Yesterday, on BCB I wrote:

I got jumped in a dark alley by hormones.

I’ll be back when I can think straight.

Millie

And Donna gave me a brilliant response:

…your post raised some questions that I’ve had before but never had a chance to ask. How can a person (meaning me) tell the difference between wanting to eat because of hormones, wanting to eat because of stress and just plain looking for an excuse to eat. Or does it really matter? Does one deal with all 3 issues in the same way, or would there be a different way to deal with hormonal cravings than there is for inner brat cravings?

So, yesterday, did I succumb to hormones, stress, or my greedy-piggy self?  May I also add that I was coming down with my first virus for a year and now have a nasty head cold?  And that it was the first January 19th of my life when my dad wasn’t here for his birthday?

So we’ve got a whole wide range of reasons/excuses now!

hormones

stress

inner brat/greed

a cold

grief

On reflection……..I ate because I wanted too.  Even as I was preparing a highly calorific treat or shoveling in overly large portions of otherwise healthy food, I was thinking how good it will feel to be eating right and moving.

Is that just me?  Can everybody else fantasize about going to the gym while eating home baking?

Well – at least I know how far I still have to go:  a LONG way.

As the husband is now away for 10 days, I’m going to take this time to reduce my options by eating the same things for breakfast and lunch and get back into the groove of smaller portions.  When the exploding head recovers a little, I’ll get back into walking and rowing.

As for the hormones:  I DID feel as though I were standing beside myself for a couple of days.  It was very odd and something I’ve only experienced once before.  I didn’t feel as though my body was my own.  But did I respond by eating well and exercising?  Did I bother to do the very thing that I know will help restore balance to my life?  No. I poured a glass of wine, ate bread at every meal and finished it all off with sugar.  I did the very thing that I know will make everything worse.

OK -It’s clean slate day.  And clean fridge day since I ate everything in it yesterday.

And I will do my taxes and banking today so that they’re not hanging over my head.

And to answer Donna’s question, in my experience, hormones, stress and inner brat all need to be handled with the same positive eating and moving behaviour.

Ditto a cold and grief.

Next time I will come here and write about it before the eating gets out of hand.

It’s really quite amazing the difference a few days make.  Last week I was on such an emotional roller coaster and my eating reflected it.  Rick commented several times that I seemed very down.  At the time I just thought it was because I was upset about not having any real downtime during my vacation, plus a hangover from the previous weekend with all the company and the work that goes with it, plus still being unsettled due to the renovations in the house. However, now that I’ve had time to consider I wonder if I was also dealing with a menopausal hormone swing.  You see, I can usually deal with all of the above much better than I did.  It’s really not unusual for me to be busy during my vacation and the things I was busy with would normally not cause me to go into a funk.  I loved having my in-laws visit so a full house at Thanksgiving wasn’t a hardship.  What was wrong was my reaction to it all. Mood swings are not normal for me at all, so I have to think that maybe this one had help.

Well, whatever the cause it seems to have passed.  I’m back to exercising and tracking my food and have stopped stuffing my face with whatever happens to cross my path.  I must say that I prefer being on an even keel, I don’t enjoy the drama, even when it’s my own.