Sunday, September 6, 2009

Weekend so far.

Yesterday was a reasonably good day. I did fine with breakfast and lunch and I wanted to eat dinner at 1 PM. Instead I grabbed a peach and went for a walk. By 5 PM I was totally struggling and I went out to Olive Garden (I had planned on giving myself some sort of treat). I looked at the nutrition facts for the options ahead of time and ordered the lunch portion of my favorite meal (something I only recently learned you can do). I was dong fine. I went to Barnes and Noble and spent some time reading there, and on the way home I wanted some chocolate. Like, I *really* wanted it. I still had points left and figured that my wanting it was not fleeting (I had been thinking about wanting chocolate for a couple hours, not just a hot second), so I stopped and got a Ritter Sport. Those are my favorite European chocolate bars (anyone, anyone?). For the most part, I am done just shoving crappy food in my body so if I am going to go off the plan, it is not going to be for some nasty Hershey's, it is going to be for good chocolate!

Guess how many points that thing had? 15!!! Almost as much as my dinner. Ooops. Oh well, I did have the points left, so I tracked it and moved on. Lesson learned though -- I won't be doing that again anytime soon. Oh well, that is part of what this journey is about: figuring out what are good, marginal, bad, and really bad choices. I will have either find a way to only eat half or a third of the bar next time, or make a different choice. In the past, I never trusted myself to only eat a third, because I would quickly make a beeline for the rest of the chocolate. Maybe I will have to try that though? I have grown in other areas of my relationship with food and maybe that is the next improvement I can make.

Today I 70% want to go to the gym, 30% don't. I feel like I need to to make up for yesterday. However, I have not taken a full day off from working out this week and I probably should. I may be able on a technicality to not count yesterday as exercising since I just went for a walk on the trail system. Let's be honest, though, in the past I would have totally counted that for exercise -- especially in the days I was leading such a sedentary lifestyle! We will see what wins out: my desire to go to the gym, or my desire to stay home.

The reasons I want to go to the gym are three:
  1. I feel incredibly guilty for eating that chocolate bar yesterday. This would help me to make amends.
  2. Tonight there is a picnic with my coworkers and the graduate students. I want to be able to indulge a little and have more wiggle room than my 31 daily points and leftover activity points allow. Obviously, this is more of a choice if I have earned some more activity points ahead of time. There will be BBQ from Penguin Ed's and so I want to be able to eat one of the sausage sandwiches guilt-free! Also, everyone's supposed to bring something, so I am sure there will be much deliciousness there (I am bringing watermelons so I at least have one healthy choice).
  3. My favorite class, BodySculpt, is today. They only offer it three times a week now and Sunday is by far the best time for my schedule.
I will let you know what happens, but if I had to guess I will end up going to the gym.

1 comment:

  1. Sarah, that was an excellent blog. Here are some of my thoughts. I sometimes make health shakes with carob and something yummy like hazelnut extract, orange extract, coconut extract, whatever your fave is. This satisfies the hunger, takes the place of a meal, is healthy, and satisfies my palate for chocolate, which I am allergic to anyway. I've also had carob and frozen fruit. Carob has LOTS of fiber in it, so you can't overdo it like you can chocolate, LOL. You will feel the wrath if you do.

    I keep almonds on hand to get me through the day. Unsalted from the health food store. I also have cukes all peeled and ready to go in case of hunger pangs, which drive me to distraction sometimes. It's good to know the "freebie" foods that you an indulge in for snacking, like grapefruit, etc. It really helps!

    I'm one of those people that HAS to have a certain amount of protein or the hunger just crushes my spirit. You can get a packet of bonesless skinless chicken, bake it all up on the weekend, then refrigerate or freeze the portions. Use in salads. Make chicken parmesian (not breaded). Make chicken burritoes. It has lots of uses.

    And I would like to try walking with you and/or going to the gym (if you would like the company) on the weekends when my schedule allows. I was invited to walk with another friend, but I would slow her down too much. She's a speed demon. I also need more alternatives than just Chinese water torture, I mean water aerobics, LOL.

    ReplyDelete

 
Clicky Web Analytics