Over Eating: Days 7 - 13

My over eating (8 meals a day) plan has continued to go well for me despite life trying to trip me up a bit. I’ve been in Pennsylvania for the last four days visiting my family and I’ve weathered some of the toughest diet enemies known to man. Just because you’re traveling or staying at home for the holidays does not mean you have to abandon your healthy lifestyle.


The Early Morning

More often than not, we will have to wake up at an irregular time if we need to catch a flight. I’m used to getting up at ridiculous hours from my high school days of 5 AM workouts and more recently my coffee shop openings, so preparing a meal for myself is not too much of a hassle. But if you’ve just added a healthy breakfast to your routine you do not have to let the evil alarm clock determine that a quick McMuffin at the airport is the way to go.

You need to plan ahead. If you know that you’ll hit your snooze button several times before you’re going to throw a bunch of stuff in a suitcase and head out, then you should make your breakfast (and possibly your lunch) the night before. This is what Tupperware and Siran Wrap were made for :). I suggest something energy packed to make the last second packing less bumbling. Perhaps you could try a little bowl of fruit, a handful of almonds and a couple of pieces of turkey. Wrap it or seal it up and make sure to grab it first thing in the morning. Leave yourself a post-it on your cell phone or refrigerator if you’re worried about forgetting.

It’s not a bad idea to bring a snack or a lunch for the flight. Even if you are planning to sleep on the airplane it might end up being 4 to 5 hours between meals depending on your flight time. As per the 8 meals a day over eating plan, this will slow down your metabolism. You need to find a snack to bridge the gap. It will not be easy (or cheap) to create a small, balanced meal at your local airport, so it’s best to pack something portable and simple. An apple, two pieces of string cheese, and a Ziploc bag of peanuts might do the trick. Figure out how many hours you will be away from a healthily stocked refrigerator and divide them by three. This is how many meals or snacks you should plan for.

Also, pack away the snack that they give you on the airplane and give it to a friend when you get to your destination. There is little to no chance that it will fit into a healthy diet.


Being Home

One of the first things I do when I arrive at home is to go to the nearest Trader Joe’s and stock up. On this particular trip I purchased a bag of organic apples, some raw almond butter, 8 bananas, and some sharp Wisconsin cheddar. By taking the trip to the supermarket early, I was able to ensure that I had the ingredients for my 8 balanced meals a day. If your family gives you a hard time, just tell them you’re trying to lose a little weight or you’re making the attempt to be healthier. If that doesn’t dissuade them, inform them that if you hadn’t bought that stuff you’d be cooking health food for all of them to eat your entire trip. That should shut ‘em up :).

Use the Early Morning strategy of planning out your days for any trips you will be taking with your family. If you have a three-hour car ride or something similar, plan accordingly. Don’t let the activities of your family affect your diet plan, because both can work together. You simply need to be diligent.


The Holidays

Seeing as I have a mixed religion extended family, I was subjected to working my diet around both Easter and Passover. The good news is, for this diet you don’t need to avoid any foods in particular, but you do need to exercise portion control.

Most holiday side dishes are loaded with carbohydrates. For this diet, it’s best to keep those sides to less than half of the meal. For Passover, hold back on the kugel and Matzah balls. For Easter, keep your portions tiny for the mashed potatoes, the casseroles, and the rolls or muffins.

Ideally, for the over eating plan, you could split the meal up into two distinct parts. Eat the first part at the beginning of the meal and eat the second part approximately two hours afterwards. If you aren’t too worried about your family thinking that you’re weird, this is the perfect way to keep your metabolism going during a typically gorging feast. I can report that while I didn’t split my meals in two, I did keep my portions small and I made it through both my Passover Seder and Easter successfully. Also known as, I didn’t feel like a giant lump afterwards. :)


Afformations

I’m working a new aspect into the diet that I will touch upon more during my next update. A personal development author named Noah St. John has come up with a way to trick your brain into thinking more positive thoughts about nearly every aspect of your life. This is a little bit trippy and it might turn a few people off, but what the hell, might as well tell you guys about it, and if it works you can use it to your own ends.

In the Tony Robbins school of thought, affirmations (with an “i”) are the best tools to change your way of thinking. You say to yourself, “I am strong, I am powerful, I am getting better every day.” But the more skeptical of us have a little voice in our heads that say, “No, I’m not.” Noah St. John’s trick is to ask yourself a question in the form, “Why am I so strong?” In theory, this skips over the “No, I’m not” voice, and immediately makes you think of ways in which you are strong, whether it be consciously or subconsciously. He calls this an afformation (with an “o”).

I have been working in the question, “why is it so easy for me to lose weight?” I’ve been saying it out loud whenever I have a chance. I know it’s a bit hippy-ish, but the human brain is a crazy and misunderstood tool and we might as well mess around with it until we fully understand it. I’ll let you know if I think that this has helped me when I get to the end of the over eating thirty-day trial :).


Results

I didn’t have a working scale in Pennsylvania, so I’m waiting until I get back into Chicago (I am currently in the airport). I will put that number in at the end of this post.

What I do know is that my pants have been fitting much better. I’m not a waist measurer, but I believe I’ve lost at least half an inch to allow my pants to fit that well. A great gain like that after a couple of weeks gives me a great burst of confidence to continue. Perhaps I’ll be able to have a beautiful bod by the summer.

The official weight as of today is 175 lbs.

Good luck for those who are following along at home, and I will let you know if any more hiccups come up along the way.