Dr. Miggy's Healthy Blog for Busy Folks on Tight Budgets » psychology

My Obsessiveness, My Best Intentions, and My Need For Help

drmiggy — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:38:53 +0000

I promise once I get back from my trip I’ll post a few Quick and Cheap Dinners, but I need to get this off my chest first. My last post about NutriMirror.com reads like a commercial, I know. For those that don’t know me well, I have obsessive tendencies when it comes to food. My grad school roommate used to make fun of me for it, back when I was a member of the “I Take Myself Too Seriously” Club and I wouldn’t admit it. But now I freely acknowledge my tendencies! So logging in every morsel satisfies my need to obsess, log and calculate. All has been well in Dr.Miggy-land.

That is until I had to go out of town for a research meeting. I learned this weekend that it is hard, nay, IMPOSSIBLE to log my every bite when

Others are cooking for me
I don’t have a scale and measuring instruments to weigh my portions

Dangit, I tried my best to log the meals I was being ~~forced to eat~~ served at our meeting, but have you ever tried to guess the amount and composition of ingredients in a perfunctorily titled dish like “Sauteed Chicken with Vegetables”? I gave up halfway through the second day at the conference and just relied on my judgment to steer me away from the bad stuff. I chose the vegetarian option when it was available and hunted the snack tables for dried fruit and nuts.

A greasy lunch at The Woodlawn Tap, similar to mine today

And then I flew to Chicago to visit my boyfriend, and all those good intentions have melted away, much like tonight’s Bryers Cherry Vanilla ice cream on my tongue. EATING WELL WHILE ON THE ROAD IS HARD FOR ME. I turn into a toddler when I’m traveling, just grabbing at what looks good and shoving it in my mouth. My biggest hurdle? Especially when I visit Chicago, every meal feels like a celebration and I give myself a free pass to eat what I want. Couple that with my ambitious sightseeing goals when I come here, and I have little time to prepare and eat the food I would eat at home. That said, there is no excuse for the beer and french fries I had for lunch today.

Does anyone have some advice they’d like to impart on how to eat well on the road? How do you guys make your selves “behave” while traveling?

Photo credit Jasmined

My Newest Obsession: NutriMirror.com

drmiggy — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:56:07 +0000

A friend of mine turned me on to Nutrimirror.com, a website where you can log your daily exercise and food intake. NutriMirror keeps a running total of the nutrients you are taking in, which can help you plan fitness goals like weight loss. There are all kinds of tools, counters and calculators that can help you keep track of diet and exercise. Some upfront quality time is necessary to get the full benefits of the site, but NutriMirror is very easy to use once you spend a few days playing with it. The coolest feature is that your information is presented graphically, with the goal being to stay in the green (you’ve met your RDA) and avoid the red (you’ve over/under consumed).

I’ve been using NutriMirror for the past week, diligently logging my food choices and exercise. I’ll be totally honest: I’ve had a reality check this week. I AM NOT AS HEALTHY AS I THOUGHT. I have been consuming far too much saturated fat and I’m embarrassingly deficient in Iron and Vitamins A, D and E. Wow. Here I thought I was doing so well, but as it turns out there are problems with my diet that I never considered.

I’m glad I found out, because NutriMirror has changed the way I think about the food I buy and eat. Faced with having to log a fun-sized Snicker bar and it’s 1.1 g of sat fat, I skip the candy jar at work. On days when I log as I eat, I can make decisions about later meals based on what I’ve already eaten. If I’ve overdone it with the fat at lunch and need more Iron, I’ll head for the lentils and spinach for dinner. There’s an educational component, too. When I’m a deficient in a nutrient I’m not that familiar with (what the hell is Vitamin K?), I can click on the nutrient and NutriMirror tells me what it’s good for and what I can eat to get more of it. I decided that until I can figure out how to get enough of all nutrients in my diet I will need to take a few supplements.

Because NutriMirror graphs dietary trends over days, I get an idea of how my diet overall is adding up. We all have those days when we indulge in birthday cake at work. By looking at trends in my diet those birthday cake days get balanced out with those days when my will power is made of steel.

If I sound like a commercial for NutriMirror it’s because I believe consistent use of this FREE tool is going to change my eating habits in a way I could not do on my own. I enthusiastically encourage anyone to try it out for a week, just to see how everything adds up. Even if you don’t make drastic changes, I think some of that knowledge will seep into your unconscious, helping you to make better decisions.

Learn to Love Your FUPA, or at Least Laugh at Yourself for Being Ridiculous

drmiggy — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:28:32 +0000

Depending on a number of factors, on any given day I will find myself obsessing over some body part in a most unconstructive way. You guys know what I’m talking about. I’ll stand in front of the mirror and poke at the fupa, turn to the side and cringe at the saddle bags, wave my arms around to watch the upper arm jiggle. I spend a lot of time engaging in this behavior, which got me to thinking…why the hell do I do that?

The crap I say to myself I would never say to anyone else, it does little to motivate me to change the “problem areas” and it sure as shit doesn’t make me feel too good. My body image issues may not be serious enough to make me sick, but I feel like I gotta stop this nonsense. I’ve come up with a few ideas to help me develop a more realistic body image:

Make a cartoon drawing of myself as I see myself on my worst day and share it with my girlfriends. I know this sounds nutz, but hear me out. When I was in grad school one of my best friends and I had a conversation about the body parts we hate. As I listened to her describe her “moon face” I thought how funny it would be to actually draw out our bad body images and share them with each other. You see, I never thought of her as having a moon face, in fact I find her quite lovely. We said we would do it one day, but we never did. I’m totally going to force my friends to do this with me, just to prove how ridiculous our body obsessions are. It may require a few bottles of wine, but be forewarned, I’m coming after you with crayons in hand…you know who you are…
For every insult I hurl at the mirror, I will also force out one compliment. This one is a little easier. Take the picture above, for example. My biggest complaints are the fupa and jiggly thighs, but dang I got some great cleavage and a super-cute booty. This little exercise is my way of finding some positive motivation within to get my butt to the yoga studio or to give me the will power to stick to my healthy diet.
When I find myself being overly critical, I will think of one small thing I can do that day to “fix” the “problem”. Tacking on a few extra sit-ups (fupa), taking the stairs instead of the elevator (saddle bags) and avoiding the M&M jar (all of it) are examples a small things I can do that may or may not “fix” the “problem”. At least I’ll feel like I’m doing something about it.

Do you think any of these ideas would work for you? Better yet, will you share your ridiculous body image drawings with me? I can always use a good laugh