Diane

I was reading an article about budgeting because I am always looking for ways to save money. One of the people who commented on the article said she was an “entitled spender.” I finished reading all the comments and then thought about that phrase.

I realized that I was an entitled eater.

Of course, we are all entitled to eat whatever we want, whenever we want, and in whatever quantities we want. I took that right to eat one step further. I felt entitled to eat junk food because I deserved it, I needed it, I had a right to it.

And I did, in theory. However, what I did not stop to consider at the time, was whether those feelings of “I deserve it” were helping me long-term or just satisfying a current craving. Looking back, those feelings were only satisfying the moment rather than helping me prepare for the future.

Eating Cheetos by the bag or candy bars all day long temporarily satisfied my feeling of “I deserve it” but left me feeling guilty, feeling sick to my stomach, and left me feeling like I would never reach my goals.

I was satisfying the now without considering how those choices would affect my future.

My attitude of entitled eating when I was morbidly obese negatively affected my future. I spent 10 years as an obese woman. I missed out on activities I could have participated in had I been at a healthy weight, I socially isolated myself on occasion, and I am left with physical reminders in the form of loose skin from my eventual weight loss.

Fortunately I did make the shift from being an entitled eater or an “I deserve it” eater who did not consider what affect my food choices would have on my future, to a person who finally realized that what I ate then did affect my future.

It all came down to choices and feelings. I felt like I wanted and deserved junk food, more fried chicken, or a third biscuit, but I choose to make a different choice in order to positively affect my future. Making poor choices time after time left me feeling defeated, but when I started making good choices most of the time, I started feeling like I was finally on a path toward a healthy future.

We are all entitled eaters because we all deserve food. And, I encourage you to shift your thinking from “I deserve this unhealthy food” to “I deserve to make the best food choices I can” because you are worth it. You are worth it. Your future is worth it. Your family’s future is worth it.

We can satisfy the now with junk and negatively affect our future health and life, or we can satisfy the now with good food and positively affect our lives.

Making this shift from thinking mainly about how the food was making me feel at the moment to thinking about how food was affecting my future really helped me stick with my diet and lose half my body weight. This way of thinking has also helped me maintain that weight loss for over 15 years.

What do you think? Have you ever gotten stuck in the “I deserve junk food” cycle? Diane

So, how long should it take to lose weight?

A month, a year, five years? A week, two weeks, 12 weeks?

The answer is very dependent on your personal situation isn’t it? But there is one thing that we all must remember when losing weight. We have to remember that it is not about the time it takes and it is not about whether or not we win a bet for losing weight. The weight loss process is about you getting healthy, you feeling good about yourself, and you staying at a healthy weight forever.

In fact, I’m talking about the “P” word. That dreaded word many of us despise: Patience. Ugh.

Do your kids balk at eating a green salad?

If they do, you are not alone because many kids are not big fans of salad. I’ve got seven kids of my own and I’ve had some who liked salad from a young age and some that would rather just pass on it.

I saw this salad on a stick idea at a picnic we attended years and years ago and thought it was so clever. I’ve made it many times for my own kids and often take it to pot lucks and other social events.

It’s so easy that you really don’t need a recipe although I’ve given you one at the bottom of this post. Use whatever vegetables you want your kids to try and keep it colorful!

If you serve them at a party, fill a cup with baby carrots and use the carrots as a way to make the salad on a stick stand up. It’s always a big hit with my friends.

Do your kids eat vegetables willingly? Diane

I do not know very many people who do not appreciate a good deviled egg. However, as with many of those classic recipes, traditional deviled eggs have a lot of calories and unhealthy fats.

I knew what hummus was for several years before I got the chance to visit the Sabra factory a few years ago. Since then I either make my own hummus or buy a container of theirs. One use for hummus other than for dipping vegetables in, is to use it as a mayonnaise substitute.

That’s what I do for deviled eggs. These actually taste pretty similar to a traditional deviled egg and my younger children can’t really tell the difference.

I used to only make traditional deviled eggs for Easter but once I found this method of making them, I do them more often. Not every week, of course, but once a month or so. My family feels like these eggs make even a plain meal special.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and let me know if you make them! Diane

[gmc_recipe 1903]

The title of my book is 150 Pounds Gone Forever and I am proud to say I have recently passed another milestone on making it forever.

It was 17 years ago this past March that I declared myself “done” with losing weight. I had lost a total of 158 pounds in 14 months in March of 1998.

At the beginning of 1997 I looked like this and by the spring of 1998, I couldn’t wear that dress even if I wanted to.

Although I clearly looked better and healthier, I also felt better about myself physically, emotionally, and even spiritually. The changes that losing 150 pounds brought to my life were huge.

I stopped sitting on the sidelines and started participating.

I got rid of really bad clothes and bought some cute clothes that made me feel pretty for the first time in a decade.

I turned my back on junk food and committed to a lifetime of learning about healthy foods.

Life hasn’t always been easy. In the past 15 years of maintenance, John and I have had four more children,  seven miscarriages, moved around quite a bit, faced some family tragedies, and had some financial setbacks. However, throughout all of that, I managed to maintain my weight (or lose it after each pregnancy).

How?

It is simple really.

I did not go back to the lifestyle that caused me to become morbidly obese.

When I reached my goal weight I determined in my mind that the healthy eating habits I had begun to develop during my weight loss year were going to become permanent. I knew that 14 months wasn’t long enough to permanently change my habits, but I knew that if I kept doing what had worked, then I could maintain my weight.

That’s the key for maintenance for me. Keeping on doing what works. Now I know that shifts as we get older, but the premise is the same. We need to find that balance of food, exercise, and healthy living that allows us to stay at a healthy weight.

I hope that I am an encouragement to you no matter where you are in your own journey. I gained and lost the same 20 pounds over and over again, I bounced from diet to diet for years, but I finally did it and you can too! Diane

I don’t know about you, but we have struggled with some illness in my family in the past. Last spring, four of the seven kids had influenza B and although I didn’t get sick, I was tired.

I’ve noticed that when my kids are sick, or my husband is sick, or I am sick, I often crave junky foods. (Unless of course someone has a stomach bug and nobody wants food of any kind!)

Why Is That?

My theory is that when we are sick, our bodies and our minds are stressed, and for many of us, that stressful feeling often translates into the desire for comfort or junk foods. Unfortunately for most of us that have battled our weight, our long time comfort foods are not broccoli or salad. Our comfort foods are often those foods that we associated with feeling taken care of by our parents or the foods we used to satiate stress before we started to get control of our eating habits.

Childhood Comfort Foods

Your childhood comfort foods are probably different than mine, but I remember loving Sprite, salty soup, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, macaroni and cheese, and chocolate cake. I have friends who tell me that their childhood comfort foods were biscuits, chicken and dumplings, apple fritters, ice cream, and spaghetti and meatballs. Feeling sick often brings back those memories of what foods made you feel good as a child, and so it is pretty natural to think about those foods when you or someone in your family is sick.

Stress “Reducing” Foods

These foods never reduced stress for me, but when I was obese these foods were the ones I often turned to when I was stressed. The truth is these foods added to my stress because I almost always felt guilty after I ate large quantities of Oreos, chocolate candy, ice cream, desserts, or bags of chips. When I am sick, I do think about these foods. The difference between now and then is that I never eat large quantities of these foods and rarely have them whether I am sick or not.

Managing The Comfort Food Craving

Can you turn off the comfort food craving when you are feeling under the weather? Well, I don’t think you can turn it off but you can manage it.

When I’m under stress, either from illness or other things going on in my life, I have to make a conscious choice not to give in to my cravings for junky foods. It takes a deliberate effort sometimes for me to acknowledge that I’m feeling stressed, acknowledge that I want junk food because of the stress, and reaffirm that no matter how I’m feeling,junk food is not going to help.

Now of course if you are sick and craving some salty soup, that’s different. If you are sick and craving peanut M&M’s, they are not going to help you feel better. When we are sick we need to nourish our bodies with nutrient-dense foods that will help us heal, not foods that are full of sugar and unhealthy fats that will do nothing for our body.

It comes down to managing the emotions when you are sick just as you have to manage your emotions when you are well. It is definitely hard to manage our emotions when we are sick because we are not as physically strong as we usually are. The good news is that you can do it.

Do you crave comfort or junk foods when you are sick? What to you do with those cravings? Diane

Well, I have to say that I am a big fan of chocolate ice cream, but don’t often partake because I usually reserve my calories for more healthy food. Plus, when I eat too much sugar, it just starts a cycle of craving more!

However, there are times when I want a frozen chocolate dessert. Instead of buying a container of Breyer’s chocolate ice cream, I will sometimes mix up a batch of this delicious, easy chocolate sorbet.

The first time I made it I kinda messed it up. I’m still not sure what happened, but it never froze or set up properly. The next time I made it I measured more carefully and it turned out just right.

This sorbet is easy to make as long as you have an ice cream maker. Mine is the kind that attaches to my Kitchen Aid mixer although any type will do. Make sure to cool the liquid thoroughly before mixing it in your ice cream mixer.

Have you ever had a chocolate sorbet? Did you like it? Diane

[gmc_recipe 1895]