Day 12
You want the good news or the bad news? The bad news is, today brought me to an all time low. The good news is, I think this is going to be the lowest day of the whole program- it can only go up from here!!
So, what happened?! It was my sister in law’s birthday so we had a family lunch. And you know what happens at these things. You feel obligated (no, let me rephrase- let’s stop kidding around- you ARE obligated…) to eat whatever is served. And I’ll be honest, it could’ve been worse. We had sandwiches. I don’t like ham, but I ate ham because it was the best option.
And then there was dessert. Little items from an amazing local bakery. Just like yesterday, if these things weren’t around I would not be compelled to go and buy them, but there they were right in front of my face. What would you do? (Be honest)…
So here’s the scoop for the day:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana, blueberries, cinnamon, 1 cup coffee w 1% milk
(a good solid start)
Lunch: 1 slice ham (I did NOT pile up the deli meat. I don’t even like deli meat). 1 slice swiss, 2 slices tomato, a whole bunch of mesclun, grey poupon (good mustard), cholesterol free canola mayo (still crap, but could’ve been worse), on 2 wonderful slices of fresh baked bread. In hindsight I should’ve just had the bread, the mesclun and the tomato. Oh well. Also had 4 shrimp with cocktail sauce.
Dessert: 1 small piece of carrot cake. Yes, it was small but DAMN! Oh, and I took a bite of a cookie, but aborted because it wasn’t worth it. The carrot cake was definitely worth it.
Snack: Was tempted to eat a slice of the banana raisin chocolate bread from yesterday but managed to get myself to eat a boiled egg instead. But then a few minutes later I was walking through the kitchen and saw a cannoli out on display- leftover from lunch- and I ate it. It was very yummy, and I generally don’t like cannoli’s. But not worth it!! I had already had the carrot cake and that was WAY enough. Sheesh.
Dinner: ½ cup coffee because passing out and still had more ‘take care of baby’ time. Then had that amazing broccoli from yesterday with a baked potato with whipped butter. Yes, I thought about melting cheese over the whole thing, but enough already. Anyway, I felt like my breakfast and my lunch were healthy, even if my lunch was a bust.
Workout:
Same as 2 days ago with one addition…
Used the thigh chisel video as my warm up: https://vimeo.com/37502944
1-Stationary Lunges: (or split squats- same thing)- hold 8lbs, repeat lunges right leg forward 15x
2-Walk down and up stairs holding the 8lb weights (17 steps- I counted today)
3-Stationary Lunges: left leg forward
4-Walk down /up stairs holding the 8lb weights
Repeat 1-4
5-On back on the ground, with legs in table top- Chest Flies- 8lbs 5x (I made this MUCH easier today because my chest muscles were still sore from 2 days ago. Other than that, this is the same workout)
6-Knee Push Ups 10x
Repeat 5-6
7-Upright Row 8lbs 15x
8-Overhead Press 8lbs 15x
9-Lateral Arm Raises- alternate arms 8lbs 10x each arm
10- One arm Tricep Extension 8lbs 20x right then left
Repeat 7-10
11- Forearm Plank 20 seconds
12-Double Crunch 30x
Repeat 11-12
Stretch
Accomplishment for the day: Walking away from the banana bread and eating an egg instead
Setback for the day: Carrot cake, mayo, cannoli
Well, when I write it out in just a few words, it doesn’t seem that bad. I’ll live. But, this brings up an interesting challenge. What do you do when you’re at a birthday party and you are obligated to partake in the presented food consumption? Now that I look at it, I could’ve easily gotten away with eating just the mesclun and tomato on the bread. The bread was fattening, but it was actually good bread- make at the bakery. I allow myself 2 slices per day anyway, and rarely hit that. Also, no one would’ve noticed if I hadn’t eaten any dessert. So the challenge is switched to: what do you do when it’s in front of you and you want it, but know it’s going to take you off the path you want to be on? I’m not completely sure. I always used the “don’t buy it and you won’t eat it”” strategy. When it’s in front of you, it is much harder. I have previously succeeded with this challenge. Like last week when Ron was offering me candy, and the cookies. I knew I would have to tell you, so I refrained. Why didn’t that work today? I think because it is so rare that those kinds of goodies are in front of me. It seemed worth it. So, accountability works more often than not. And I think that one should allow themselves some goodies from time to time to keep from feeling deprived. So I ate the yummy stuff- it’s done. Have no idea when I’ll see any carrot cake or cannoli’s again, so the balance in the universe has been restored.
On to tomorrow!!
Your Fitness Coach,
Miranda Zukowski
normally, my rule for breaking rules is if the temptation in front of me on a special occasion is homemade or super fresh…it’s a go.
Awesome rule, Bev! I like Nancy’s 90/10 rule, and yours seems to fit right in with that. Healthy is definitely now your norm and the other stuff is the exception!
First of all who said you were obligated to partake? Second, you won’t go to diet hell for eating carrot cake of a canolli or bread even if you weren’t obligated. Sometimes I think when you say “I can’t have these things at all” they become way too important when they are in front of you. We create these traps in our mind. I sort of like the 90/10 rule. If I am being true to my food plan 90% of the time and have that small piece of carrot cake 1 day out of 10, I’m doing very well indeed. Maybe you need to rethink your “no” strategy into a 90/10 strategy and stop worrying. And by the way, it sounds as if it was worth it – you did your exercise and got right back to the plan today. When it blows up is when you give up the exercise and then blow off the food plan.
I agree with you 100%. It is unwise to say you are absolutely never going to consume something that you deem yummy but not necessarily healthy. Your 90/10 rule is a good one. Similar to my ‘norm vs exception’. I do apologize if it sounds like I think I am going to diet hell. I promise I did not lose any sleep over any of those goodies! Ha ha. I am simply recording every thing I do, and when it doesn’t help me stay on the path I want to be on, I look for a solution to not fall victim to the same temptation again. I do expect to fall off- I don’t think I would be human if I didn’t. And I like being human and imperfect. But when I do fall off, I want to make sure the next time I fall off for a different reason. So I am finding solutions to the current temptations and ready for the next temptation.
Oh, by the end of my blog yesterday, I realized that no one would’ve noticed if I hadn’t eaten the food presented. No one cared. BUT, I also recognize this ‘obligation eating’ as a common pitfall for many people, so it’s nice that it happened to me and I could address it. The moral to that story is- no one at the party is paying as much attention to what you consume as you think they are 🙂
Thank you for your insights!