Sunday, 27 January 2019

Food & Mood

Sunday 27th January 2019
Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.



Have I mentioned I'm not a fan of January, I don't really like winter at all and I know it affects my moods, yesterday was no exception but to be fair I think a lot of things affected my mood yesterday, the last two weeks worrying about my brother, my moms behaviour and her not being very well in the night.  I don't function well without sleep at all.  Then to top it off my hormones have been raging, all the wonderful (NOT) symptoms that I get, they've been happening all week and finally yesterday came the tears and the pain, so hopefully by Monday some sort of normality will be resumed.  My brother who came to see my mom yesterday  must have through 'FFS Bev, I'm the one with cancer get a grip woman!'   I convinced mom an early night was in order, so we went just before 8, I didn't have a good nights sleep at all my stomach made sure of that but at least I was lying down.

Here's to a better atmosphere all round in our house today, Alzheimers, dementia and peri-menopause hormonal women are not a good mix!

Having said that, there's always something good that comes from everything, after waking up yesterday feeling completely poo, I had a chat with Karen whilst we were setting up, she's a brill listener, shed a few tears, then enjoyed a lovely workshop with my members.  I had already thought about it before leaving the house but having spoken to one of my members at the scale, I suggested we both look at keeping not just a food diary, but a mood diary as well.   Why?  Because let's be honest are we not the most complicated of creatures, we wake up one morning all gung-ho and ready to take on the world, we'll go to our workshop and leave thinking 'YES, let's do this', our mood is high and we feel like we can conquer the world, lose our weight and never eat another chocolate biscuit again in our life.  Then BAM, mood slips, changes, flips, something happens and we're not just eating a chocolate biscuit, we've had a starter of Pringles followed by a hot chocolate or a glass of wine thinking 'sod it, I'll stay fat!'  Yeah we're definitely complex.  How would keeping a food/mood diary help?

It'll help us identify and observe our moods and patterns, it's normal not to be 'happy and motivated' all the time, we wouldn't have all those emotions if they weren't meant to be felt.  Feeling those strong emotions though, they take their toll on our body, who's ever felt really tired after watching a weepy film, being sad is exhausting isn't it - I was shattered yesterday.

Life affects our mood, lots of things do don't they, but if we can identify if what we're eating is also contributing to those moods, maybe we'd be more inclined and motivated to make food changes and realise those biscuits and crisps aren't helping, they're actually hindering our progress and affecting how we feel.

I personally need to see that there is a relationship between the two because I think that could be the decider for keeping me on track.  I know when I go off track, I get the 'sod it, I'm okay with my weight, I don't feel any better when I'm thinner so I may as well overeat and enjoy something in life'. Yeah that is how my brain works at the moment, especially on days when mom is playing up and being a nightmare.  But if I could prove that overeating is making my situation worse, I think it would help and a food / mood diary I believe is going to do that.

It might help us understand ourselves a bit more too, who's gone to bed feeling awful but got up the next morning feeling better, or those days you just don't want to get out of bed but when you force yourself to and get out and do stuff, your mood lifts.  I always feel better after a good rant on the phone with my bestie - I don't always feel better after a bottle of wine and a few bags of crisps!

A food/mood diary might help you realise you have more good days than bad!  One bad day does not make a bad life.  We know food journals are fantastic tools for weight loss success, mood journals on the other hand are often used as a way to learn more about yourself and your emotions.  Together, well it goes without saying, I reckon it'll help you feel better, you'll see any correlations, patterns and things you could work on changing.

Yeah I'm definitely going to give it a go and I won't be buying a posh new notepad, a pukka pad will do, or I may just use my laptop as I do prefer typing to writing, I can then make notes on my phone throughout the day if I don't have my laptop to hand.  Will I use a chart, I don't know. I've had a look at a few options, I'm still deciding.  Use google and search food and mood journal for some ideas.

Anyway, I've woke up in a much better mood than I was yesterday, I had two good meals yesterday,

There are 2 slices of wholemeal bread and spread (4SP) hiding underneath those eggs so adding the 1SP medallions makes this a delicious 5SP breakfast, you'd have thought that would've filled me up but I could've happily eaten more and only just resisted the slice of toast I was offered later! 


because I had suede and butternut squash instead of potato, I had a leg instead of a breast, delicious dinner. 

Now to relax today with mom, she's in a good mood so far, we've had a cuddle this morning already, ten minutes on her bed, I love the mornings, my house is a much nicer place the first half of the day than the second ;) 

Here's to aiming for a very, great day, I still want pizza but I need to get to M&S for one of their thin ones, they're the business and when I do have it now, it'll be because it's delicious not to cheer me up! 

Enjoy your Sunday, stay BeYOUtiful.

'-----'
(O,O)
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