Walked thru it

Great music is really one of my best motivators.  My walk started this morning with a catch in my left hip.  It hurt.  I told myself, I'd walk it out.  And then I concentrated on the music - first song was Soft Cell's Tainted Love and the next song was Morris Day and The Time's The Bird.  I got myself immersed in the music and completely forgot about the pain.

I'm now done with my walk, and showered - and there's no pain in my hip.  Instead, I feel incredibly energized.  This is great.

An old nemesis is back

It's been a very long time since my back has acted up so much I considered not going to work.   But here I am.  I'm at work with a nagging pain in my hip and all of my food for the day already eaten.  It's only 11:30 AM.  I'm not physically hungry, but the desire to eat is huge.  Eating is a comfort activity for me and when I'm in pain I want to eat.   I'll be OK - I will stick to my boundary of not eating anything I haven't brought from home.  My partner (who works for the same company) has some home-made oatmeal raisin cookies in his office.  I'll grab two later on this afternoon - if I need them.

Recognizing this hunger and the cause is enlightening.  I don't have an alternative activity.  Sleep would be good.  Being at home would be good.  Neither are options right now.  I haven't had this eating response since I came off of OPTIFAST and it's definitely thrown me for a bit of a loop.  What kind of alternative activities can I practice when I want to eat because of physical pain?

Along with the bad back comes another stress - I can't work out.  Not with this back.   In fact, I think the back pain is a cumulative result of a week's worth of jarring my body by doing low-impact aerobics on a cement floor.  

The good news - the cushioned floor mats have been ordered.   I am hoping they'll be here sometime next week.  In the meantime, I get to reduce my eating to accommodate reduced activity and soon as I'm able I will re-start my strength training and walk in the neighborhood (weather permitting).

Making Distraction Work

One of the things I learned at Emory while doing the OPTIFAST program was not to try to stop a habit without replacing it.  For example, if I want to stop having an after dinner snack, instead of just trying to stop having the snack, replace the snack with the ritual of making a cup of tea.  Or perhaps something even healthier - making a cup of tea and spending some time journaling.   Starting the replacement habit provides a distraction from thinking about what you're not doing.  

I've forgotten that strategy lately but I'm pulling it back into my toolbox as I work to make hunger assessment, satiety assessment, food choice assessment automatic habits for me.  This means that as I assess my hunger levels at my usual eating times and find myself unhungry - I need to have some healthy distractions planned.

So - mid morning snack.  Not hungry?  A quick walk around the office followed by a cup of tea.

Right after lunch sweet.  Not hungry (I shouldn't be) Another walk around the office, followed by a cup of tea or coffee.  Coffee cuts the sweet craving.

See the trend?  Perhaps I'll set up a bowl with filled with slips of paper with healthy distraction ideas written on them.  And every time I think about food - I pull a slip of paper and do the distraction.   I like that.