Thread: Sharing my diet blog...

I hope you don't mind if I share my blog here? I'd love to have some followers...

I've been asked a lot to share my diet, recipes, etc. so I've started this blog in order to share. My diet is based on eating mostly actual food (!!) with a high concentration of protien, quality carbs, and healthy fats.

The Bellydancer's Diet: Food: The addiction

Anyone else have blogs related to food, recipes or nutrition? or other topics tangential to dance, like beauty, makeup, etc? I'm a latecomer to the world of blogging, still learning my way around, I'd like to read more!

I enjoyed your blog, Lauren. Very well written!

I, too, treat my food issues as an addiction. I definitely experienced the withdrawals, detox and cravings of an addiction when I changed to a "clean" way of eating. For me, though, my food plan/recovery from food addiction is one day at a time. I don't eat sugar, wheat, or refined carbs or processed foods. I also don't plan indulgences involving sugar/flour/processed foods because I do consider my problem with food to be an addiction. A recovering alcoholic doesn't plan to indulge in a glass of wine once or twice a month, it just doesn't work that way. For an addict, once you introduce the addictive substance into the body, all bets are off. It might take years or it might be never before I got back on a clean food plan, so I just don't go there.

I have a support group, which I mostly attend on line. I do avoid some social situations because of the triggers, or limit my time at them. This time of year can be difficult, but I try to eat every 4-5 hours so that my blood sugar stays pretty level and I am never overly hungry. I pack my own food when I travel or attend lengthy events.

It's a challenge, but my health, mental as well as physical, depends on it, so that's what I do.

Would you feel comfortable smoking a cigarette now and then? Would you be afraid of triggering that addiction all over again?

Anyway, I am not judging, just sharing what has worked for me for 4 1/2 years now. It's not always easy but it is always worth it.

Food addiction is rampant in our society, I believe. Look at all the processed food and sodas that people typically eat, that stuff is addictive. Look at all the overweight Americans. Everyone wants to lose weight, but it's nearly impossible to do while still eating sugary, high-fat and processed foods.

I'm glad you enjoyed it -- I'm really enjoying writing it.

I do feel I'm ok with an occasional indulgence, as long as it's a planned indulgence and not caving in to a craving. My memories of having a healthy relationship with food included indulgences on special occasions, and that's the relationship I'm seeking to reestablish.

Of course, if I were to find that occasional indulgences drew me back toward an unhealthy relationship with food, I would alter my course.

Thanks Lauren. I like your blog and I totally understand where you are coming from. I've been tryin unsuccessfully to lose weight for about 3 years now. Nothing sticks because I can't get over my sugar/carb addiction. At this point, I'm not sure what will keep me on the bandwagon. Do i take Dunya's approach and never indulge? Or do I try to be more moderate in my approach? I don't get it and I'm just waiting for the magic switch to click like that moment you had going to get a cigarette and nothing is taking.

The most recent diet I've tried is the Women'sHealth Perfect Body Diet (worst diet name ever, BTW) and I had great results with it while I was sticking to it. Better than Weight Watchers. It's a controled carb diet, but not necessarily low calorie. I can eat nearly 2,000 calories a day and still lose 2-4 lbs a week. When I stick to it that is. And even when I don't follow that book exactly...I've found that any time I choose a high protein, high fat food over high calorie foods, I will lose weight. But I simply cannot stick to something for more than a month or two at a time.

I'm looking at my bookshelf now: Beat Sugar Addiction, Dr Phil's Ultimate Weight Solution, Fat Flush Plan, Crave, Food Addiction, Living Low Carb, etc, etc, etc. It's really a sad reflection of our society and my body hatred.

So, now I am working on a "Healthy at Every Size" approach to my body and food. The only way for me to be healthy for life is to focus on health behaviors that will improve my health. Setting myself up on diets that I continually fail is bad for my health, both mental and physical. I'm hoping that working on things like my self-esteem, physical abilities and overall outlook on life will help me come to terms with my body as it is and to quit the yo-yo dieting and the subsequent crashes. I've been trying to read Ragen Chastain's Dances with Fat blog every day to give me the inspiration I need to focus on my health, not my size.

Andalee, this is the book that really opened my eyes to the nature of my food addiction. Not everyone has such a severe problem as I do, Lauren may be fine with her planned indulgences, but I am certain it would not work well for me.

Amazon.com: Food Addiction: The Body Knows: Revised & Expanded Edition (9781558742765): Kay Sheppard: Books

Originally Posted by dunyah

Andalee, this is the book that really opened my eyes to the nature of my food addiction. Not everyone has such a severe problem as I do, Lauren may be fine with her planned indulgences, but I am certain it would not work well for me.

Amazon.com: Food Addiction: The Body Knows: Revised & Expanded Edition (9781558742765): Kay Sheppard: Books

Thanks Dunyah. I already have that book...Although I have to admit, I've never read it all the way through.

Originally Posted by andalee-oriental

T At this point, I'm not sure what will keep me on the bandwagon. Do i take Dunya's approach and never indulge? Or do I try to be more moderate in my approach? I don't get it and I'm just waiting for the magic switch to click like that moment you had going to get a cigarette and nothing is taking.

That magic switch wasn't really magic -- it didn't make the choice easy. It was still the hardest thing I've ever done. But it was a combination of pure determination (or motivation) plus --- here's the encouraging part -- years of quitting experience.

I don't know about dieting, but with smoking I read that the more times a person tries to quit the more likely they are to ultimately be successful. D'uh, right?

Only my experience was that the more times & ways I tried to quit, the more I learned about my addiction. It was through repeatedly trying & failing that I learned the battle wasn't over whether I wanted to quit or not... it was always going to be a battle over THIS ONE EXCEPTION my addiction kept asking for. So I finally learned, if I couldn't resist the desire to cheat JUST THIS ONCE I could never ever quit.

So I think the more times you've tried to diet, the more you learn about your food addiction, and it's that knowledge that will let you ultimately conquer it. Which makes all the so-called dieting 'failures' of the past into dieting 'education' instead.

I know I can't let myself give in to cravings, which is why I think I'll be OK with planned indulgences.

(tangent) I think ultimately it's about parenting your own inner child. That child can be manipulative, sweet, demanding, shrill, adament. I've experienced full-blown temper tantrums inside when mine didn't get what it wanted.

For better or for worse, previous generations of parents tended to deny their kids a lot more, and expect a great deal more self-control from them. As each generation of parents indulges their kids more, and expects less from them, we learn less and less about how to deny ourselves things that we want. We have to learn how to parent our inner children with a little tough love. No you may not have a Krispy Kreme donut no matter how many ways you try to convince me that you need, want, or deserve it. It's not good for you. I'm doing this because I love you, it's not some kind of punishment. Now go find something else to do, we're done discussing the donut!

I think in terms of parenting my inner child a lot and find it really helpful. Maybe I should blog that sometime!

I checked out your blog and noticed it was mostly food related. I really like what you wrote in the previous post, though. I think most diet issues come from between the ears not from the plate. Please write more entries like that in your blog.

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone!

WOOOOOT! I'm so excited -- down 10 pounds in three weeks, and over Thanksgiving even!

I could not be more excited. All my research on belly fat and the changing dietary needs of a *cough woman my age cough* are paying off better than I even expected.

Dancerose, you're right, the between-the-ears stuff certainly matters, and I'll keep including some of that as it comes up in my thinking & my interactions with groups I'm part of. (The 'inner child' bit is destined for the blog, for sure!)

But my blog's purpose is to share a specific eating plan I've created for myself with others who want to lose weight, so it'll continue to be mostly food-related.

I find that, in addition to dealing with the mental issues surrounding sticking to an eating plan, people really don't know what to eat. The American diet is so rich in simple carbs, sugar and fat that when you tell people to limit those things they honestly have a hard time finding meals for themselves day after day.

I've just put up a post about how to work with your menstrual cycle during weight loss rather than being sabotaged by it. I'm really pleased with this one, i think it could really help people. I hope you don't mind me sharing it here.
The Bellydancer's Diet: Weight loss and your menstrual cycle.

Here's a tip, something that has proven very valuable for me:

A while back, I was trying to figure out why I was having problems with eczema on my fingers. In looking into that, I stumbled on information about systemic candida yeast infection (ie, yeast in the bloodstream) and was surprised to learn how many of the symptoms I had - migraines, fatigue, trouble thinking clearly, eczema, and more. And, notably, intense cravings for carbohydrates that were almost impossible to resist. Apparently, candida creates those cravings to motivate you to "feed" it with a generous supply of the sugars that it requires.

The first article I found wasn't very helpful. It just recommended removing all carbohydrates from my diet. I kept looking. And then I found something that DID help - a magazine article that said that green vegetables such as spinach, lettuce, kale, collard greens, and anything else green can kill systemic yeast. So I increased the quantity of greens in my diet, and within a day or two the intense cravings were gone. By the end of the week, the eczema was almost gone, and the other symptoms also soon cleared up as well.

So, if carbohydrate cravings (sugar, potatoes, bread, alcohol) are an issue, maybe eating several helpings per day of leafy green vegetables will help. It helped for me.

More info about candida here: Candida Symptoms

Originally Posted by *Shira*

Here's a tip, something that has proven very valuable for me:

A while back, I was trying to figure out why I was having problems with eczema on my fingers. In looking into that, I stumbled on information about systemic candida yeast infection (ie, yeast in the bloodstream) and was surprised to learn how many of the symptoms I had - migraines, fatigue, trouble thinking clearly, eczema, and more. And, notably, intense cravings for carbohydrates that were almost impossible to resist. Apparently, candida creates those cravings to motivate you to "feed" it with a generous supply of the sugars that it requires.

The first article I found wasn't very helpful. It just recommended removing all carbohydrates from my diet. I kept looking. And then I found something that DID help - a magazine article that said that green vegetables such as spinach, lettuce, kale, collard greens, and anything else green can kill systemic yeast. So I increased the quantity of greens in my diet, and within a day or two the intense cravings were gone. By the end of the week, the eczema was almost gone, and the other symptoms also soon cleared up as well.

So, if carbohydrate cravings (sugar, potatoes, bread, alcohol) are an issue, maybe eating several helpings per day of leafy green vegetables will help. It helped for me.

More info about candida here: Candida Symptoms

Very interesting, Shira!

At one time I thought maybe I had a candida issue. I did some experimenting and decided that wasn't my issue (my issue turned out to be low seratonin levels, causing my body to crave carbs at night to help me get sleepy).

I suspect my daughter might have had lifelong candida issues, though, and I will happily pass this info to her to try!