Sunday & Monday I allowed my body to rest and recover from my first week of working out. I just tried to focus on my new meal plan and jumped on the treadmill for some extra cardio and to get blood flowing in my sore legs. The meal plan is cool but right off the bat I realized that my biggest challenge with starting this meal plan is going to be getting in the necessary calories throughout the day and not waiting and overeating at one sitting.
Being a self-confessed "fat boy just waiting to get out", I have also always found comfort in food and know that emotional eating can be a problem. Illness, stress or even cold weather can conjure up visions of fried chicken, pizza, ice-cream and the likes for me and this has always been an ongoing battle. Dealing with my heart issues and surgery, those cravings became harder and harder to ignore and my inner "fat boy" re-emerged. I've gotten back on track now as far as not giving in to those cravings but don't think that those visions of Popeye's chicken with cajun rice and Liberian fried pepper, double whoppers with cheese or Ben & Jerry's Imagine Whirled Peace will ever go away. Those cravings will always be there when flu symptoms set in or life just throws a curve ball my way(I think I could've bought out Domino's when I found out my friend Davon passed away the other day.....RIP Deebo).
My strategy for battling emotional eating has always been awareness and willpower but that doesn't always work for everyone. Sometimes it takes a more focused effort to stop that emotional eating. 5 key steps to doing that are:
1. Eat mindfully - keep a journal if you have to.
2. Watch out for your eating triggers
3. Stop the negative pattern when it happens
4. Find a substitute for the eating - working out and getting on a regular exercise program are great options.
5. Establish new beliefs about food - food is for fuel, feeding muscle and providing energy.
Athletes and bodybuilders tend to rarely be emotional eaters because they usually view food as fuel for energy and building muscle. I'm just a "fat boy just waiting to get out" so it takes a little more of an effort to fight off those cravings, but I've done it before and I'm doing it again.
Since having open heart surgery in 2009 and getting the all clear to slowly start working out again last year, I have worked out sporadically but never gotten back into a regular exercise program. On January 11th, 2011 I will begin a 8 week workout program with the help of trainers from Star Fitness, Inc at the Gold's Gym in Greenbelt, MD. Join me as I begin my workout program. Join me as I begin THE GREENBELT EXPERIMENT!!!
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