Everyday Systems

I found this video recently and remembered it this morning. I'm going to try this technique when I have cravings, in hopes it will be beneficial. I thought I'd share it. Maybe some of you will find it useful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VJVHcp7xmg

I read somewhere (Readers Digest?) that Navy Seals are taught this type of breathing technique to fight panic. Be good to know if I ever go back to a Chinese Buffet restaurant.

Rofl Noni! I know just what you mean!

Believe it or not I tried that technique earlier and next thing I knew I was waking up. Had only dozed off. But it could have been a result of last night's insomnia.

Oh, how I wish this worked for insomnia.

So when you woke up from your little snooze, did you still have the craving?

I wish it worked for insomnia, too. I wake in the middle of the night and I'm usually up at least three hours. This is most nights.

When I did the breathing technique the other day, I did it because I was feeling tense, like maybe my blood pressure was a little elevated. I don't know if it was necessarily the technique that had me dozing or my usual insomnia. Maybe a little bit of each, or a whole lot of one and a little of the other. The breathing technique obviously helped me relax though.

Since I'm doing a 21 day challenge I'm going to try this when I do have a craving, instead of giving in to the craving (I pray!). I'll update if I feel it helps or not. Even if it's only in my mind that it helps, it'll still be valuable to me.

I hope it does, too. But there is nothing quite as powerful as just being able to sit with the sensations of desire with even a little acceptance but the resolve not to give in, mostly because you know it is from a brain part that can never be satisfied and is best just left to fade...

You have a valid point Oolala. I certainly hope to gain more resolve along the way. It would be wonderful to wait it out more often than giving in!

See if you can become curious about when the urge will reach its peak, but without watching too closely. It can be like a headache that you suddenly realize is gone, but you never felt it go. Or, the antsy feelings can be there until the next meal. But you've still won.

I think I'll put my body into shock by telling it "NO". But it will be interesting to see what happens. I'm looking forward to this challenge.

PS I remember MaggieMae (I'm sure it was her) saying that "nothing" happened when she didn't give in to the sweet! So I look forward to nothing happening, I suppose! I wish I'd thought that through at some point, in all these years! haha

It was so much easier to resist the extra food and goodies when one is younger, and cares more for the way one looks. Now it's more concern with the health problems from excess weight when we get older.

Because I'm home all the time, food/sweets are controlled by me as the main shopper. It must be difficult when goodies are frequently presented at work. I do remember those days, and the crash diets to remove 5-10lbs of workplace creep.

So true Noni! I remember when I worked, there was a lady that brought a baked good in several times a week. None of us could resist.

I find the health issues are much more compelling. I always resented the idea that I was supposed to look a certain way. But health issues aren't personal nor about approval from others. They're just plain practical! I couldn't take them seriously when I was younger, but fear of the risk of dementia and stroke have impacted my eating a lot in the last year. Those two can ruin you whole day! I have no proof what I'm doing will prevent them, but I know they lower my risk, and that's all I can do. The added weight loss has just been a fluke. But I'm not sure I could have done it as easily without having done the other "weaning" of Vanilla for the years before. Actually, it wasn't completely easy. I missed some of the things I gave up more than I missed my S's in the beginning of No S because they were a few of the things that kept the routine pleasant. But I just couldn't rest easy with them anymore. Now, I rarely think about them.

Would that I could get that kind of "religion" about all overeating.

Oolala, must you give up savory foods that are processed on this regime? I'm assuming you live alone, so it must be difficult to cook whole foods for yourself. Of course, cooking a pile of them and eating them all week is doable, huh?

These days, I do most of my own cooking, though I have some servings of rotisserie chicken in the freezer. Yes, I do a lot of big batch, very plain cooking of whole grains and beans, sometimes meat in a crockpot, occasionally stovetop, also usually rather plain. I tend to keep Greek yogurt and cottage cheese around, too, though I've run out and am relying on stores of other stuff as an experiment. I do buy commercial sauces (mostly Indian, but some pasta or Asian sauces, etc.) and am reasonably choosy about the ingredients. I have fresh and frozen freggies on hand always. Meals are basically an assembling of the starch, protein, fat, and greens plus two veggies, one green, one other color, with sauce added. Fruit randomly. For me, a lunch or dinner of cottage cheese and spaghetti or other sauce served over grain and veggies, with olives or with fruit and walnuts (instead of olives) separately is perfectly acceptable a few times a week and takes 10-15 minutes. Nearly all my lunches and dinners are made of similar building blocks, though I'm experimenting with more starch and less protein. I can always go back, if I don't like it. They take about the same time.

It's all just my routine now. It would be more trouble for me to make the meals I had growing up. I've never made a pot roast!

I roast some veggies too, but also in batches and never in a big oven.

My hat is off to people who actually cook a dinner most nights after work.

I"m also not a complete purist and will sometimes buy manufactured frozen foods. I used to use them a lot but now just rotate them in much less frequently. It just seems less and less important to have them because I like my regular fare pretty well, too. And this way, when I do get a chance to go out, I feel I can choose more "iffy" foods, if I really want them. I even got fried chicken a few weeks ago! But I don't want it again very soon.

Yes, it was me ,Elizabeth, who said I actually didn't give in to a major craving and absolutely nothing happened! Very cool. Now,let's hope I can do that again when an urge strikes.
Once I had a child I let myself go, noni. I quit my full-time job and left the band I was performing with on weekends to stay home. It's amazing how fast I stopped caring about my weight! I sometimes wonder if I had stayed performing music if I would've kept my weight down.
Processed foods.... I use too many of them. I have tried clean eating many times. It's so much work planning, shopping( produce doesn't keep long!), chopping and dicing, etc. I know it's just laziness. I use things like instant mashed potatoes( oh the horror!), frozen lasagna, flavored rice, etc. I like real food, I just wish someone else would put in the planning and shopping.

I wish someone else would do the clean up.

Sorry if I'm repeating myself, but I decided to use up most of the food in my freezer and cabinets, so I'm not "allowed" to replace anything except freggies and stuff for coffee. It has narrowed my choices, as the cottage cheese and yogurt is used up, but I've got other protein. I can eat out. I haven't bought anything "forbidden" since the beginning of March, and there is a shocking amount left. I'm also noticing how I often I randomly stopped for food shopping during the week. It was almost like I used to eat. Oh, have some extra time, eat. Now, it's oh, I'm out and this got cancelled, stop at a store. It was like I was hunting and gathering. I haven't replaced that activity with anything especially productive yet.