Cele-cake.

A Special Guest Blog By: Courtney Mueller, Co-Producer of “Finding Thin”

Another milestone happened in my life; Sunday I turned 25 years old. My quarter life crisis. Naturally I celebrated the entire Memorial Day weekend surrounded by friends and family. The parties varied with the people, location, and overall birthday feel, but there was one particular element that was present in every event… cake.

For me, it’s not a birthday until there’s birthday cake. The birthday song followed by making a wish while blowing out the candles inevitably turns into slicing into the first (and biggest) piece of cake to devour. It’s part of the tradition, it’s the birthday food, it’s the celebratory meal.

And regardless of the caloric count, we always justify our poor food choices “because it’s a special occasion”.

Valentine’s Day chocolate, summer barbeques, Halloween candy, Thanksgiving stuffing, and Christmas… a little-or a lotta- bit of everything. Food is a part of our journey and the unhealthy choices is the highway we use to take.

Food is not only part of our culture, but it is often a reward.

Get a promotion at work? Go out to dinner.

Breakup with a boyfriend? Put your face in a pint of ice cream.

Turn a year older? Let ’em eat cake.

While I don’t think giving your sweetheart Tofu candy is going to be the up and coming tradition, I do think better or (gasp) healthier choices can be made when celebrating.

Make your health “a special occasion” everyday.

Gratefully Alone

So another Thanksgiving has come and gone. This year consisted of my making a frozen turkey dinner instead of going out. Most of my family has passed away and the remaining aunts and cousins don’t really want to see each other.

Truth be told, it was a bit of a relief not to have to deal with all the old relatives and hard times that naturally haunt me.

It was especially nice to be able to control exactly what I ate for the day.  I was the cook. I was in charge.

One can look at this holiday spent alone as a means of hiding from food and social situations… but it was the best Thanksgiving that I have had in a long time.

I would like to learn different coping methods for when my confidence and bravery allow me to actually attend holiday party. I am grateful for my accomplishments but I want to share them starting this holiday season… suggestions for a fresh start?

 

 

The Day After…

During this Thanksgiving holiday, I have fallen right back into my bad habits. I think I might have gained 10 pounds but I don’t know for sure and I won’t dare to step on the scale. I thought it might happen, but what worries me the most is I don’t know why.

Yesterday, I ate all the possible food I had banned myself from. That was a mistake. I should have never prevented myself from eating what I like in the first place. My second mistake was to keep the same logic I had when I was thinner of “oh it is only a mistake if I fail to correct it.”

I can now hear a little voice in my head saying, “ Guess what Barry? It is a mistake even if you correct it, so acknowledge it and do something about it.” True, you don’t want to get off one wagon and think you’ll catch the next one; you gotta stay on this one no matter how hard it is.

I want to investigate why this happened to me and what I can do to prevent this from happening again. Giving in to all my favorite desserts as if it was the last day on earth definitely proves that there is something wrong with my new diet.

I think it will take me some time to understand everything I am going through right now.  My latest venture is into the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy approach by authors like Judith Beck whom I interviewed a year ago. I will write about it in my upcoming blogs.

Happy black Friday to all and try not to burn a hole in your wallet!

Once, There Was Thanksgiving

For many years, I went with my family to visit my uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents for Thanksgiving. Our family had its flows like any other and I would sometimes dread Thanksgiving dinner, but gathering together to eat was a tradition. And we ate quite a lot…

After my grandparents passed away, the tradition disappeared with them. I guess they were the glue that was keeping the family together. When that happened, we created a new tradition: we’d go to Wisconsin with my mother and a friend to different resorts where you could get Thanksgiving buffets.

We would stay there all day and eat until our stomachs were so full, we almost couldn’t walk out of the place. Years passed and my mother gained too much weight. Driving up there wasn’t an option anymore. We would only go for a quick lunch at a next-door restaurant and that was it.

For years, Thanksgiving has only meant the right to eat a lot of food until I would hit the New Year’s resolution of ‘eating healthy and losing weight’. Following this trend, I “gave” too much food to my body and it wasn’t “thankful” in return.

My goal for this year and many more to come is to stop seeing Thanksgiving as mountains of food and  start enjoying the company of others. Somebody mentioned in a past blog that volunteering could be a life changer; I will be considering this closely. After all Thanksgiving is about sharing and giving.

To all of you out there, enjoy the holiday, Happy Thanksgiving and don’t forget the true meaning of Thanksgiving!

Eating Myself into an Early Grave

This weekend has been a tough one for me. Thanksgiving is coming up and everybody is busy planning the holidays.  I have no plan since most of my family is gone. Family holidays don’t exist anymore to me.

I felt a bit alone and started eating a few snack bars here and there. One snack bar led to another and I emptied a full box of it.  I went out to a restaurant and ordered some fried foods I should have avoided too.

I went to my local convenience store and almost fell for a pint of ice cream… Somehow I didn’t.  I am not sure where this strength came from. It looks like I need to get my emotions under control before being able to manage what I eat.

When I am feeling down, I don’t care about eating healthy or not.  I only think about my current situation and cannot see any bright future, so I tell myself “So what if I eat junk now, I am not healthy anyway, who cares?”

Did I decide to eat myself into an early grave this weekend? Maybe… And I hope it is the last time that happens. Burying myself in food won’t help. I need to be looking for better ways to redirect myself.