Now that I've been blogging more regularly, I'm discovering some other GREAT blogs out there, and have been enjoying following and learning from them. Two articles I ran across today are kind of giving me an "a-ha" moment, so I want to post them here so I don't lose sight of the concepts, as they are very clarifying and motivating for me.
The first one validates my problems with chocolate and sugar cravings, and offers some info and advice. As I have stated before, I am an addict, in the most literal sense of the word, to chocolate specifically and to sugary junk foods in general. This article talks about research into the fact that certain types of people legitimately react to sugar in the same way as a drug addict does. It verifies what I knew all along about myself. Although some (most normal) people can have 1 or 2 cookies, for example, others like myself (and my dad, and now it seems like possibly my kid) can have either none, of if I have one then I feel compelled to finish the whole bag of cookies, and eat anything else I can get my hands on that is sugary, all day long. That is me to a tee, but I've not ever heard others like that discussed this way. Not that it makes any excuse for it, but it does at least validate how hard it is for me to control my food urges, and makes me realize some ways I can fight it a little better. I already knew that starting early in the day on any sugar makes it worse. This is the article from Diets in Review.com:
http://www.dietsinreview.com/diet_column/12/sugar-as-addictive-as-cocaine-heroin/
The second is one of total brilliance as well, also from Diets in Review.com. My mom has been trying to tell me this for over 4 years since I got pregnant with my 3.5 year old son, but it just didn't stick with me until I read it in this eloquently phrased context: "Please secure your own mask prior to assisting children."
http://www.dietsinreview.com/diet_column/12/please-secure-your-own-mask-prior-to-assisting-children/
It is so logical and obviously correct, especially in the literal use on airplanes, but the fact that it should be applicable to all areas of life is a real eye opener, particularly as it applies to diet and health. I am very careful to feed my kid as healthy food as possible, to ensure that he forms good eating habits for life, but then I turn around and stuff empty, crappy junk food into myself that is slowly killing me! How ridiculous it would be for a kid to have healthy eating habits and a sick or absent mom. I am truly a dumbass! And not just in the arena of food, but it applies to everything. I foster an active lifestyle for him while missing most of my workouts, I work really hard to make sure his life is happy and enjoyable, but have to really try to find happy fun time for myself to relax often enough. I could go on. The bottom line is, the only way to have a good, happy, healthy family life is to take good, happy, healthy care of one's self. Thus far I have sucked at that, but I'm starting to see the light.
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