so. i am a Person Who Goes To Church, or a PWGTC, if you will. and i come from a family of PWGTCs. For many PWGTCs out there, Sundays mean big post-church family dinners and elaborate meals...
not in my family. sundays after church were declared by my mom (never one to do the "normal" thing) to be "every man for himself." what this usually amounted to was we got home and immediately started eating all kinds of stuff, standing up in the kitchen, chit chatting and fighting over the sunday paper...it was always one gigantic forage fest that would last about an hour or so...i usually went directly for the cereal (i.e. multiple bowls), my dad would eat chips & salsa, my brother would eat a gallon of ice cream and my sister would go straight for whatever bread product we had in the house. we would then all collapse in a massive post-gorge carb crash and take a 4 hour nap.
(notice, i didn't mention my mom...because she would usually make a sandwich and have some cottage cheese and then stop. funny that she's never had a weight problem. and she has a degree in nutrition.)
well, this sunday forage fest has been imprinted in my dna or something, because even though i've been living away from the fam for about 10 years, i still have my own little food fest on sundays after church. i admit that i save up my flex points during the week specifically because i know i will need them on sunday.
today, this was brought to light because we have a house guest staying with us... so, when i got home today, she was here...and i felt really self-conscious about doing the normal sunday food fest in front of her. as much as i wanted to completely raid the cupboards, having someone else there made me really think twice. which must mean it is probably not the best idea, no?
it also made me think about the concept of planned splurging. is it really a good idea? would i be better off without the sunday calorie festival? and more importantly, can i stop doing it? and the underlying question: can i break any of the bad habits that i've developed over the last 27 years? even ones that i really like and don't really want to break (like the sunday afternoon food carnival)?
well..i don't really have any answers. but i would be really interested to know what you think about planned splurges like this? good idea? bad idea? does it matter? and if you've been successful in breaking habits like this, how did you do it?
today was another 0 point exercise...ate 27...so i think i'm pretty much out of flex. but they reset tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
It will be interesting to see what other people write. I will be checking back on this one!
For me, I'm realizing that I didn't have food fests until I started "watching" my weight. Or at least not that often. If something is always available to you, then you don't crave it as intensely as when it's off limits. This is true with many things, not just food. (maybe it's human nature?)
What do you look forward to eating when you get out of church? Do you have to wait until Sunday to have some of it? Maybe if you knew you could have sensible portions of whatever food you want, WHEN you are hungry (not just because you feel like eating) you would be ok. They say dry counties produce more alcoholics than places that allow it. Maybe food works the same way? I really don't know!
Keep trying different strategies. Good luck! :)
Meg - I think the splurge is OK if you keep in your flex points. But, I think the question is: is the sunday-eating-fest a trigger for "bad" eating habits afterwards? Does saving points for this event make it harder for you to enjoy yourself for the rest of the week? If yes, then I wonder if you could wean off of the habit - can you replace with another tradition? A treat that doesn't get out of hand?
Um. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Church is SO LOOOOOONG!!!
No really. I totally have this problem too. Until I was in nursery. Yay for snackytime! I really didn't feel the need to gorge myself as much when I got home, if I just had a little somehting to hold me over, even if they were just fishy crackers. (maybe pack a snack and find a way to covertly nourish yourself while you're actually there) Just a thought.
soap box girl--i don't know that there's anything in particular that i look forward to eating, it's more of the "i get to eat a lot and then take a nap" that i look forward to. now that i'm typing this, i'm thinking that i need to have something else to look forward to...maybe i should plan a meal, or have some sort of non-food project to work on. or just stay out of the house!
katieo--good call on the snacks. now that i think about it, that would probably help A LOT! and yes...church is SOoo LOoooong!!!
bridget--yea, maybe i need to plan ahead and do something "special" on sundays..i don't know that the sunday thing really plays into bad habits other days, or maybe it does...weekends in general seem to be bad. i don't know...why do i like feeling full so much? that's pretty gross, and not glamorous. hmm.
Post a Comment