Time and again I've seen the issue of incorporating weight loss into real life. Things go wrong or at least don't go exactly to plan. As is life. Over the last three days I've had a few examples of real life at play.
On Friday it was my dad's birthday. I made him a wonderful lemon curd cake with buttercream icing. I did the maths, and one 16th of that cake came to about one quarter of my daily allowance. I allowed for it and yes, used some of my weekly proPoints allowance. The cake, however, was not my issue. The issue came from it being someone's birthday and people often want to go out for their birthday. Fairly innocuous so far. People go out for meals all the time. Hell, I've gone out for several meals since I've been on the plan and still managed to lose weight. However, when you go to a restaurant where you have no frame of reference (i.e. the proPoints of the food is not recorded in the oh so helpful eating out guide or in one of the articles online) you're in uncharted water. You can do the best to guesstimate what you've eaten and come to a rough conclusion but it's a lot more difficult to be anywhere near as certain. You begin to come up with alternative strategies. Simply recording doesn't work anymore and you must let your natural instincts take over.
I ordered the ardennes pate which was served with two (very small) slices of brioche and a rocket salad. They hadn't mentioned the olive oil vinaigrette in the menu or I'd have asked them to leave it off. I simply decided for this part of the meal to eat as much of the pate that would reasonably fit on the slices of brioche and all of the rocket. I had about a quarter of the pate left and immediately smothered it in pepper (the one condiment I absolutely hate the most). My main was an 8oz Fillet steak, tenderstem broccoli and dauphinoise potatoes. Again, after my proPoints guesstimating I decided the most sensible option was to take the entire plate of food and split it in half. I took my time eating, drank lots of water in between bites and after finishing my half plate considered how satisfied I was. Wasn't quite there yet so again split the remaining food in half. After doing this and eating slowly, I did manage to finish my plate but I didn't allow myself to get to the point of uncomfortable fullness. You see, I've never had an issue choosing healthy foods. I DO however have an issue with portion control. For too long I've been allowing my eyes to dictate how full I am rather than listening to my body and working out from that where my comfort zone is when it comes to how much more to eat.
On Saturday I had another 'dilemma'. I came back to university. I was careful in planning to come back. I ate a reasonable breakfast and made up a salad to take with me so that I wouldn't be over hungry and make silly choices about my food. Everyone started mentioning the word 'take-away'. I had enough points and was too dog tired from driving all afternoon that I decided to go with it. We went with Chinese. I split my spring rolls with my friend Alex, had the lowest proPoints value vegetable chow mein, Pork Char Sui and a simply vegetable and oyster sauce dish. Once again I split my meal into smaller chunks and had a tupperware container ready to fill with stuff for the next day's lunch. I ate my fill, waited and wasn't hungry any more. Moreover, I felt grim. Really, rather unwell. This hasn't happened in a LONG time. Having spent the last few weeks eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, simply cooked meat and fish and (relatively) oil free dishes, the Chinese really didn't sit right with me. I did the absolutely unheard of (in student circles) throwing away of the leftovers (after offering it to a friend who'd been out hot air ballooning all day-Student good Samaritan...). I really did not want to feel that unsettled the next day and knew that after all that it really wasn't something I absolutely needed to have. Simples. Didn't even feel bad about chucking it out, though I had a pang of remorse for dirtying my tupperware container unnecessarily.
Today, I committed the absolute cardinal sin of losing weight the healthy way. I was so busy with rehearsals for Little Shop of Horrors (in addition to being exhausted from the day before and forgetting to buy milk) that I didn't eat breakfast...OR lunch. It got to 3:30pm and I decided that I needed to do something so came and ate a teaspoon full of peanut butter just to fill the void, as well as chucking in about an entire bag's worth of tangerines. I have to say, it is an absolute miracle that I managed to eat so cleverly at dinner (no gravy, plenty of veg, only two pieces of roast potatoes and a 0% yogurt rather than the usual ice cream that I so loved last term) and haven't pigged out since. This has, however, raised a VERY important consideration for my time at university. I've been worried about coming back to university whilst on the plan and I now realise the absolute need for preparedness. I NEED to have stuff in to eat, and good choices too, so that I don't run the risk of having loads of slices of bread at dinner or a dessert with ice cream. My old weight watchers' leader said all the time that, 'if you fail to plan, you plan to fail' and I've sat here this evening writing out a shopping list that will get me through the week and made meal plans for the next three days so that I don't put myself at risk of eating the wrong food.
The final, though FAR more easily remedied, issue that I've noticed is that my water consumption has dropped. I was concerned that I'd struggle to get all my fruit and veg in but I seem to be wrong. Oh well, we live and learn. And whilst the above issues are only drops in the ocean, I feel good knowing that I have come out on the other side. Will just have to wait and see what this week's weigh in (now on Thursdays) will bring.
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