Early to bed ... ?

Deborah says:
So I just finished dinner, cleaned everything up and had an entire night at home alone without anything to do. So exciting. I could finally watch a movie I’ve taped, or catch up on some recreational reading, or play Scrabble on my iPad. So I made a cup of tea, sat down, chose a movie and started watching it. About five minutes later I’m looking towards the kitchen and thinking about munchies. After all, I had a few calories left for the day.
Actual conversation from my head:
Pay attention to the movie.
Popcorn??
You’ve wanted to see this one for ages.
Rice krispies with peanut butter?
You love George Clooney.
Apple dipped in no fat caramel sauce?
You just had dinner.
It’s fun to munch when watching a movie.
You’re not hungry.
I know but …
Oh for God’s sake!

Click!! Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk. Slam!

Sometimes you just have to go to bed!

No matter how good your intentions or your plan, no matter how strong your will or determination – sometimes you just have to go to bed – even if it’s only 6:45 p.m.

Arlene says:
Those behaviour chains are the worse. That collection of behaviours that fire together so often (popcorn/movie, bar with friends/beer & nachos, bar with football buddies/wings, anything to do with curling/beer) that when we do one the other automatically comes to mind. It is automatic, we have created that link. My most successful approach so far has been to plan what I will do instead of the usual or to set a very clear limit on the usual. Take wings for example, very easy to lose count; however, if you keep the bones on your own plate, rather than tossing them into the communal pile, you get excellent feedback about your intake. Another option is to order the veggie plate, donate the dip to the hot wing folk, and stay focused on your carrots. Not the same but at least you have something to do with your hands around all those carnivores.

First step, notice your behaviour chains. Second step, plan a strategy before the situation occurs. Last step, do it.

'tis the season

Deborah says:
Fat Tuesday is over (did you eat your pancakes?). Fat Tuesday is aso known as Shrove Tuesday - and here's some trivia for you - did you know that's what Mardi Gras means? Fat Tuesday. But don't worry - it's not about being fat, it's about eating fat. It's about your last night of eating richer, fatty foods before you give them up for Lent. For the peasant types - it was about eating the food that wouldn't keep for 40 days (pancakes = eggs and milk).

I'm curious - are you giving up anything for Lent? I had a conversation with a girlfriend last night about giving things up and why. Neither of us is overly religious, so it's not about honouring that for us. It's about striving to be better. So do you give up chocolate because it sounds like a big loss - or do you search inside and give up something that is more meaningful to you, personally? A behaviour that you're not happy with? A food that is becoming a coping mechanism rather than a fuel.

I've never given up anything for Lent before - but this year I've decided to give up peanut butter. But I'm going to do it in the Stop Lying fashion - peanut butter is becoming more than a healthy fuel for me, so I'm giving it up totally for 40 days, but I'm not going to rush to eat it on Easter Sunday. Peanut butter and I are breaking up. It is only going to be something that visits me occasionally after that, as I explore other healthy, lean proteins.

So what are you giving up, but most importantly, why?

Arlene says:
Wow, I was surprised at how strong my reaction was to the idea of giving up a specific food for 40 days. I don’t want to give up the occasional cookie with my afternoon tea. I don’t want to give up the piece of chocolate I allow myself most evenings. Do I think those are dangerous behaviours for me? No. I think dangerous behaviours are the ones that keep expanding. The behaviours that spread into your life but you work hard not to notice. Not exercising in the evenings has spread in my life. I don’t stretch or do yoga anywhere near as much. My promise for the next 40 days, at least one night on the bike, no excuses.

It doesn't matter ...

Deborah says:
A friend of mine went to a wedding recently. She’s also working on stopping lying and is doing a really good job and creating some really great new lifestyle behaviours for herself. She was invited to stand up for a friend of hers. Now we all know that weddings have nothing to do with getting married, but are really just a three or four day excuse for eating bad hotel food, right?

So this friend planned out her day carefully, picked what she thought was the healthiest option possible off the menu choices for the wedding banquet and scoured the hotel website menu, trying to figure out how many calories this feast was going to cost her.
First came the rehearsal dinner. That’s what it was called. Unfortunately, the dinner was a buffet of cheeses, crackers, potato chips and other snacks she was trying to divorce herself from. She was strong, made the choice to just have some cheese, even though she was starving, and eventually went home and had dinner! And that was even despite that fact that someone’s mother came up to her and said, “Eat, it’s a special occasion! You know calories don’t count on special occasions.”
The day of the wedding, she was up early, had a healthy breakfast, and packed some snacks. It was scheduled to be a long morning getting ready and doing all that girlfriend stuff and she wanted to be prepared. They survived the day, survived the ceremony and finally got to the banquet. My friend was strong. All through the banquet, she was figuring out portion sizes and using an ap on her phone to count calories and keep track (without being noticed, of course, otherwise that would be rude). Another person’s mother asked her what she was doing, and my friend explained she was watching her weight and it was important for her to journal what she was eating. Again, this well meaning mother said, “Just take the day off from counting. What will it hurt, one day?”

I tell you, it hurts a lot. People just don’t understand how hard it is to lay down new behavioral patterns and how easy (and inviting) it is to go back to the old ones! This is what my friend needed to do that day and she did it and I say Bravo, Lucie. I read a blog by a physician that suggested everyone should go on a diet for a month – a restrictive, calorie reduced, give up your favourite things diet, and see how hard the behaviours actually are. The time you have a bad day, are you going to crave your comfort food and then what happens when you realize you can’t have it? Do you have another coping mechanism in place?

The other day I was scheduled to go out with one of my friends for dinner and a movie. She called me early in the day and asked where I wanted to go for dinner. I said it didn’t matter. And do you know what she said? She said, “I wanted us to choose early so you would have time to go online and decide what you wanted to eat.” I love my friend Ramona.

As I matter of fact, I love anyone who doesn’t question my behaviour, suggest I take a day off or cheat. And after four years of trying to explain what I need to do to maintain this lifestyle, my friends have all become huge enablers of my GOOD behaviours. We book ahead so I can figure out my gym/exercise for the day, we pre-pick restaurants so I can check the menus, and we try and do as many active things as we do sedentary. Because it really does matter!

Arlene says:
The folk that encourage you to take the day off are too much like the voice in my head that says the same thing. I have to hear that voice, but I don’t have to follow its advice. I really liked Yoni Freedhoff’s blog in January that described his struggle to exercise one day and that he had to really push through to go, that he didn’t feel fabulous once he had (sometimes you don’t), but that if he let himself skip it for no good reason it would get easier and easier to skip it. We are amazing rationalizers, “not today it’s a wedding/Christmas/birthday”, there is no day off from a healthy life. My cardiac risk isn’t taking a day off, my brain patterns aren’t taking a day off. Rationalizations are lies you tell yourself and we have to catch them to stop them.

Happy Valentine's Day

Deborah says:
Okay, back to the caveman days. I understand how feasts were important celebrations because in those days it was literally feast or famine. I understand how in the middle ages it was about proving that you had more than everybody else. But I don’t understand why now, in this day and age, every single celebration has to include a table laden with more food than is needed to feed an army?

I mean, we just survived Christmas and now comes the worst – a fake holiday – a Hallmark holiday – a chocolate filled holiday: Valentine’s Day. Not only are we going to be taken out for some sort of romantic dinner at a high fat … I mean over priced … I mean lovely restaurant, but we’re going to be given a 15,000 calorie box of chocolates to eat afterward. And this proves you love me???
Okay, back to the basics. Food is fuel. Love is an emotion. There is no correlation between loving me and feeding me. As a matter of fact, in my new life giving me chocolate is more a sign of dislike! (LOL)

But seriously, when I think back to other holidays, like Christmas, I don’t really remember any of the meals. I remember my grandpa playing drums on mom’s pots. I remember playing Stockticker with my dad, I remember getting the Partridge Family record album (don't judge) I really wanted and playing it all day long. I remember when our Australian friend celebrated Christmas with us. I remember building snowmen in Victoria when it hardly ever snowed, I remember snowball fights and beach trips and visitors and games and even a dress I got one year – but I don’t remember a single turkey, cranberry sauce or mashed potato.
As to Valentine’s day, well my theory is that I don’t want my partner to tell me once a year they love me, I want them to tell me that every single day. Or skip February 14 and tell me the other 364 days. But giving me a box of chocolates will not prove that anyone loves me. It’s really important to this journey that we find the true meaning of any holiday in our own minds and hearts, and celebrate it that way. I’d like to celebrate Valentine’s day on my sofa, watching a movie with my sweetie, and maybe a bowl of popcorn after supper. To me, that would mean more than any box of chocolates, the fact that someone really wants to spend time with me.

Happy Valentine’s day everyone!

Arlene says:
Ahh Valentines. Did I mention my sweetie and I are celebrating our 28th year together? Freaky! We aren’t big Valentine’s folk, it is tough to go out for a meal that for some strange reason is costing us twice as much on this date versus last week. One of my favourites is to do the pre-made dinner thing. Sunterra does a fabulous job of putting together a wonderful meal, which I can pick up and take home and enjoy with wine at cost. We can make the portion sizes what we want, skip the sauces if we don’t want them and skip the dessert for something way more fun (I meant the hockey game). Making the meal together can be a treat and if we know one thing about women, foreplay has a lot less to do with the bedroom and way more to do with being together before you get there!

3 ... 2 ... 1 ... we have lift-off!

Saturday February 4 with combined with www.fireescape.com to throw a book launch charity fundraising party. We have a ton of people come, we had some great food, tons of laughs and raised a bunch of money for Heart Beats at the Alberta Children's Hospital.


We all had something to say.

Painted a little.


Ate a little.


And made some great art!

Thank you from our hearts to everyone involved.

How's it feel?

Deborah says:
I was having this internal conversation with myself today, wondering if I were famous and a reporter asked me how my life had changed since I lost all this weight, what I would say.

There’s the obvious answers: cool clothes, dating, lots of new activities, walking everywhere, did I mention dating? But I think the biggest change for me has been the chopping. Seriously. Of course I’m writing this after I just spent three hours in the kitchen chopping!


I try and keep a few hours free on a Sunday to prepare for the week ahead. I usually make a large dinner so that I can put at least six meals in the freezer with the leftovers. Today I made a zucchini/quinoa “lasagna” that will give me nine servings but involved making a veggie marinara sauce, cooking the quinoa filling and slicing six zucchinis into lasagna noodle-like slices. While I was doing that, I washed grapes and divvied them up into little bags for lunch time servings. I did the same for carrots, celery, broccoli and cherry tomatoes – again for lunches this coming week. I chopped walnuts and premade my breakfasts which is oatmeal this week (oats, chopped walnuts, flax, honey, craisins) and I packed up milk for the oatmeal as well. I also chopped three apples and three Asian pears and divided them up into little baggies. So now I’m set for the week.
I feel like a girlscout, but be prepared seems to be my new motto. In my freezer I have frozen blackberries (on sale, bought a bunch!) for smoothies. I have two dozen super healthy muffins ready to be taken out and put in my lunch bag. I have frozen bananas that were past their prime – some whole for baking and some chopped up for smoothies (thanks Heather – great hint). I have pomegranate, pumpkin and shredded zucchini in two cup baggies. I have tomato paste in tablespoon sized bits. Everything is ready. And most of it had to be chopped.

If I let my hunger overtake me, my blood sugar get low, or my emotions rule my appetite, I need to have healthy things ready to go. So the best buys I’ve made in the past year? A set of good knives, a new cutting board and a comfy pair of Birkenstocks to wear in the kitchen while I’m standing and chopping on a Sunday afternoon.

I guess I'm never going to make the front page with a story as boring as that, huh? : )


Arlene says:
How has my life changed? It’s interesting, but I don’t think about food less. I remember craving food and feeling guilty about choices in the past. Now I think about food with far less guilt. Like Deborah, my thinking is more about the planning aspect now; especially when preparing for risky situations like food provided during a meeting. I don’t need to eat then, it’s extra, over and above the planned meals for the day and somehow infinitely more desirable than the apple in my office. At this point my plan involves giving myself permission if there is something remotely healthy and then making sure it is only one extra thing. I do Implementation Intentions if there are cookies (not remotely healthy), which usually involve having the apple immediately after the meeting or going to get it. Some choices are definitely getting easier, but it is still work everyday.