Abstinence - 165th Day

Breakfast
1 banana
1 cup Rolling Oats cereal
1 cup light soy milk
1 cup coffee
2 cups water

Lunch
1 footlong chicken bacon ranch sandwich on wheat sub bread with light mayo and veggies*
Small bag Sun Chips
3 cookies
Raspberry ice tea

*I did not eat the last 1/3 of the sub sandwich

Dinner
2 thighs leftover Moroccan-Spiced Chicken
1 cup brown rice with 1 tsp. margarine
1/2 can vegetable soup
3/4 cup raspberries
1-1/2 cups light soy milk

I realize that I am making poor choices for my lunch and sometimes, my dinner meal.  Last night for dinner, I deviated from the original food plan, and got fast food - fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, coleslaw, and a biscuit from KFC.  I have started praying for the willingness to make healthy food choices.  So far, I've been unwilling to completely give up the junk food, and I don't understand why!  I'm going to OA, I'm talking with my sponsor every day, I'm praying every day, and I'm resisting eating my client's food every day.  Why can't I take that next step, and make healthy food choices at my meals!?

Denise Phares/kitties4

Hi Denise,
Just happened to come online and was curious to the post and just read down...I am doing Jenny Craig...have lost about 60 so far...have about 80-100 left...but I had a rough time when two of my friends had Gastric and lost a huge amount...I was approved and everything...but just decided that I could do this without surgery...and even though I am losing at a slower pace, I am feeling stronger every day and really ready to make a lifechange...but I too have a junk food and candy and fast food addiction...haven't had an fast food in ages...but candy etc. always seems to get to me, and now its Halloween!!  But how I am dealing with it....just forgive yourself...don't be so hard on yourself....think of all the good things and changes you have made along the way too.  There is a saying in the Jenny Craig offices that I just love...and use as a mantra of sorts for myself every day:  PROGRESS NOT PERFECTION....you are making good choices...for the most part...and no one can be perfect (I wouldn't trust em if they were lol) so ok, you had KFC last night...its ok....its not the end of the world...just get back into your healthy eating the next meal....the hard part I find is letting one slip-up turn into a full week, then a month etc.  The more times you get back up and make healthier food choices...the stronger you'll get...and less downtime in the junk food places.   Just hop back on the horse!! And stop feeling guilty...its a brand new day!!

In a perfect world, those temptations wouldn't exist. Today I actually said out loud, when making a choice (between coffee and tea) "Is this a simple discipline, or an error in judgement? Will having a cup of coffee hurt me today? No. But, will the compounded effect of drinking coffee, over time, take a toll on my body? Yes. Do the simple discipline. Have the healthy green tea." It cracked my husband up, but he had tea as well.

I use that discussion in my head for many decisions now. Getting up early to go to the gym today, for instance. "Will skipping the gym today suddenly make me gain weight? No. Will going make me perfectly slender and toned? No. But which one, repeated over time, will have the desired effect?" The decision is easy. The sad part is, it's also easy NOT to make the right decision.

But as you said - each day IS a brand new day. If you practice more simple disciplines than errors in judgement, you WILL achieve your desired result. It's scientific fact.

One of my coaches says to me that if I'm gonna fall on my face, at least I do it heading in the right direction!  I love that one.

Ruth, I loved your analogy of realizing that it is only one choice, but over time, that one choice repeated will bring about the desired effect!

And to kitties, just keep praying to lose the desire.  More importantly, make daily plans to avert those types of choices. If you have to pack up a small cooler and leave it in your car with an array of good food, so be it.

in retrospect for me and fast food, it now seems extremely easy - if you never pull into that driveway, you will not eat that food.

Was a time in my life when i went to the store by myself at long last after a day of toddlers/house mess/no love, I would be very compelled to turn  into those places, mack down food and drive home filled with remorse and perhaps purge once i got home. Sick indeed on so many levels. 

I will also share making 3x5 affirmation cards to keep in your car or on your person at all times. Try to write them in present tense as though it is happening and avoid negative words like "lose" or "hate". 

Even phrases like I do not hate my body plants a negative imprint on our subconscious. Read them over and over every day!

here are some possibles: 

"I choose food that is colorful, full of good fats and satisfies my soul." 

"Each day i choose to move my body for at least 15 minutes."

"Each day my food plan is ready and available for my daily duties in my life."

" i enjoy a loving relationship with my husband every day."

I have to really agree on using Affirmations...they really do work. Especially when you stop and think just how powerful our mind is...we really CAN control what we do, what we say, what we put into our mouths.  Like anything else in life, it takes practice to get good at it....but I am finding listening to cds and even watching some powerful dvds once and a while can help too.  I used to be into all these self-help types of tapes, and aromatherapy years ago...and I stopped and now have started up again.  Even something as simple as spraying my pillows and sheets every night before bed....the instant relaxation I feel is amazing....and I wake up every morning not to  a blaring clock radio or annoying alarm but the Louise Hays affirmation CD...you can find them on amazon or Hay House etc. but the one I got literally has a 15-20 min. affirmation tape that you listen to once each day...at first I thought how silly this is going to be...and laughed thinking back to an old SNL skit with Al Franken when he did Stuart Smalley lol...but you know something?  Ever since listening to it...and I dont always just lay there and listen to each and every affirmation or word all the time....but I have noticed waking up feeling less streesful....and that is such a better way to start the day.

But even the little things I used to do...make jokes....you know so many of obese people do...we need to be the life of the party just to get past all the pain sometimes....or show that hey, maybe our bodies aren't that hot, but man are we fun to be around...but I had really noticed that I used alot of negative self talk too.  Even joking about my fat butt having its own postal code etc.  But the thing is, you may be joking to hide the pain...but you are just reinforcing that self hate....so now I try to catch myself....have inlisted a couple of co-workers to help me if they hear me doing it LOL...but it does take some time...but aren't we all worth it???

oh to the coffee comment I had to laugh...my morning cup is something I will never give up....and you also hear of the many many huge benefits too of a cup or two a day..so for all the negative facts out there...there are just as many positive ones too.  I always go back and remember my Grandmother who lived to be 100...we always asked her what her secret was..she always said it was her 2 cups of coffee every morning...well I am sure there were other factors too lol but it was her only
'vice' but I went for years not drinking any...and then one day just realized I like the ritual of the smell in the morning and that one cup that just gets the day going....I have given up alot of things including junk food, chips, candy as best as I can...but that cup is my one thing outside of working out, that really puts me in a happy mood everyday...so its staying :)

I had two, count 'em, two cups of coffee at the breakfast meeting today. WITH creamer. *whoo*   I don't totally avoid coffee, but Dr. Jay Nelson who wrote the book 'Moses, The First Author of Health' is firmly against it and makes a good case. I'm aiming for a pH balance, and coffee does leave an acidic ash. I'll just up my water intake today.

PS: Does anyone else find it hilarious how this forum puts *** when it thinks you've typed a naughty? Cracks me up, but i'm easily amused.

Ruth
aka MomShap

Me too on the editing...geesh, those censors have dirty minds!

I was going to repsons to you on coffee - lately we see more "studies" on how it is every bit as healthy as tea - coffee beans, the new antioxidant.

I am kind of overboard on it lately and need to back off.  I do love tea also and unless it's herbal, it upsets my stomach far more than coffee does.

well next week there will no doubt be a new book out
about how writing in forums is dangerous for your health lol
I think there is 'proven' evidence /studies out there for just
about everything under the book.  I have gone through periods of not drinking it and periods of having a cup or two a day....I think more importantly for out bodies is to dump the sugar...I know in the past when I have reduced sugar in my diet, I have always had tons more energy! So does this mean that the joke I sent you Ruth, you know...the one about the *** who met up with the *** and then they both *** ??

Chloe, the *** of Maryland