I’ll just go ahead and admit it – I like food.
I have my favorites – potato chips, pizza, and Chinese food, to name a few – and I think this is one of the places where I really struggle because:
A) It’s hard to resist my favorite foods.
B) I’m always afraid that if I give them up, I’ll never have them again (or if I do, I’ll instantly balloon back to my ginormous weight).
This time around, I’ve been doing a lot better with regards to splurging in the middle of the night … this used to be a big problem because I’d get up for some water and end up snacking out a few hundred calories like they were nothing in the process. At one point it got so bad that I consciously would close the pantry doors in our kitchen before bed to act as a deterrent if I got up in the middle of the night. And most of the time it did work, I think because I was still awake just enough to allow the doors to help me feel guilty about eating in the middle of the night.
My latest difficulties seem to float around lunch because, especially when I’m having a really bad day and opt to go buy lunch, it’s really easy to steer away from the healthy options and sabotage myself. For example, earlier this week I opted to hit up Quiznos instead of Subway for lunch:
(calories are all approximates based on memory – didn’t feel like looking them all up)
Actual Quiznos’ Lunch: (1,490 calories total)
Regular Baja Chicken Sub – 890 calories
Chips – 200 calories
Brownie – 400 caloriesTypical Subway Lunch: (650 calories total)
6” Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki Sub – 450 calories
Chips – 200 calories
So basically in one meal, I managed to consume three quarters of the amount of calories that I should normally eat for the entire day! Not to mention I felt really bloated afterwards, which serves me right, but had I stayed on target and either made something myself or at least opted for a healthier meal, I’d have been better off in the long run. Of course, in the short term all I could think was, “Baja Chicken = yummy. Brownie = yummy+1!”