Inaction breeds doubt and fear.
Action breeds confidence and courage.
If you want to conquer fear,
do not sit home and think about it.
Go out and get busy.
~ Dale Carnegie
Well, Thanksgiving is over, hurrah, hurrah. I'm going to post what I ate for dinner yesterday. As I approached the buffet, I was mindful of the idea of filling two-thirds of my plate with vegetables, limiting starchy carbs and having a reasonable portion of protein (which wasn't difficult, there was no dark turkey meat and I'm not fond of white meat). Here goes …
1 cup lightly dressed Caesar salad
1 deviled egg
1/4 cup Waldorf salad
2 oz. lean ham
1 oz. white meat turkey
1/2 c. stuffing
1/4 c. mashed potatoes
1 c. steamed green beans with garlic
1 c. sauteed summer squash with red peppers
1/2 piece pumpkin pie
2 Tbsp. chocolate frosting (from my husband's cake)
When it's all written down like that, it looks like a ton of food. And the calories added up to a half ton. Heh. But I didn't go back for seconds and, as my husband said, it was Thanksgiving, after all.
The hell of it was, I was hungry before the second football game was over. Grrr. So I ate an apple. I've heard if you're not hungry enough to eat an apple, you're not really hungry.
Today's quote is perfect for me. As both of you know, I've been toying with the idea of eating the number of calories I need to maintain my goal weight, and yet I'm scared s*#!less to try it. Someone like me – approaching 60, lifetime yo-yo dieter, screwed-up metabolism, yada, yada, yada – couldn't possibly lose weight eating that much, right?
My goal maintenance calorie total is 1700, which sounds like a mountain of food. But you know what? My total yesterday was less than that. It seems like a good time to begin. Sitting around thinking about it increases my fear of doing it. Time to take the plunge. You will, of course, be coming along for the ride, and I'll thank you in advance for putting up with my wailing and gnashing and bitching and moaning.
Who knows? Maybe we'll all be surprised and we can celebrate together. I know this much for sure: It will be more difficult to eat 1700 calories per day than it has been to eat 1200 or less.
A quick note to brag. I ran (love those new shoes!) most of four miles Wednesday, and the fourth mile was the fastest: 12:37. That's one second faster than my best half-marathon pace. Now all I need to do is build up the stamina to add another 25 miles to it, and I'll be ready for my marathon.
3 comments:
I've always thought that apple thing was funny, because 1) I love apples and would be glad to eat one any time, and 2) apples make me hungry; I can't eat one at the end of a meal without wanting to start the whole thing over again.
I want to like apples - I really do. But they don't interest me that much. Cooked is one thing - but an apple by itself isn't that good - unless it's a great apple. But I love the line - if you're not hungry enough to eat an apple, you're not hungry. May have to incorporate that because they're pretty decent right now.
My maintenance eating is 1870, which really is a ton of food. And still I struggle with parsing out calories over the day to make sure I have enough for my witching time, which is after dinner. Anyway - Sounds like you did just fine yesterday. Well done!
Screw up your courage and go for eating your goal weight calories now. You don't have to commit yourself to doing it forever at this point. But it's so worth trying.
It does feel counter-intuitive after so many years of watching every crumb so carefully. But it also gives you the freedom to eat less if you feel like it without the normal "beat yourself up" sense that going over does when we're eating small.
I'm cheering you on!
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