Isn't it AMAZING how good food looks when you cannot have it, no matter what it is? I hate Gefilte Fish. Would rather gag than eat it. But if I started an eating plan and someone told me, "You can have all the cake and ice cream you want, but NO GEFILTE FISH!", I would instantly crave it. I am a creature of curiosity. And a creature of rebellious nature. I want what I cannot have. And do not want what I can. Maybe thats what makes it so easy to START eating healthy. Are we testing ourselves, making triple dog dares in our minds, knowing subconsciously we will cave the moment the slightest bad thing is within 5 miles of us? Probably. Whether you can admit to it or not, we all want what we can't have. Cake, a new car, a Gucci handbag, sanity, size 4 jeans...its always within grasp...but we suddenly have no arms. In all my time of diets, eating plans, yadda yaddas, one thing I have always fallen victim to is the whole "I blew it, lets eat crap for a month" pitfall. I almost fell for it tonight. It was a night of inconvenience, a night of chaos, and what I really needed was an easy way out for dinner. Honestly, I was just really tired and didn't feel like fooling around in the kitchen. So, I ended up eating a few boneless wings (no sauce) from Lee's. My GOD they are good. Its not like the old days when I would eat an entire bucket myself. I had maybe 3 or 4. Tops. I ate healthy all day except for that, and got 2 liters of water in. Yeah, not my normal 3, but I caved and drank a Diet A&W with my chicken. We all have our off nights. (Oh yeah, and I had 3 Swedish Fish candies that Abby forced me to eat. At least I am honest.) But as I was saying, I am not taking this and running with it, consenting to eat pizza tomorrow night, followed by ice cream, snacks, etc and then spending a month eating crap from the vending machines at work. Thats where my problem is, the whole convenience thing. That, and who doesn't love eating fast food or restaurant food? You feel like royalty, being waited on. Everyone loves that 'you will do as I say and bring me what I want' feeling we have when out somewhere. I am not hopeless, but I know that I will always view eating out as a special occasion, a celebration, and an excuse to eat whatever the hell I want, no matter how well I have been doing. And I am sorry, Mr. Thurmond, but I am NOT about to flip out on some poor waiter about how much sodium they use in their grilled fish. And no, I will NOT squeeze a lemon on it. Since I have lost the majority of my weight and what I have left is mostly excess and skin, here is what I am doing until I hit my magical number...and will stay on in order to maintain. I have upped my protein to 130 oz per day. I spread that out into small meals, about 2-3 hours apart. Every other "feeding" as I call it, I eat a serving of vegetables. The other meals I eat a small serving of healthy carbs. (see sample menu, for shits and giggles...you know, like you would actually do it, lol) I also get at LEAST 100 oz of water in per day as a ground rule. Since I started this I have gotten myself up to 3 liters, more or less, per day. What about the pit falls? Here is what I am going to do. Like George Costanza--chicken salad, do the opposite of everything you have every done, and maybe it will work. If I am going out, I'm not going to plan, fret, freak out, or ruin my time out with bothering the waitstaff. I get there and look at the menu, and decide what looks good and what suits me that moment. If I feel like salmon and a salad, thats what I'll get. If I feel like an entire pizza to myself, I'll freaking get it. No stress. (Did you know stress makes you GAIN weight? It does. Look it up.) Point is, once I leave that resturant, bar, whatever, I am still me, and I'm not going to freak over what happens next. I need to not freak out over it. I'm missing life's finer moments because of this nonsense.
I always walk into the kitchen when I’m hungry and grab whatever I can that doesn’t need to be prepared. I survive on convenience alone. The funny thing is - I have all the time in the world to cook!
ReplyDeleteMy other problem is that I like organization…I like things to be symmetric and even. For instance, if I had $2,000 in my savings account, and I needed to buy something that costs $40…I won’t just take out $40. I want the balance to remain at a certain even amount. I would probably end up taking out $250 so I could have $1,750 in the bank…just because I think it looks better than $1,960 or even $1900 or $1850.
I do this with food too. If there is a half bag of chips left…I’ll eat the rest of the bag because I don’t want to have a bag with a small amount left in it. It just looks unorganized. If I set my diet on a Monday…and eat crap on Wednesday…I’ll continue to eat crap until the following Monday…just because it’s how I like to do things.
It’s good to have a mind that likes order and organization…but it can sometimes be a curse.