I decided to do this post after getting home yesterday afternoon and eating WAY more than I should have, stuff that I didn’t need to eat. I am not really sure how it happened, but it did. It was a major slip-up. All this after doing so well for breakfast and lunch. I have to make myself accountable for it. It’s so simple. There are certain foods that I should not have at home. At all. So consider this post as a note to self for future reference.
This slip-up got me thinking about trigger foods and drinks. Foods and drinks that I should not have in the house because it’s hard to stay away from them. I am probably missing a few, but these are the main ones.
- Chips and salsa. This is absolutely at the top of my list. I have no self-control over chips and salsa. If they are in my house, I will eat them like they are going out of style. I typically have salsa in the fridge because I have it on fish or baked potatoes or with a Wasa cracker. So really, salsa is not the problem. It’s the chips. Rarely do I by tortilla chips and on Sunday I did. They were Baked Tostitos, but still… If you eat enough of them it doesn’t matter.
- Popcorn. The best thing about popcorn is that it’s salty. And buttery. And Sunday afternoon when hubby and I walked into Publix and the delicious aroma of fresh-popped popcorn met us at the door, it was hard to resist. They have that darn popcorn machine in the deli and they sell it by the bag. So we bought a bag. Evil popcorn.
- Cheese crackers. Again with the salt. Do you sense a pattern here? It’s hard to stick to a serving size when eating these so they just need to not be around me.
- Beer. Beer girl that I am, I love – LOVE – an ice cold beer. It’s so refreshing. But do I need to have it at home? The answer is a very firm NO. The problem is I likely don’t have just one and it is usually accompanied by something salty. Sadly, I think there should not be adult beverages on a school night, certainly not at home. I think it needs to be saved for the couple of Tuesday night baseball games we go to each month, and when we eat out on Saturdays. It’s just empty calories and wasted points unless I have planned for them when we go out.
- Soda. We rarely buy soda for home, maybe a couple times a month. And when we do, we buy it because of something we’re having for dinner that I want to have soda with. If we do buy it, we just buy a two-liter. It doesn’t need to be in the house.
- Cereal. Cereal talks to me from atop the refrigerator and I will eat it like there’s no tomorrow. Even if it’s supposed to be good for me, I’ll eat too much of it. This fortunately doesn’t apply to hubby’s cereal that he buys, I don’t seem to bother that.
- Chocolate. M&M’s, Hershey Kisses, Hershey Bars….. While I would like to believe my mom when she says chocolate is Vitamin C, I do not need it and I rarely if ever buy it to have at home. If I did, it would be gone in minutes.
- Cookies. I am not that person that can keep cookies in the cupboard to have from time to time. No sir. If a box or bag of cookies make it into the house, they also talk to me from the kitchen. The only way to shut them up is to eat them. Too much pressure…
What’s frustrating about this? I can eat or drink whatever I want IN MODERATION. I have 26 points a day, 49 weekly points to use, and I earn anywhere from 25 – 35 activity points per week. It’s all about making choices. Sadly, most of what happened yesterday is brought on by that-time-of-the-month, but still. If I didn’t have it in the house, I wouldn’t have gone for it. And to add to it, I have 0 point snacks available. I just blew right past them as I was reaching for the stuff I didn’t need.
Making healthy choices most of the time is – and will be – a lifelong lesson. I’m not perfect and not every choice will be healthy. I’m all for splurging from time to time. But yesterday was just ridiculous. It was a big slip-up. Splurging when we go out is much more fun and enjoyable.
After this HUGE moment of weakness, I re-grouped and decided that beating myself up over it was not going to help. Instead I started writing this post and I immediately tracked everything. Then for dinner I was back on track. At the end of the day, when all was said and done. I was over by 23 points. Over and done with, moving on.
Today is a new day. I have 26 points to work with. I will use them wisely. Lesson learned.
What are your trigger foods? How do you come back from a bad day of eating?
