Eat, Drink (diet pop) & be Merry ;D

18^th July 2011

Every time a man smiles, and much more when he laughs, it adds something to his fragment of life. Laurence Sterne

Well I’m ready for the week ahead, focused, in the zone, feeling mighty fine – how’s you?  How did your weekend fair?  Mine went really well, I had another early night last night 8.30, and slept till 5am, me and Alfie have just walked in the rain which wasn’t so bad, it’s only fine.  

Yesterday I cooked the One Pan Spanish chicken from this weeks meeting copy of YOUR WEEK and it was delicious and so simple to make and the marbled chocolate cheesecake from the Seriously Satisifying cookbook which too was delicious and I might make it again without the chocolate so it’s less ProPoints, mmm delicious.

I also made a tomato soup which was a little sweet for my tastebuds so I’ve frozen it and I’m going to use it as a tomato sauce with either pasta or mince later in the week.

On the afternoon we went ten pin bowling and I got a taste of what it’s like to entertain two kids for a couple of hours, one 7 and the other 9, the lad was easy, the girl – oh my word, she’s a challenge ;D but don’t worry we have 6 weeks to break her! That is of course unless she crushes me which I think is possibly more likely, they left me absolutely shattered.   If you have any ideas of how to entertain such demons in the 6 weeks with and without lots of cash please email me and let me know or post a comment – I need all the help I can get.

I’m still not drinking and hate to admit I’m really not bothered either when I weigh up the pros and cons of having a glass or two of wine every day it’s stopped being worth it for me.

Pros      
- Tastes nice (but then so do a lot of things which don’t have as many ProPoints in & I don’t feel the need to have them every day!)
- Chills me out (I’m hardly stressed am I!)
- Sends me to sleep (I haven’t had any problems with that since I stopped)

Cons
- Leaves me with less ProPoints for food (I’ve eaten some delicious stuff this week & managed to fit in treats I wouldn’t normally have because I haven’t got the PP spare, like hot chocolate)
- No good for your health if drunk every day.
- No good for my wallet, just as an example if I drunk the cheap 3 for a tenner stuff and had 6 bottles a week (this is just an example!) that would cost over a grand a year, that’s a holiday.
- Zaps my energy & enthusiasm, I’ve had more of both these last two weeks and wanted to do things at the weekend rather than sit around in front of the tv.

I could go on but I won’t I think I’ve just convinced myself that I don’t need it, although I think I realised that last week sometime, I feel really good and the reasons I cut it out was to prove to myself I could if I’m honest, I saw the empty bottles in the recycling and realised there were too many of them, I thought about my health and my wallet not my weight at the time but I have to say it looks like it’s going to make a difference to that too, I think I’ve lost for sure this morning, if Friday on the bosses scales are anything to go by.  So I’m thrilled all round.

It wasn’t until I just wrote that Pros and Cons list that I realised there were really no Pro’s for a habit I’ve had for a few years now that’s built up and up and up, so if you have a similar habit, doesn’t have to be wine, could be crisps or chocolate, maybe write your own list.

Another way of addressing a bad habit is ‘reframing’ this helps you to recognise the real motivation behind emotional eating: you’re trying to accomplish an emotional need with food.  Then it helps you fill that need with something other than food.  Use it if you notice that certain behaviours are getting in your way, and yet you can’t seem to stop doing them. 

Here’s how:

-          Identify the behaviour you want to stop.  Eating in the kitchen where no one can see you, for example.

-          Ask yourself: What does this behaviour give me?  How does it benefit me?

-          Think about what else you could do to get that benefit.  If the benefit is stress reduction, what else could you do to relieve stress?  List three options that you know you’d be likely to do.

Why not ask others in the meeting how they handle their emotional eating, what do they do instead of raiding the fridge.  I walk the dog, read, and take baths, but the one thing I do now that helps more than anything is TALK yep, I talk to my ‘ladies that lunch’ gang, there’s four of us and we are at the end of the phone, text, email whatever is necessary if we’re having a tough time or even if we’re having a great time and just want to share.  We’re encouraging each other and we meeting weekly to discuss stuff, it used to be over lunch and it still will be sometimes, but the six weeks holidays are looming so it will be days out with the kids and after the holidays I haven’t told them yet (they’ll probably read it here this morning), I’m thinking instead of lunch, we can go bowling, play badminton, and other such things that mean we can still talk but it doesn’t have to be whilst we’re eating!

Well I’m looking forward to my week, and especially to getting on the scales this morning, if you’re not don’t despair, remember a few weeks ago I dreaded the scales because I just couldn’t keep the momentum going for a whole week, what I was able to do then though, was be gentle and understanding with myself, so do that to yourself.

Have a fabulous day. xx