Day 3 – Sue

Today’s challenge is near and dear to my heart … decision-making around food.

If you’ve been following my posts, you know that I lost 52 pounds in 52 weeks when I was 52.  That’s an accomplishment that I’m proud of.  But you know what?  The even LARGER accomplishment is that I’ve kept off every single pound for seven years!

I’m a member of the National Weight Control Registry (you can Google it for more information).  It is a research project of people who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for more than a year.  They study is being done to help understand what contributes to successful weight loss maintenance.

One of the key findings is that most of us successful maintainers eat pretty much the same foods most of the time.  Why? Because when we discover what works for us, it is easier to remove some of the decision-making from the process.

For me, I eat approximately the same foods at approximately the same time for breakfast, a mid-morning snack and lunch (at least during the week).  It’s not a hard and rigid thing, but rather an act of simplicity and pleasure.  I know what I like and what fuels my body well. For dinner, there’s more variety because I find myself in a wider variety of situations … but even then I have a few “go to” foods and choices that I know will work for me.

Today was the third busy, stressful day in a row … putting me pretty much at my limit! I don’t like this much stress.  I facilitated a workshop this morning, which was a little stressful and required that I get up early and arrive at work early to prepare the room.  Luckily the meeting went extremely well, but it went longer than expected.  That meant that I could only get outside to walk for half an hour at lunch, and I couldn’t walk with my friends because they were done by the time I started.  I missed their friendship today.

When I got home from work, my husband offered to take me out to dinner … because he knows it’s been a difficult week for me!  We went to Chili’s.  They have a wonderful entree in their “2 for $20” special: Mango Chile Tilapia.  It’s one of their “light” dishes and I think it’s wonderful. It comes with broccoli and rice (but they let me substitute corn on the cob for rice because I find that an extra vegetable keeps me full better than the rice).  Yum yum!  This is an example of me having a few favorite foods that I know are good “go to ” choices for me.  That way, when I am stressed and tired like today, I don’t have to struggle with making a decision.  (After all, if I was good at making food decisions I wouldn’t have gained so much weight!) I already know a few choices that will please me and work for me.

So, I am now ready for bed.  I am proud of how I have handled this difficult week so far.  All of the big meetings are out of the way, and I’ve stayed the course nutritionally speaking.  Looking forward to a more peaceful day tomorrow.