Redefining ‘cheat’

[BrighterSide 242]

Had a hiccup last night which underlined an old problem I’m yet to properly solve. Fell out with my teen over exam revision. Her cycle of panicked ‘I can’t do this! But I have to do this! No you can’t help!’ pushed me over the edge to some totally inappropriate teen-like door slamming.

I came back and apologised (I had made her cry, partly because the shock broke the tension, though it was totally the wrong thing to do), but not before I found and ate a packet of crisps (chips to the US crew).

Stewed about my abject lack of will power, felt the ‘I may as well give up’ vibe creeping in, but told hubby and logged it and was still under 800 for the day. Made a point of looking at the nutrition break down and yep, 7.5g fat and 13.4g carbs in that 25g bag. But, in the grand scheme, I can balance that out in a day and I’ve also proven that I can come back from a couple of diversions on holiday to being totally in track, so this doesn’t have to be a slippery slope.

My imagination is both my biggest asset and my biggest enemy because I can imagine small problems into insurmountable long-term barriers. Instead, thanks to the mindfulness about hunger and nutrition this injected, I am breaking down problems into manageable steps for today and tomorrow. Less failures and punishments. More blips and corrections.

The emotional triggers need a whole heck of a lot more work though!

[Biddy zz 🏳️🌈 1,004]

Mine too! And I am 18 months out - work is stressful just now and the cravings for those calming sweet treats, or those carbs chips/crisps are right there.

But - I take time to admire myself in the mirror, delight in my change, and try and calm myself with that instead 😁

I loved the way you dealt with that slip-up - you are still with8n your day’s calories. Good work!

[KCgirl061 1,532]

You handled it well. The important thing is that you didn’t throw your whole day out because you had the crisps. Because then you’ll end up throowing out the next day and then it’s just “I’ll start again on Monday...”

[BrighterSide 242]

[emoji304]" userid="329262"] Mine too! And I am 18 months out - work is stressful just now and the cravings for those calming sweet treats, or those carbs chips/crisps are right there.
But - I take time to admire myself in the mirror, delight in my change, and try and calm myself with that instead [emoji16]
I loved the way you dealt with that slip-up - you are still with8n your day’s calories. Good work!

Thank you :-) So empathise! Had another one I didn’t give in to the previous week. Drove myself to central Newcastle for a specialist appointment. Wasn’t without tension finding it, parking and getting done what I had to get done and really felt I deserved a ‘reward’.

In my consultancy road warrior days used to regularly treat stuff picked up from service stations as somehow lesser calories cos I didn’t have much choice of places to grab food.< br>
So nearly swung into the McDonald’s that day, but pictured the nutrition charts and swigged down the drink instead. Starting to trust myself more :-)

[BrighterSide 242]

You handled it well. The important thing is that you didn’t throw your whole day out because you had the crisps. Because then you’ll end up throowing out the next day and then it’s just “I’ll start again on Monday...”

Thanks KC. That’s the risk alright. Hate the old me that did that kind of ‘one more won’t hurt’ self delusion, but she was coping with a lot more than I am hunger-wise. I deserve huge credit for doing what I’m doing, but needed the sleeve to make it stick.

[Frustr8 7,886]

True, Stay Strong in the continuing battle! Make those "stones" turn into tiny pebbles, I believe YOU CAN DO IT!