It's not all about counting calories!

I came to a new conclusion tonight. Tonight I made a huge birthday family dinner. I made pork spareribs,fried green tomatoes,cornbread, grilled marinated chicken,fresh corn on the cob, and steamed broccoli and carrots. I had a plan of attack, I would make chocolate cake and icing, since I hate it. I was going to eat two ribs, the chicken breast, corn on the cob, three fried green tomatoes, and steamed veggies. This was after all to be my splurge meal. Well dinner time came and I ate the two ribs, and even though they were nice and moist and tender, it just was not as good as I remember. Just did not do it for me anymore. I wound up only eating the steamed veggies and two of the three fried green tomatoes.

I was cleaning up the kitchen and I realized that in the past I would have kept eating anyway, just because. I would have eaten everything too. But what was different now? Well I realize the difference now is control. Most of the time that I ate a lot was when I felt a lack of structure or out of control. Now I know it seems crazy to say that I ate to get control, but the food then gave me comfort and made me feel more in control. The more comfort I got from food the better I felt. But this year I made a plan and a plan b, and I felt in control.

So now I see one of my triggers is if I lack structure or feel out of control I will eat. Saturdays seem to be the hardest for me. I am running around all day, get too hungry and then start craving junk like fried foods and candy. So I need to do a better job of planning for Saturday.

See losing weight is great, but realize you can be at goal and not be right mentally. We all need to work on the mental. If we do not realize our triggers and make action plans we will wind right back up to where we began. Just like an any other addiction, where you come up with plans for different situations that may arise, over eaters must do the same thing. Yes this is not just about the physical of weight loss, I have to work on the whole me. I want to be overall healthier.