Sometimes, it’s not as bad as you think

So, I did great yesterday, up until dinner.

However, I was only over by 400 calories for the day, and at 180 net carbs.

Not great, but neither was it totally out of bounds!

Not Pictured: That Which Went Off The Rails...

Mostly, things were good. Until the cupcakes & chili dogs...

Leaning In

On a Monday night I didn't 'want' to mow the lawn or prep egg cups - but dammit I did!

Learning to Bounce

An epic two weeks of force-march at home came to fruition with the 11 year old's birthday. In typical fashion, this meant that there was little time, energy, bandwidth or patience for anything else. I'm now trying to 'right the ship', but it's so damn hard, trying to paddle upstream, all by myself, while everyone else in the house is still in the conga line. Ugh.

Back To Basics

Dinner last night was AWESOME. Scallops, lightly crusted with potato chips, bacon, in a lovely cream sauce with a Brussels sprout salad.

Totally off plan, no doubt! ...and the TWO cups of soup only compounded that!!!

It's the sort of meal that would be totally fine during 'maintenance mode' ... IF ... I'd not had a big hunk of burger 60 minutes prior, AND, I'd not had two lovely cups of cream based soup.

So, yes, I still need to solve my '4th meal problem'. I've been bitching about that for over 5 years, so it's time to find a way to leave that shit in the dust.

And the rest of it? I need to simply embrace my inner abstainer and go back to the plain old Whole 30 rules.

No grains
No added sugar
No dairy
No legumes
No preservative crap

Simple, whole food. Low-ish carb, with one 'big-assed' salad every day. Just 3 appropriately sized meals, with 2/3rds of the plate being covered in fruits & veggies. No snacking. No treats. No bullshit.

One foot in front of the other...

It's not always fun, pretty, or photogenic. Sometimes it's a real pain in the ass, and it's often the absolute LAST thing I want to do. Sometimes I'm hungry enough to not give a damn, but taking half a moment to stay on-plan pays off.

It sucks, but it works

A week in New York

Last week I was in New York for a work conference. I knew the company would be providing a lot of the food, and they had team outings planned for dinner. So, I gave myself a 'pass' for the week - not to go insane - but to simply allow me to enjoy NYC & not be 'that guy' in every meeting.

Being there for 9/11 was sobering.

The conference was good, and the team building gimmicks actually worked, and I now know my geographically diverse team much better!

While in NYC, of course I had to have some pizza. Maybe I even had pizza 3 or 4 times? It was GREAT! There was also a great BBQ place with some of the best hush puppies I've had in a decade...

In the end, at home on Sunday, I weighed-in, expecting a good bit of backtracking I'd need to overcome.

I lost half a pound....

I really like this, but ...

The advantage of eating stuff that's not only on-plan, but so yummy that I'd eat it anyway, is minimizing feelings of being deprived.

This is good.

The tough part is maintaining my discipline when directly faced with hyper palatable, highly processed junk food.

When I had my previous success with this plan, I lived on my own and I simply didn't allow any crap-food into my house. At work, I had a health-nut friend who supported / encouraged me.

These days?

Kid-food is (literally) everywhere in our kitchen. I cannot open the fridge, a cabinet, or even glance at a countertop without being faced with multiple highly desirable types of junk food.

How do I turn off the 'wanting'? How do I turn off my desires for these trigger foods?

I'm so frustrated, I don't even know where to turn...

Onward...

While the last week or so has been a challenge, it’s not been all bad!  While my A-Fib still leaves me ‘huffy-puffy’, at least we finally got my blood pressure dialed-in.  While my weight is still bouncing in a 5lb range – it’s not going UP!  I have a follow-up with the Doc later this week which may dramatically impact this area, but in the meantime, I like that I can affect my weight with what I eat.  It’s just staying on-track that can be hard, especially when the house is filled with the warm delicious scent of a birthday cake baking.  After a day of yard-work & home-projects, I didn’t have the wherewithal to prep my breakfasts for the week, so we’re improvising.  Next week I’ll be traveling for work, and THAT will be a BIG additional challenge!  Stay tuned – it’s been a bitch lately, but that certainly doesn’t mean I’m giving up!

 

 

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