My rules

Indya's latest post has made me realize I need to put some rules in place.

 

1. Track what I eat.

2. No alcohol

3. Don't snack out of a bag or box or jar, put a serving in a bowl or dish. Do not estimate measurements, except fruit and veggie portions.

4. Make sure I'm not just thirsty.

 

Rule #1

 

I have been doing this pretty faithfully for about a month plus, but noticed I started to slip a bit, so I decided it has to be a rule.  I am just doing it on Livestrong and not also in the blog becauise it is too time consuming for me to do it twice.

 

Livestrong is a great tool.  It really makes me be more thoughtful about my eating generally, and allows me to make trade-off decisions, plan better for events, and learn about my eating patterns.  I suppose any tracking system does this, but this is the first time I've found one to be so user friendly. 

 

For example, I am noticing and internalizing that basically, I eat 5-6 300 cal. mini-meals (because I'm nursing) a day.  It will help me better model this after Jenny.  So that I will be able to thin in 200-300 cal. increments as fuel breaks.

 

From a trade-off perspective, I can eat something that is not a lot of bang for caloric buck, and evaluate if I think it is worth it (like 1T blue cheese in a salad but NOT 1T sunflower seeds in a salad).  Slowly but surely, I have been reducing my salad dressing intake, moving to healthier greens in my salad, and cutting back on bread and butter. Especially butter portions.  I enjoy the flexibility of playing around and seeing what works best for me.

 

Regarding planning for events, I have a much better handle on how to adjust for special meals, etc.  For example, Pat and I are going out for sushi tonight, and I can eat the rest of the day in accordance with possibly splurging at this meal a bit more, but keeping a handle on my overall caloric intake for the day.  While its not ideal to eat bigger calorie meals at some intervals, I know it will inevitably be part of my life, that things come up, so this lets me better plan for it.

 

From an eatting patterns perspective, I notice that I REALLY LIKE TO EAT what I have allotted to me, even if I'm not hungry. That gives me something to work on - what do they say, the first step is recognizing the problem? Well I recognize that after lunch, back at my desk, I immediately want to eat my "afternoon snack" even if I'm not hungry.  Probably my tendency to emotionally eat, or to just eat whatever I can. Not sure, but I am seeing the pattern.

 

Also I find with Livestrong it is harder to lie to myself about consumption, and I also don't forget things as much because with the iPhone I can record it almost immediately.  It has been very helpful when we're travelling in the summer so that I don't use vacation or being in the car as an excuse for not tracking.

 

Rule #2

 

I implemented this one for a couple of reasons:

 

Extra calories.  I am a slippery slope kinda gal. If I can have one glass of wine tonight, then why not two, or why not one tomorrow night as well? All of a sudden the weight loss will crumble away...

 

Erodes will power.  If I have a drink or two, my guard comes down.  (I think I learned that in college!)

 

Future trade-offs. Right now I have the calories to spare, but as Jenna says, once I'm not nursing, it will come down to a slice of bread or 4 oz. of wine.  Best to implement now.

 

Wine will be there in the future.  It isn't going anywhere.  Right now I have to sacrifice something pleasureable for a specific result.

 

Rule #3

 

This has been my cheating bugaboo, be it scooping peanut butter from the jar, or slicing "small" pieces of bread off of a loaf until the whole thing is gone.  What's worse, is then I feel so horrible, I don't want to record it, so I start threatening rule #1 out of embarrassment and frustration that I blew it, so why bother recording?  Also, I can't handle estimating tablespoons - I'm not very good at it yet, and I lie to myself.

 

Rule #4

 

Sometines I confuse myself on this one, and keep eating, unsatisfied.  Drink water before grabbing the next piece of food, even if you have the calories left.