This is Sushi. You may or may not like Sushi, which is totally cool. The real point of this photo is to show you what a table used to look like anytime I went out to eat – anywhere.
That’s 5 large rolls, on top of an actual meal of Shrimp Fried Rice at one my favorite local Sushi bars (well, within an hour at least) in Cookeville, TN.
And yes, I would drive two hours round trip to pig out on this same meal several times a month – to the point of being so lethargic afterward that it was hard to drive myself home!
They need a breathalizer for overeating 😛 LOL
(Yes, sometimes I travel just to eat, instead of eat while I’m traveling. Sad, haha)
I wasn’t alone at that meal, thank goodness. There were three of us – myself, my mother and my daughter. I used to consider it “an indulgence”. I look back now and recognize it as emotional eating – or just plain old ridiculous overeating…
Indulging vs Emotional Eating
I work hard. I manage my home and raise my two children single-handedly. I’ve sacrificed a lot along the way to build a business and create a nice lifestyle for us, and I did it all on my own.
What better way to celebrate the end of another long day… than to sit down with an endless amount of delicious food?!
Pizza, sushi, hot wings with french fries, cheese bread, fresh made donuts, biscuits & gravy, huge bowls of pasta, fish & chips, you name it!
Anyone who has ever eaten with me knows first hand how much I love food – and how much I enjoy it! 😀
Oh, and about that “endless amount of delicious food” – well, I usually finished it. To the point of feeling sick, even. Not so endless after all…
I finally realized that indulging as a means of rewarding myself was stupid. It was emotional overeating, plain and simple. Filling a void (not just my stomach). And if I felt so bad afterward, why did I consider this a reward?!?
Overeating Sucks!
Among other unpleasant results, I got fat. Yuck. Now I don’t mean grossly obese. At the height of my overeating spree, I was probably 30 pounds over my ideal weight.
That was enough. It was harder to walk my dog. I was seriously uncomfortable. I was embarrassed. The extra weight aggravated my back pain / back injury issues. I was unhappy with myself. I couldn’t fit into any of my clothes…
And shopping was no fun anymore – everything made me look fat! (haha)
My Solution: Still Indulging, But Losing Weight FAST!
I still love to eat. And I LOVE food.
I mean, how many things in life are as good as sitting down to a fabulous meal of your favorite foods??
And I should pause here and say that I personally did not have an overeating disorder (in my unprofessional opinion), but rather… a rough couple of years where food was a very nice comfort. 😛
I’m still indulging in wonderful foods all over the world, from the salmon in Vancouver to the beach-side burgers at Okaloosa Island. The difference is in the foods I choose to eat.
A couple of months ago I cut out carbs. Or rather, I limited it to 20 net grams of carbs per day (allowing for plenty of *good* carbs). I didn’t buy a book or join a club. I did consult my mother and the internet quite a few times in the beginning, but other than that it was super simple to do.
I’ve lost 19 pounds already.
I still eat as much as I want, and great foods even! I’ve eaten an entire pound of bacon (zero carbs!) on my own more than once in the last couple of months. LOL. I’ve discovered certain sweets I like that fall in my range, managed to get my coffee down to zero carb, etc.
Oddly enough, instead of feeling deprived and/or starved on this “diet” (I prefer to call it “a way of eating”)… I feel content. I’m not even tempted to go back to overeating. I don’t feel that emotional connection to eating, outside of simply enjoying and savoring the food in front of me.
I’ve tested it. I ordered a thin-crust meatlovers pizza. Prior to this diet I would have eaten at least half a regular pizza (hand tossed, right?) by myself. Now, two slices of thin crust and I’m full. Or rather, no longer hungry or even interested in continuing to eat past that point. And there’s the major difference – because before I didn’t stop eating when I was no longer hungry…
I’ve done ZERO research on this, but I’m guessing carbs (the yucky carbs, I mean) may trigger emotional eating – or even overeating. And maybe other things, who knows. That’s something I’m interested in looking into…
And maybe it was just the fact that I was overweight, and unhappy with myself for getting that way, that brought on the over-indulgence in bad foods. All I know is that I am finally FREE from that, feeling great, loving life, and SO happy with myself… and happy too with the plate of low-carb garlic cheesebread in front of me as I type. 😀
But you know what? On those rough days, when I DO feel like indulging, I still can. Eating low carb is cool like that. You can eat as much as you want, as long as you skip the bad carbs, and STILL lose weight. And THAT my friends… is awesome. Because yeah, I still have blah days and times when I just want to EAT. And now I can, without getting fatter and fatter. LOL. I’ll deal with that crap some other day, when I’m super skinny and stuff. But for now it’s nice to be good to myself once in awhile, by eating a pound of bacon for an afternoon snack. 😛
If you want to follow along and see what I’m eating, you can follow my tweets. I call it Tweating – LOL. You’ll find me on Twitter at @LowCarbTraveler
I didn’t know it’s possible ot pig out on Sushi – I thought Japanese foods are ultra light or something! 🙂
I’ve also given a a lot of thought to my eating patterns. I came to the conclusion I always put on weight when I’m stressed out and/or unhappy! And I really start losing weight only after I’ve recovered some kind of balance.
LOL, you’ve never been with *me* to a Sushi bar then. haha.
There are all sorts of diets and ways of eating, but when you’re specifically going low carb… you want to avoid rice, as well as eel sauce – which was one of my personal favorites!
Interestingly, as much a Sushi fan as I’ve been for years now… I don’t even miss it. Don’t crave it at all. Very strange. My tastebuds have gone nuts I guess. 😛
This is really interesting to me, my husband is on a weight loss journey right now and part of his metabolism balancing act was the amount of carbs, good versus bad carbs, fast carbs versus slow carbs, etc…. He’s been going about a month and he’s already lost 30 pounds and enough inches that I had to buy him a new belt and in about a week I suspect he is going to need his pants taken in again. If I have learned anything in 2011 it’s that tiny changes in the way you look at your dinner plate can make a huge difference.
That is so true. And congrats to your hubby on his weight loss and major changes!! I am learning so much about carbs since I started eating this way, but fortunately I had to know very little to get started.
That’s one of the things that always deters me from “diets” – they can get complex and require too much thinking. I don’t want to think, I want to EAT (lol) – which is why eating low carb has worked out so well for me.
Now that I have it figured out (which was simple, like I said), I am enjoying learning more about it. The fact that rum (and some other liquors) have zero carbs for example, but that they metabolize differently (slowing weight loss because your body has to burn the alcohol *first*).
As Loretta points out tiny changes added up can make a huge difference! Ultimately, the changes we make are ones that also improve health and are not simply a way to lose weight.
“I’ve done ZERO research on this, but I’m guessing carbs (the yucky carbs, I mean) may trigger emotional eating – or even overeating. And maybe other things, who knows. That’s something I’m interested in looking into…” -Lynn
You’ve hit the nail on the head Lynn. The “yucky carbs” are what I call “added” sugars and refined carbohydrates. The specifics of why these carbohydrates can be so problematic is extraordinarily complicated and will vary from one individual to another.
Yes, sugars and refined carbohydrates can trigger overeating. In general, these carbohydrates tend to raise blood glucose levels too quickly. The body must then react to stabilize the blood sugar levels by releasing insulin to shuttle excess blood sugar out of the blood vessels. If blood sugar levels drop too low it can influence hormonal processes to inform us that we are hungry and need more food to once again stabilize blood sugar.
This can result in the feeling of never having enough, of being hungry, and wanting more.
When it comes to the emotional part of overeating, I believe the emotional need comes first in the form of stress, depression, sadness, etc. Both sugar and chocolate will actually raise levels of serotonin “the feel good hormone” and provide a sense of relief from the emotional stress. All too often that comes at the expense of consuming far too many calories!
O.k. this was oversimplified but I hope it helps.
Very helpful indeed!
I find it interesting that I no longer over eat – even when I have a day when I feel like “indulging”. Particularly when I am down, stressed, lonesome, whatever. Even then, the quantity I actually eat is so much less now that I’m eating low carb.
Before I would eat until I simply couldn’t anymore. Leaving me lethargic and feeling worse than when I started. But now I tend to stop when I am “content” (vs so full I feel sick). I find that strange, or interesting, since it isn’t intentional – but seems to be a result of the foods I’m eating more than anything else.
Not complaining – I love not feeling HORRIBLE after I eat! 😀
HEy Lynn-
I think you’re on to something with the idea that bad carbs encourage overindulgence. Funny how we never want to pig out on grapes, or say, broccoli! For me the binge triggers are always carbs – bread, tortilla cips, French fries, crackers… You’ve inspired me!
So true!
There’s something interesting about eating Low Carb, for sure. I have yet to eat until I’m “stuffed” (feeling sick or even just lethargic) like I did before. That desire to eat more than I need is just gone – even when the food is GREAT.
For example, I now eat the mini size sugar free Hershey’s caramel bars, where I used to eat an entire Caramello bar – and oddly, get the same satisfaction from the mini.
There’s something to that “you can’t eat just one” or “once you pop the top you just can’t stop” 😛 lol – For some reason, that’s not the case with Low Carb foods…
What if you still eat a lot even on low carb? I set my calories to 1600 but can’t seem to even stay in that range.
Hi Bree,
Are you eating a lot of food (portions), snacking between meals, or just eating high calorie foods? What do you feel is the problem?
Also, my calories are as high as 2,000 some days. I don’t count calories, just carbs, but I do notice that. They are usually closer to 1200-1300 though, even with 70-80% of my daily calories coming from healthy fats.
Happy to help!
I literally relate to so much of this. I however have not reached your way of eating with low carb. I’ve been off and on for years and now at almost 200 lbs I am the heaviest I’ve ever been. I binge eat and emotional eat and stress all the time. Then I beat myself up and talk down about myself. I want to stop. I want to stick to low carb but the cravings are at times so overwhelming that after a week of low carb I will eat a loaf of bread just to stop the craving!
Hi Sarah,
I have so been there. I got sick of the dieting roller coaster, finally to the point that I just got OFF of it. It’s exhausting, and frustrating. I did that to myself for years, so I get it.
Read this: http://www.travelinglowcarb.com/10307/stress-depression-dieting/ I wrote it earlier this year, at a particularly hard time in my life. I hope it helps you as much as it has me. 🙂