First, thank you for the support and comments on my post T is for Truth. It was hard for me to put it out there because I feel like a failure for letting the binge eating demons sneak back into my life. I thought I had it under control.
In that post I vowed to be more honest with myself in my logging and calorie counting. There were a few things I knew I could do to set things straight, it was just a matter of doing them.
The title of this post probably leads you to believe that I’m cutting out sugar entirely from my life. That is not the truth. I’ve found over the years that completely denying myself things set me up for failure and bingeing. But managing what I eat, paying attention to my portions and recording my calories accurately is what has worked for me so far.
The truth is I need to stop eating candy mindlessly at work.
No more candy at work. THIS I can do. After lunch if I am craving something sweet I can chew gum or have some mints or something. But to mindlessly eat candy just out of habit is what is making me fail. I need to limit my “candy” intake to just dessert. I mean really, how many desserts do I need in one day? One or none. That’s how many.
I did pretty well skipping the candy after lunch at work, or chewing some gum. It really was a mental shift. I’d walk by the candy room, see all the tantalizing treats I wanted and think “nope, not eating it” and keep walking.
One day I had a small mandarin orange as my “treat” after lunch. Just as sweet as candy and only around 30 calories.
I need to be TRUTHFUL about the calories I am REALLY eating. The truth is I need to manage my portions better.
This is harder but I’ve been doing it loyally for the last week. Even if I don’t want to see the number in my MyFitnessPal App, I need to see it. Portions need to be accurate or what I’m recording as my calories is inaccurate and not helping me!
The truth is I need to stop eating dessert every single night at home.
It’s easy to rationalize eating dessert. If I work out and I have a bunch of calories left over I think, Sweet! I can have more dessert! And then I fail. It’s OK to have some calories left over for the day! I don’t need to eat all of them. AND it’s A-OKAY to have fruit for dessert! Sometimes just having something sweet at the end of the day is all you need.
The truth is I need to stop drinking alcohol for awhile. The liquid calories aren’t doing me any favors.
This is an easier one to accomplish. I’ve cut out alcohol many times before. Sure I miss it once in awhile after I quit but really, I’d usually rather have some chocolate over wine. This time around it’s easy to forgo the alcohol because after being sick for a week I had absolutely zero desire to drink anything. Once I get out of the habit of reaching for that glass of wine, I don’t think about it too much.
The other night we had steak for dinner. It’s been awhile since we had steak. I bought a nice one from Trader Joe’s, Michael cooked it up with a red potato and I topped the steak with Gorgonzola cheese. It’s one of my favorite home cooked meals.
I have to admit, it was hard not to want a glass of red wine with it. In my mind steak and wine go together perfectly and it felt weird not to have at least one glass. But I resisted and just had water. Sure it was disappointing but I got over it.
One glass of wine a week is something I can allow myself to do and not more often than that. I’m still considering cutting out the wine entirely for a little while. But I had one glass this weekend so…obviously I didn’t start it this weekend! 😉
And again, this doesn’t necessarily have to be a long term thing. Once I tackle the emotional aspects of why I am overeating and get a handle on it, I can look at my habits with a clearer head. Losing a few pounds will give me the confidence in my maintenance. I weighed myself this weekend and am down 1 pound, which was good to see but I sure didn’t like that number on the scale. So that’s where I am at right now. Trying to make some progress.
emmaclaire
Great job on reining in the creeping bad habits. It’s funny how they do just sneak up on us, isn’t it? I’m at that same point and wondering how did cookies every day suddenly become an okay thing to do? My jeans tell me it’s not a good idea, I’ll tell you that! Wine on weekends, cookies on weekdays, portions at dinner, I just have to pay attention to what’s going in my mouth. Here’s wishing us both the satisfaction of watching the scales go down over the next weeks/months!
Lisa Eirene
I like that–how did cookies every day become ok? I am asking myself the same thing. When did that habit creep back into the routine? And how do I change that?
Carrie @ Season It Already!
While I don’t think dessert is my downfall, I can still relate very well to this right now!
When I studied in France, my host parents offered dessert after every dinner. Sometimes it was two (small) scoops of ice cream, but more often than not, it was a piece of fruit or yogurt. A pastry or baked good as dessert was only for special occasions.
Lisa Eirene
What a great story and a healthy concept! You are so right!
Beth
I try and limit wine to either Friday night or Saturday night but not both — and I try very hard not to have it during the week. This weekend I had it both nights! We didn’t have plans Saturday night when I made the decision to have it on Friday – and then things changed! And the wine was flowing big time on Saturday but I definitely stopped with wine still in my glass and switched over to decaf. It’s the hardest to do in the summertime I think!! It’s like every night is Saturday in the summer.
Good luck!!
Lisa Eirene
For a long time I had the same rule–Friday and Saturday nights were the nights I’d have wine and it was usually one glass.
Andrea@WellnessNotes
I bet just writing this post made you feel better and it also made what you have to do more “real” even though you knew all along… We all let some bad habit creep back in at times…
I have always been an emotional eater. I’ve been maintaining a 50+ pound loss (with some little gains and losses over the years) for a long time now, and it’s amazing how easily bad habits can creep back in, especially when things get stressful. I always try to be extra mindful when there is a lot of stress, but I still sometimes catch myself doing something I shouldn’t be doing…
I stopped drinking alcohol in January 2013 when I did a food-based cleanse and had maybe 5 or 6 drinks total in 2013. I don’t miss it, and I much prefer to eat some chocolate once in a while versus having a glass of wine (which I still do have on a very special occasion). And I also always have to watch my portions because I gained most of the weight in the first place by eating healthy foods but just way too much of it…
Lisa Eirene
I’m with you, I usually don’t miss it after I stop drinking. I went 2 years while I was losing my 100 pounds and stopped drinking. I just didn’t want the liquid calories. Like you I’d rather have chocolate!