Waisting Time

Ah, April.  Longer days.  A farewell to winter; a promise of sun.  Green.  Flowering.  Spirit-lifting.

Ahhhhh, April.  An obstacle course of eating challenges.

This weekend starts it off.  With a bang.  And a barrage of social eating.  Friday dinner.  Saturday dinner.  Sunday, worst of all, hours and hours and hours of family and food and more food and more food.

Then next week… travel.  And the eating challenge to end all eating challenges for me – a road trip.  Eek.  Yikes.  Aaack.

I need a plan.  I don’t have a plan.  Yet.  Funny thing though – I’m not worried.  I’m, well, I’m “aware.”  I’m not dreading it.  I’m “anticipating” it.  Not eagerly mind you, as some might interpret that word.  But with realistic expectation.  And acceptance.  And, yes, some heavy sighing even as I type.

I know there will be a lot of food temptation.  Landmine after landmine.  I know that in the past I have struggled time and time again with similar challenges.  Oh, wait, I’m supposed to call them “opportunities!”

Social eating continues to be one of the hardest things for me to master on my journey to healthy living.  Finding the balance between partaking of off-plan food in moderation and not feeling overwhelmed with a sense of deprivation.  Deprivation is a strong emotion.  Emotions can lead to eating.  You know the cycle, I’m sure.  On the plus side, I seem to have conquered my past pattern of pre-cheating.  So an incident of social eating is now typical contained to just that – one incident.  But this weekend brings three.  Three days of relentless food onslaught.  Maybe I need to retitle this post The Hunger Games!

As for road trips, what can I say.  My last little jaunt in the car morphed into a food overload of binge eating as I gave in once more to my all-or-nothing thinking – that once I stray the least bit off plan, I might as well eat everything and anything until I get back home and on track.  Sigh.  And what is it about being in the car for hours on end that makes me want to eat!?

I don’t want to go there again.  (“There” being the mental state, as opposed to the state of Pennsylvania.)  I don’t want to be that person.  I don’t want to feel the sense of eating and eating yet finding no satisfaction.  I don’t want to feel the remorse.  The regret.  I don’t want “the morning after.”  Or the self-recrimination.

I want to go and enjoy myself and not really think about the food.  Not think about what I’m NOT eating.  Not think about what I’d regret eating.  Not think about what I wish I was eating.  Instead, I want to think “I can do this.”  And then I want to think “I did this.”  Or maybe, what I really want is to think nothing at all, to shut off my over-thinking reforming yo-yo dieter brain.

So that gives me the beginning of a plan.  The Little Engine that Could Plan.  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.  Moderation, moderation, moderation.  I think I can.  I’m going to channel that thinking into a self-fulfilling prophecy of doing.  Words into action.  (Okay, I admit it, my fingers are crossed behind my back.)

What’s coming your way in April?

Photo credit [hellojenuine]

My dear husband has adopted a new eating philosophy for himself and he and I are now pretty much eating nothing in common!  Well, not the key stuff anyway.

It all started on Facebook.  (Darn that social media for influencing our lives!) Hubby was stalking catching up on an old friend; the friend posted about a book he had read:  The China Study.  So hubby read the book.  Or scanned the key parts, anyway.  And was intrigued at its premise that one could lower risk for all sorts of disease by eliminating animal products from one’s diet.  Coincidentally, he was due for a cholesterol check and had been wanting to drop a few pounds, so… he was off and running.  His primary goal:  to improve his overall health.

The basics of the plan, to summarize in MY words, are that you cut out all animal products including dairy and eggs.  Eat veggies and fruit and carbs and other protein sources.  And, oh yeah, white potatoes.

Which I single out to mention because MY “plan” is pretty much about lean protein (including animal sources and encouraging dairy and eggs) and less refined carbs and NO white potatoes.  Actually, no white anything, like bread or flour or rice.  My typical daily diet almost always includes animal protein and is often devoid of grains and starches.  The latter being more a personal choice because they are foods I seem inclined to overeat.  Meanwhile, Hubby is filling his plate with grains and starches and nary an animal protein in sight!  I’m not eating junk food.  (Okay, let me clarify – I am INTENDING to not eat junk food.)  In the last week my husband has ingested candy and cookies and “whole grain” chips, things I’m pretty sure are to be “minimized” when officially following his “plan,” but I suppose one must acquiesce that they are not animal products.  (Now about that tub of frozen yogurt…)

He likes that he no longer craves meat.  I NEVER crave meat!  (Mind out of the gutter, Munchberry.)  I have to make a very conscious choice, every day, to eat protein instead of my beloved carbs.  I can only imagine what would happen if I switched to a plan that cut out my go-to snacks of fat-free cheese and jerky. That didn’t let me eat my new-found love:  Greek yogurt.   That encouraged me to eat white potatoes instead of sweet potatoes.  And… wait for it… bread and cereal and pasta, oh my!

So… what this means is that in the Waisting Time household, there are few “family” meals happening, as we each prep and cook and even sometimes shop for ourselves.  And finding a restaurant for Valentine’s Day where we could both stay deliciously on plan was a challenge and a half!

And, frustration of frustrations, hubby is losing weight with his potatoes and oatmeal raisin cookies (and no regard for “all things in moderation”).  I, on the other hand, am not.  (Although I must give credit to him for burning a huge number of calories on the treadmill each day while I am still unable to burn any doing cardio, thanks to my darn calf.)

I am all for the philosophy of “to each his own.”  And I totally believe that with eating (and dieting and clothing) one size does NOT fit all.  We each need to find what works for us.  What gets us to whatever goal we have set, be it lower cholesterol or looser pants.  That we each need to figure out how we can comfortably eat for the long-term.  “Lifestyle, not a diet,” yada, yada, yada.

But I am also very frustrated of late that the “experts” all seem to disagree as to what works best for our bodies from a medical standpoint.  But, that’s a post topic for another day.

For now…  I’m off to put my favorite healthy Mexican chicken casserole into the crock-pot.  I’ll be eating it alone tonight.  And tomorrow.  And the day after.

What about you?  Animal products?  White potatoes?  Grains?  Oatmeal raisin cookies?

Photo credit [Madigan308]

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