In 2006, my mantra was "I don't need a pizza fix in 2006!". Has kept me off pizza since then (major binge food for me). I have not eaten commercial pizza since then, had healthy home made pizza one time.
So, my mantra for the next year as I prepare for IM AZ 2009 is this:
"I am a Triathlete; I am training for Ironman.
Food is my fuel, not my medication or lover.
I fuel my body - I don’t abuse it with food.
I love myself by eating healthy and am grateful I make that choice".
I am going to drill this into my thinking and meditate on it often.
I am also grateful for you all!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
This Week
(Thanks Mary! )
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Strength and 1:10 spinning with intervals
Wednesday: Swim 2200 yds
Thursday: Strength and 50 minutes spinning
Friday: Swim 1700 yds
Saturday:Strength and 1:10 bike, low effort
Sunday: Swim 2300 yds.
AND! Fuel my body as a Triathlete! Lots of real food - fruit, veggies, lean protein!
I have a great friend coming in from out of town, I will need to be diligent and watchful on my eating and get her to think about exercise and triathlons! Right Deb?
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Strength and 1:10 spinning with intervals
Wednesday: Swim 2200 yds
Thursday: Strength and 50 minutes spinning
Friday: Swim 1700 yds
Saturday:Strength and 1:10 bike, low effort
Sunday: Swim 2300 yds.
AND! Fuel my body as a Triathlete! Lots of real food - fruit, veggies, lean protein!
I have a great friend coming in from out of town, I will need to be diligent and watchful on my eating and get her to think about exercise and triathlons! Right Deb?
Monday, October 20, 2008
Now this is interesting!
As I mentioned in a previous entry, not exercising seems to put me in depression and not being able to cope well with stress. Now a new study shows that "obese people may have a diminished ability to experience the pleasure of eating, prompting them to overindulge to boost their satisfaction, according to a new study.
The study, published this week in the journal Science, found that obese individuals may have fewer pleasure receptors in their brains, requiring them "to take in more of a rewarding substance such as food or drugs to experience the same level of pleasure as other people," says Dr Eric Stice, a psychology researcher at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin and lead author of the study.
In a throwback to humankind's evolutionary past, the human brain releases the "pleasure chemical" dopamine, a reward to the body for consuming life-sustaining nutrition.
But the researchers theorize that weak "reward centers" in the brain prompt obese people to eat more.
"The research reveals obese people may have fewer dopamine receptors, so they overeat to compensate for this reward deficit," says Stice, who has studied eating disorders and obesity for almost two decades.
Although past research has shown that biological factors play a major part in obesity, the study is one of the first to positively identify factors that increase people's weight gain risk in the future.
The researchers from UT, worked alongside scientists from the Oregon Research Institute, and brain scientists from the Yale University School of Medicine.
Pleasure response
Using a technique called functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), researchers examined the extent to which pleasure receptors in individuals were activated in response to a taste of chocolate milkshake versus a tasteless solution.
The participants were next tested for the presence of a genetic variation linked to a lower number of the dopamine receptors.
Researchers then tracked changes in the test participants' body mass index over a one-year period.
The results, says Stice, are key for understanding weight gain, and to helping at-risk individuals.
"Although people with decreased sensitivity of reward circuitry are at increased risk for unhealthy weight gain, identifying changes in behaviour or pharmacological options could correct this reward deficit to prevent and treat obesity," he says."
So what does this mean for me? I must be consistent in my exercise so I can maximize my possibilities for success in my weight-loss efforts!
The study, published this week in the journal Science, found that obese individuals may have fewer pleasure receptors in their brains, requiring them "to take in more of a rewarding substance such as food or drugs to experience the same level of pleasure as other people," says Dr Eric Stice, a psychology researcher at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin and lead author of the study.
In a throwback to humankind's evolutionary past, the human brain releases the "pleasure chemical" dopamine, a reward to the body for consuming life-sustaining nutrition.
But the researchers theorize that weak "reward centers" in the brain prompt obese people to eat more.
"The research reveals obese people may have fewer dopamine receptors, so they overeat to compensate for this reward deficit," says Stice, who has studied eating disorders and obesity for almost two decades.
Although past research has shown that biological factors play a major part in obesity, the study is one of the first to positively identify factors that increase people's weight gain risk in the future.
The researchers from UT, worked alongside scientists from the Oregon Research Institute, and brain scientists from the Yale University School of Medicine.
Pleasure response
Using a technique called functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), researchers examined the extent to which pleasure receptors in individuals were activated in response to a taste of chocolate milkshake versus a tasteless solution.
The participants were next tested for the presence of a genetic variation linked to a lower number of the dopamine receptors.
Researchers then tracked changes in the test participants' body mass index over a one-year period.
The results, says Stice, are key for understanding weight gain, and to helping at-risk individuals.
"Although people with decreased sensitivity of reward circuitry are at increased risk for unhealthy weight gain, identifying changes in behaviour or pharmacological options could correct this reward deficit to prevent and treat obesity," he says."
So what does this mean for me? I must be consistent in my exercise so I can maximize my possibilities for success in my weight-loss efforts!
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Happiness Trap #4: Trying to . .
. . . be happy by overcoming weaknesses. Well, I do believe I fall into that trap quite often. My focus is on my bad, on my negative behaviors (eating for medication and fun and love). Self-help books abound on overcoming our weaknesses. When I focus on my weaknesses and try to overcome them, I am focusing backwards, on what has been, on what the problem is, not forward on victory!
Trying to cure weaknesses seems to be a waste of time and energy that I need to achieve change. Focusing on overcoming weaknesses instead of being proactive about making life better, just keeps me spinning my wheels. I need to focus forward, on what I am becoming, on my strengths.
B.F. Skinner found that rewards (positive conditioning) are far more more powerful than punishments (negative conditioning). Easier said than done, but I think it is do-able. My co-worker Brandy and I are both going to Tempe and have made a pact to encourage each other in our nutrition and training during the next 13 months. We are both going to journal all our food and show it to each other, accountability. I can see now that instead of having a system for punishing our slips, we need to reward our successes and build our strengths up and focus on them!
This double chin is so outta here!
Trying to cure weaknesses seems to be a waste of time and energy that I need to achieve change. Focusing on overcoming weaknesses instead of being proactive about making life better, just keeps me spinning my wheels. I need to focus forward, on what I am becoming, on my strengths.
B.F. Skinner found that rewards (positive conditioning) are far more more powerful than punishments (negative conditioning). Easier said than done, but I think it is do-able. My co-worker Brandy and I are both going to Tempe and have made a pact to encourage each other in our nutrition and training during the next 13 months. We are both going to journal all our food and show it to each other, accountability. I can see now that instead of having a system for punishing our slips, we need to reward our successes and build our strengths up and focus on them!
This double chin is so outta here!
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Stopping the Spiral
I know I have said this before, but I love you guys and gals. Thank you for following up with me (again) and checking on me! I love you MS and B in CA!
When I tore my Achilles tendon in July, I was pretty bummed out. I was in such good shape aerobically before that. My whole season changed and I ended up only doing the swim leg on a relay team in Glenwood (although I am very glad I at least got to do that and hang with Stronger and family). I have come to realize that when I am not doing my cardio on a regular basis, my ability to cope with the stresses of life sinks very fast. I was just reading a biking magazine and there was a great article on exercise and serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine and what they do for the brain and moods.
I went through several bouts of depression brought on from the injury, life stresses, and job stresses. I sank back into the food and got kind of negative. I even started eating fast food again (yuck!). My biking workouts were lame as far as my intensity and desire. But now my foot is better, I am walking again, although not intensely, unless you count last Saturdays workout where I carried out the front half of a small elk uphill at 10,000 feet! That workout and being away at elk camp really let me chill out and de-stress a bit. My daughter Kelly went with me and we laughed a lot that weekend and had some great father/daughter time, more mood boosting medicine!
Yesterday I busted my butt on the bike, just a 40 minute workout, but it was intense and I loved it. Back in the pool today for the first time since September 7, I'm starting to feel like a triathlete again.
This weeks' workout schedule: Tues Bike 40, Wed swim 2,000, Thurs bike 40 and strength train, Friday swim 2100, Saturday bike 1 hr and strength train, and Sunday swim 2100. I will add a couple short walks in there somewhere, probably at lunch.
The rest of the weeks food:
Breakfast: Coffee and eggs and potato and salsa.
Snack: protein shake and apple
Lunch: Chicken, broccoli, brown rice
Snack: protein shake
Dinner: Chicken, broccoli, brown rice
Hope you all have a great weekend! Hi Debra! :-)
When I tore my Achilles tendon in July, I was pretty bummed out. I was in such good shape aerobically before that. My whole season changed and I ended up only doing the swim leg on a relay team in Glenwood (although I am very glad I at least got to do that and hang with Stronger and family). I have come to realize that when I am not doing my cardio on a regular basis, my ability to cope with the stresses of life sinks very fast. I was just reading a biking magazine and there was a great article on exercise and serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine and what they do for the brain and moods.
I went through several bouts of depression brought on from the injury, life stresses, and job stresses. I sank back into the food and got kind of negative. I even started eating fast food again (yuck!). My biking workouts were lame as far as my intensity and desire. But now my foot is better, I am walking again, although not intensely, unless you count last Saturdays workout where I carried out the front half of a small elk uphill at 10,000 feet! That workout and being away at elk camp really let me chill out and de-stress a bit. My daughter Kelly went with me and we laughed a lot that weekend and had some great father/daughter time, more mood boosting medicine!
Yesterday I busted my butt on the bike, just a 40 minute workout, but it was intense and I loved it. Back in the pool today for the first time since September 7, I'm starting to feel like a triathlete again.
This weeks' workout schedule: Tues Bike 40, Wed swim 2,000, Thurs bike 40 and strength train, Friday swim 2100, Saturday bike 1 hr and strength train, and Sunday swim 2100. I will add a couple short walks in there somewhere, probably at lunch.
The rest of the weeks food:
Breakfast: Coffee and eggs and potato and salsa.
Snack: protein shake and apple
Lunch: Chicken, broccoli, brown rice
Snack: protein shake
Dinner: Chicken, broccoli, brown rice
Hope you all have a great weekend! Hi Debra! :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)