Getting back on track

Though my weight has mostly maintained this summer (give or take a couple pounds), I've been slipping into many of my old bad habits.

My cravings for salty or sugary foods have been creeping back up more often again because I have been indulging myself more often. While I was on the I Diet I had cut out all of my salty snacks (potato chips, chips & salsa, tortilla chips with hot sauce) and limited my sweet snacks to strawberries dipped in a small amount of high quality chocolate, and I stopped drinking soda. At first I just didn't reintroduce these things again for fear that I wouldn't have any self-control. But as I slowly added them back, I realized that I can control it. I can only drink one can or one glass of soda without then wanting to drink more and more every day. And the same for other snacky foods like ice cream, potato chips, and whatever else I decide to indulge in. However in the last few weeks I've started to revert back to my "If I want it, I will have it" ways; though to my credit I have at the very least been able to control the portions in a way I never have before.

I've also gotten pretty out of whack with my grocery shopping, which means I have found myself without the makings of lunches or dinners and therefore eating out or getting take-out more often than I should. One of the things that the I Diet focused on was limiting the variety of bad foods and increasing the variety of good foods. One of my problems has always been that I am not very good at making the right decisions (grilled rather than fried chicken for example) about food, particularly when eating out. So although I have been doing better than I once did, I still haven't always been making the best decisions as far as my restaurant choices go.

One thing the I Diet taught me was that, for me, eating well isn't hard when I make a meal plan and stick to my grocery shopping schedule. So I'm working on getting back into my schedule, and planning my meals so that when I do decide to eat at a restaurant I won't have to worry quite so much about making the healthiest choice. I think if I can really plan for breakfast, snacks, lunch, and most of my dinners during the week I will feel like I'm back on track.

So for this week, I made sure I have some cereal at home for breakfasts, bought baby carrots and fruit, and made a delicious Greek salad with chickpeas for lunch. I'll have BLTs and pasta with veggies for dinners. I feel confident that I can get back on track (another thing that the I Diet helped with- don't feel guilty, just pick up where you left off and get on track). And I'll be trying to cut back on those extra salty and sugary snacks, like a sugar detox.

My salad was really good at lunch and I'm definitely looking forward to a BLT with some corn on the cob tonight for dinner.