The Fear of Birthday Cakes and Your Inner Two Year Old

You've eaten really, really well lately.  So well that you posted a picture of your 10 pound weight loss on Instagram and got 84 likes! You wake in the morning and feel ready to leap into your day.  Then it happens. (Signal Jaws music)  You see a group of people walking in unison.  They are smiling and singing.  Then you see the object in their hands with candles flickering as a warning sign.  You remember it is Steve from accounting’s birthday. (Cue damsel in distress scream)  Not a birthday cake! 

So what are you to do?  There is a cake 10 feet from you.  You didn’t plan for it, but there it is, mocking all your hard work.  Someone is shoving a piece in your direction, just assuming that you want some.  It smells so chocolaty good.

Sure it’s easy to eat well in a vacuum.  The real test is to see how you eat when temptation is thrust in front of you.  I am a confessed sugar addict.   I curbed my Frappuccino drinking, ice cream licking, jelly bean gorging ways out of pure desperation.  My motivation:  nothing made me lose weight and keep it off quite like limiting refined sugar. 

So what do I do when put in this dreaded situation?  The first thing I do is attempt to bargain with myself.  The part of us that craves sweets has the maturity of a two year old.  You have to give her something to quiet her screams.  I think of my jar of unsweetened applesauce in the fridge.  I could go home tonight and put some cinnamon in it and it would taste kind of like apple cobbler.  Or I tell myself I will reward myself for not eating cake with a mani and pedi.  Some times these bargains will work magically.

Other times, this makes my two year old throw a full blown temper tantrum!  She says, “I know applesauce isn’t cake and I want cake now!” Ok, what now?  I put about two bites worth of the treat on my plate.  Then I slowly savor, enjoying all the flavors.  The result?  The two year old stops crying and the adult in me takes charge.  The adult recognizes after two bites, “that was good but nothing to get all bent out of shape about”.

What happens though if that doesn't work?  What happens if I eat the whole piece of cake?  This will result in a blood sugar rush and then dip, leading to more intense cravings for sugar.  That is when people ditch the diet and fill their shopping cart with pints of Ben & Jerry’s.  Think of this phenomenon as a two year old, overdue for naptime, running out of control on a sugar-high.   My response is to run right to the fridge and grab as many vegetables, whole grains and as much good quality protein as I can.   Good quality whole foods will help restore proper blood sugar, keeping a cheat from turning into a binge.  In fact, much of the time we crave sugar, our bodies are just trying to tell us that we need protein.

The bottom line is there is a place for cake in any healthy diet.  My rule though is that I decide when I’m going to splurge, not somebody else.  I choose the situations to indulge because I know it will be worth it and I make the decision ahead of time.  Don’t give someone else power over your diet!  Just look that two year old in the eye and tell her it is naptime.  She may cry at first, but before you know it she will be out.

Now that you survived cake, you are ready for any hurdle that comes your way!

Top five reasons to work with a food coach

What the heck is a food coach anyway?  Seriously, we’ve eating solid food since we were in diapers.  So what is the point of having someone looking over our shoulders telling us how to eat?

Erica Mesirov Food Coach  http://www.ericamesirov.com

Well, since you asked, here is a little list I put together.  It is my top five reasons to work with a food coach:

1)      Ever work with a personal trainer?  You pay money for someone to torture you with sit-ups, jumping jacks and whatever other sadistic trick they have up their sleeves.  Seriously, you pay someone to beat the crap out of you.  I mean, you already know how to move.  Why do you submit to torture?  Because you want to do it BETTER!  Now look at your diet.  Perchance there is room for improvement?

2)      The food choices you make are really, really important for your waist line.  Studies have shown that people lose significantly more weight by modifying their diets than by exercising without dieting.  It’s awesome that you spend hours at the gym.  Yet do you know how to eat for your specific body?  No two people are the same.  The foods your friend needs to support a healthy weight may not be the same foods that work for you.  I know, but you and your bestie do everything the same!  Not this time, sorry. 

3)      You need a little help from your friends.  It has been found that people who work with a coach or a counselor do better with their diets than people who do it on their own.  You can feel super isolated when starting a new way of eating.  A coach gives you someone who has “been there” for support and accountability.  If you talk to me before loading a pound of Oreos into your deep fryer, you probably won’t over indulge. And if the idea of me glaring at you at the window of the McDonald’s drive through leaves you a petrified, shivering mess, all the better.

4)      You don’t know as much about nutrition as you think you do.  Did you know that most of us get the majority of our nutrition knowledge from ad execs?  Yes, as I type, a middle aged, balding, pot bellied man is developing the next catchy jingle for the latest “health” food.  Look at him!  (Yes, look at him in your imagination).  He has ketchup stains on his golf shirt and a snickers bar smashed in his side pocket.  Stop falling for marketing gimmicks.  Just because a food is advertised as healthy, natural, sugar-free, fat free or even organic, doesn’t mean it is healthy and nutritious.

5)      Wouldn’t you like to understand once and for all why what you’ve done so far hasn’t worked?  As satisfying as it is to work really hard and get no results, wouldn’t it be even more fulfilling to actually achieve your goals?   Many of us feel that since we have been eating since birth, we should know how to properly nourish ourselves.  Not true.  In our packaged food, faster is better world, it is very hard to distinguish the right food choice.  There is no shame in asking for help.  Lack of results doesn’t necessarily signify a lack of willpower, but more often a lack of knowledge.  A coach can help.

Oh, and you can eat that deep fried Oreo when working with a food coach.  You’re just going to add a bunch of leafy greens to go with it!

You can learn more about Erica Mesirov Food Coach at http://www.ericamesirov.com