Last night I took a stroll with my family at the harbor, a hotbed for tourists and locals alike. The weather was perfect, and it was jam packed with people out looking for fun.
There were street performers, a flea market, a giant Ferris Wheel, and of course, rows upon rows of restaurants with open terraces, fast food joints, food trucks, ice cream parlors, and so on. You couldn’t walk ten steps without running into a food offering of some sort. 9 out of 10 of them were junk foods with little nutrition, but such a sweet ride for the taste buds and the old tummy.
Good times...also, very tempting and challenging times if you are trying to lose weight.
How do you deal with such situations? Do you cave in and pig out? Do you rely on your mental strength and say no to all of them? Or say yes and promise yourself to work out for two hours the next day to “burn it off”?
Well, for myself, the matter was made even worse by the fact that I had already pigged out at lunch, eating to a belt busting 10. I also had a medium sized breakfast earlier in the day. This meant I had to skip dinner, in accordance to rule #4 in my eating plan (ie. skip one meal when I eat a jumbo sized deal). I had no problem doing so, since I’ve done it so many times, plus I was genuinely still quite full from lunch.
That’s not to say that I was not tempted by all those mouth watering food. Sure I was! Temptation is pretty much the same for everyone. It’s our reaction to temptation that separates us on the bathroom scale.
I had a plan, I knew exactly what to do and it works. So the decision was quickly made and easy to live with. Plus, I also did two things to make that decision even more palatable:
- I got a cup of black coffee. Something to sip on (satisfy the taste buds) and felt good in the stomach. Zero calories.
- I told myself that next time, I will plan this ahead of time by saving a meal, say, the medium one, for eating out.
That’s it. Simple. A good time was had (with a great time the next round), and life goes on. No regrets, no weight gain.
This is a real life example of what goes on in one’s mind, when they make a conscious decision to put health first, and adapt a flexible plan that’s easy to follow and stick with.
Let’s face it, temptations to overeat is everywhere, happens on a daily basis. The entire food distribution system is basically set up to make us overeat. Why do you think the world population is getting fatter? The only way to regain the upper hand, is by having a plan that you can trust and rely on when those temptations strike.
That’s your pillar of strength. Once you have it, nothing can take it away from you.