Days One and Two

Ok so this is supposed to be my "private" (how private can you get on the internet) diary of my journey through the book, Thin Within by Judy and Arthur Halliday. I did not start this diary until day 2 so stick with me here, this is going to be a bit of a two-day entry.

Yesterday was a crazy hectic day for me. I forgot Ty at school and didn't realize it until I'd taken Gracie all the way up to soccer practice about 45 minutes away. I was planning on using the time at practice to work on my homework because I knew once I got home my BIL was coming over to help with the teen video, I have a paper to submit on MyCompLab which wasn't working, and I have chemistry homework due as well as a quiz on Thursday I need to study for. To say I was stressed is an understatement.

Steve is an angel and brought home KFC for dinner. I think I got about two bites in when Jer showed up. God bless him for giving up his time to help me but that made me throw the principles I'd learned that day right out the window.

Eat in a calm environment by reducing distractions. Nope.
Eat while sitting. Yes.
Eat when body and mind are relaxed. Nope.
Eat and drink things my body enjoy. Yes.
Pay attention to my food while eating. Nope.
Eat slowly and savor every bite. Nope.
Stop before body is full. Well I couldn't help but do that.

Ok so later after Jer left, I tried again. This time I was frustrated by my husband. First he wouldn't get out of my chair until my already-reheated-food was nearly cold again. That sounds bad but my chair is at the computer and he was trying to get some work done. So finally after he got up, I knew I needed to work on getting my paper submitted on MyCompLab (MCL from now on) so while I munched, I logged on. After that failed (again) I changed seats thinking (a) Steve could have the computer back and (b) I would pay closer attention and reduce distractions. Steve helped me there too. Instead of sitting back at the desktop, he sat in the living room at his laptop and talked about the tanking economy. Because I guess I looked like I wasn't stressed enough or something, I don't know. It's not that I didn't want him to talk to me, it was more the subject matter and my own stress level I guess. Anyway, after that everything else went out the window. I ate fast and I didn't pay attention at all.

This morning I forgot. I know that sounds stupid but really I just forgot. So I ate two granola bars and had my coffee at my rocking chair while working on my English comp before I remembered. I read Day Two while I was in a queue for tech chat on MCL. Here are some of the gems I picked up today:

"When we begin to see that God has created each one of us uniquely and very specifically, we begin to develop an appreciation for our own bodies."

The authors spoke about how God made the woodpecker with a special head just for tapping at trees and the wonder of the quills on a porcupine, things like that. And if God can make all that - animals and plant life, etc - just for my pleasure think how amazing my own body must be and how much God must care about my physical presence.

Ok so the next gem came from the section in the chapter about understanding hunger and fullness. They give the example of a scale from 0 - 10, 0 being empty, 5 being content and 10 being overfilled. The authors say I should eat only when I'm at a 0 = empty and stop when I am at a 5 = comfortable. There was more about eating when I'm at a 3 and stopping at 7 or eating when I'm 5 and stopping when I'm 10 which was interesting but really I was thinking, "How do I know when I'm at 0 and more importantly, how do I know when I'm at 5?" Here's the gem:

There's no such thing as "I'm just a little bit hungry." You're either at a 0 or you're not.

A surprising yet little known fact is that your stomach when empty is about the size of your fist, which means that approximately a fist-sized amount of food is all that is required to take you from that 0 to a comfortable 5.