PTI Tucson Blog

When we hear the word addiction, we think of alcohol, drugs, pornography, gambling, cigarettes…  We rarely think of food.  The truth is, food can be an addiction, a deadly one.  In fact, food is the only addiction that is blatantly thrown in our faces every second of the day.  Everywhere we turn we are being sold the addiction that is food.  Encouraged to indulge, practically given for free the foods that are worst for us, rewarded by convenience, comfort and cost.  Unlike other addictions, we actually need food to survive.  It’s not something that we can cut out of our lives.  We can’t just avoid grocery stores and restaurants and vow never to eat again.  We need to make a change.  To make that change, a lasting change, we need to get to the root of the addiction.

For me, when I think about food, it’s like remembering an old friend.  As stupid as this may sound, food has always been there for me.  No matter what I was feeling, I could always count on food to make me feel better.  If I was alone, depressed, happy, nervous, afraid, sick, angry, in love, sad, stressed, bored… I could always count on food to medicate my emotions, take away the edge of pain, reward myself for a job well done, distract myself from whatever was going on.  Unlike people, food never judged me, never criticized me, never made me feel unwanted, never rejected me.  It gave me exactly what I needed in that moment; a feeling of happiness, relief, and satisfaction.  It gave me an excuse to ignore the issues going on inside, and cover them up with pounds and pounds of weight.  I am currently 295 pounds, and it has been so hard to move away from that 300 pound mark.  It’s like my body knows that there are things I have to deal with as the weight comes off and it doesn’t want to make itself vulnerable and give up the “security” of the weight.  There are issues buried so deep inside that as they begin to poke their ugly little heads up, they’re things I had totally forgotten about, things I had pushed down; but they’re still there… and they still need to be dealt with.  Part of my problem is that I don’t really know how to deal with those things.  A friend of mine helped me realize that I am good at thinking it, acting like it, feeling it – but I have never truly vocalized it.  I will get there, I think most of it is fighting through that fear of being vulnerable, of being stripped down to who I really am.

When we get to the root of the addiction, that is when we can really take control of it altogether.  Food isn’t evil, but it isn’t a drug either.  We can diet and exercise all we want, but until we deal with what is on the inside… it will never match what is on the outside.

Here are the 9 most important foods to avoid if you have diabetes:

1. Sugary Foods: soda, sweets, dessert and the such; these cause huge spikes in blood sugar and lead to weight gain. Choose sweet fruits or berries instead!
2. Fruit Juice: all the sugar and none of the fiber. Eat the fruit instead!
3. Dried Fruit: again, the best choice when it comes to fruit is fresh fruit. Be careful with tropical fruits like bananas and mangos, as they are high in sugar for fruits.
4. White rice, bread and flour: the key here is white. Avoid these highly refined and processed foods. Opt for whole grains instead!
5. Full Fat Dairy: much higher in saturated fats that lead to weight gain and heart disease both of which diabetics are predisposed to.
6. Fatty Cuts of Meat: same story with saturated fats. Go for the leaner cuts and chicken, turkey and fish.
7. Packaged Snacks and Baked Goods: These are pretty much a big combination of everything bad for diabetics and then some: full of sugar, refined flour, saturated fat, sodium, preservatives and usually high in trans fats. Nothing redeeming about these foods. They are awful for diabetics…actually for anyone!
8. Fried foods: full of fat, at times trans fats and lead to weight gain and heart disease. Not good for anyone.
9. Alcohol: alcohol is pretty much sugar in its purest form. If you do drink, drink in moderation that is one drink for most women or two for most men.

Today was weigh in day and I have lost another 5.4 pounds!  I lost 7.4 pounds of fat and gained the difference in muscle and water.  PTI uses a Tanita Body Composition scale which can tell you exactly what your body, muscle, and water percentages are, which is great because I know that I really lost 7.4 pounds of fat in the last two weeks even though my total body weight loss is 5.4 pounds.  I also lost another 5 inches off my body!  I have lost a total of 15 pounds so far!

I have never lost more than 10 pounds IN MY LIFE.  It is unbelievable to me, not in the good “Oh my god, that is unbelievable!” way, but in the… “hmm, I can’t really believe that, there must be something wrong” way.  I am a perfectionist (oldest of 4), and not in the good type of way.  I am a perfectionist as in, if I think I am going to fail at something, or not be able to do it perfectly – then I would rather not do it.  Over the last couple weeks, even though I have been sticking to the 1200 calorie diet, exercising and losing weight, I find that I am constantly disappointed in myself.  It is almost impossible for me to me to be excited because I feel like, maybe it wasn’t good enough, or I am waiting to fail.  I went hiking on Saturday with my dad – almost a two hour hike.  I burned 700 calories, and still I felt disappointed that it was so hard for me and that I had to stop multiple times along the way just to catch my breath.  I am not sure how to change that yet, but I know it is something that I will have to deal with at some point.  There are a lot of things that I will have to deal with at some point and most of them have to do with the emotional and mental aspect of weight loss.  I hope to be as honest and open as possible in this blog, so as I deal with these things, I will share them.

This last Sunday for Father’s Day I went and spent the day with my parents and my grandparents doing what else…. eating!  Yay!  Now, every time I have tried to lose weight before I would always make excuses on holidays and say… “It’s a holiday, I can eat whatever I want.”  This time, I still stuck to my 1200 calorie diet and did not go over 1200 calories.  I made turkey enchiladas for only 288 calories a serving.  My mom made more “unhealthy” food, but I still calculated the calories and ate very small portions of what she made – probably about 1/4 cup serving of each.  For dessert I bought an angel food cake – I only ate half a serving, with fresh cut strawberries mixed with lemon juice and Truvia.  I have to say that I didn’t feel like I missed out at all, it was all good food and I was full.  It is all about eating the right portions and eating healthier versions of the food you love.  Another important thing is standing up for yourself and sticking to your decisions.  Don’t let anyone, especially family, deter you from that.  It is easy for them to say, “it’s a holiday,” or “today’s not about counting calories” or “it’s not going to taste as good if you make it healthy,” which were all comments said to me this past weekend.  In the end, I can’t let a holiday throw me off track, for me it IS about counting calories every day and it tasted just as good “healthy”, and everyone loved what I made.

One thing I do know, is that I have lost 15 pounds since I began – and that is 15 pounds I will never see again.  I will never see the number 322 again, and in just a couple weeks I hope to never see the number 300 again!

Here is a pic of my dad and I on our hike!  See you back next week – please subscribe to my blog (click on the Sign Me Up! button on the right hand side of this page) and you will be automatically notified when there is a new post!

Just in time for finals! The following is a list of foods that contain vitamin K, E and Zinc, as well as other vitamins and minerals that can help increase both attention and memory.  Pumpkin seeds Broccoli Nuts Oily fish Blueberries Tomatoes Blackcurrants Eggs Almonds Green tea or coffee Red Wine Dark Chocolate It may [...]

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