Last night was the sailing club potluck. I did ok, with my current relaxed strategy of what constitutes "ok". Beck is very severe on the concept of special occasions - because there are likely to be too many of them. Not just for the holidays, but for ordinary life as well. Therefore, its not ok to just say to yourself, "This is a special occasion and therefore it doesn't matter what I eat." Of course it matters. The laws of physics are not suspended for special occasions.
Beck suggests several quite severe strategies: 1. Keep to your normal schedule and routines. Only put on your plate what fits within your calorie budget. Maybe even bring your own food and eat only that (easier to do at a potluck than other kinds of events). 2. Stay within your normal calorie budget, but eat a little bit less earlier in the day in order to save some calories (not many 200-300 only) for the event. 3. Decide you are going to allow yourself up to 300 extra calories for the event. Know that means you are likely breaking even for the day instead of losing.
She further goes on to caution its important to keep to the other disciplines - eat only while sitting down. Eat slowly and pay attention. Keep the inner dialogue going - remind yourself what your priorities are - I have decided to lose weight, it is important, and it is more important than the home baked bread sitting on the table. And of course, survey the field and make your plans before putting any food on your plate.
I sort of went with strategy #3. I ate a bit of my own food, standing up, but I had decided to do that. I ate a straight meal, with a big salad, one meat, a vegetable side, and one piece of the terrific bread. I also had one piece of cake. (I could have cut it quite a bit smaller and not felt deprived - something to think about.) No alcohol. I had decided it was either dessert or alcohol and I went for the chocolate.
I did have a small piece of my special chocolate when I got home. So the total calories for the day were up more than 300... but I'm not dissatisfied with how I did.
This is all great training for the cruise. I need to think through again and again how I intend to handle that venture.
2 comments:
it sounds like you did great -- even down to figuring out how you could do better (perhaps skipping the at-home chocolate).
I guess I did ok - because even though I estimate it as more than 2,000 calories, if I hadn't been thinking all the time, I could have easily gone to 3,000 or even 4,000 calories very easily!
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