B. Slipping

Jon and I had a fight last month over a carrot cake purchase at a Trader Joe's.   We've had our disputes over other desserts as well.  It's horrible that we both have a sweet tooth, but that's not uncommon.  Eating sweets is a pleasure and we attempt to treat is as a luxury, which is good, but we like our luxuries, don't we...  and frequently…

Trader Joe's mini-carrot cakes have 400 calories in just 5 ounces.  That means eating just 1/2 of one, which is 5 or 6 bites, is almost 1/2 a day of exercise and careful-eating progress down the drain.  Plus, it's cumulative.  Losing a day doesn't mean you can work twice as hard the next day to catch up, it means you’ve actually LOST that day.  The clock is set back one day, the goal is set back one day, the morale is set back, the future happiness is set back.  Ask anyone who’s ever died and they’ll tell you how important just one day can be. 

But we don’t just luxuriate with the obvious things, like cakes and sweets.

Eggplant is healthy, but it’s best as Eggplant Parmesian and that has 280-400 calories per serving.  Sure, chicken is good, but just the SKIN on a 1/2 chicken has 250 calories.

Every green olive has 20 calories, so adding just five little olives to a salad adds another 100 calories.  When you’re attempting to curtail the daily calories at 1800 you have to pick and choose very carefully. 

You will slip.  We all slip. The Law of Attraction attitude about slipping is to accept it and thank it for providing the necessary information so we can flip the stick and retune our thoughts towards our goal.  If you get angry about slipping you'll be focused on slipping and you'll slip again.  So just accept that you slipped and move on—quickly.   Take away the focus from the pleasure of that cookie ("dinner tonight will be a really delicious and healthy salad with skinless roasted chicken breast") and don't think about the guilt either ("well I ate a cookie so today is ruined anyway and I'm a loser so I may as well eat six more").  Learn from the consequences of slipping so the next time you slip you won't slip as much.  Or at all...

What can we do?  We try to be careful.  We generally eat salads and proteins for lunch and dinner, and maybe some healthy snacks during the day, and maybe we skip breakfast.  But that's not the best way to eat, is it?  Let's move on to Eating Tips.