Exercise- It's the Devil in Your Head That's Stopping You

I had an interesting experience a week ago. I met someone who is a runner like me. But when I asked her to run with me one morning last week I found out the hard way- she's faster than me!

I'll save the whole culture of being a runner and all of the gross but fun things that come with it for another post- but just for explanations sake, runners are usually very "into" their pace while they're running. For good reason too. They need to know if they're running too fast, and will burn out before they finish the amount of miles they want to run, or too slow, and they need to push themselves to run faster. But numbers are a constant focus, consternation, and cause for elation in the running world.

So I went out running with this new friend and I thought we'd stay at about a certain pace, which was about 30 seconds per mile faster than what I was used to. I have a watch that can tell me how fast and how far I'm running in real time during a run. I made a conscious choice to mostly ignore the speed on the watch, and only concentrate on the distance. We set out on a 6 mile run. I knew we were going fast, my lungs were burning and I was really trying- but it was doable, totally doable.

When I finished we looked at my watch- and we had run these casual 6 miles on a random Wednesday morning a minute and fifteen seconds per mile faster than what I'm used to doing. Thats race like conditions for me. Besides feeling great about it, I was pooped!

But I learned something that applies to CBT and all the work I do- it's all in my head. Yes I have some physical limitations- but often times I am limiting myself physically because my head is telling me I can't do it. And we all do that:

"I'm too tired to go to that exercise class today"

"There's no way I could ever run 3 miles at one time"

"I need to slow down, I can't maintain this level of movement"

"There's way too much to do today- I'm going to be too distracted to do my usual exercise"

There's always an excuse- there's always a reason why you can't- Healthy Habits is about learning how to talk back.

This video says it all:

Its time to talk back- get up and just do it!

Famous Last Words: I'm Going to be So Healthy This Time!

There's two types of thinking errors that can get in the way of healthy eating (or two of many really):


1.Black or white thinking
2.Overly general thinking

Black and white thinking is the assumption that you're all one, or all the other, all good, or all bad. That you're either healthy or your'e not. That you're either doing really well with keeping to your eating plan, or that you're completely off and to heck with it I might as well have five more cookies once I'm going down.

Overly general thinking is statements like: "I'm going to eat so healthy this holiday" or "I'm going to try to be good when it comes to desserts for all of these upcoming big meals".

Neither are helpful to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Black and white thinking leads to avalcnhes or binge eating or weeks of time without exercise. The assumption that once you're off, then you're off, is detrimental. A better way to think about setbacks is this:

"Oh no, I had two huge pieces of chocolate cake last night- it just looked so good I couldn't resist- ok everyone makes mistakes- I just won't have any other desserts today and will go for an extra long walk"

"I was so good about exercising this month, and then last week I just had so many deadlines and meals to cook, I didn't get to exercise at all- thats ok, busy weeks will happen- how many times can I commit to exercising next week."

Overly general thinking doesn't give us enough a plan and is a recipe for failure. Don't say "I'm going to be so good, or be so healthy"- try something like this:

"My plan is to have on appetizer, one main, vegetables, and fruit"

"My plan is to have twp big pieces of roast because it's my favorite food and I haven't had it in a while- then mostly vegtables- and one dessert"

"My plan is to have 4 types of food- regardless of what they are- and limit it to that"

And again- if you don't keep to the plan than forgive yourself, figure out why it happened, and make a different plan for the next time.

I hope you all enjoy healthy and happy meals this upcoming holiday.

Why Did I Eat Three Tacos for Dinner Last Night?

Last night was not the worst eating night in my life- not by far- but it was frustrating and I think all too common for a lot of people.

I was rushing through my day and wanted something healthy for dinner. But I needed to feed my family happily. I didn't have anything planned out (some foreshadowing to the problem) and I had some frozen ground beef in my freezer. No problem I thought- I'll make tacos- with rice on the side for my family. Ill make my own taco with mostly lettuce, some meat on the top, add some avocados, and then topped with great salsa. On the side I decided to roast some sweet potatoes and zuchinni with olive oil and spices.

The plan went along beautifully- but I noticed when I was making dinner that I was hungry, really hungry. I finished making dinner and then realized I forgot the veggies- so I quickly peeled, diced, spiced, and threw it in the oven.

Dinner began- the plan worked well. The kids were happy and I had my one taco- 3/4 veggies, a handful of taco meat, and avocados on top with salsa.

But when I was done I realized, I was still STARVING and the veggies weren't even close to being done yet. So I munched on some green peppers slices. But I was still really hungry. So I thought, no problem, I'll just have one more taco until the veggies are done. But ofcourse before I could even realize what I was doing- I had eaten two more tacos. I felt ravenously hungry, and then grossly overfull. As I was looking for some diet coke to settle my over filled stomach the oven rang- my veggies were ready.

Every problem when it comes to eating can have a cognitive solution, a behavioral solution, or both. This problem was mostly a behavioral issue and it stemmed from two problems. I had neglected to make a detailed weekly meal plan for myself because Sunday was a fast day and I wasn't thinking straight. Because of that I had a rushed breakfast, had a very small lunch, and not as many snacks as I usually do.

Basically I had put myself in starvation mode, and the brain cannot make good food choices when it's too hungry.

If I had to do it over again- I would have had a bigger breakfast, a mid morning snack, a nice sized lunch, a snack at 3:30 p.m., and then I probably would have been able to keep to my original plan. I also might have made a whole pan of roasted veggies at the beginning of the week so I could have pulled it out and just quickly heated it up. I also would have been careful to monitor my water intake because often thirst is mistaken for hunger, and I had run yesterday in the morning and was probably dehydrated still from this gross hot sticky weather.

The CBT moral of my taco saga is:
-Plan ahead what you're going to eat at the beginning of the week
-Eat regularly and plentifully throughout the day to keep your metabolism revved up and your brain continuously able to keep to your plan and make good food decisions
-Convince yourself to drink a full glass of water before taking an extra helping

Better to learn from what happened then to let it happen again while berating myself for overeating. Let's hope for better controlled taco nights in the future!

Oh no, It's that time of year again!

The Holidays Are Coming!

Some of you have asked me about meal planning through this crazy time- and it is not an easy thing to do.
Most of you are probably thinking- "what? meal planning? you've got to be kidding me- I barely know how many people I"m having for yontif, let alone what I'll be serving, and for sure now what I'm actually going to be eating......"

But let's not be so rigid with meal planning, unless you can do it, in which case you're a rock star and go for it!

Don't go a whole month without planning out some of your meals- it's not good for two reasons:
-we always make poor food choices when we don't plan it out before hand
-we get out of the habit, which will make it MUCH harder to retain all that you have gained in the 12 week group

So here are some options
-Plan out all of the meals before and after yontif- but leave the seudah meals blank
-Fill out your meal plans- but when it comes to the yontif meals- plan out how many of each type of food you are planning on eating (i.e. an appetizer, one main, one starchy side, and as many vegetables as I want)
-Plan out exactly how many desserts you are allowing yourself to eat- don't expect to not eat anything- but maybe write out "2 desserts through the day"

Some other tips for surviving yontif:
-EAT BREAKFAST- we all skip this meal- which makes a disaster when we finally sit down to our fattening yontif meal. Make kiddush, or whatever, and eat a healthy solid breakfast.
-Carry a water bottle with you and drink- you will not be as full- and you will make up for all of the high-sodium cooking
-Eat fruit between meals- this will hydrate you, fill you with your missing nutrients, and stuff your stomach so it's not able to consumer as much at dinner.

Lastly and most important- it's a hard time of the year- be kind to yourself- we all eat more than we mean to- unfortunately it's programmed into our community. But make a plan, create a response card, and hopefully you'll have a yontif that will make you proud that you've kept to your realistic goals.

Shana Tova and Ksiva V'Chasima Tova!

Rachel