Saturday, 8 December 2012

Trying to turn off my autopilot!

8th December 2012
Sunsets, like childhood, are viewed with wonder not just because they are beautiful but because they are fleeting. Richard Paul Evans
Well we did the Christmas shop online yesterday afternoon, probably not a great idea to do it whilst having a pint of Guinness but hey it’s done now and we can add or takeaway up until the 20th but hopefully we’ve managed to have some of what we fancy without being ridiculous!  Fingers crossed and all that!
I’m going to have a very relaxed day today, will spend some time scrap booking, will walk Alfie for as long as he wants because with this yucky weather and dark mornings he gets a bit ripped off, I may or may not nip to the shop to get a couple of things, bliss – no ‘have to’ plans at the weekend = brilliant.
Weight Watchers updated their website yesterday and very good it looks too, I’m loving the new three way approach, we all know tracking is a major way to make a positive impact on your weight loss, and now that we have ‘routines’ and ‘places’ it helps break it all down into realistic, doable steps.
I really need to look at one of my places right now and that is my home, since mom has been poorly and I’m trying to get her to eat anything as her appetite isn’t too good, our kitchen has different food in and I’m finding this really difficult, so I’m going to have to rethink the things I buy or find a way to have them there without me eating them.  I think today I will rearrange the fridge so that moms higher ProPointed foods such as sandwich fillings are out of sight, and I will also give her one cupboard in the kitchen with her higher ProPointed foods and snacks so that when I go to fix myself food I’m not as tempted to use hers.  I already do this with my wine, it’s in another room out of sight so that a glass of wine isn’t my automatic choice when I get home from my meetings midweek as it used to be, if it’s on the side in the kitchen I just grab with bottle and pour a glass absentmindedly, now if I walk in the kitchen it’s not there, if I decided I want a glass, it isn’t an absentminded decision anymore, it’s a thought through one which needs to be planned out. 
We do so many things automatically because it’s what we’ve always done, so to change with have to think, we need to turn off the autopilot, take a step back and look around at our environment, we all have places where we struggle with our food choices, that may be at home, work, the supermarket, when eating out – numerous different places and situations.  Of course we can’t change everything all at once, it’d be too overwhelming and we’d give up trying, but we can change a bit at a time.  Choose one of your situations and decide what change you can make, so mine is the kitchen and the changes are the ones I’ve already mentioned.  I will also not buy certain things that I know I just will not be able to resist, i.e. walkers cheese and onions crisps, Pringles and Asda cheese savoury sandwich spread.  Mom doesn’t mind really, because she has no appetite at the moment, and if she fancies one of them I will get it that day rather than having them hanging round ‘just in case’!
‘Just in case’ can cause a lot of damage!  You all do it, buy stuff just in case someone turns up over Christmas because you never know!  Well I’m sorry but that’s us just fooling ourselves isn’t it – anyone you ask already knows what they’re doing for Christmas, everyone already has plans and no one just turns up so you really don’t need all that extra food – just in case!
Think about that as you do your Christmas food shopping over the next few weeks, a family of four does not need enough food for eight, not even just in case.
Have a super Saturday, I’m about to have a very stress free slow one ;-)
 

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