4th of July Weekend and Consuming
Jul. 6th, 2010 09:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
windinthemaplesWe had a leisurely, wonderful four day weekend together here at home. We played board games, watched Graeme splash in park fountains, spent nap times watching movies (Batman Dark Night and Hot Tub Time Machine), and stuck wholeheartedly to our diets. On Saturday, we spent the day cruising around Evanston, looking at some of the neighborhoods with rental homes. We're in love with that town--it'll be so nice to get out of Chicago proper and finally have things like guest rooms and outdoor space! (Or, you know, a room for Graeme to call his own.)
In the last five weeks, I've lost 13 pounds. (Daniel's lost 20.) I started keeping track of my calorie consumption and, in a Black Month kinda way, it revealed all the ways I was deceiving myself or quietly sabotaging my health. I'd attributed my weight gain, lack of energy, and aches and pains as evidence of aging. What a farce! I just needed to eat less, move from processed foods and carb-loading to raw fruits and veggies, and become aware of my relationship with food and the consequences of my choices. Yes, I can eat that slice of bread--but four carrots would fill me up better for the same number of calories. I can indulge in a cupcake, but that means I may have to go hungry for hours before my next (small) meal. By having a budget that I stick to, every choice I make has a natural, predictable consequence. I can choose x but that means I can't later have y. I find all this so related to other consumptions/appetites of mine. If I go off-diet, eat something regrettable, it becomes a snowball of eating more. (Nothing makes me hungrier than eating something high-calorie--I just want more and more and more.) Likewise, when I don't shop, don't consume, I don't miss it. If I slip and buy something, though, it naturally leads to more and more and more. In the case of my food diet, I am knowing when to get 'away from the food', going places where I'm not tempted to eat. In my shopping, my affluenza, I need to stay away from the places where I am tempted to spend money on extraneous things I don't need for my survival. They are connected for me--so I'm finding it doubly worthwhile to work on it and acknowledge the reality of my consumption habits.
In the last five weeks, I've lost 13 pounds. (Daniel's lost 20.) I started keeping track of my calorie consumption and, in a Black Month kinda way, it revealed all the ways I was deceiving myself or quietly sabotaging my health. I'd attributed my weight gain, lack of energy, and aches and pains as evidence of aging. What a farce! I just needed to eat less, move from processed foods and carb-loading to raw fruits and veggies, and become aware of my relationship with food and the consequences of my choices. Yes, I can eat that slice of bread--but four carrots would fill me up better for the same number of calories. I can indulge in a cupcake, but that means I may have to go hungry for hours before my next (small) meal. By having a budget that I stick to, every choice I make has a natural, predictable consequence. I can choose x but that means I can't later have y. I find all this so related to other consumptions/appetites of mine. If I go off-diet, eat something regrettable, it becomes a snowball of eating more. (Nothing makes me hungrier than eating something high-calorie--I just want more and more and more.) Likewise, when I don't shop, don't consume, I don't miss it. If I slip and buy something, though, it naturally leads to more and more and more. In the case of my food diet, I am knowing when to get 'away from the food', going places where I'm not tempted to eat. In my shopping, my affluenza, I need to stay away from the places where I am tempted to spend money on extraneous things I don't need for my survival. They are connected for me--so I'm finding it doubly worthwhile to work on it and acknowledge the reality of my consumption habits.
