Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone

This has been a challenging week for me, food-wise.  Not because I have been battling my compulsive eating demons - they have actually been at bay the last few weeks, for which I am grateful - but because in an 8-day period I had plans to eat out for dinner 4 times.  All were celebratory dinners of one sort or another, and I never pass up a chance to celebrate!  I decided that moderation would have to be the theme of the week, and for the most part I was very successful.  As I wrote last Sunday, I counteracted a big dinner on Saturday night by declaring the following day a Very Active Day.  I navigated Monday night's buffet dinner by arriving late enough to skip the appetizers, picking a few foods for dinner and taking small portions, and leaving before dessert was served.  Friday night's dinner was sushi in moderation.  Last night's dinner, however, was another story - we were going to a really nice Italian restaurant in the East Village and I made a conscious decision to eat whatever struck my fancy as long as I didn't eat til I was sick.  So...3 glasses of wine, 1 beer, half a loaf of bread with olive oil, 2/3 of a calzone and several bites of tiramisu later I was starting to feel very full and VERY sleepy (a major signal that I've eaten too much) so I stopped without finishing dessert.  And then I was immediately thinking of how I was going to counteract the debauchery on Sunday.

Today has of course been about keeping up my activity levels and keeping down my calorie intake, but I decided that I needed some mental reinforcement to avoid sliding down that slippery slope of "well, I really messed up last night so what's one more day of eating badly".  So I pulled out the big guns - 3 podcasts from Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone. I've had these on my iPod for a few weeks and was saving them for a time when I really needed the support.  So I listened to them today as I walked around the mall, went grocery shopping, and futzed around the house. 

These ladies ROCK!  The Fit Chicks are Shauna Reid (The Amazing Adventures of DietGirl) and Carla Birnberg (MizFit), both of whom have a lot of experience with fitness & weight loss.  Each episode is about an hour long, and has a theme of some sort - my favorite was Goals Goals Goals!, where they shared and discussed ways of setting realistic goals, working towards achieving goals, how to deal with obstacles, and of course recognizing yourself for accomplishments.

There was a lot of great information in the Goals Goals Goals! podcast, but the concept that resonated most with me (after eating such a huge meal on Saturday night) was this: Question everything you do, and ask yourself if it is bringing you closer to your goal.  For example, if your goal is to lose weight, and you are contemplating eating a candy bar...or 3 glasses of wine and a calzone...ask yourself if this choice will bring you closer to your goal.  If the answer is no, and you decide to eat the candy bar anyway, you are making a conscious decision to do something that won't bring you closer to your goal.  There certainly is a time and place for making such decisions, but asking yourself the question will take the process out of your subconscious and give you the opportunity to say no with a rational mind.  As someone who has a real problem with eating while not paying attention, I think this is a tool that could really help me.

Anyway, you can subscribe to the podcast and listen on your MP3 player, or download the programs and listen to them from your computer.  I highly recommend checking them out - the entire production is very well done and fun to listen to - I can't wait for the next episode!