Diet Thinking

Another day in the bag. Wednesday is my day home with the kids and I had a nice time hanging out with them. I'm noticing I can do a little more in the roughhousing department before I get tired out. I had Marek cracking up with joy today, it was sweet. Miguel got home early and, somewhat reluctantly, gave his approval on my going to the gym. At one point while I was getting ready Marek started having a meltdown, screaming, "No go to the gym! Mommy no go to the gyyyym!" Wow, I don't know what that was about but I snuggled with him a bit and he seemed to get over it and I left without any fanfare.

Miguel was tired so I knew this was going to be an hour, max. I did the bike, level 2, for 25 minutes. Then I did chest and triceps, mixing core work in as I went. I love chest days, for some reason chest is one of my favorite areas to exercise. After weight lifting I stretched and was on my way out when I got chatting with the gym staff. One thing I like about this gym (among many) is that I see the staff working out and taking classes. It's really cool, makes it feel more congenial and welcoming somehow. One guy recently lost 45 pounds and looks great so that's inspiring too. Anyway, the owner was telling me about a body sculpting class and a "hot hula" class that will be starting. Hot hula - sounds interesting. More to come on that perhaps. The guy that lost the weight (I need to find out his name, update: It's Glenn) said, "You're on a mission, I can tell," and asked if I'd already lost some weight. Yes! I am all about the positive feedback!! I left the gym feeling super.

So I made a rookie mistake tonight. For dinner I cooked chile verde in the slow cooker. I trimmed the pork shoulder and added onions, tomatillos, bell pepper and spices. It cooked all day and when Miguel got home I said we could either make tacos or have nachos. It's been years since we've had nachos and, of course, he opted for those. I made a plate for each of us and, without much thought, made my plate based on my appetite a couple months ago and not on my appetite now. The nachos were so good and I ate them fairly quickly. By the time I was almost finished I was feeling *really* full. Too full; I had overeaten. I had some thoughts earlier in the day about eating nachos and debated if it was a bad idea. But I did a little self talk and reminded myself I can eat things like that now and again. But after eating too much I was really feeling bad about eating nachos. Even though I'd already gone to the gym I started thinking maybe I should go on an evening walk to balance out the nachos. A little back and forth in my head and I decided this was diet thinking.

Diet thinking is short term. When I'm thinking like a dieter I worry about the effects of one meal. But I'm not on a deadline to lose weight, this isn't a race, and, most importantly, I'm not doing this temporarily. If all that is true then I don't need to do something extraordinary (and I do consider going on a walk after I've already been to the gym extraordinary) to mitigate the effects of one meal. I made a mistake, I ate too much. I recognized it pretty quickly and I need to learn from it and move on. Though I am skipping my normal nighttime routine of mini-peppermint patties and a glass of milk, that doesn't seem too extraordinary.

Have I not mentioned the peppermint patties and milk? It started when I was pregnant with Myra and became a nightly routine. One that I sometimes looked forward to all day. And when I was really feeling like indulging I'd buy vanilla ice cream and stir cut up peppermint patties into it. Yummmmy. PPs fall into a sweet spot for me - good enough to be a real treat but not so good that I eat the whole bag in two days. Most days I have a serving, three mini PPs (150 calories) and a glass of milk. The ice cream days are over, that's taking it too far. Ok, I have to stop writing about them since I'm skipping them tonight.

So diet thinking - it's hard not to think that way sometimes, especially when some restricting balancing is appropriate at times. Agh! Sometimes all this awareness is too much. But mostly it isn't and I have learned so much and come so far by analyzing my automatic reactions, I don't think I'll stop anytime soon. Ok, it's late and I'm off to bed. I hope you all had as good a day as I did!