Unsafe at Any Size

Do you ever slip up on your eating plan?  I slipped up big time yesterday.  I felt very virtuous walking to the new Berkeley Bowl West from my office to pick up bread for the boys and a little sushi for me.  And some tamari nuts-what’s the harm, right?  Nuts are healthy!

Except not so much when you eat most of the bag.  And I didn’t really check yesterday how much was really in that bag; I was just surprised I wasn’t hungry all day.

When I went to dip in that ol’ bag of nuts today, it was mostly empty.  And then I wondered… just how much DID I eat yesterday?  Turns out nearly half a pound!

Yikes!  So what did I do?  Did I vow to starve the rest of the day?  Did I smack myself repeatedly?  Did I try  to do a double workout?

Nope.  I didn’t do anything.  Well, not quite–I laughed and forgave myself.  And I recommitted to doing better for the rest of the day.

You don’t lose a lot of weight without messing up.  A lot.  The trick isn’t to try to be perfect, because you won’t hit that.  As Michael J. Fox said, “I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.”  I don’t know if God ever ate half a pound of tamari nuts, but if He did I hope He enjoys them as much as I did.

No, the trick isn’t being perfect, but to start again when you’ve done something you regret.  I can’t hope I won’t make mistakes, but I can hope I can recognize them when I make them, and come up with a plan of action for next time.

I don’t regret eating those nuts, but I do regret not portioning them out immediately after I got them so I could enjoy them for the entire week.  I realize that these nuts are a trigger for me, so I might need to either buy them in tiny quantities or forgo them altogether.  I need to remember there will be more nuts when I want them, and I don’t need to eat them all at once.  No one will take my nuts!

How do you bounce back?

So I just plowed through half a bag of thos TJ curls.  Such a rookie mistake.  I opened the bag, and thought, “oh, I should measure out a serving.”  But no.  I take the whole damn bag with me to the computer, and before I know it, half gone.

Tips for next time:

1.  Measure out my serving in a bowl.

2.  Don’t eat when distracted.  Multitasking while eating just means shovelling in more food without paying attention to anything.

What do you do, even though you know better?

The secret of self-control?  Distraction, according to a recent article in the New Yorker and also the topic of a podcast from Radiolab.  The article discusses the research of Dr. Walter Mischel, who devised a diabolical test for preschool kids.  He let the kids pick a treat, and then told them they could ring a bell to have the researcher give them one right away, or if they could wait fifteen minutes they could have two.  Naturally, most kids gave in after a few minutes–some didn’t even bother to ring the bell–but some were able to wait.

The other results of the research are just fascinating about how the ability to delay gratification at such an early age correlated to academic success later in life.

But most interesting for those of us who would have not only have taken the marshmallow but would have tried to finangle the other two as well was that Mischel figured out the kids who were most successful were those who distracted themselves from the treats

Instead of getting obsessed with the marshmallow—the “hot stimulus”—the patient children distracted themselves by covering their eyes, pretending to play hide-and-seek underneath the desk, or singing songs from “Sesame Street.” Their desire wasn’t defeated—it was merely forgotten. “If you’re thinking about the marshmallow and how delicious it is, then you’re going to eat it,” Mischel says. “The key is to avoid thinking about it in the first place.”

Furthermore, Mischel was able to teach kids ways of delaying gratification, such as having them imagine the mashmallow was a picture and wasn’t really real.

If kids can learn this, so can we.  Right?

Last night was Not Good.  I had a bad day, and consoled myself by eating everything in the kitchen.  Fortunately, my kitchen is somewhat binge-proofed, so what that added up to was eating FiberOne cereal and one point bars.

Still, not what I was wanting.  So, here’s why I think I did it, and what I’m going to do differently next time.

1.  Frustrating day.  For some reason, my computer was slow as can be all day long, making it next to impossible to do anything.  I kept plugging at it though, and sat there and stewed and opened up even more programs to do something else while it was thinking hard on the first thing, which probably wasn’t helpful.

Music might have smoothed out the edges, but instead of walking out to the car to get the ipod I forgot there, or opening Pandora, I decided it was time to download Itunes and download Grooveelectric (which is an awesome music podcast) to my desktop.  Yes, that was a brilliant decision when my computer was already boggy.  Needless to say, the installation failed three times, I had to uninstall and reinstall blah blah blah.

What I’ll do differently next time: Take a walk.  Even if it’s down the hall.  Waiting and pushing the any key for hours wasn’t helping.  I couldn’t change my computer, but I could change my attitude.

2.  Meh workout.  The good news was I went to the gym, even though I Really Didn’t Feel Like it.  The bad news was that I didn’t really push myself as hard as I normally would, and I didn’t feel like I got as good of a workout.

What I’ll do differently next time: Commit to where I’m at.  I’m at the gym, so I need to fully commit to where I’m at and what I’m doing.

3.  Cruddy kids.  One needed everything RIGHT NOW.  Dinner, water, pencil sharpened, you name it, all at the same time.  Then the fight over what to do after dinner–video game or TV?  The last straw was the gum battle.  Sam wanted gum, and, beleaguered parent I was tired of fielding requests, I said no.  Well, that started a long confrontation where Sam yelled at me, pretended (but not actually) punched and kicked me, threatened to kill me, and all the other wonderful ways five year olds express their extreme displeasure.  I dodged all this while getting another 100 calorie bag of cookies out of the cupboard.

What I’ll do differently next time: Give him the damn gum!  He was already frustrated about not getting his way in the game/TV battle, and he wanted the gum to help regulate himself.  There was no reason for me not to let him have it other than being frustrated about all the other requests of the evening.

So that was my binge.  What are your binge triggers?  How do you deal with them?