There are Gremlins in my brain

DAY 14
Dog walk - 30 minutes (humidity still a burden on the dog in the mornings. Pretty muggy)
Run - 4 miles

Admittedly I was anxious about yesterday. I was focused for sure on watching my WW points yesterday but since I worked hard on the property Saturday I did end up taking Sunday as my "rest" day. We had lunch at my Mom's yesterday. My cousin was in town along with my sister and my little nephew and I wasn't sure what my mom was fixing for lunch. We had pizza. I love pizza and for desert we had ...."chocolate" cake. I was immediately sweating bullets because I can definitely over eat pizza and you know how I feel about chocolate. I was good though, it took a lot of strength but I was able to have one slice of pizza and I filled my plate with salad. My slice of cake was super small and I had a cup of coffee to go with it so that it was a "fulfilling" moment with the cake. By the end of the night when I got home I was shocked to realize (after counting up all my points) that I actually came in under my daily points. I couldn't believe it! I had to pull a Greek yogurt out before going to bed in order to hit my 26 number. I was really happy because not only did I hit my goal I actually didn't feel super hungry during the day which means I'm creating solid and normal portion habits and it's filling me up. I'm NOT over eating anymore !!!!!! That's huge. Usually I have zero control and yesterday was a day of control. That is progress for sure. I can't tell you how huge that is. I was able overcome my urge to "dig in".

 Dinner included sautéed veggies                
(those purple things are from a good
friend's garden...they are Japanese
noodle beans...like green beans but
much longer so we cut them)                               Lunch

 

 

Supposedly, when you control your eating they say your stomach shrinks. I'm finding varying opinions on that. What seems to be true is that your stomach is pretty much set in size once you're an adult but it can get bigger or smaller by about a 1/4 of an inch. The issue isn't the size of your stomach but "hunger vs. appetite". Ok, kids here is your science lesson for the day: there are two hunger hormones - Leptin and Ghrelin (sounds like names from the movie Gremlins...remember that?!).

 

 

 

Leptin is made by fat cells and is responsible for decreasing your appetite. Ghrelin is a hormone that increases appetite, and also plays a role in body weight. Ghrelin is the culprit that tells your brain that you're starving or that instead of one slice of chocolate cake you should have FIVE or that you should eat the entire large pizza you just ordered. It basically sends the signal to your brain that you're hungry. That said, there's research that says it's a little more complex than that and that the other gremlin called Leptin appears to be the bigger player in our body's energy balance. Leptin tells your brain that you have plenty of fat to go around for everyone on the block in your body. So, what this means is that you regulate Leptin by reducing fatty food in your diet. Shocking! I know. When we eat, Leptin sends the signal "Hey, enough is enough. We're all good here." When we eat fatty food though the system starts to break down and doesn't work as well. A diet rich in "good" carbohydrates (like whole grains) or a diet high in protein can shut the Ghrelin up more effectively than a diet high in fat.

 

There is also some studies that indicate that if you're not sleeping well your body produces more Ghrelin for some reason which can lead to shoving a lot of fatty food in your mouth. Get some sleep!

 

Thought for the day: I can't believe I've been doing this for two weeks!