Fat Girl at Dunkin Donuts: An Intuitive Eating Perspective

"Tomorrow, I'm going to enjoy play food for what it is."

A couple weeks ago, I saw an event posting for the opening of a new Dunkin Donuts franchise. I'm always on the lookout for fun, local, social activities, so I RSVP'd yes!

And then I had to deal with these thoughts:

People are going to make fun of me for being fat.

People are going to think I'm fat because I ate too many donuts.

People are going to think I don't care about healthy eating.

People are gonna take pictures of me and make fun of them.

I better dress up so at least they don't think I'm lazy.

I'm grateful that at least now my negative thoughts about my size are mostly about how I'm perceived by others. It sucks, but at least it's better than actually believing those things about myself, that I'm unhealthy or lazy or unworthy of belonging because of my size.

Well, no one in line made judgmental glances. No one made negative comments. Actually, I chatted the whole time with two women in line about normal-people things (any-size-people things) like weather, traffic, careers, places we've lived, pets, and of course, which flavor of donut we wanted to try. And I realized something, no one goes to a donut shop opening unless they appreciate play food.

What is play food? According to Intuitive Eating, it's food that has little nutritional value, but is enjoyable to eat. It is morally neutral, meaning it's not good or evil. It's not even "healthy" or "unhealthy." The idea is that once you're tuned in with your body's cues to hunger, fullness, and energy, you'll naturally eat the types and amounts of food that are best for you.

I was content with my one donut and small hot chocolate, genuinely content, because I knew I could choose to eat a second or a dozen without internal shame. It did feel playful, fun, indulgent in a good way. I wasn't thinking about how to burn off those calories later. It was pure gratitude:

These flavors, textures, and smells are pleasant.

Active businesses are great for our city.

I could be friends with these women I met in line.

It's fun how many people came out for this. I'm glad I'm a part of it.

I am good enough to be a part of whatever I want to be a part of.

Part of me knows it was luck that there weren't any bullies out that day. Or well-meaning "fitness" advocates. I also know that happiness comes from within. I hope I can build up enough self-love and gratitude to stop fearing the disapproving glance once and for all.

~

I'm not affiliated with Dunkin Donuts. It just happened to be the perfect setting for this message so I didn't bother changing the name.

To read more about Intuitive Eating, check out the book by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch (Amazon Affiliate link).

Today's curated art prints are "Fruity Donuts" and "Donuts in Balloons" by Ivy Niu. There are 41 pages of donut-related prints on society6, if you can believe it. Ivy Niu's stood out to me as charming, imaginative, and meaningful. They make me smile.

A Bath of Ice Water: Committing to My Dream Day

"Tomorrow, I'm going to use my Dream Day as a schedule template."

At this month's Live Your Legend Local (LYLL) meeting, I brought up the concept of the Dream Day. I'd heard about how your Dream Day is part of your personal brand on the Being Boss podcast.* The exercise is to describe what your ideal day looks like, from the time you wake up to the time you wrap your wings around you as you hang upside down from a cave overhead. Or put your head on a pillow...however you sleep. 

I found it surprisingly difficult to answer:

What would my Dream Day look like?

So I rephrased the question:

What daily habits would help me accomplish my long-term goals?

What daily habits would help keep me healthy and active?

What daily habits would bring the most meaning and art to my life?

I made a calendar called 'Dream Day' to help me visualize it. 

(WIP. Definitely need a better word than "Grooming.")

My daily life now looks nothing like my Dream Day. It looks more like this:

How to Make the Dream Day Real

Jim's Idea: Jim, another LYLL participant, likened a major change like this to taking a bath in ice water. If you just stick your toe in, the chill might shoot you back and you'll never come near the stuff again. Better to commit to all of it. It's frikkin cold at first, but then you're in and it actually starts to feel warm.

Lorraine's Idea: The marathon method. Commit to one small change until you've mastered it. Repeat. She got into a solid routine for herself this way.

Before I could pick a method, I had to address a very important point everyone in the group touched on:

There's nothing wrong with my habits now.

I've never maintained a schedule like my Dream Day calendar's. However, I have met all the goals I've set for myself lately. So it looks like having a strict schedule is not essential to my success. I do the best I can with the resources available to me at any moment, so I can't assume MORE and BETTER will suddenly appear because an alarm clock goes off.

It's likely that the Dream Day, at least in schedule format, is an over-correction, forcing someone else's definition of 'a day well spent' onto myself.

But here's what I want:

1. To get sick less frequently

2. To have more energy

3. To produce more creative content

4. To find my tribe and build community

Based on what I know about metabolism science and the immune system, (which is admittedly minimal), 1. and 2. will improve with regulated sleep and eating, so:

I just gotta try it.

I'm gonna commit fully to the routine, like submerging in an ice bath, but get there by moving my schedule up one hour a day. The point is to have more energy so it doesn't make sense to wake up 4 hours earlier all of a sudden.

I'll also allow for a lot of self-forgiveness if the transition is bumpy.

*The Being Boss Podcast hosts literally only mentioned Dream Day + Branding and I ran with it. I'm not sure how they definite it or approach the topic with their clients. Maybe I'll message them to find out.

Rest Periods: Recovery and Rest vs. Lazy

“Tomorrow I’m going to actively recover from my awesome workout today.”`

You take that extra sip of water. You go chat it up with your buddy. You go chalk your hands, because you know sweaty hands must be chalked frequently. You lay around on your couch eating chocolates or watching t.v.

Alright, reality check, taking obscenely large breaks during a workout are reserved for people who do balls to the wall olympic training. People who do olympic or competitive training, meaning those who sprint like a cheetah or can lift your car plus you in it.

The disadvantages to taking long rest breaks (greater than 2 minutes) is that your heart rate falls from where it is supposed to ideally remain in a workout (depending on what you are trying to achieve, a 50-85% range for target heart rate). What’s the point of maintaining a target heart rate? Maintaining a certain number of beats per minute allows you to either be in a steadier fat burning state or cardio mode.

So the next time you go for that extra five minutes to get some water or towel off your brow remember that you are robbing yourself of consistent training. A good rule of thumb I like to use is if you are able to have a full conversation while working out (as in you’re not working much besides your jaw from talking) then you should be dropping the chatter and working harder. It’s fine and great that people like to have a good time working out, but it’s going to take you much longer to reach your goals if you don’t make efficient use of your workout time.

The other kicker is taking “rest” days. Yes, you should avoid overtraining, but a rest day is a far cry from helping you recover. What you should aim for is taking 30 minutes to an hour on recovery/rest days and stretching out, rolling out, gaining mobility and flexibility. If you don’t invest time in recovering progress in your runs, lifts, or jazzercise is going to be stunted.

So ladies and gents, please consider how many rest breaks you take (limit them to 30 seconds-2 minutes absolute max) and actively recover your muscles for maximum performance.


Hi I am Katie, and here’s me in a nutshell. I love to eat, and used to live to eat. Now I eat to live. There is never a day that goes by that I am not reading a new scientific article about gluten intolerance and fitness or perusing a blog on gourmet paleo cooking ideas. I Crossfit and am on the Couch to 5k running series. Hit me up with your nutritional, health and fitness based questions.

Supersets and Work out of the Day

“Tomorrow, I’m going to throw some supersets into my routine to get my heart rate up.”

I am all for doing a million reps of something, but not with light weights and not with uber long rest breaks. Unless you are injured, pregnant or elderly please don’t skimp on your workload. Also resting forever between doing a set of one exercise to the next is not beneficial to you, it allows your Heart Rate to drop amongst many other things (a post about this will come later).

That being said today we are going to look at supersets (combining two or more exercises back to back) and on a way to incorporate this using your own body weight. For our purposes today we’re going to look at linking three exercises together with zero rest between movements completing 3-5 sets back to back (your aim is to do it in as little time as you are able). This superset will be repeated 3-5 times depending on your capabilities and current health status. Linking these exercises will also get your heart rate up and constitute as metabolic conditioning (metcon).

Now on to the Metcon for the day!

Complete 3-5 sets for time of the following:

• 10 burpees
• 20 squats (unweighted)
• Run 200 meters

Here’s a few links to give you an idea for what each movement should look like:
burpees - http://runfitkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Burpees_Kate.jpg
squats -
1) http://www.myfitclinic.com/wp-content/uploads/proper-squat-child2.jpg
2)https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn_Tto7wabZz_-OLcApQPNNj4swh4b2rweauWhGI6EHGALpFV0IP8WZUP8-1z6D5OvVN0eWb9v5-n-VlKAuP4vHZQecDrPnb1LfPzmd16tPVJKZ_lutPVpKWzMZPmNR0x90-kdPtGU1A4/s1600/SQUAT.jpg

If any of these exercises are too much for you, please know there are modifications. You could pause and touch the floor with your whole body during the burpee. You could jog instead of run or walk and jog instead of just jog. There are so many options that will make each movement possible for you wherever you are at in your fitness journey.

Slow things down if you must to ensure you always have proper form so as to prevent injury.



Disclaimer: Before starting this workout please consult your doctor to confirm you are okay to start an exercise program.