You know what the worst thing is for a new eating regime? Weekends!
Honestly. During the week you totally know where you're at on the 'keeping on the straight and narrow' front. You throw some semblance of breakfast down your neck, you go to work, you have your lunch, you go back to work, you come home, you have your tea - it's all absolutely fine. You don't even really need to think about it.
Weekends - where's the structure?! There isn't any!! ARGH!! I like knowing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing and when I'm supposed to eat and what I'm supposed to be eating at that particular time so I don't end up overeating. I know this sounds ridiculous. I'm a reasonably intelligent adult and I shouldn't need to be told all of these things or have mealtimes dictated to me. However, the simple fact is, I do.
My poor sister has had the weekend from hell and it has largely been due to me and my hysteria over food. I have been some sort of not-so-lean, extremely mean eating machine over the last 48 hours, somewhat akin to Miss Pacman's identical psychotic twin sister. Admittedly, everything I have eaten (more or less) has been Free Food and so technically according to the rules of Slimming World I haven't been 'overeating' as it were, but every time I get so much as a twinge in the intestinal area I immediately mistake it for a hunger pain and just keep hearing Andrea the Consultant's words reverberating round my head "if you get hungry, you aren't doing it right". So, whether it's a piece of fruit or some salad or whatever, as soon as I've even thought I might be hungry, I've eaten something.
Blasted Andrea the Consultant!! I wish she hadn't said that!! My poor sister is being driven completely round the twist by me. I have been vile this weekend. Not even I've liked me. So, before I tell you about Sunday night, I'd just like to take this opportunity to apologise profusely and wholeheartedly to my long-suffering sister, Jo. Although I will still probably get freaked out a little bit from time to time while I'm on this thing, I promise I will try a lot harder to keep my head and concentrate on things other than food. I've been so busy concentrating on not freaking out that I didn't realise quite how completely I had freaked out. I have been bang out of order, and I'm sorry.
Sunday night was lovely. It was my pals' 20th wedding anniversary and their daughter had organised a surprise party at a nearby Indian restaurant. Audrey and John were sufficiently surprised and everyone had a lovely time. It was really nice to see some people I hadn't seen in ages and to have a really good laugh with everyone. One of my pals I was sat with is also on Slimming World - seems like the world and its auntie has joined up this year. There's a bunch of them that go on a Tuesday morning. I don't know how I'd feel about that. In a way it'd be nice to have someone to go with to stop me from thinking "I won't go this week" but to be honest I really like the anonymity of nobody knowing me and keeping myself to myself.
I'd been really good all day and only eaten Free Food because Indian food is chock full of Syns and although I knew I'd go over the requisite 15 Syns I wanted to put as much damage control into place as possible, so I also chose Free stuff like Diet Coke instead of beer and chose boiled rice instead of pilau rice. Mightn't sound much but it really does add up. I still think I probably had at least double the amount of Syns I would normally have had (I think I can more or less work it out from the book), but it's Monday again, yesterday is over - back to knuckling down and getting on with it. It's a marathon, not a sprint, after all. Although after all this, if I go on Thursday night and I've lost nothing (or worse yet, put it on), I genuinely do not know what I'm going to do with myself. I'd jump off a cliff but I'm scared of heights!
No, don't be daft, of course I won't do anything that drastic. I'm too lazy!!
I have quite a few things to do this week - boring things that have no place in a blog, so I may not post again until Wednesdsay. I'll be talking about the plans for Chapter Two of the book and how the first draft of that is coming along, and I'll also have a look forward to my second weigh-in at Slimming World on Thursday night.
Ok Spevvie my darling i'm not convinced in Andrea's comment. That sounds a tad flippant and not very realistic. So much in losing weight is a mental exercise it's retraining our brain into how we view food.
ReplyDeleteIf you are cutting down on the things that are bad for you and eating more of what's good then yes there are going to be times we are hungry. The body is designed to show us when we are hungry. What I try to do is do the 20 minute wait. At the first signs of hunger just wait 20 minutes and if it's still there then go and eat.
Boredom is a big factor if I am bored then I eat and boy can I. I was taught by a friend who said to me if you get bored and want too eat. Plug your music in and dance round the lounge. It sounds mad (And the curtains in my lounge are always closed when I do it) but ti takes your mind off eating and you have a laugh. and hey it's exercise.
The other thing to remember is you will have up and down weeks this isn't The Biggest Loser where they all drop half a stone in a week this is real lie and you will have good and bad days. Don't beat yourself up over it my darling.
While I think that the woman at Slimming World has a point, it's going to take a while for your stomach and things to adjust to different eating so I think you will still feel hungry at times. But eating those free foods should help fill you up. I know it's not the same though (Remember when I did Jenny Craig?).
ReplyDeleteFeeling hungry is uncomfortable for anyone, but I think the bigger issue is the anxiety that feeling hungry evokes. It's very stressful for some folks. So not only does one eat to stop the the hungry feelings, but also to quell the associated anxiety. Double whammy. That's why it's important to get a handle on not only the calories, but also the emotions associated with eating. To Liz' point, there's distracting physical activities. Always good. There's also cognitive strategies that would help. Reassure yourself. Use an accurate rating of the situation. Tell yourself "Yes, I'm a little uncomfortable (OK .. a lot), but I can handle this". "Only X amount of time until lunch". "I'm a little hungry, not dying". You get the idea. When the rating scale is off, we tell ourselves all kinds of things that stress us. Feeling hungry isn't "horrible", it's "uncomfortable". You're not "starving", you're "a little hungry". Anything that's horrible or the idea of starving (literally) is very upsetting and anxiety provoking ---> over eating to feel better, physically and emotionally. The more you rate the situation more accurately and talk to yourself in reassuring ways, the easier it gets. As easy as it has become to use defeating and alarming self-talk. You are amazing with words, Spev. Make them work for you. You can do this.
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