Interesting WW meeting

[threadwalker]

My at-work session has a lot of new faces. Today was odd. We discussed triggers... food that makes you lose control. Someone piped up with, "What do you do about pizza?"

It got very animated and one member informed us that the reason why we eat is because our blood sugar goes up. She took a very firm stand and, almost like a mother admonishing kids, and started talking about blood sugar, how different sugars affect us and how if we just stopped and ate salad (green energy is what she called it), we'd be fine. (I peaked under the table to see if she was wearing Birkenstocks). She then related some personal experience.

I do not discredit her or how she feels about herself. I've even read some literature about eating for your blood type and I know that eating carbs frequently triggers the impulse to eat more carbs. But Pizza is different for me and I think I know me better than she knows me. So I leaped in and informed her that, no, it's not about blood sugar "for me". I broke out into a colorful and enthusiastic description of how the flavors and textures of the pizza enchant me, how taking a deep whiff of it before biting in and having the melted cheese and sauce mingle with each other as I crunch the crust absolutely makes me close my eyes and sigh in appreciation. And I continued to explain how maintaining that experience is practically sensual. For me (emphasis on "me") it has nothing to do with being hungry and everything to do with the experience. She didn't know what to do with my explanation.

Of course, I was immediately craving pizza after reexperiencing it as a virtual meal. Ugh. The torture!

It was amusing to have someone inform me that I only eat carbs because I don't eat enough "green" energy. Please - I eat 5 servings of veg and 1 serv of fruit a day. I have "green energy" oozing out of my pours and it does nothing to squelch my carb-cravings. But it got me thinking how much I hate it when people tell me how I am and being lectured at was odd especially since it included the line, "if you would all just do it the right way it would be better". What if her "Right way" does not work for me or the people next to me? Which lead my brain off to world politics and how the reprecusions of one persons "right way" grows madly out of control.

Now.. off to fight pizza cravings. I think I have some "green energy" stashed in my lunch box ... grape tomatoes and purple grapes. Grapey-goodness cometh.

Comments

[joycebre.livejournal.com]

ick. We have pizza 3 Fridays out of 4 at work for lunch. I hate the stuff. And the 'salads' we get with it (for those of us who aren't pizza eaters) are plain green leaf lettuce with raw onion slices and out of season tomato wedges. I hate that too. I usually have tuna at my desk on pizza day. But 'green energy'? she was wearing Birkies, right?

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

She was not wearing Birkies, but she was wearing a brand of boot I recognized as "hippie". I forget the brand. Earth-something or other. But I have a pair, too, so you can't judge the enviro-geek by their boots...

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

We had our trigger-foods meeting last week. That alone was worth the WW membership fee for me. This week was "hairtrigger emotions", which was not very useful for me, personally.

Yup, I'm all about analyzing my trigger foods. And pizza, well, sigh. We typically have pizza at Marguerite's sewing nights. The week before last I managed by bringing my own dinner and having my friends help me, and this week there were grilled chicken breast courtesy of helblonde, so I was totally safe. :-)

One thing I think I need for the trigger-food-in-a-social-context is a buddy to keep me from eating it, or keeping me from eating, say One and Only One piece of pizza, or, perhaps, 3-4 potato chips with onion dip (which is total crack for me. :-/ ).

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

The at work session has the same topics, but start dates are a little different, so next week we have the "emotion" talk. As we were packing up to leave, the group leader nudged me and commented that I had lots to share on dealing with emotional eating and strategies for overcoming.

A buddy is a useful thing. I have F, who's always on my side, and when we are out and he twigs to the fact that I'm losing control, he will lean over and ask me how I'm doing, ask me if I'm really hungry and ask me if I've thought about what will happen if I eat X. For me, that's the best reinforcement. And I always thank him afterwards.

Fortunately for me, in the last year and a half, my whole household (well, the girl-half, which is the half that preps food) has joined WW, so everyone has become conscientious about healthy eating. It doesn't preclude a pizza night, but it seems to have cut down on them. And Pot-Lucks are often accompanied by chit-chat about how many points per serving each dish is. It's awesome.

[dame-cordelia.livejournal.com]

I lose it when there are doughnuts present. Fortunately if they have coconut or maple icing I can walk away, but the ones with chocolate icing or custard filling are crack for me.

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

how about Old Fashioned? I love dismembering those as I eat them.

Normally, though, Donuts don't do it for me. I love the smell, but the taste never lives up to the smell.

[falzalot.livejournal.com]

I was watching the ICMYT episode last night on cravings, and the way they pick to get rid of them is, well, pretty gross to say the least. :-> Not sure how effective it is in the real world because in an evangelical audience everybody is feeding off each other. Anyway, it's repeating tomorrow I think on TLC if you can catch it.

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

I will think about it. But to quote my WW leader, who was quoting someone from a different meeting:

Which foods do I crave? Honey, all the ones with vowels and consonants.

So there you have it. I love love love food.

[ermine-rat.livejournal.com]

Well you finally broke the 'food as sensuality' barrier.

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

Food feels good.

I love food.

The only thing better than food is more food.

I am a glutton.

How do you think I gained 65 lbs in 10 years? The only reason it didn't happen faster or become a bigger gain is because I was so active.