I think I've mentioned how much I hate the Flex plan, right? There's something mildly psychotic/OCD about counting "points". Not to mention the fact that the number of points people get seem to me to be seriously out of whack with the amount of food people should be eating.
If you do the math, at 160-170 pounds, I get 22 points per day. At 50-70 calories per point (If you eat something very high fiber and low fat, like say, a stick. Or raw twine. You can get it up to about 100 calories for a point.) that's 1,100 - 1,540 calories per day. Now, the high end of things is not too bad for calorie counts, but if you're doing that, you're also getting a lot of fiber. Perhaps too much fiber. (And if you've ever overfibered yourself, you know that this is a bad. bad. superbad. thing.)
Also, I develop this subconscious fear of my points... I'm afraid to use them in case I'm hungry later. So, since I don't use them, I, of course, am hungry later. And, towards the end of the evening, I don't really want to cook another meal, so I end up snacking those last 3-5 points away.
At the meeting on Monday (well, I weighed in. I didn't actually stay for the meeting because I'd left Thomas at home with Darcy and a migraine...) Beth suggested to me that I try the Flore plan. Just for a week or so, to see if what I'm doing is eating entirely too much core foods. (Going beyond 'satisfied.') The Flore plan, for those of you who are unfamiliar with this concept, combines the headache of both plans... use Flex points, eat Core foods.
Her suggestion was, actually, not to change my eating habits so much as just track how much I was eating and then see, next week, if I could cut back a little here and there. Knowing me and my desire for results now, I decided I was not even remotely likely to do that, and I would instead, just do the Flore plan for a week or so... Especially since I'm less likely to snack mindlessly if I'm not allowing myself to be mindless about it. (Being mindful involves writing it down, so if I am journaling, I cannot, by default, be mindless.)
I was complaining to Thomas for the last two weeks or so, now, that I'm always hungry.
Clearly, that cannot actually be the case.
Beth is probably correct that I've been eating too much. Nibbling myself to death, in essence. A cheesestick here (only 1 point!) , an extra 2 helpings of dinner there (it's core, so it's fine, right? Just because I ate all of Thomas's leftovers, and the stuff left in the dish. Right?) (I can't say for sure, since I stopped tracking even sporadically about two-three weeks ago...) I've been so hyper-busy recently that... honestly, eating is a task I can finish. I can go into the kitchen and find food. Finding food, then, I'm going to eat it. Eating food for the purposes of finishing a task is not fueling my body's needs.
Hunger isn't the problem; eating isn't the solution.
So... tracking yesterday went something like this:
Breakfast: 3 points
Whole wheat cream of wheat - 1.5 point
3/4 cup milk - 1.5 points
Mid-morning snack: 3 point
Medium apple - 1 point
1 cup greek yogurt - 2 points
Lunch: 4 points
salad greens - 0 points
tomato - 0 points
1/4 avocado - 2 points
1/4 cup fat free cheese shreds - 1 point
2 tbsp fat free thousand island dressing - 1 point
Mid-afternoon snack: 2 points
1 tsp canola oil - 1 point
1/2 cup Fiber One Cereal - 0 points
1/2 cup skim milk - 1 point
Dinner: 8 points
chicken breast - 3 points
1 cup brown rice - 3 points
1/4 cup fat free cheese shreds - 1 point
1 tsp olive oil - 1 point
Dessert: 1 point
Skinny Cow Low fat bar - 1 point
Before bed Snack: 1 point
1/2 cup tuna fish - 1 point
10 baby carrots - 0 points
2 tsp cranberry mustard - 0 points
Activity: 3 APs
walked 1/2 mile - 1 point
walked/jogged 2.2 miles (more walking than jogging) - 2 points
Added up, that's 22 points, 3 APs earned and unspent. On Core, that's 1 AP used (for the ice cream bar...)
Also, I got all my waters in... funny thing is, I wasn't hungry yesterday, despite the fact that I was being more careful about what I ate.
Hunger isn't the problem; eating isn't the solution.
- Lynn
- Chesapeake, VA, United States
- "How does one become a butterfly?" she asked pensively. "You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar." - Trina Paulus, Hope for the Flowers
12 comments:
What is it about tracking points/calories that makes us horde them? I've been counting calories over the past two weeks and seriously, I have a panic-- I have 700 calories left for dinner? THAT IS NOT ENOUGH. Are you kidding me? Is it that cavewoman still inside of me, wondering if her mate will bring home some yummy yak for the winter? I don't know... but I do know that 700 calories is more than plenty for 4PM forward.
And tuna before bed? I can't imagine doing that :)
I feel like when I track every little detail about every little thing that goes into my body, it always leads to obsessing. WW gave me far too many reminders of my OCD don't eat more than 500 calories a day or I'll kill myself high school career. I'm glad it works for so many people, but I am not one of those people.
So instead, my diet is based on what a body needs in order to perform at it's best...
foodpyramid.org will list out how many grains, fruits, veggies, etc you need based on your stats.. That's more like what I go by... which I guess is similar to the core plan, but a little more in depth.
Keep the faith, Lady, it'll get better!
You know, you were talking about mindful vs. mindless eating... I wonder if that's part of the difference? As in, tracking what you're eating makes you *aware* of what you're eating, so it's more satisfying because you're focusing more on how much of what is going in to you? I'm all for mindfulness. Living on autopilot always gets me into trouble. (Or, y'know, I could've just been watching too many Wendy's commercials....)
I have been tracking my calories, and I find that I am starting to horde them to use in the evening now too.
I always want to horde my calories as well. It makes my OCD go haywire! Keep us updated and let us know how the flore plan works. It sounds like you are doing a great job!
"Hunger isn't the problem; eating isn't the solution."
I'm writing that on my kitchen wall with a Sharpie marker. No, it doesn't match the style or decor, but I don't care. :)
I'm having a problem with calorie hording too. I end up with half my calories left at 5 p.m. Not good. Must fix.
Hope you continue in such a positive direction (and that Thomas's migraine is long gone.)
"Hunger isn't the problem; eating isn't the solution."
Man, ain't that the truth!
so SO TRUE.
about the hunger.
and you have my email if you wanna mull together.
So, how did the flore week go? Have you weighed in?
How did the weigh in go after the flore experiment?
Here from wwtweets!
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