Monday, July 8, 2013

Misbehaving

Ahh, Monday again.  I actually like Monday, which probably puts me in the minority.  I like the potential it has.  Monday means that another week has started, with a brand new chance to learn and better myself.

It's a good thing I think that way about Mondays, because my weekend was a little bit of a disaster.  Since the 4th of July was on Thursday, Chad also got Friday off from work, which means he had a four day weekend, woo!  Of course, weekends are when we loosen our low carb/paleo rules about food and tend to eat a little more junky food.

On Thursday, we ended up getting huge ice creams.  On Friday, we had potato salad.  And don't even get me started on Saturday (hint: Aunt Flow showed up and the chocolate was calling my name). 

It always makes me feel guilty when I'm bad like that.  I feel like I've wrecked all the work I've done in the past year to improve my health and well being.  It also makes me feel like I'm weak willed and have no control over my actions.

But I try to remember to look at these situations with clear eyes.  Ice cream, potato salad, a bar of chocolate?  Those may be bad to me now, and we may only eat those things once in a long while, but it's not the end of the world.  It's not like we wrecked our whole diet the entire four day weekend.  We still ate real, whole food the rest of the time.  Life is too short to worry about small indulgences, especially when they're only once in a while.

As for being weak willed, I don't know.  I don't think I'm being fair with myself.  Back when Chad and I were first living together, we ate those types of food every day, multiple times a day.  Chad had a voracious appetite for candy, and I still like to tell the story of when he sat down and ate a whole bag of jelly beans in one sitting.  I was no better.  I had to have sweets in the house all the time.  When about half of them were gone, I'd tell myself that I had to eat these because I didn't want them in the house, and I'd try to eat them quickly.  But then once they were gone, I'd either bake more or buy more junk because I just needed to have it, and the cycle would start again. 

So the fact that we're willing to eat clean, wholesome food 90% of the time?  That's pretty awesome.  If you really think about it, that's not weak willed.  That's actually pretty strong willed.  That's knowing what we want and sticking with it.  And when we do eat junk food, it's not because we have no control over ourselves.  The ice cream was a careful decision, and we actually walked about three miles to get it.  The potato salad was also a decision, because we wanted to have a somewhat traditional cookout.  And we resisted getting baked beans along with the potato salad because we knew that would be over doing it.

As for the chocolate?   I decided a long time ago to let myself have whatever I want the first day AF shows up, since it's such an emotional craptastic day for me.  The fact that I was able to get by eating only 2/3 of a chocolate bar and three rice crispy treats is actually pretty good.  I used to eat 3/4 of a pan of brownies!

I suppose the lesson here is to give yourself a little slack.  Don't beat up on yourself just because you slipped up a little.  Try to see the situation for exactly what it is, and then learn from it.  And remember that life is about enjoying every moment.  If you're constantly denying yourself some of life's pleasures (and that includes food), that's not really living, is it? 

4 comments:

  1. Well, to a certain extent, we'll have to agree to disagree. A little bit of crap food once in a blue moon, yes, okay. But I don't consider the rest of the time not having it...denying myself life's pleasures. Because I truly do see crap food for what it is: poisonous (to my body) crap food. Not only is it not good for me, but it sets the cravings going again for at least 3-4 days, which can become a very slippery slope. But to each their own. :)

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  2. @Gwen: Thanks for the comment! Actually, when I said we shouldn't be denying ourselves life's pleasures, I was referring to those once in a while times when we do eat junkier food, like the 4th of July. I don't think being so focused on food that we beat ourselves up for indulging once in a while is good for anyone's well being. It can lead to food obsession where all you're doing is thinking about what you've eaten and what you'll eat. I've been there. It's not somewhere I want to be again.

    But I agree that indulging is something each person has to decide if they want to do. Too much indulging at once makes me have bad cravings, too, so I try to limit it to once every couple of weeks. But some people can have cheat weekends and still stay on track.

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  3. "hint: Aunt Flow showed up and the chocolate was calling my name"

    I had to chuckle inwardly at this because it reminded me of something I did not too long ago.

    Now I normally add a chocolate fat bomb to my lunch because it gives me a nice little hit of chocolate in the middle of the day and it's sugar-free.

    Well ... I think this was a few months ago ... I was PMSing and that fat bomb was like flipping on a switch and suddenly I had a ravenous craving for chocolate. Shortly afterwards, I followed it with a Hershey bar, then had hot chocolate shortly after THAT. I felt so guilty afterwards XD But it's not like I do that all the time--in fact, it's only been a one-time thing so far--so I let it go.

    I dunno, just thought I'd share that--thought it was kind of funny.

    But I am like you in that I do indulge a little during the first day of my time of the month (just not to the extent that I mentioned above XD). I think it's fine to seek out comfort food like that once in awhile, as long as we aren't always relying on it or anything.

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  4. I understand what Gwen said - I too don't look on these foods as treats now. BUT it takes time, over and over, to realise this and in the meantime seriously this will do you no harm as long as you get back to the healthy eating. My "treats" now are all low carb ones and it is lovely to feel no guilt.

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