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| My actual K's for August. Rob C. is my hubby! |
I totally forgot that we were a 31 day month. I actually ran 209.5K this month (130 miles). Whoa! It's only gonna get higher. My long runs for the next two months are a bit crazy. Nineteen kilometers, 29K, 32K, 23K. At least I have a scale back week x2 in that schedule! Doesn't matter if I have scale back week or not for my long runs. My hills increase all the way to 10 x 500 meter hills, and my regular practice runs tack another couple of kilometers onto them. Gotta do what I gotta do though.
I have been teetering back and forth about whether I'd be doing a full or a half marathon come November and I realized that even if I had to walk the end of the marathon, I was completing the full. Who knows where my feet and crampy toes will take me, but I can always walk right? The deadline to register for the full before prices go up is September 30th. I'm waiting until after my 32K run on September 22nd to register. Even if I had to walk the last 10K, I'd do it. Just to say I did. But I am hopeful that everything is going to work out well for my feet right now. Changing my form has made a difference, and I will see what an ultrasound to my feet says. Even if they tell me not to run anymore, I'll run shorter distances. This may be my only time to actually do a marathon. It really hurt me to type that, but I have to be real. And I need some answers. That is why I will make the appointment.
So a reader asked me the following question via my Facebook page, and I figured I'd answer it in a blog post because I get asked this A LOT! Loveena asked:
I was reading that you do a lot of mind control when it comes to food,coz I guess I read that you are prone to binging and hence you stay off the unhealthy foods completely!!! I have a question for you here? How do you conquer your desires for such foods. I am just not able to discipline my eating habits.... no matter what I try. neither what I eat nor portion control..... any special tips that would help?
Well Loveena (and everyone else that has asked in the past), I am a total binge eater. I used to work in residences for troubled youth and I would work the overnight shift which meant my charges would be in bed. I would spend the night eating anything and everything I wanted. The food room was organized like a grocery store and I'd just go help myself until I felt full enough that I couldn't move. My binge food of choice was pasta or frozen perogies with lots and lots of butter! Horrible, horrible stuff that.
Anyway, this was pre-Doctor Poon. When I started Dr. Poon, I was a non-believer that the diet would actually work for me. I had lost over 100 pounds in the past and gained it back within a year. I had also done every other conceivable diet program you can think of, and none of them worked for me. Weight Watchers was too inclusive, Optifast (similar to Med-fast) had a lot of chocolate flavored stuff that was a trigger for me. It wasn't until I realized that I had to cut things out of my life for good, that any diet plan start working for me. I had to eliminate processed carbs and refined sugar.
This is hard. It's not east to give up something that you're a) addicted to, and b) you love the taste of. But I had too much riding on the success of my weight loss. I had the happiness and well being of my son to think of. An that was worth way more to me than the taste of processed carbs and refined sugar. I loved him way more than I loved those things. Food keeps us alive and it's fuel for our bodies. It wasn't until I started thinking of it as that, that my weight-loss became a reality for me.
I can't advise you on how to lose weight. I can only tell you what worked for me. You have to dig deep into your soul and figure out what the most important thing in your life is right now. If it is your family, then you may be on the right track to successful weight-loss. It still may not come that easy to you because weight-loss has a ton of emotional baggage that comes along with it. In order for us to be successful, some of us will have to look at counselling or some other support outlet (I've heard good things about TOPS and Overeaters Anonymous). You need to figure out why you overeat/binge.
Everytime I look at my son, I get choked up. He was all the motivation I needed. I love him more than anything. Even food. It's a medically known fact that the more processed carbs we eat, the more we crave. The more refined sugar we eat, the more we crave. It only took 35 years for me to figure out what I needed to eliminate from my diet (mostly due to denial). And once I cut the processed carbs and refined sugar from my diet, I stopped craving them.
I don't count calories or portion sizes. I eat until I'm full. Running the distancces I do and following pretty strict Paleo allows me the freedom to eat "allowed foods" until I'm full. I'm not gonna lie, I still struggle with binging every single day. Nuts would definitely be my weakness now. I can't keep them in the house. I'm waaaaay too over indulgent with them. On a brighter note though, I eat tons of veggies, fruits and protein. And water consumption is key. Especially if you're very active.
When I think about my life two summers ago and how I watched my son go on rides with my husband at Busch Gardens because I was too big to fit into the smaller kiddie rides (that were built for adults too), I never want to go back there. I spent 8 hours in the CNE midway yesterday with Julien and we went on some awesome rides. Rides, that two years ago, I wouldn't have even dreamed of going on again during my lifetime. I went on this. Can you believe it? Yikes! The shoulder bars did not even touch me until the ride was in motion and I was almost hanging upside down. There was actually lots of room to spare. But it was totally awesome. So worth it to see the joy in Julien's face. I wouldn't give that up for anything.
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| And just in case you're wondering, my sock bun held up beautifully! |
