day 64 - a-ha?

This may be hard to believe but once upon a time, I didn't ALWAYS cope with stress by eating. In fact, sometimes I actually had zero appetite and would do other stuff like go for a run or pick up the phone and talk a friend's ear off. Emotional eating seems especially pronounced during the pcp. The more I'm told I can't have/do something, the more I go to the opposite extreme, often to my own detriment. 

A couple months ago, I had costochondritis - inflammation of a rib or the cartilage connecting a rib. It hurt to walk, sleep, everything. I thought I was developing some crazy heart condition related to stress. The doctor did a simple test, prescribed vicodin said no exercise for six weeks and no HOT yoga to get the swelling down. At the time, my friend Wendy and I had a bet going to keep each other accountable for healthier eating and exercise. She said that since I couldn't exercise, I had to reduce my calories. Oof. I was so miserable being immobile that even if I didn't want to eat junk, I did it anyway cause of that added restriction. I only get 1500 calories a day? Fine, I'll show you and eat the whole package of Chips Ahoy and all of its 1440 calories. It was a bad couple of weeks. 

It's not the same thing but food becomes the ONLY outlet when I can't do physical stuff. These days, between pcp exercises, bikram three times a week and volleyball on the weekends, I'm too spent to use a physical outlet to cope with stress. I was thinking about all this last night cause it really bothered me that I had become such a frequent binger. Some of this was triggered by seeing the new diets and noticing that more carbs were taken away. Obviously, I haven't progressed enough to have food added back in (or maybe Patrick is accounting for all the extra non-pcp compliant binging?) but I keep hoping.  

I'll be MIA for the weekend but will try to check back on Tuesday. Hopefully with good news to report. The tournament will be a good way to compare the effects of the pcp. In July, we were less than three weeks in. I'm hoping I'm stronger, faster, jumping higher, etc to retain my starting position the whole time. Wish me luck!