With the holidays coming up, and realizing that over the summer I actually gained weight, I'm super-focussed and motivated to NOT gain weight and yes, I'm determined to actually LOSE Weight. Call me crazy, but I have to do this. When it comes to healthy eating, I have spent a lifetime struggling with yo-yo dieting and trying to develop healthy eating habits so that I can maintain a reasonable weight. And I have a feeling I'm not alone in this. Especially since reading Pieces of a Puzzle: The Link Between Eating Disorders and ADD and taking a class on the ADD Classes site called "AD/HD and Eating Disorders" with Dr. Patricia Quinn.
I have worked so hard at eliminating clutter foods and breaking my food addictions and bad habits that I now understand were / are ADD-related. I'll get into this more in future posts as I work to overcome these issues, but for today I want to recap and then focus on veggies and butter. Over the last 10 years, I have:
- Quit sugar and overcame my sugar addiction a few years ago
- Learned to drink only water, tea and coffee. I stopped drinking soda and juices 10 years ago.
- Cut out all but a few pre-packaged foods and use much less salt.
- Overcome my Gluten Addiction and learned to limit my gluten (breads and pastas) to a couple times a month and usually only in restaurants.
- Stopped using anything with transfat and stopped buying margarine. (they are allowed to say "no transfat" if they have just under 1 gram per teaspoon or tablespoon. How ridiculous is that?
To give up margarine, I had switched to butter. Now I realize that may not have been my best idea ever. : ) I have discovered that I have a "fat tooth"! In particular, I have developed addictive behavior around butter -especially on my vegetables! It was getting out of hand. So, I recently decided to quit butter! The most challenging part for me was eating veggies with nothing on them. I hate to admit it, but I used to drown them in butter. But not anymore!
I recently discovered frozen "steamable" veggies that come in a bag you can just stick in the microwave for 4-5 mins. They come out perfect and incredibly delicious every time! In fact, the broccoli and brussell sprouts and carrots even taste sweet to me! Even with no butter and very little salt. It's like a dream come true. It's perfect for people like me who have ADD and often leave things burning on the stove, or have difficulty "activating" to cook a healthy meal.
I still prepare fresh veggies too, but on those days when I can't wrap my head around all the steps to cooking a meal, it's so nice to have a variety of "Steam in Bags" available in the freezer. They even have single serving sizes now! When I use the bigger bags, I have half for dinner and I can either save the other half for dinner tomorrow, or have the other half later as a healthy snack! The really neat thing is that the 12 oz bag of broccoli for example is only 125 calories! And the smaller portion bags make it so much easier to control portions.
It's made a big difference for me and I'm finally starting to lose weight!
Next Demons to conquer? These following will be my focus for the next few months.
1. CHEESE - I have no power over cheese. Probably because of the fat and salt content. This will be almost as hard as quitting sugar for me. It's such a satisfying fast food!
2. NIGHT EATING - I have got to conquer the night eating that results from "self-medicating" ADD related hyperactivity. I've got to stop using food to manage my energy and calm me down. Why does being "hungry" or "not full" cause me to have so much energy I can't sleep?
Anyone else have experience with this? Have you overcome these issues? I would love to hear from you, particularly if you have ADD and struggle with night eating as a way to mange your energy levels and help you sleep!
Would also love to hear any tips you have to make healthy eating ULTRA-SIMPLE and easy?
How do you avoid overeating during the holidays?
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