Before we jump into the topic for this week, let's take a few moments to discuss last week. Thanksgiving. The most loathed of all holidays for your waistline (you know, except for every other vacuous excuse to overeat). You're going to hate me when I tell you how much weight I gained over Thanksgiving. Ready? No really, get ready. I gained 0.8 pounds. Not even a full pound! Really not sure how I did that, since I did go home to Kentucky for the week. I wanted EVERYTHING I saw... I even deprived myself a few things, which you know isn't exactly the best thing to do, but I'm sorry Katie. You can't have White Castle followed up by Arby's. You just can't do that. Especially when you're not even hungry!
How did I survive the week? Here's a few things I kept in mind:
- Eat what you want. It's a holiday for crying out loud. If you want something fattening that you can't indulge in all year, eat it! Just don't eat the entire thing...
- Pace yourself. Eat slowly! This is very easy to do when you're seeing friends and family you don't see very often.
- Don't be afraid of not cleaning your plate! My Thanksgiving dinner, I left food on my plate. Don't become over-full. That kind of bad behavior breeds more. It's food. No matter how much we enjoy it, the purpose of the food is to feed us, not to hurt us. Use a smaller plate if you need to.
These are things that if you make them a habit, they'll come naturally and you can use them all year round. It takes 30 days to form a habit, but only a couple bad moments to break it. I'm proud that I was able to keep up my habit, even when eating things that I don't normally indulge in. I also tried to keep up my exercise habit. Went to the gym and went running while I was gone.
So after spending a week with family and friends I'm back to cooking for myself. This week I'm house and dog sitting which is kind of a new idea for me. I've never had the opportunity to be the single friend that you can count on to do things while you're out of town! I've always had someone to take care of... so I'm pretty excited to get to do this. What I'm not excited about is eating while doing it.
After a week of southern food (I had chicken and dumplings and fried green tomatoes while I was gone) I'm definitely in detox mode. My stomach was NOT happy with me. At the same time, my change in routine could very well result in me ordering pizza every night for the next week. That's so much easier, right?
There's a couple alternatives we have for the week. Me by myself. Me with good friends. Me with some takeout. I'm planning to indulge in all three of these.
I started out the morning at the grocery store. I give myself $40 a week for groceries, which I don't know, does that seem like a lot? Does it seem like not enough? Because honestly, I have money left over afterward. I give myself $40 in case I need to restock on something (spices ain't cheap) or if something catches my fancy. This week I went simple because really, all I need are supplies for breakfast and dinner. I'll either enjoy a tasty, tasty frozen dinner (bah) for lunch at work or go out (sounds more like it) so just need a nice, light dinner to get me through this week. Here's the plan: Breakfast to go with my new obsessions, Odwalla protein monsters. Dinner will be primarily soup and salad combinations.
Other than the salad ingredients (and the eventual spoilage of shakes) I tried to focus on food that wouldn't go bad over the course of the week. I'm so bad about this. When I get invited somewhere else for dinner or when my day at work ends with me craving some food-love from a restaurant, I have a tendency to forget what I've bought. I probably throw away more food than I should and that's really awful. But there's a reason why I limit my budget. I don't want to overbuy and be wasteful.
I know I want to order a pizza this week. This should shape my view of the entire week. If pizza is in the plan then I shouldn't be sitting around eating fried chicken the rest of the nights. Also have intentions to have dinner with a coworker that lives nearby (she likes to cook, I like to eat!) so since eating at someone else's house completely removes control from you, plan the rest of the week accordingly. One night won't ruin your weight loss or healthy eating. Obviously even one week won't ruin it. It's all in your frame of mind. Will you let yourself give up? Or will you go back on your plan to reach your goal after a couple bumpy days?
By the end of the week I hope to be able to report that the pesky little 0.8 pounds has been removed. I'll also report on how eating for the week really went and if I was able to meet my calorie and nutritional ideals while eating so simply. In the mean time... I hope everyone enjoys coming down off their turkey comas!
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