For the first trick of the evening:  Being Strong without even trying…

I have to share a “moment” from this week from where I work  I’m surrounded by a group of folks who like to bring in food and leave it on the break room table for everyone.

This is sweet and nice and generous, and it does foster a sense of community at the workplace, HOWEVER, for me those little offerings of friendship are sneak attacks!  They are land mines on the way to a healthy me!  They are evil incarnate!  Basically they kinda suck eggs.

One morning this week, I went into the kitchen break room to unpack my lunch bag and put it into the frig and there on the table was a whole tray of beautifully decorated Easter Cupcakes!  Oh My!  My taste buds started doing a happy dance in anticipation but my mind firmly clamped down!!!  I gently pushed the whole tray to the opposite end of the table while I unloaded my very healthy lunch into the frig.  Take that foul bunny shaped cake!  A-HA!

The whole time I was unpacking my lunch, I just kept chanting, in my mind, like a holy mantra, the phrase “skinny shirt”,  “skinny shirt”  “skinny shirt”.  The evilness of colored icing was kept at bay!  Woo Hoo!  Yay!  Healthiness prevails!

The importance of having support…

I’ve told everyone.  You should too if you’re doing “Jenny Craig” or whatever it is that you’re doing to get healthy.  The folks at work have been very supportive.  My friends have been wonderful.  Everyone knows.  Hell, even the whole world knows!  Or at least the 96 people from around the world who have visited this blog knows.  In all seriousness, the support and positive reinforcement does help.

There are oodles (for those not from the Southern US, “oodles” means a lot as in bunches, as in many) of articles out there that describe in horribly dry scientific detail why those who succeed, are those who enlist the aide of their friends, neighbors, and co-workers.  I’ll save you time reading all those articles.  Simply put….  “It helps to have an audience!” 

Eating out…cravings…and what to do about them…

This past week was the Texas Hoedown, the first big dance event in these here parts.  It is an American Country Dance Association event, and it marks the semi-official kick off of the dance season and is much like a family reunion.  You get to see friends you haven’t seen in months.  People have new costumes and new routines.  There are new folks that you haven’t met and old friends as well.

For the record, my dance partner and I did very well.  We danced five dances in two different divisions, both at the Intermediate level, or “Division II”.  One “open” division, which is 18 and up.  And the other was an “age” division where we danced against folks our own age, in their 40s.  We placed 2nd overall in our age division and 3rd overall in the Open division.

The best bit was that the couple that took first in both of our divisions was a wonderfully sweet couple that I’ve seen dance for ages, but… …they are Pros.  As in “Professional” as in they have students!  And…. …. we placed 1st in Triple Two Step in both divisions and we placed 1st in Night Club Two in the Open division!    Wow!  This was our first time in Div II and to have even got a single 1st in an individual dance would have been awesome.  To pull out three 1st places in individual dances, and doing against “pro” dancers….  Wow!  Let me reiterate… Wow!  Don’tcha just love my articulate-ness?   Pictures and video later.  I promise.

So what does this have to do with eating out????   

Well, a dance event weekend makes it very difficult to stay “on menu”.  When you start “Jenny Craig” one of the the best things about it is the “routine” that it creates for you.  You have your menu, you have your schedule, you have your plan.  A dance event weekend just doesn’t mix well with “routine”.  You’re at a hotel for starters, away from your kitchen and your menu.  Also when I compete, I live on energy bars, bananas, granola bars and Gatorade.  It keeps me going throughout the day…a steady stream of easy on the tummy foods that keep the electrolytes and blood sugar on an even keel.

Then you eat out.  SIGH  For the record, I made excellent choices.  I stuck to soup and salad and ice tea.  And on Sunday, when I know that the “gang” likes to get together after awards and socialize, I skipped lunch, having only a banana and a energy bar, combining basically lunch and dinner.  We went to Pappasitos Mexican Cantina.

Oh boy!  Like you’re going to find anything healthy on THAT menu!  I did good though.  I got the chicken enchiladas with only rice, telling the waiter “No beans.  Don’t give me an extra portion of rice either in their place, just bring two enchiladas with one serving of rice and an empty hole where the beans would have been.  I had only about four chips with salsa while we were waiting.  I ate only the enchiladas and part of the rice.  I did indulge and have a strawberry margarita though.  Yummy!  And we were celebrating!  🙂  The point is that I planned ahead and allowed for the dinner out and the next day I had lost half a pound!  Yay me!.  So it is possible!

Having a craving…

Go ahead and eat it and get it out of your system.  Indulge but keep your ultimate goal in mind.  Last night after dance lessons and practice, I had an intense almost physical craving for a Chipotle Burrito.  I went ahead and got it but with a difference:

Old way:  Burrito with extra rice, no beans, chicken, two salsas, lots of cheese and lots of sour cream.  Large diet coke, chips, guacamole.

New way:  Burrito with rice (no “extra”).  Onions, Bell peppers, corn, salsa, just a sprinkle of cheese, about 1 oz and about an oz of sour cream.   No chips.  No guacamole.  Large diet coke.

The point?  I satisfied my craving by having the burrito in place of dinner so my total calories for the day were about the same and I avoided my old habits of stuffing so much food into the tortilla that the guy behind the counter could barely roll it up.   This time I was full after the meal but I wasn’t bloated like I used to be when I had one of these burritos.  Yay Me.  Craving satisfied and this morning I’m back on the program!  Woo Hoo!

..
The applause may commence. 🙂
..

See ya on the dance floor!