I survived the theme park!

12^th August 2012

To try to be better is to be better. Charlotte Cushman

YAY we did it, we had a day at the theme park and stayed on track, I also earned 8pp on my pedometer, from the moment I arrived to the moment I left, I covered 6½ miles.  Our lunch was lovely and cost me 10pp, packed lunch done by Lynne which was delicious, a fabulous salad, chicken tikka pieces, couscous and a delicious fruit salad, so much tastier than what we were watching everyone else eat, especially when we say the queues to actually even get the food to start with, Lynne waited about 20 minutes just for a coffee! 

So I got back with plenty of spare ProPoints and really fancied a crusty baguette, so popped in the Co-op on the way back and they’d reduced a crusty poppy seeded crustry bread, which looked delicious so I had that.  Now on the packet it said 400g, but when I weighed it, it was 469g, having checked that this morning, that’s a minimum of 5pp difference if you hadn’t weighed it.  A 400g crusty loaf is 25pp, 400g of crusty white cobs are 35pp.  I cut mine in half and hollowed it out then to err on the side of caution I weighed it as a cob (that being the higher option) and it came to 8pp, you can get an idea of the portion size by looking at the plate and scales its sitting on.  It ended at 8pp, then I added the leftover salad from our picnic and added 2pp of tzatziki and it was absolutely delicious, just hit the spot, helped down by a bottle of Guinness which I also just fancied. 

So at the end of Saturday night, I’d consumed 50pp, have 14pp weekly allowance left and I’ve earned and still have 60pp weekly allowance left.  Very pleased with how I’m feeling at the moment, I’m having what I fancy not what everyone else is having, watching them all walking round the park yesterday, so many mindlessly eating, not even given it the attention it warranted.  Ice creams which held 4 or 5 scoops of ice cream, that in reality is plenty for 4 or 5 people!  Every scoop of ice cream is approx 4pp, then the cone was huge and thick, I bet they were between 25-30pp for one ice cream which they weren’t even sitting down and enjoying, nope they were eating them whilst screaming at their kids and chatting to each other!

Don’t get me wrong at first sight we both said, “mmm shall we all have an ice-cream”, but once I’d eaten my lunch and enjoyed that fruit I didn’t have room, nor did I want one anymore.  I can’t imagine spending my entire daily allowance on an ice-cream, a really good bottle of wine maybe but an ice-cream – nah ;-)

Talking of mindfulness, i.e. focusing on what you’re eating, or doing come to that, mindfulness comes into any part of your life, I was watching a colleague/friend eating grapes on Friday at our area meeting (you know who you are) and it was very mindless, she grazed on them over the 3 hours we were there and apart from maybe the first couple I don’t think she was even aware of them.  So why?  Well I do know she’s stopped smoking so is trying to take her mind of the cigarettes, but even when she was smoking she wouldn’t have smoked in that meeting.  I also know like me she’s only just got back in the zone, so is probably trying to ‘be good’ but again, whether on track or not we shouldn’t be eating in that situation really, its an opportunity to NOT be thinking about food, there are very few of those chances so let’s take them when we can. 

So today be mindful of everything you do, eat, drink, I bet you can’t do it for the entire day without slipping into autopilot, it’s very difficult.  But at least try to do it when you eat, being mindful will help you track better too, if you think about what you eat, what you really want before you have it you’re more likely to enjoy it than just ‘eat’.

Sunday is sunny, it’s looking very positive out there, so have a fabulous day.