I feel a sense of hope that I haven't experienced before when it comes to weight loss. I am finishing my fourth day of predetermining what I will eat and I feel that overall I have been highly successful. I say this because I have already experienced several situations that would normally set me back and have dealt with them as well or better than I had anticipated.
First experience provided a choice, which was to eat the lunch I brought to work yesterday or to eat a lunch brought by one of the other women (for a huge group of us at work.) I made the decision to eat my lunch and eat a small helping of what she brought (a little bit of pancit and a lot of green beans in oyster sauce--good Philippine food!) I avoided everything else and was quite happy with my choices. I did fall off the wagon (so to speak) later that evening but even that gave me an opportunity to get right back on track this morning.
Second area of potential problems revolved around a planned night of dinner and a DVD with my Mom and her husband at their place. Earlier in the day I had texted them to ask if they wanted to come over for dinner at my house. When they said yes it meant I got to control the menu--which kept me completely on track with my meal plan (which I had made without thinking about my Friday night plans.)
Today I spent a couple of hours predetermining my meals for the next week. Similar to my earlier efforts this week, it took quite a while to figure out what my week's meals and snacks would look like. But I am smarter as a result of the first effort and I laid it out on a spreadsheet so that I could easily move things around to satisfy my various criteria (variety, sufficient fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean meats, considering leftover options for lunch and finally staying with a certain calorie level.) But with my week's meal plan in mind I could then write my grocery shopping list based on what I needed to make sure I could accomplish my plans. This then allowed me to deal with my next set of challenges.
Third, fourth and fifth opportunities to go off track and slip back into old habits occurred after work today--when I was hungry and grocery shopping. The standard advice is to avoid shopping when hungry but because I had a list of specific items to fill in for my predetermined meals for the next week there was no reason to buy anything not on my list. Then, on my way from Costco to Fresh & Easy I passed several of my favorite fast food restaurants (remember I'm still hungry) and didn't stop because I had a plan. Lastly, I prepared everything for dinner (we had large Cobb salad for dinner and a small blueberry muffin for dessert) and then sat and played a game while waiting for them to arrive. We ate dinner, we're watching the BBC's Inspector Lewis right now and I am feeling quite pleased with myself. In fact, if my feelings could be described in a visual way I might look like the Cheshire cat, with a very large grin on my face.
I am so ready for this weekend and the next week. And, I cannot wait to step on the scale Monday for my official weigh in. It's not often I make a statement like that! And, I am looking forward to eating according to my predetermined meal plan.
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