Lose That Sixth Grader

No one is perfect and certainly not me. I lost control, or relinquished control of my eating yesterday. I did well through breakfast and lunch except for forgetting my H2O bottle and not drinking nearly enough water. I had an apple, an orange and half a sandwich bag of dry Wheaties for breakfast. I had leftover Thai Mango chicken over rice with green beans and whole kernel corn for lunch.

I was in an unexpected on site training for work all day. This also interrupted my usual walking breaks. I only got in one 15 minute walk.

In the afternoon I went to the snack machine to get a snack. I can usually avoid this temptation by taking walks and usually not needing to go anywhere near the break room. But the training room is right by the break room. I intended to get a granola bar, pushed the wrong button and got peanut M-&-M’s. I should have given them to someone else or gotten a refund but I ate them.

Then later in the evening, around 7PM, after dropping my daughter off at church for her youth group meeting, I went to McDonald’s even though a healthy meal of vegetarian chili, rice and salad was waiting for me at home. I got a Big Mac meal w/ Diet Dr. Pepper and topped it off with two apple pies.

I ate all but one pie on the drive home, then threw the evidence in the trash can outside. I stuck the other apple pie in my backpack ostensibly to eat today with my lunch but probably really to hide it from my family. Secret eating is not good. My friend run4change has written about secret and emotional eating and losing control of eating on his blog.

But I didn’t save that pie for today. I ate it last night. Then I ate at least two servings of cheddar and Monterrey jack cheese w/ peppers. Then I ate a bowl of Wheat Chex with 2% milk instead of my usual Silk Soy Milk w/ Omega 3s. I also had about 3 fingers of bourbon straight. All of that came after 8PM. None of that is good for a weight reduction program.

I think some of this was brought on by some tension between my wife and me. We commute together. Sometimes I am not able to leave work exactly on time. She was a little late getting to my office last night and then as I was on my way out, my manager stopped me to ask some questions about the training I had attended. Instead of saying “My wife is waiting can we talk about this in the morning?” I just stood there and answered questions. Not the best decision. Once I got to the car 10 minutes later, my wife was in a bad mood and hardly spoke to me the rest of the evening and not very much this morning for that matter.

I’m not blaming her. I made less than healthy and responsible choices. On Saturday I was just quoting Jim Rohn to one of my sons

It’s not the blowing of the wind, but the set of the sail. The same wind blows on us all. — Jim Rohn

You see, it’s not really about the difficulties we face it’s how we choose to react or respond to those difficulties. In each instance above I could have made a different choice. Now I have to live with and learn from those choices. I have to understand why I made those choices and do things that will make the healthy choices more attractive.

I’m going to write off last night as my reward meal for the week, though it turned into more of a reward night! I’ll eat clean the rest of the week and make better choices. I’ve got plenty of food with me today and my water bottle. I’ll bypass the break room and be sure to get in my walking rather than snacking at breaks.

Next time I will try to deflect anything that will make me late and make my wife have to wait on me. If I can’t at least I’ll send her a txt or give her a call to let her know what’s going on. And then, I won’t just accept what appears to be the silent treatment, though that may not even have been her intent, and talk the matter through with her.