Shop 4 A Cause Info + FAQ Installment 30

As you may have heard me drill into your heads over and over, Shop 4 A Cause is tomorrow!!! I am so very excited and I can’t believe the day is finally upon us! We have 47 FABULOUS items up for auction! I couldn’t be more proud of this great variety of items.

Here are some details about what you can expect tomorrow, starting at 8am EST!

How does it work?

• Tomorrow morning at 8am EST the SHOP 4 A CAUSE page will go up, complete with details and all of the fabulous 47 items up for auction.
• The charity auction will function as a silent auction meaning that you have to email me ([email protected]) with your bid. I will not accept any comments left in the comment section- you must email me your bid for it to count.
• All bids start at $20 Canadian Funds (bonus for the US residents!). This is to ensure that at minimum, the volunteer’s shipment costs are donated. I would hate for someone to spend $25 on shipping only to have the item sell for $10!
• The auction starts at 8am EST and will go until 10:30pm EST on Thursday June 11, 2009.
• Throughout the day I will be updating each item with the current highest bid. I will do so frequently throughout the day as they come in! Check back to the site often for exciting developments!
• At 10:30pm EST, I will stop taking bids. I hope to have the full list of winner’s up first thing Friday morning! Each winner is asked to donate their winning bid to my donation page. You must make your donation in your name or at minimum your initials or blog name so I know that it is your donation. Once that is done, email me to confirm ([email protected]), and I will provide the winner with the email of the item donor to collect the winner’s mailing address.
• Please do NOT place a bid on an item if you have no desire to follow through with payment!
• In the event that someone does not donate the winning bid, I will go to the runner up bid and contact that individual.
• As I confirmed with Running Room, each person who makes an online donation will receive a tax receipt emailed to their email account. Running Room is aware of how my auction is going to work, and they confirmed to me that everyone will receive a receipt regardless that you are getting items in return.
• When you visit my donation page (will be up on my page tomorrow), you may pay with Mastercard or Visa only. If this is a problem for you, please contact me for an alternate arrangement.

Also, please spread the word on your blog if you have one and tell your family and friends about this great cause! :) We have 47 items up for auction and they are ALL fabulous!!!!

238. Katherine asks, “I’ve been reading your blog for about a month now and I’m completely in awe of the life you have created for yourself and the commitment you have to being the happiest, healthiest person you can be both physically and emotionally.
I know you said that you lost weight gradually and that that has been the key to maintaining your healthy weight, but I have a question: How did you come to terms with the fact that it wasn’t going to happen in just a few short weeks or months?
I ask because I lost about 20 pounds a few years ago, but did it by exercising compulsively and restricting my diet. Just as you’ve said, of course it backfired and I’ve now gained all of the weight back. I now struggle with pretty much every feeling I have relating to food and exercise and I constantly find myself thinking things like "if I lose X amount by this day" or "why can’t I just be the weight I was before?". I look at pictures from when I was thinner and I am upset that I know I don’t look like that anymore. I am not happy with my body because I know it’s not thin like it was before, and that unhappiness triggers poor eating choices, thus perpetuating the cycle.
Anyhow, without diving into more issues, I guess I would really appreciate your input and thank you so much for taking the time to read my email and for keeping up with your wonderful blog!”

My journey to health was a huge lesson in patience!!! I used to be like you too. I used to buy those magazines that promised I would lose 400 pounds in a week. I would set goals for myself to lose 5 pounds by Friday. I wanted everything now, now, now and I thought if I took things to the extreme too, I would see the most results in the shortest amount of time. Like you found out, this method often backfires.

When I was eating too little and working out too much I was unhappy, irritable, distracted, and not fun to be around. My thoughts were consumed with food and exercise and that was about it! Even though I sometimes lost weight quickly, it would backfire because cutting back too much led to overeating and binges for me. The body can only take so much. When we cut back too much our bodies have an evolutionary response to seek food FAST because it could be in danger! Research shows that one’s moodiness and tendency to fidget when starving oneself are evolutionary adaptations! We get moody when people eat our ‘diet food’ because we perceive others as a threat to our survival. In the same vein, people who are starving often fidget a lot and walk around a lot (do you ever find yourself walking to the kitchen and not knowing why?). This is because our bodies are programmed to ‘seek out food sources’ when it is starving. That is what animals did thousands of years ago. They roamed for miles and miles until they found food!

I suggest to put away your old pictures if they are making you down. Focus on where you are now and why you are working towards this journey instead of a quick fix. Were you truly happy when you were thinner? My guess is that you were preoccupied by the obsession and didn’t even enjoy your weight anyways! I have been at lower weights than I am now, but I wasn’t happy so what is the point?? I have so much more fun now and I am so much more fun to be around (Eric can vouch for this! haha) than I was when I wasn’t putting my health first. If you put your health first, everything will eventually fall into place!

239. Amy asks, “I want to first tell you how much I love your blog. I’m a vegetarian in transition to becoming a vegan so what I see on your blog is amazingly helpful. :) I have one question for you. I’m 5’4 and around 147 pounds right now. I think that’s where you started on your weight loss journey. I’m currently journaling and calorie counting after a few years of going on and off weight watchers. When you actually started losing weight, were you able to do so without counting calories? I have a good handle on portion sizes but something is holding me back from actually losing the weight I want to lose. I feel better than I did when I was close to 160 this time last year but I still don’t feel content with how I look and feel. I’m not sure if the calorie counting is helping or not because like you wrote, I only tend to binge when I’m restricting myself. Then that leads to weight fluctuations and I’m just ready for it to stop! Any little bits of advice you could offer would be fantastic. I’m stepping up my workouts and am trying to add in more strength training so that should help how I feel and how healthy I am. I just need to get this eating thing moving in the right direction. :) Thanks!!! And thanks for having your blog. I LOVE it!”

I think the calorie counting was what got me into such a mess! It led me to obsess and overeat because the guilt was so strong when I went ‘over’ what I allowed myself. I know calorie counting can be a very useful tool for many people trying to lose weight, but not for my personality. It just made things worse.

I do think it is important to learn portion sizes. I think because I was already familiar with portion sizes I was able to transition from calorie counting to slowly stopping and just ‘eye balling it’.

With that being said, simply because I know what a portion size is doesn’t mean that I only eat 1 portion at a time! This is where ‘listening to your body’ comes in. If I am really hungry and I know that 1 portion won’t satisfy me I obviously eat more. I just use portion sizes as a general framework and then based on how hungry I am I figure out what will work for me at each meal. Eventually this process becomes automatic- promise!

240. Jen asks, “You mentioned eating when you truly feel hungry, which made me think of something – do you ever suddenly feel so hungry that you feel nauseated?  I find that happens to me often at work, almost as if my last meal just wore off all at once and if I don’t get something into me I’ll feel sick.  It’s weird…maybe because I’m caught up in work I don’t notice the gradual signs of hunger and then it just hits me?”

It could be that you get caught up and don’t pay attention to your hunger signals. I would suggest planning a snack maybe 30 minutes before this feeling often hits you and you can bite it in the butt! :) Sometimes if I wait too long to eat, I will often feel nauseous AFTER I eat next (it’s like my stomach is overwhelmed from going to one extreme to the next). I rarely let myself get too hungry though, as I always have emergency snacks on me at all times! I am NOT a happy camper when I am hungry (again Eric can vouch!!) so I have learned my lesson!

241. Valerie asks, “I just also wanted to say that I appreciate your latest post! I’m just starting to maintain a 37 pound loss and I’ve definitely struggled with the amount I’m eating. I’ve found it difficult to go from weight loss mode to maintenance mode so it was nice to see that you do snack a lot and that you do eat! I’ve often battled with myself over whether I really need a second evening snack but I feel a lot better after seeing what you eat and knowing that you do allow yourself snacks. I think part of it comes from worrying that I’m slowly going to gain all the weight back if I allow myself another snack each day, even though I know that kind of mindset is ridiculous and bad since I’d be depriving myself. I don’t know if you ever dealt with that after losing weight. But anyway, I love that you share your struggles because it’s really refreshing to see that and I honestly think it helps a lot of people realize that they’re not alone in their body and eating issues. So thanks a lot for that :)”

I am glad you enjoyed my post on snacks! I snack a lot and always have. I am one of those people that needs a constant supply of energy. Because I eat a vegan diet, I find that I need to refuel more often to keep my energy levels up.

I too, struggled with the same feelings as you had about snacking. I used to hate when I got hungry later in the evening (say around 10pm) because I knew I was going to bed soon. However, I can’t sleep well at all if I am hungry so I know if I don’t have a little something I am doomed!

And then I also started to realize something else- why does it matter what time of the day it is? If I am hungry at 10pm at night (actually hungry!) then who is to say I shouldn’t listen to my body and have a light snack? Perhaps that is a sign that I didn’t eat enough at dinner to fuel me for the evening.

I don’t think we should feel guilty about snacking if we are listening to our hunger signals. Just keep the snacks light and healthy and you will be fine! For example, last night I was quite hungry around 11:30pm. I was up late working on Shop 4 A Cause and I needed fuel. I had some crackers (handful) and a tiny bowl of cereal (maybe 1/2 cup). This held me over until morning just fine!

242. Richelle asks, “Hi Angela, I’ve been following your blog for a while now and I just love it! I know you’ve talked about your binge eating in the past and I’m going through kind of the same thing so I just want some advice from someone that’s experienced this hard-to-break habit before. I’m 5’4 and 109lbs, so you can see I don’t have a huge problem with my weight or anything. I eat healthy most days and exercise pretty regularly. But the trouble comes if I go over to a friend’s house or out to lunch/dinner. I’ll eat small portions of the "unhealthy food options" and then think, "Wow! I have so much self-control!". Then the problem starts when I come home. I feel that since I’ve already "cheated" today, I might as well make it worth it. Then I proceed to consume an insane amount of food in one sitting, followed by hiding any evidence of all the food I just ate. After I binge I just feel so depressed which leads to fasting for the next day. Then I’ll eat normally for another week and the cycle just starts all over again. I am so sick and tired of feeling so low about myself days after the binge and I want this cycle to stop. It’s self-loathing and so bad for my body, yet I don’t know how to get out of this cycle! It’s too hard to talk to someone else about this so I just wanted to seek some advice from you because I know you understand the feelings associated with binge eating.”

Thanks for your honesty- it is such a hard topic to talk about sometimes. I am sorry that you are currently struggling so much, but please know that I have been in your shoes as well as many other women! I have written a couple of posts specifically dedicated to binge eating on my FAQ page, please check them out if you haven’t already as I think they will provide some answers to your questions! Please let me know if I can help in any other way.

Binge Eating: Part 1

Binge Eating: Part 2

243. RE: Making green monsters the night before and drinking them in the morning!

Several sources have told me that they do this and it seems to work fine! The smoothies get a bit thicker (i.e., they gel a bit) but this should be nothing a little stirring and adding a couple tablespoons of milk won’t fix. I’ve ever heard readers say that they FREEZE Green Monsters with great success!! I have got to try this!

244. Sarah asks, “Question about the bakery- will you have to get another oven or fridge at your house? I never thought about it til yesterday, but making bakery orders in a regular kitchen must be difficult in terms of quantities?”

Eventually I will likely move from an ‘in house’ bakery to an ‘out of house’ bakery where I will lease a space specifically for my bakery. Right now my kitchen will have to do!

245. Laura asks, “I have a question for you……………..
which are your 10 favourite products for your personal care??
body lotion, body wash, face cleaner,shampoo, cologne..”

Hmm fun question!

Body ‘lotion’- Coconut oil

Day face lotion- Neutrogena SPF 45

Night lotion- usually Neutrogena night cream or my REN omega oil (see shop page)

Shampoo/conditioner- My favourite shampoo and condition are Aveda products although I don’t buy them because they are quite expensive! I have a NEW favourite conditioner that will be appearing on the blog this week!

Face cleaner- St Ives Gentle scrub

Perfume- This amazing perfume I bought from Marseille, France on the honeymoon. It is a fresh citrus scent. And smells Amazing.

Eye makeup remover- Neutrogena pads (I hated these at first but now I love them now that I wet them with a bit of water! They last FOREVER!!! Thanks to Kath for nudging me to give them another shot!)

246. Jenna asks, “I’ll admit, I don’t take vitamins AT ALL. I know, I know…..I really should!!! You always seem to good about taking yours; what do you take? Do you take any supplements as well? My big thing is cost. I can’t afford to spend a hundred dollars on vitamins right now but wanted to hear what you think about the matter.”

Yes, vitamins are expensive! The past two years I didn’t really take many vitamins because they were so expensive, but I have slowly been building up my collection as of late. I have noticed a HUGE improvement in my energy and overall well being since being on my current vitamins.

Here is what I take daily:

• Calcium Magnesium (very important since I don’t eat dairy)
• Spirulina (known as a green superfood high in many nutrients! Kris Carr got me hooked)
• Vitamin D (at least 1,000 IU daily!)
• Align Digestive Care (my tummy has never felt better!)
• Complete Probiotics (I bought this before I was sent the Align and I like it too. I alternative between both brands)
• Omega 3 oil capsules

Here are the quantities that I take each day:

• 1 vitamin D
• 2 Calcium/Magnesium
• 1 Align or 1-2 Probiotics
• 1 Omega 3
• 2 Spirulina

I also occasionally take a Women’s Daily multi and a vitamin C, but I tend to get enough vitamin C in my diet already.

As for saving money, a great place to buy your vitamins is Costco! I used to buy all my vitamins there when Eric and I used to have a membership. Since we don’t live near one anymore we have stopped going, but I may go with my MIL to stock up because she has a membership. :)

Hope that helps!!!

Note: I occasionally may miss some of your questions, if you have asked me a question and did not see it on my FAQ’s please resend it to [email protected].

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now for the winner of the Amazing Grass contest giveaway!!! This was the biggest response any of my contests have ever received! Man, do you all love your green monsters or what!

The winner, chosen by random number integer is:

Congrats to SuzanneRN from Holistic Health Nut!!

Suzanne please email Teri Jo from Amazing Grass ([email protected])  and let them know you have won! Please CC me on your email ([email protected]). Congrats!!

15% off Amazing Grass Products!

Don’t worry if you did not win the contest, my friend Teri Jo from Amazing Grass has told me that ALL Oh She Glows readers will receive 15% off on all your Amazing Grass purchases! Just enter ‘ohsheglows’ at the checkout for your discount. Sweet! :D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

See you all tomorrow bright and early for Shop 4 A Cause!!! 8am EST- yippee!

Let’s raise some awesome money for Cancer Research!!!!!!!!