I’ve done the whole “Why Did I Eat That” analysis before. Seems that maybe I need to do it again, and offer myself some better options for the next time I find myself wanting to stuff my face when I’m not truly hungry (or feed my face the absolute wrong foods).
Situation: At work, either late morning or mid afternoon. Sluggish, but not necessarily hungry. Tempted to hit the vending machine for a Diet Dew and something from the bottom row — Pop Tarts, cookies, honey bun, etc.
When I find myself sitting at my desk and contemplating a sugary snack, I have a couple of lines of defense.
Number One: I actually wrote myself a reminder on a sticky note, telling myself how crappy I felt after eating the carrot cake from the restaurant downstairs. Not that it’s not delicious, but the icing is more sugar than cream cheese, and I feel positively nasty after I eat a piece.
Number Two: I look at my weight graphs in Google Sheets. I’ve been aggregating monthly and weekly weights from my daily weigh-ins at the bathroom scale, and when I feel like it doesn’t really matter if I go get a Pop-Tart or some Hostess cupcakes from the bottom row, I take a look at the slow downward trend I’ve got going on. Then I let myself be reminded by that blip in May (and June) that, yes, the little things DO matter.
Number Three: No Sugar Added Cocoa + Decaf makes a quite passable low-Point chocolatey sugary fix… so long as I agree that I’ll be done after that. Once I put my retainers back in, I’m done eating or drinking anything but water until dinner.
Situation: It’s after Connor’s bedtime, and I’m either munchy or all-out hungry. My mouth thinks I should make a box of Kraft Dinner — basically, enough SmartPoints / calories to fuel my entire day, but after 8pm. Bad idea.
Option One: Embrace the hunger. This only works if I’m in the right mindset, and can appreciate the fact that my body is using up the extra resources I don’t need.
Option Two: Eat some fruit — preferably cherries, which require some extra attention while eating. Removing pits and stems takes the mindlessness out of snacking.
Option Three: Put together an elaborate Greek yogurt dessert. Honey and apples and cinnamon, or low-fat graham crackers and maple syrup, or chocolate and maple syrup, or any of a number of other combinations. The act of assembling the yogurt dessert/snack really helps me be more deliberate about eating it, too.
Option Four: Make a fancy decaf topped with Fat-Free Reddi Wip and vanilla powder, and maybe some freshly ground nutmeg.
This is a necessary and useful exercise for me… so how did June really go?
I only tracked 63% of the time, which is a big downslide for me — I usually track 100% of the time, even if I go over my daily target. Of the days that I did track, I went over my daily allowance 74% of the time. If I give myself some slack and allow a few extra SmartPoints as part of my weekly buffer, that still only brings me up to correctly following the program half the days that I actually tracked, and a third of the month overall.
I’ll give myself an attagirl for recognizing the problem about three weeks into the month and focusing my attention on it in my own special way: by making a graph.
Snacking is obviously a problem, hence my potential solutions above.
In July, I’m going to work toward re-establishing my healthy behaviors. Tracking. Being active. Staying on-plan (which means not going over my Daily Target most days, and not eating all of my Weekly and Activity SmartPoints). If I get my behaviors back on track, I’m betting that my weight will fall in line, as well.
My Goal Weight is still about ten pounds away. I’m also aiming to lose about 2% body fat by the end of the year. These are both completely reasonable goals to reach by the end of 2016… but only if I apply myself. If I skate through like I’m on Maintenance, that’s the result I’m going to get. Sure, it’s more of a lifestyle change than a “diet,” per se, but my brain still needs to be in Active Weight Loss Mode.
Quit fucking around and just do this thing.