I will be writing a lot about food on this blog—mostly my struggles with eating healthy and breaking bad habits. Currently, I'm right around my lowest weight and would like to lose a solid 4-5 more pounds (which is quite a lot for someone under 5'3). Admittedly, vanity drives me to be healthier, but I truly do care about treating my body right and preventing health problems later in life.
Below is a list of bad habits that I have successfully managed to break (for the most part):
-Getting candy at the movies (this was a tough one!)
-Over-indulging all weekend long
-Drinking at least one Diet Coke a day (I'm down to about 3 a week--still working on it!)
-Drinking alcohol when I don't truly want it
-Eating more than I wanted to so I would "fit in" with my friends
-Grabbing a slice just because it's cheap and easy (I used to do this 2-3 times a week, now I have pizza maybe once a month)
Here are the habits I'm still struggling with:
-ICE CREAM: Tasti D-Lite, Ben & Jerry's, Baskin Robbins--you name it, I eat it. I have a serving of ice cream or frozen yogurt just about every day. (For the record, I don't think one small daily serving is bad, but I can't always stop at one serving. Plus, I think a lot of times I eat it out of habit--not because I truly want it).
-Overeating on vacation. Small indulgences are fine, but eating like every meal will be my last? Not fine. (I'm going to Spain in a month--more on vacay eating concerns to come!)
-Late-night eating. Ok, so I have improved in this area, but I have a looong way to go.
Exhibit A:
Last Wednesday I went to a GUESS? party (Michelle Tractenberg was there!), and then a swanky rooftop party for H&M. I had a great time at both and consumed a few too many (OK, five too many) glasses of wine. I didn't have dinner that night (big mistake, I know better), but I more than made up for it later in the night. On my way home, I made three, yes THREE snack stops. At my first stop before hopping on the subway, I got a small bag of Pirate's Booty and a small bag of Ritz cheese crackers. So far, not too bad.
I polished off my snacks on the train and when I got out, Tasti D-Lite was calling my name. I went by the store on 86th, but it was closed. I was bummed, but quickly remembered that the one on 92nd was open until midnight! Yesss! I had 10 minutes to get there. Even though I was in a time crunch, I made a pit stop at Duane Reade for a bag of Doritos. "This is fun!" I thought to myself. I hurried into TD with an empty Doritos bag in hand and ordered a medium Peanut Butter Cup with M&Ms topping. I pulled out my TD card (sweet, 3 more punches until I get a free large cone!) and was on my way. Four blocks and several spoonfuls of my favorite mystery "dairy" dessert later (it's not actually froyo, but I'm scared to investigate the ingredients), I was ready for bed. Or so I thought. I have no idea why but I opened the freezer. Right before my eyes was a pint of Ben and Jerry's cookie dough ice cream. "Liza (my sis) won't care if I take one teeny bite," I thought to myself. I think you can guess where this story is headed. I polished off the pint while I played around on my computer and watched reruns from Top Chef Masters (love that show!). Luckily, Liza had eaten one serving, so I consumed 600 calories instead of the full 800 (looking on the bright side here!)
I wish I was embellishing this story, but sadly, I'm not. It's 100% fact. And as painful as it is for me to recall, the total calorie count for my late night "snack" is...
Ice cream: 600 calories
Pirate's Booty: 130 calories
Ritz crackers: 150 calories
Bag of Doritos: 310 calories
Tasti-D with M&Ms: 300 calories
Grand total: 1,490
Wow, I ate a whole day's worth of calories in an hour. Scar-y! The next day I ate a very healthy, balanced diet and did a kick-ass workout (ran 3 miles in the park with Liza, went to a spinning class AND a yoga class!) to get myself back on track. The old Ellen would have woken up severely depressed and continued on the path of self destruction. I am making progress!
Spill it: What's the most you've eaten during a late-night binge? Please, someone make me feel better—and SANE!
Posts
my boyfriend likes to send me a lot of chocolates, and i used to wake up in the middle of the night, eat about a thousand worth of calories, drink some water, then try to find something salty or sour..and yes, it does make me so guilty but when you're in that trance you don't notice until you see all the evidence of the empty wrappers lol
ReplyDeletebut i'm proud to say, ive stayed away from that now ^_^ one of the things that help is not having junk in the fridge and instead just stack up on fruits, like apples they make you feel full minus the excess calories or try drinking some juice, or tomato puree, it tastes so gross you'll lose your appetite for the day; it's healthy and at the same time it helps curb the appetite
Hi Odessa! Hmm...tomato puree, sounds interesting! I might try that. Usually with weird things like that, you can eventually get an acquired taste for it. The healthiest things, aren't always the tastiest things, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree about the apples...any fruit that has a lot of water in it always makes me feel good. Lately I've been eating watermelon after I've had a bad day of eating, it makes me feel better and lighter.
oh yeah, the watermelon is such a great idea ;) my mom does that and us living in this tropical area of the world we can have melons and yes, she did lose weight off with that ;) i like them too but they make me burp much haha; i Admire how you can do all that exercise ellen! im too lazy to do that lol
ReplyDeleteand another thing too, i read somewhere that you can try drinking 1-2 glasses of water before eating a meal i actually try that but not all the time though. anyway, just keep the determination up and you'll do great besides you look gorgeous as you are :)
Odessa, you're SO sweet!!! I've tried the water trick too, it works. Sometimes I forget to do it, but when I do I can really tell a difference in my appetite!
ReplyDelete:) well there's a bunch of stuff you can do to trick your appetite lol and a lot of times too though i just tell myself that i don't need to eat all that "unreal" food even though they scream "yummy!" lol pretty much food that were made out of flour or sugar or something that weren't as natural as fruits hehe..but avoid those fruits in can as they are just bathing in sugar!
ReplyDeletespeaking of sugar, those diet sodas? they're a big no-no because they might not be packed with calories but they are made with synthetic sweeteners, that will actually affect your metabolism. i read about how they actually don't stimulate your brain as much anymore to increase metabolism right before meals because your body gets used to them plus they actually make you eat more :) so you'd rather just have the real sugar than the synthetic stuff that makes you crave more sweets hehe
Yeah, I have cut back A LOT on the Diet Cokes. I don't know if I will ever be able to cut them out totally (maybe one day!), but I only have a few a week, compared to the 8-10 I used to have. I have also read that diet drinks make you crave sweets. I can see how that would be true, but sometimes I drink a Diet Coke INSTEAD of a sweet and it satisfies my craving. I know it's just bad all around though. One time when I was on Spring Break in Panama City, I ordered a DC at a restaurant and the waitress lectured me for like five minutes about how AWFUL it was for me. I know it's true, but there are so many worse things out there. It's like, let me have one or two vices, lady!!!
ReplyDeletehahahah wow she did that? lol i could just imagine that but hey, congrats for getting that far now :) sounds like you are most definitely keeping up with the discipline :) And yes, a little cheat on our diets doesn't seem that bad lol at least that's what i tell myself :D It's kind of like a reward for doing good so far :) i read somewhere it's good to do that :) And that gives me the idea to maybe reward myself today haha :D
ReplyDelete