Eating Habits
January 4th, 2008. Published under General. 1 Comment.
I’m on day 3 of the “Change My Eating Habits” routine and I’ve discovered a number of things about myself.
1. I’m a night eater. I can eat like a bird all day long, but for dinner I have to have something more substantial. I’m not sure if that’s due to the fact that I have more time or the fact that I work out between getting home from work and dinner.
2. Cutting out beer and wine is a lot harder than it looks. I’m an adult. I like coming home and relaxing on the couch (after working out, of course) with Tim, the Tivo and a glass of wine or a bottle of beer. Yes, I know they’re empty calories. Yes, I know I’m at a danger for munching on stuff that’s not so good for me when alcohol is involved. But, I enjoy it and considering it is my only vice should I even worry about it? Should I even bother cutting it out?
3. I can successfully graze throughout the work day. I’ve always been consistent with breakfast: a box of NutriGrain bars in my desk that I have with my one cup of coffee with French Vanilla creamer (I then switch to Green Tea). Every once in a while, I’ll get crazy and have a cup of yogurt. Lunch had been a bit more hit and miss. But now I’ve been really good about bringing in a frozen Lean Cuisine dinner and a fruit cup, or some cottage cheese or other fruit. I’m even bringing in snacks of almonds and dried apricots (all carefully portioned out) in those snack size ziploc bags. I feel almost full eating so much at work - but as far as a calorie count goes, it’s not bad. On the weekends….I have a hard time portioning out stuff.
4. What worked for me years ago to drop the pounds doesn’t work anymore. I used to be able to sustain myself on baby carrots and microwave popcorn. Now, I can’t just eat bland, boring and bland food anymore just to lose weight. I have to get more creative. It especially doesn’t help that I’m also older and genetics and metabolism is working against me.
But, I hope to be down to my goal weight by Summer - which is entirely doable if I stick with it.
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I have fallen in love with Caribou Coffee’s Jasmine tea - green tea infused with jasmine. So good.
Sande on January 5th, 2008
I’m currently trying to re-program myself as well. I think my saving grace all last year (until the dreaded fall) was that I didn’t eat much at night, and generally never after 6:30 - 7:00. Now, I just want to sit in the middle of my kitchen floor and ingest EVERYTHING at about 9:00 pm.
Work days are also much easier to behave myself. I guess it’s the structure of the day, whereas the weekends are a freaking free-for-all and I have unfettered access to pretty much anything I want. I need Bob from Biggest Loser to just follow me around on the weekends.
I have to take your word for the aging thing, since I never really lost much in my 20’s, preferring to steadily gain over time (oh, there was that one time in 1997 when I dallied in phentermine, but that doesn’t really count). Ticking off my way to 40, however, doesn’t appear to be helping matters at all.
Good luck with it all! I think your company in this endeavor is plentiful, so there will be many with whom to commiserate!