Kelly was in a dieting slump lately. She refused to eat her baby carrots. This led to me offering her dog biscuits as treats again. How quickly we fall into our old habits! Of course, she loved the doggy treats. But I realized her weight was starting to come back again. Was that a waddle when she walked? Yup, we'd better get back on track. I tried other healthy snacks--celery, apples, green beans. Not so much. One day at the grocery store I saw a bag of carrots sliced into little coin sized discs. I decided to try them and, success! Just the different shape renewed her interest. And, with the nice weather now, we've been able to increase our walking time and distance. So that should help.
Like Kelly, I've recently hit a dieting slump too. I was excited to have joined a gym. At first we couldn't wait to go. I bought a new gym outfit, laced up my sneaks, filled my water bottle, and off we went. I was working out 200% (random arbitrary statistic) more than I'd been doing at home. At least 30 minutes on the treadmill, and then a circuit of weight machines. I was sore and sweaty, so that must mean I worked hard right? But day after day, week after week, no difference on the scale. So frustrating!
Then I made a logical decision: I figured since I wasn't losing any weight doing things the right way, I might as well eat whatever I wanted. My husband and I used an awesome coupon for Buy One Get One Free burritos and ordered these monstrosities with steak, cheese, fried onions, peppers and mushrooms, oh yeah and more cheese. They were huge! And we ate them with abandon. About 20 minutes later my stomach turned on me. I still feel that burrito rolling around in there today. I felt nauseous from all that grease. Whatever losses I might have eventually seen on the scale had now been altered by the increased calories and fat I'd consumed in one meal, which was probably more than I should have had in two days (I'm afraid to calculate it!) Plus, it tasted great at the time, but felt awful afterward.
Did I learn a lesson? I hope so. I'm trying not to be too hard on myself. After all, most all of us have diet slip ups. But for snacks today, I'm going to go join Kelly in some carrot coins.
Paws for Reflection: Convoluted logic to give yourself permission to do what you know you shouldn't do just doesn't work!
