elephant in the room - sometimes making jokes about it (see what I did there with the elephant thing?), but more often than not, seeking comfort from friends about it and ending up so upset about it that I cried myself puffy-eyed. (No joke intended by using the word, "puffy" - maybe I should have used "swollen?")

But the same was true when I went on diets and had success! I was usually vocal about how much weight I was losing, and with a select few I would even talk about the things I was learning about myself. Things like my food addiction, and my tendency to eat my feelings. As time went by and I yo-yoed down a little, up a bit more than before, down some but less than last time, etc., I was also able to confess, to some fellow strugglers, that I had taken to binging, and on a rare occasion, purging. I could, on a clinical level, even discuss my literal obsession with food that caused me to do things like worry about my next meal before I had even finished the one I was currently consuming.

Over the years I blogged about my "issue," wrote and gave speeches about it, I've alluded to it on Facebook, I even joined a dating website specifically for people who were overweight... all in an effort to put "it" out there that I was aware of my obesity, that I wasn't against working on/changing it, but that there was also some semblance of, "this is who I am and on some level I gotta be okay with me" rolling around in my head and heart. But this is the first time I've decided to talk about it in a truly open and vulnerable way. So why not break with tradition? And while I'm breaking with tradition, why I don't I kick it up a notch and really put it "out there" - especially since I seem to have gained some kind of insight (dare I call it divine clarification?) into my own heart and mind and can FINALLY look at my choices and situation in a practical and, for the most part, unemotional way! Heck yeah! I'm gonna do it!

I can't begin to tell you how much I look forward to just dishing out the day to day stuff that I encounter and experience along the way. This isn't going to be about what to do and what not to do - I've realized that stringent rules and dietary legalism are what have messed me up! This isn't going to be totally about weight loss, or exercising, or nutrition, or any one thing. It's going to be about finding the balance God wants for me: the balance between the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual parts of me. One day I might talk about exercise and the next I might talk about how I chose to go over my calories. The next focus might be on how my emotions play into my over eating, and the day after that I might talk about how God is revealing his plan for me in regard to weighing less or feeling better. I can say I won't be talking about diets, though. I'm done with diets.
My ultimate goal is live up to the name of this new venture of mine: to Practice Health And Talk about it.

And thus begins my new blog!


Disclaimers - cuz you know I gotta have 'em:

• I am NO expert on health and wellness. 

That should be obvious considering I'm 42 and just now getting around to the very beginning of what SEEMS to be me figuring out ONE of my many issues. At best I'm an expert on messing up! I'm writing this blog to share my experience so that maybe something I write will hit home with someone else.

• Anything new I try will be discussed first with my personal physician and you should do the same!

What I mean is that I may mention something on this blog, I might say I'm going to look into it, but I won't actually embark on something unless I've talked first with my doctor. Just because my doctor says it's cool for me doesn't make it cool for you. Talk to your doctor first before you try any new weight loss or health regime.

• My issues, experiences, and opinions are not your issues, experiences, and opinions - and vice versa.

Please feel free to share with me but let's keep it positive and (assuming anyone reads this and responds) let's stick to reporting the facts of our own choices and situations. I don't want to hear any bad mouthing of one person's journey. Do I want the truth? Yes, I want the truth (and I *can* HANDLE THE TRUTH - A Few Good Men reference there, lol) but speak the truth in LOVE. (Be prepared: in the off chance that I don't like what you have to say I reserve the right to delete your comment and block your grump butt if it comes to that. Don't let it come to that. ;)

• If I think of any disclaimers after the fact I will make them accordingly and make them retro-active/grandfather them in.