Eating Food Just to Be Rid of It
What to Do with the Leftovers?
Okay, tell me if you’ve ever done this: It’s Monday late afternoon. You decided yesterday that starting today you were going to 1) eat right, and 2) start to get regular exercise, and 3) give up all your bad habits. So, you’re picking things up around the house and starting to notice all the little bits and pieces of leftovers from the past weekend. Namely, cookies here, and small bits of candy there. In my house today I noticed I had three large shortbread cookies (I’m overly fond of shortbread cookies with icing), several bags of the candy that resemble real rocks which I keep saying I want to put in a jar, but I haven’t found just the right jar (for display, you know), and the leftovers from the latest summer?picnic, which in my case is about five pounds of fruit salad – not bad in itself, but I can only eat so much fruit salad.
And Then There’s the Wine
Of course, I had to buy some wine at a tasting on Saturday (I always buy it, don’t know why I think those wine tasting’s are such a great deal – they always entice me to buy), and now there’s an open bottle waiting.
So, my thoughts are, “Do I eat this, or not?” “Do I throw it away and WASTE it?” “Oh, my, dear no. That’s not a good idea,” I think. Oh, I just remembered there is also an entire plate of large cinnamon rolls (Cinnabon style) I made Friday night. They’ll be stale soon. That’s not good. It’d be such a shame to throw them all away, and I only ate one.
And so it goes. Do I talk myself into eating up the last remnants of the weekend, thus going into Tuesday and possibly Wednesday with the taste of weekend indulgence still on my lips, or do I decide, really decide, I’ve had enough? It’s time to eat better, like I just said, last night. Remember last night? It seems so long ago now …
What if We Just Start Tomorrow?
It’s interesting how easily we talk ourselves right out of what we had decided yesterday was such a good idea. So what’s wrong with just starting tomorrow? What’s wrong is that tomorrow never comes. It’s always today, right now. You’ll never reach that elusive tomorrow. Yes, the date on the calendar changes, but you, standing where you are, right here, right now, are still here, in the present. You can’t live in the past, nor can you live in the future. You can only live in the moment.
Decide Right Now: What Do you Want?
So if you want to decide, then decide right now. What do you want, really want for yourself? Do you want to continue to indulge yourself at every turn, or do you want to exercise just a bit more discipline and see if you can get into better shape? It’s not about what you’ll miss out on, it’s about what you will gain. Better health, more energy, endurance. You’ll feel better, you’ll look better. It’s all about what you’ll gain, but in the immediate moment, it’s so easy to think only of right now. Yes, but right now this would taste so good, wouldn’t it, and there’s always tomorrow.
I’ve found that when I make a mental shift, a real shift, not just a decision but a true change in my thinking, then I follow through, and not until then. All the times I try to talk myself into doing things that I don’t really want to do, are not successful. Probably they’re not successful because I don’t really want to do them.
How do you get yourself motivated and stay that way? I start with a list. List all the reasons you want to lose some weight. Think in terms of a mini goal of five or 10 pounds. Make it a one month goal, not a lifetime goal. It’s fine to have long-term goals, but if you really want to learn to change for good, then you need to make it something you can live with. Incorporate real change into your lifestyle and you can indulge at a holiday party without it making any difference; without it throwing you off the deep end. When you go on vacation you’ll come back maybe a couple pounds heavier, but it won’t matter. You’ll have eaten what you wanted, you’ll have had a wonderful time, and not stressed yourself over whether you’re gaining weight.
Why I want to lose Weight
- What’s my first mini-goal? (1 week to 1 month)
- What’s my longer-term goal? (1 month to 1 year)
- How strict must I be for this to work? (Pre-planned or legalized deviations works very well for many people)
Sometimes, especially if you use a plan that incorporates “legalized cheating” then you’ll end up with some leftover food. Get used to getting rid of it. Give it away, throw it away, it really doesn’t matter. You’re not doing yourself any favor by eating all the leftovers. So what if the cinnamon rolls go stale? I ate one didn’t I? I enjoyed it totally too. Others also ate some cinnamon rolls, and even if no one had any, did I make them to eat them all, or did I make them because I was in the mood to make cinnamon rolls? Does eating them all myself make any sense at all?
Sometimes I feel a little guilty making goodies and then giving them away because I think I’m not making it any easier for others to stick to their plans, but then I remember what I do in that situation, and I have to assume others are adult about how they decide to take care of themselves too. If I decide I’m going to eat in a more healthful manner, and someone brings something unexpected, it’s not difficult in most all circumstances to simply say, “No, thanks. I already ate,” or take some on a plate for later.
Since I don’t go on “restrictive” diets, then I can incorporate pretty much anything into my day’s food plan. I just eat it, when I’m hungry. I find it so much easier to base my eating on whether I’m hungry, than on whether something is there. Just because unexpected people show up, doesn’t mean you use them, does it? Honestly, do you think anyone is upset when you leave a bit more for them? I don’t think so.
The Case of the Missing Wedding Cake
When I was a teenager my mother remarried and I offered to buy the wedding cake. I had an ulterior motive though. My favorite bakery, Beaverton Bakery, was where I intended to get the cake, and I knew by ordering far more than would be necessary there’d be lots and lots of leftovers for me to gorge myself silly on after the festivities. Ha.
What happened instead is a blur. I don’t know really what happened to the cake but I do know I not only didn’t get any leftovers, I never even had a piece at the wedding. I tend to get caught up in the people and don’t usually eat at parties, so I paid it no attention, and much to my dismay someone else had bundled it up before I got there to do so. Alas, I was never to taste that cake at all. Such a disappointment – it must have been, I still remember it now and that’s been more than 24 years ago now! LOL.
Food memories stick with me for a very long time. That day is my prime example of how I would not have minded one little bit if more people had said, “No thanks, I just ate,” and passed on the cake. I just wish I’d been a little more alert in setting aside a hunk for later.
Kathryn Martyn,?Master NLP Practitioner, EFT counselor,?author of Changing Beliefs, Your First Step to Permanent Weight Loss, and owner of OneMoreBite-Weightloss.com
Get the Daily Bites: Inspirational Mini Lessons Using EFT and NLP for Ending the Struggle with Weight Loss.
By: admin
About the Author:
Low Carb Diets – Are They For You?
The revolution is here. Weight Loss as we know it has changed forever because of one diet.
One diet that has reached beyond the weight loss program boundaries and invaded areas heretofore unknown: areas like beer commercials and even the all sacred fast food menus.
There was even a recent report on how this diet has taken a huge revenue chunk out of the bread and flour industries. Now that’s power.
You know which diet I’m talking about of course.
The big LC – LOW CARB
(also known as lo carb, Atkins, protein diet, Adkins,no carb, etc)
The low carb diet isn’t new. In fact it’s been around for years (long before Atkins wrote about it). And yet it just keeps pressing on, affecting our food choices and popular culture.
So what is it about the low carb diet that makes it so popular? Here are 3 reasons:
#1 You can eat as much as you want (of certain low carb foods)
While the type of food is restricted to low carb or no carb, you don’t have to restrict how much food you eat (in theory).
This fact makes the low carb diet popular with those of us who have been starved and deprived by low fat diets for years.
It’s a kind of ‘have your cake and eat it too mentality’ (as long as the cake is low carb!) Essentially the low carb diets says ‘Eat all you want and STILL lose weight’
Hey, sign me up.
#2 You can eat ‘bad’ food.
Human nature being what it is, we love to break the rules, step over the line, tempt fate, and do something ‘bad’.
We’ve been told for years that low carb foods – foods like eggs bacon, cheese, cream cheese, butter etc, are bad for us. With low carb diets we can lose weight while breaking all the low fat rules we’ve come to resent.
#3 People feel out of control with carbs
You’ve seen the plethora of new books and articles surfacing regarding carbohydrate addictions or cravings. Many people have bought into the mentality that they are ‘addicted’ to carbs (much the same way we get addicted to cigarettes or caffeine).
They feel that when they eat carbs, their cravings get out of control and instead of having one brownie for example, they can’t stop the cravings and they eat the whole tray. So for some, low carb foods become the safe territory where they can eat and not feel out of control.
Those are several reasons why low carb diets are so popular but do they work?
That depends on which study you read. There have been mixed reports, some say they work, some say they give you the same results as a low fat diet.
But to break it down to an individual level, here’s my take:
For the low carb diet to be successful, you have to approach it as a life change (and that’s a big life change).
You have to be dedicated to getting over the transition period (often called carb withdrawal) which can feel pretty lousy.
You have to dedicate yourself to finding new low carb ways of eating, new low carb recipes and products. It can be done – but you’d better be willing to put the work in.
However for those just looking for a chance to eat all the ‘bad’ food they want and still lose tons of weight in 2 weeks – save yourself the pain, the carb withdrawal and the keto-strips and just cut down your portion sizes.
Kathryn O’Neill is a contributing writer to Diet and Weight Loss Reviews.
For more free weight loss tips and diet reviews, visit FreeToBeThin.com.
By: admin
About the Author: