
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at freedigitalphoto.net
Weigh-in number 2 tonight. I wasn’t expecting good things this week as, although I’d planned my meals carefully and followed my plan, I didn’t track snacks or extras so I have no idea whether I stayed in my overall budget or not. The result is, I’ve put on half a pound. It’s not the worst thing in the world, although I am pretty peeved with myself about it. But, I’m drawing a line under it and moving on.
The Good
I went to my yoga class again this week. I’d also arranged to play badminton on Sunday instead of going swimming. This wasn’t my idea but I enjoy badminton and thought it would be fun. I was astounded to find that I was extremely annoyed when the person whose idea it was cancelled it on Sunday morning. By that point it was too late for me to go swimming and I was annoyed that someone else had been able to ruin my exercise plans. Mr FFF suggested that we could do some circuits in the garden but a) it was persisting down with rain and b) I don’t enjoy circuits at the best of times. I must admit to feeling sorry for myself for about five minutes before deciding to go for a walk and to do some yoga at home. This turned out well in the end as I was able to listen to a motivational podcast whilst on my walk.
I’ve been eating plenty of freshly cooked foods with a good amount of fruits and vegetables and very limited amounts of processed foods.
I had a takeaway on Friday night that was unplanned but I convinced Mr FFF that we didn’t need to order enough for 4 people (as we usually do) and pointed what I had.
I replaced some one chocolate-based after-work snack with fruit. Ok it was only once, but that’s a small step towards developing a healthier lifestyle right there. Admittedly, a very small step, but still.
The Bad
As I mentioned earlier – I didn’t track my snacks and treats this week and I still had quite a bit of chocolate. Why did I do this? The simple answer is, I don’t know. I really do want to eat more healthily and lose weight. What went wrong?
As I sat down to write this post, I initially gave myself quite a hard time about this. I berated myself for the fact that I’m only on the second week of my renewed efforts to lose weight and yet I’ve already veered off track.
It was at this point that I got the phone call to say that my badminton session had been cancelled. So, I decided to take a break and go for that walk. The podcast I was listening to was titled Your Eating Habits: What They Are, How You Get Them, and How to Change Them and I thought I might be able to get something useful out of it.
Previously, I’ve always thought of habits to be based around actions (having a biscuit with a cup of tea; always putting grated cheese on pasta dishes etc) and I’ve done quite a bit to change several habits over the course of my weight loss journey so far. Interestingly, this podcast also talked about habitual thought patterns and I realised that this is exactly what applies to me in terms of my mindset to staying on track – it’s become a habit for me to think that I can’t keep up my motivation beyond the first week of an attempt to live more healthily.
This reflection made me realise that I have neglected my mindset development over the past couple of weeks so I’m resolving to make that a big focus this week.
The Plan for Next Week
I’m going to begin work on breaking my habit of thinking I can’t maintain the motivation needed to develop a more healthy lifestyle. I’ve set myself 2 small goals in relation to this:
- to track EVERYTHING I eat for 4 days
- to read something or listen to a podcast to develop a motivational mindset every day for 4 days
I’m still working on replacing some chocolate-based snacks and treats as well. As the idea of replacing chocolate with fruit last week wasn’t really doing it for me – there’s no comparison really is there! – I’m taking a different tack this week. My trigger times for chocolate, biscuits and other sweet treats are when I get in from work and in the evening after dinner.
When I get in from work, I’m going to try a totally different routine. I’ve examined this habit (as suggested in the podcast I mentioned earlier) and determined that the reason I eat chocolate then is to relax after a busy day. So, what I’m going to do instead is have a cup of fruit tea (I got some delicious ones for Christmas and they spoil the taste of chocolate and biscuits) and read for 20 minutes before I get on with making the dinner and other household chores.
With my evening trigger, I’m going to replace the chocolate and biscuits with yogurt, honey, granola and seeds. This is something I wouldn’t normally choose because of its high points value (no low fat yogurt for me!) but because of this it still seems like an indulgence but at least has a slightly higher nutritional value than chocolate.
Thanks for reading.
FFF
How have you successfully ditched bad habits and created new ones? – all advice gratefully received.