First the good news. After my Pilates class yesterday, I couldn’t tell what muscles I’d used, as I felt like I had spent an hour rolling around on the floor like a hooked fish. But today I can tell. My abdominals are pleasantly sore, as are the insides of my thighs and the muscles in my butt and lower back. This is good news to me, as I often feel like I’m not doing the exercises right and I’m using all kinds of compensatory muscles since my abs are so weak. So it's cool to have evidence that I'm actually using the right muscles after all.
As I have alluded to in past posts, though, I’m really pretty out of control with eating again. This is starting to feel really crappy. Yes, I seem to be losing some inches because of the exercise, but I’m eating unhealthily, and it feels nasty. I know that when I limit my carbs I have more energy, I don’t fade in the middle of the afternoon, and I sleep better. I also just feel more in control, which inspires more global feelings of well-being and self worth. I haven’t been bingeing lately, exactly…I’ve just been making consistently poor choices for meals, snacking a lot, eating huge portions, etc.
So what’s the deal? It’s weird to me that I’ve managed to start working exercise into my life, which has been a HUGE stumbling block of mine for the longest time, but I can’t seem to manage that and healthy eating at the same time. I think a bit of the problem is a logistical thing: The exercise takes a lot of time, and the cooking and eating well takes a fair bit of time, and I haven’t worked out a schedule for myself that allows me to do both. On the nights I’m at the gym I don’t get home until after 8, and my tendency has been to do the fast food thing as I drive between work and the gym (I know. How gross is that? A Quarter Pounder on the way to work out). Sometimes I’ve managed the foresight to pack some extra string cheese or something in with my lunch, and that gets me through the workout. What I need is to plan to cook on the weekends so that lunch and a late-afternoon pre-workout snack is an easy thing to grab.
But. As usual, the real issue doesn’t have anything to do with making time to cook. It’s a psychological thing. It’s about feeling pouty and put-upon and just not wanting to have to restrain myself in any way. It’s about wanting to be accepted the way I am. It’s about wanting to stick it to my father, who has, for nearly 40 years now, been waiting to see me lose the weight (there were a few years there at the beginning where he thought the chubby baby thing was cute).
And you know what else? There’s this one bit of unfinished business between me and my ex-boyfriend, with whom I broke up a year and a half ago. I’m a signer on a bank account of his, and I’ve never taken the initiative to email him and say “Hey—you probably need to find someone else to do this for you.” I’m assuming that this will involve meeting him at the bank, and I caught myself thinking the other day that I ought to wait until I lose some weight, so that I look really good when I have to see him. So. Avoidant soul that I can be, I’ve set it up so that as long as I’m fat, I don’t need to address this issue. I don’t have to endure the anxiety of sending an email, of calling the bank to figure out what, in fact, needs to happen, of perhaps having to see him, after all this time… And the big bonus is that I get to keep eating!
Sigh. Whether or not I choose to face the ex-boyfriend bank account issue at this particular point in time, I think it’s time to start working toward healthier eating again.
3 comments:
So, I'm not the only one who suffers from the I-don't-wanna pouty/rebellious feeling when it comes to taking care of myself lately. My eating is out of control thanks to daily restaurant meals after hours at the hospital and I'm completely sedentary, so basically I feel like crud most of the time.
I'm working up to starting all over again and getting in control. Wish me luck!
Oj, oj. I'm not feelin' any self love there, sister. You are doing really well in your exercise. Now you need to shore up the eatin' side. I suggest to you that you may have become more sensitive to energy swings/sugar since you've started to exercise. What does this mean? Your body says, "Eat. NOW!". And carbs are a logical choice as the quickest form of energy. If it's just a tide-over and the carbs are limited, and preferably complex, then you're good to go until you can get some protein. Try packing those little cups of peanut butter in your gym bag. They are limited in size and have 13 g of protein. They are on sale this week at Target - as are Zone bars.
I do most of my cooking on the weekends and that usually means one meat heavy main dish and at least one soup/soupish thing. It works for me.
Personally, I wouldn't worry about the pre-bf. This is so his problem - if he's worried about you still having access to his account, he'll do something about it. Focus on getting your needs met. If food seems like the appropriate area to concentrate your significant talents, by all means, improve in that arena. Remember: better an ex-bf than a "was-band".
*S*
*S*--you are, of course, right about the ex-BF issue. So his problem, and not something I need to be troubling myself over.
And I think you have a point about the sensitivity to blood sugar swings having increased since I started exercising more. It certainly feels that way.
Meegan--Hope things are looking up for you and your family. Good luck with your own pouty-ness; if you manage to defeat it, tell me how you did it!
Post a Comment