Saturday, January 9, 2010

A learning experience.

Brian jumped on my weight loss bandwagon. I'm glad he's making an effort. His food issues are different than mine. He's into sweets. I'm not saying I'm not, but where I binge and eat a variety of things, he could sit and eat a platter of cookies if he had a tall enough glass of milk. And since he started watching what he's eating, I'm starting to "get" why it has been, and continues to be, hard for him to support me at times. I get frustrated why he doesn't "understand" why I'm eating and thinks its so easy for me to just stop, even though it might not be. He eats when he's tired as I do, but there are times where I don't "get" why he can't just stop eating sweets. You had three cookies, why do you need six? I guess its comparable to why I need(ed) four slices of pizza, not just two.

Part of me likes that he's struggling. We had an hour and twenty minute ride home from a class this afternoon. The ride was about two hours after we had lunch and he was saying how hungry he was. It may be mean, but I was happy he got hungry. It made me realize he's not perfect as I thought he was when I'd have my hungry moments and he wasn't.

If you went to this week's meeting you know that WW is encouraging tracking points and "learning" about your food. Today's lunch made me realize I'm still learning things to make me successful. We went to Panda Express. I know, I know, it may have been a little high in points. But, once there, I choice white rice over lo mien, even though I wanted the lo mien. I choice black pepper chicken over sweet fire or whatever their new chicken was. I ate all my vegetables, even the yucky pieces of celery. When I ordered, I knew I had to get something flavorful so I wouldn't crave something else. I needed the rice to "fill" me a little bit. I needed vegetables just because I need them. The end result? I was pleasantly filled---and, not hungry two hours later.

Did I know all that when I sat down? No. Well, maybe deep down I did, but when I compared my plate to Brian's I felt like a fat ass. His was filled with veggies and chicken, no rice or noodles. It made me think I should have done better ordering--I should have ditched the rice. But two hours later, as he complained he was hungry, I realized that sometimes I need foods, like the rice, in my meals to keep me full. It may be extra points up front, but if I end up hungry two hours later, trust me, I WILL eat way more than the points value of the initial food. So, the rice cost me 4 points. If I had none? I probably would have binged when I walked in the house and eat at least 6 points of food.

Does that work for everyone? No. Will it work for Brian? Who knows. But, after all this time, I'm finally "learning" my food and how it affects me. I'm better off having a meal that keeps me full rather than allowing me to graze and snack during the day.

The other thing I learned? Its okay to have a bad day--even if its a scheduled bad day. This WW stuff has a little bit of stress associated with it. Am I within my points for the day? How many points is that entree? Do I REALLY want that extra slice of pizza? I learned I need one day to be bad. One day to make me feel like I'm a "normal" person that doesn't need to count everything that goes in my mouth. Will that be the case forever? Probably not. There will come a point where I have to count everything. But, for right now, I have that opportunity and I'm going to take full advantage of it. Tonight was that night. We ordered Dominos while watching the football game. And you know what? I ate better than I normally do. Only two slices from a large pizza. Two small boneless wings, and just a few cinnasticks. DEFINITELY less than what the old Sarah would have eaten in the past.

1 comment:

Unsettled Mind said...

about the points tally...i don't count up my calories until the end of the day. so i make reasonable choices on what foods i wanna eat, whether it's when i am packing my lunch, or just as hunger comes to me. then i add it up after the fact, and think about what i can do to do a little better next time. that way, you aren't stressed as you go through the day, and all you need to do is look at it at the end and come up with some substitutes for what you did eat. less stressful, more rewarding when you make the change the next time and see the difference. then once you get to a regualr routine of what you know is good, you take the next step to try to make that even better.
i'm to the point now that i get up every morning and put my breakfast together, pack my lunch and 2 snacks - one between breakfast and lunch and one after lunch - and choose dinner as it comes. i know what's the right tally for breakfast/lunch/snacks, so it's usually dinner that i need to balance out. and i drink so much water now that i think it keeps me full for the majority of the day, and i still eat all the meals and snacks regardless if i'm hungry, that way i'm more likely not to eat it all because i'm full - don't let yourself get to the hungry stage, cause then you'll eat more like you said.