Splurging

I get asked quite often what I eat now; what I eat daily and what I eat when I 'cheat'. I've written about what a typical day looks like, but this weekend I celebrated my 25th wedding anniversary, and if any weekend could be considered a 'splurge' this would be it.

Well, first of all, there is no 'cheating'. I'm not dieting for the rest of my life. I've just changed how I look at food to a certain extent.

So, daily, I may have eggs and bacon for breakfast. I don't sit for big meals as a rule because there are only two of us now, and even when there were three, we often were on different schedules. However, before, I might have had a bowl of cereal OR a bagel with cream cheese OR oatmeal OR yogurt. Now, I focus on protein. We make the bacon in big batches and freeze it so I can grab just 2 or 3 slices and eat it with an herbed egg or two. Or, if I don't have eggs made, I may have a slice or two of hard cheese with my bacon, or I may have the cheese with an apple or pear.

I drink water throughout the day, but I do drink coffee with cream in the morning. usually two cups, but my cups are big, like 1.5 size, maybe two, of what my coffee maker calls a 'cup'.

For lunch, I might have 1/2 cup cottage cheese (full fat) and a piece of fruit (if I didn't have one for breakfast). Before, I would have had a Peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat...no jelly or honey or anything. I might have had some baby carrots with ranch dip, but often just the sandwich.

Now, I'll probably have a handful of macadamia nuts or almonds as a snack. I probably would have done that before, or I might have had a 'healthy' protein/meal bar. I look at labels now and cannot believe the amount of sugar and/or carbohydrate in those bars I got from the health food store, let alone the ones in mainstream groceries!

For dinner now, I might make a cauliflower crust pizza, or a quiche with the same crust. I might make a spicy peanut sauce to go with grilled chicken and veggies. Now though, I'll skip the rice...even the brown or whole grain...unless I have a very small amount. Before, it would have been a bed of rice as my main portion (like 3/4 cup) with a little veggie and chicken. Now, the I may have a whole chicken breast, a cup of veggies, and little or no rice.

Now, for a celebratory weekend? I don't just toss my new habits. Before, going away for a weekend meant eating the hotel 'continental' breakfast, which is all starch or sweet fruit. I may have taken those protein bars or granola bars thinking that was somehow better because at least it wasn't a sugar-filled cereal. We also would have eaten out for all of our meals, and while we have split the vast majority of our meals for years, still usually it would be more than I'd eat at home. And, we'd eat at the places we never get to eat otherwise, and I'd get the pasta nearly every time.

On a car trip, we might have picked up chips or pretzels or something, or we may have allowed ourselves the fast food that we tried to stay away from in our daily lives.

This weekend, we were gone 3 1/2 days. We ate 4 meals out, all evening meals. We took a cooler with chicken, protein shakes (Jay Robb...low carbs 110 calories), nuts, apples, and Atkins bars. Breakfast, lunch and snacks were all from those selections.

Two meals were very disappointing; not worth the money spent or the calories ingested. For one, I ordered steak, no potato/rice selection and a salad with blue cheese dressing. Broccoli was included, but it was mushy. I had two glasses of wine. No desert. For the other, I had French onion soup and a salad with a pear/vinegar dressing. Meh. I was pissed about this whole dinner. I had one glass of wine and it sucked. No desert here either.

However, both of those nights, we had chocolate later, and we did end up consuming adult beverages...me, another glass of wine back at the hotel each night. I brought 2 bottles for the 4 nights, but I brought home about 3/4 of one of them. In any case, one of those nights, it was just a regular dark chocolate selection from the machine in the hall, but it was too sweet. In the event we got a chocolate craving again, the next day we picked up a quality 70% cocoa bar and split that later in the evening.

The two good meals were at a steakhouse. I ordered a salad and filet mignon. I skipped the potato selection again. I did eat the bread they put on the table these times as it was really good bread: two pieces both times. Again, I had wine with dinner.

We hiked in the hills/mtns. of the U.P. one whole day, did get out and walked every couple of hours each day we were in the car, and we got in a couple of miles on the hotel treadmill the day it was rainy.

This morning I am up 3.5 lb, however, I know that by going back to the way I usually eat, and by getting 3-5 miles per day in on the treadmill, and perhaps some yoga, I will be back down to where I was before I left maybe by the end of the week. I can pretty much figure that getting back to the daily routine will take me twice as long to take it off as it did to put it on, and I have to work fairly hard at it. For instance, in a regular day, I may get the treadmill OR yoga, but not both; I may get 2-3 miles in, but 4 or 5 is pushing it. It's the price I pay for eating out all weekend, even if I made better choices than I might otherwise and even if I didn't allow myself to just indulge.

And make no mistake, while I don't 'diet' to stay here, every single thing I put in my mouth is a conscious choice. All calories are NOT the same! I probably eat the same or MORE calories on a daily basis as I did before, but I typically stay away from grains and sugar. That's the biggest difference.

I keep close track of my weight, and get right on it when I have a weekend like I just had. The biggest 'splurge' of this weekend was I didn't take the scale. I knew that even if I saw the indicator go up, I wouldn't do anything different, so what was the point? But it was the first thing I did this morning, so I could strategize for the rest of the week. I needed to assess the damages right away so it doesn't get out of control.

This program is not magic. People cannot go back to eating the way they did before. What made them fat before will make them fat again, there is no question about that. They cannot use food for reasons other than nourishment. This program gives them the opportunity to cultivate new habits, techniques for dealing with emotions or stress, and ways to socialize that don't always revolve around food...but it is UP TO THE PERSON TO USE THE OPPORTUNITY PROVIDED THEM!

If they look at this like a 'diet', but don't address ALL the ways they gained, they may or may not stabilize, but even if they do, they likely won't keep it off long term. This isn't because the program doesn't work, it's because THEY AREN'T WORKING THE PROGRAM. If someone starts asking me 'when can I have...' I lead them into dialog about changing their perceptions and habits over and over again, but I know they are the ones that will gain it back. It's not that they can't ever have those things again, but that if they are so focused on when they can get back to those old ways, it's probably an issue for them.

I enjoyed this weekend. It was worth a bit of extra work and due diligence regarding my food selections and workout habits for a week or two. It's part of my new life to take care of myself in a way I know works. Conventional wisdom about nutrition and weight management are just plain wrong, and as long as people remain stuck in those perceptions, we will continue to be an obese nation.