Thursday, February 9, 2012

Same 'ol, same 'ol

It's been brought to my attention that I haven't been posting much about dieting....I agree!  Couple of reasons....

#1 Not much has changed in forever.  Usually I have two or three favorite meals and I eat them everyday and I look forward to them everyday.  All of the foods I make for myself I enjoy tremendously, no complaints, no wanting for anything different. And the fact that I take the responsibility for feeding myself makes me the happiest of all.

 I eat 2 meals with a large amount of veg and protein, either a salad, and/or soup.  I routinely pack my own lunch and foods to take with me if I'm going to be away from home.

Although I roast chickens and turkeys like a mad woman I've also been eating more complex carbs lately, in fact I've been eating more calories lately.  If I could live on plain yogurt and Grape-Nuts (and a squeeze of lime), or multigrain rice and peanut butter I would!  I rarely have both of those meals on the same day....but it's been known to happen.

I still start my days out with coffee and real, whole cream...usually 1 tbl per 10 oz cup.

If I buy it, I'll eat it, so most times I don't buy it...most times.  Dang, I wish they sold little bitty boxes of Grape-Nuts!  But truly, I can go weeks without buying them or eating them.

5 days out of seven I finish my last meal between 4:30pm and 6:00pm.  I eat my first meal (s) between 11:00-1:00pm....which brings me to my next reason....

#2 My book will be released in 6 weeks and I write about my diet strategies and philosophy extensively.  Not to mention that throughout the past 5 or 6 years of blog posts I've written about the same basic diet beliefs.  For me I use a combination of calorie counting and nutritional science.  I'm very familiar with how certain foods affect me, and that's why I still have half a dozen Japanese sweet potatoes sitting on my kitchen counter instead of in my stomach!

For me I know what kind of "trade-offs" I want to, and need to make.  For instance, I'll choose multi grain rice over sweet potatoes, or I may not have one of my treats to save up a double treat for the next day or the weekend. But I get to eat plenty of the foods I love, and I'm happy with the amount of food I get to eat given my training schedule (around 1900-2200 calories a day to maintain my current bodyweight).

I get into a routine Sunday through Saturday afternoon, and then I get to "party".  Last week my party was, yep, sweet potatoes AND yogurt with Grape-Nuts!  Pretty crazy huh?  OK, throw lots of chocolate fudge in the mix, and a shared bottle of good red wine....now that's a party!

But seriously, I never eat fast food, and only eat out when I'm practically forced.  French fries and french bread are distant memories and I don't miss them at all.....but as I just admitted, I love Grape-Nuts, so I'm not trying to come across as some sort of "clean eating" snob.  I also eat a piece or two of candy 3-5 days out of 7.  I love sugar and I love salt, but just because I love these things doesn't mean I love how they make me feel.  And because I know how I'll feel by overeating those and other foods
it's rare that I "binge" eat.

But at times I do find myself acting out the old habit of eating something compulsively....it's not against the law!  I don't know why sometimes I react to an old trigger, but when I look back at this kind of behavior I know that it's not the reason for the reaction, but the habit the reaction creates that I want to change...make sense?  I don't have to stay awake at night trying to figure it out....but I have been known to get up to figure out an idea for a swing routine.....

The last blog posts I wrote about "Eating In" were actually in direct answer to someone who messaged me on facebook.  I still enjoy talking about diet, food and eating and I'm happy to give my opinions when asked. I want this kind of success for everybody!  There's something to be said about the same 'ol, same 'ol.  But I am still evolving, thank goodness!  Like training, I go in and out of food and eating phases, and when I do, you'll be the first to know!

4 comments:

Diana said...

If we stop evolving, we stop living!

Always a good practice to not beat one's self up when "falling off the wagon" or grabbing a quick mini-snickers when we know we shouldn't. Best to make it a learning session to find out what emotion/feeling/whatever made us do it.

guy said...

Only Women are evolved us fella's aint,least that's what my ol' lady keeps telling me. A lady at my work sells excellent tamales and burritos, so I accidentally bought two dozen tamales, it happens ;) I can't wait for my copy of "The Swing" I'm glad that there are a bunch of receipes.

Tracy Reifkind said...

Diana,

Some of us "re"volve, lol (that's when you go backwards, isn't it?)

I wouldn't describe eating a piece of candy (or two) falling off the wagon. I plan for it accordingly.

When I react to an old trigger it's usually when I'm ambushed by foods I'm not even thinking about, like the pastries at the coffee counter. Or I keep letting that damn "free sample" stuff creep up on me. I tend to let myself be triggered by "free", not "food", lol

Tracy Reifkind said...

guy,

I see you have the "stock up" gene too! Gotta buy at least a dozen or two! I've got to learn to, or at least get in the habit of, just laughing about it and walking away.