Reflections:

I am doing calorie cycling. So, I keep track of weekly calories: 11,600 or ca. 1660 a day. Due to stress, I ate low all week. In addition, I pumped up my workout routine.

I don't want to "channel my anxiety into my diet" so I realized I needed a higher calorie day. I ate 2500 calories yesterday, partly in preparation for a 1:20 minute run I have planned for today.

I just ate like I used to for the 2500 calories. I had a piece of pie from my boyfriend's mother, and then a few of these hamburger things she fries, then some chips and a half a glass of coke while watching a film. MAN - it was SO easy to get that high with the wrong food. I was NEVER even really full.

This morning I am craving roasted broccoli, cauliflower, beans, and fruit. I think it is amazing to how the body adapts to health - how it actually starts craving the good things if you've ate bad things.

Oh my goodness - the biggest thing: I was SOOOOOO thirsty after my boyfriend's mother's cooking!! I chugged almost a liter of water right when I woke up. It felt like a hangover!

Needless to say: I'm looking forward to a planned 1500 calorie day, filled with fruits and veggies!

Sounds like a HUGE HUGE HUGE Non Scale Victory to me!!

Indeed! Isn't it nice too how when we go away from it for a day or so, we realize we actually LIKE eating healthfully?

And realizing that we like our new way of eating is what makes it a lifestyle and not a diet.

In my diet, wich is low carb but high carb on friday, i have to choose the source of that carbs cause if i don't i'll be sick for the rest of the weekend. My husband who actually eat less healthy than me feels the same way. Is like the body is rejecting those types of foods ... and i'm actually glad he let me know in that way what is better for me.

I hear ya!! I cycle calories, and yesterday was my highest calorie day. For some self-destructive reason, I picked up a bag of black-and-white kettle corn in my local health food store. That stuff is addictive. I figured I could eat 3/4 of the entire bag (it was not a single-serving bag) & that would top off my calories for the day. And indeed I did eat 3/4; in fact, it was so addictive, that I had to actually throw out the rest to prevent myself from eating it. Later that night (I start my "day's" calorie count w/ dinner), I was craving a pink lady apple of all things! Today, I was actually looking forward to eating light.

Now, I won't go so far as to say that I am "cured" of the desire to eat crappy food (regardless of how gourmet it is)----far from it. However, it is nice to put the junk food experience side-by-side w/ the healthy eating and feel the contrast. In the old days, I couldn't do that because every day was a food fest!

ArtyKay: I never even thought of it in NSV terms - but, YAY for ME!!!! Thanks!

And I notice, after eating healthily and low-cal since September, that salty food REALLY kicks my butt. lin43: the kettle corn probably had a tremendous amount of salt, making you crave an apple, which is mostly water and fiber.

I have read that our bodies "intelligence" changes over time, after exposed to healthy food. One can actually change their cravings. Instead of craving a twinkie, it craves a banana. If the body is given healthy food it changes its preferences and will start wanting healthy food.

I can say this is true for me particularly with regard to salads and apples. The more I eat, the more I crave.

If anyone has not tried this, they should: Eat an apple a day.

If you aren't an apple fan, it will be hard at first, but keep going. After awhile you will actually crave the apple.

Of course or body's intelligence can also be easily persuaded to enjoy high-fat, sugary, carby foods if eaten regularly..... unduing any bodily intelligence regarding nutrition that you created.

Anyway, this is especially important and influential for children. I completely agree with hiding healthy fruit and vegetables in their food for them to unknowingly eat, if they won't touch the stuff on their own. I think Jerry Seinfeld's wife does this, wasn't she on Oprah? You can gear their palate towards eating healthily.

My sister and her son are very picky. Her son is super-extreme. He is 13 and he will not touch anything but cottage cheese and canned peas. Of course he will eat any form of junk under the sun. My sister never forced him to eat other things, she would give in and go to McDonalds. She wasn't creative with cooking at all. His bodily intelligence is McDonalds and Pizza Hut 100%. The doctor is worried he will develop colon cancer at a young age.

ARgh. I love my sister, she is a loving, wonderful mother. I just wish she would have creatively added some fruits and veggies! I don't know if he will ever have a chance to really learn to eat healthily.

Okay, I'm finished.