The New Habit

I forget how the old saying goes, about how it takes 3 (or whatever) months to build a habit, and only 3 (or whatever) days to break it. I have been thinking about this idiom quite often lately, as I have found that through Transitions, there has been a fundamental shift in my thinking.

My deviations from the "habit" of eating well are only that -- quick, fluttering trips away from the real, the normal, the right. My body and my mind know how to eat and all lapses in judgement are eventually washed away to reveal the best-practices I've learned.

Summer has been a challenge -- with the kids home (plus many others), BBQs where I don't want to be the finicky guest, parties and celebrations, nights by firepits. I do the best I can, and sometimes eat things that I know are not right for me.

But it's a strange feeling wen I wake up the next day and reach for a tray of cut raw veggies, like it's the most natural thing in the world. Each days starts fresh with a simple act of eating the right things, it's not a diet or a health kick or a trend I am following. Its the way I have learned to eat and it has stuck with me, now 7 months later.

For this I am grateful.

Challenge #348

This one is a doozy.

Another round of travel, this time with the extra added complication of going to a home where I can't make demands. My last trip was to my in-laws' house and that was easier: they ask me ahead of time what I want to eat, I tell them, they sort of try to make it happen. When I arrived and found insufficient veggies, I hopped in my rental car and went to Trader Joe's.

This trip is slightly different. I am off to Florida for a celebratory trip with my daughter who is turning 10. We will be staying at the home of my husband's cousin, who I've met only briefly. And while I am sure they will take great care of us and be wonderful hosts, I am less confident in making requests, and even less comfortable borrowing a car to go get groceries.

I will do my best, as always! And I will make sure to spend lots of time swimming, walking and doing yoga on the beach, just to offset any dietary mishaps. Wish me luck!

THAT WAGON. THE ONE I KEEP FALLING OFF.

It's not really that dramatic. It's not like I am sitting around eating Twinkies and drinking Coke straight from the can.

It's just that now that I know how to eat, I get irritated with myself for not choosing to eat that way.

My mind has been traveling back to my 12-week nutrition boot camp, and how I'd been doing pretty well for the first half of the program. I'd noticed, even then, that my biggest challenge was being "on the go," a state of being that is more the norm than not, given that I have 3 kids and I work anywhere between 15 and 35 hour a week, both from home and outside the home. I run a business and I have frequent drop-everything demands on my time, and I handle this very well as long as I don't have to think about what I am putting into my body. Which is how I got to be 30 pounds overweight.

But I am no longer content to shovel food into my mouth for the sake of not feeling hungry, and so lately I've been feeling very frustrated when I haven't carved out the time for advance prep for my day. Because advance preparation is the only way to survive in this lifestyle. On a good day, I do this before I leave the house:

And on a bad day, I either let my blood sugar drop until I am homicidal, or I make poor choices. But the irritation I feel toward myself has less to do with what I am doing wrong -- because I haven't been reverting to old habits and overreating and all that. It has everything to do with what I am most decidedly not doing right.

Today, I am renewing my commitment to doing the right thing. And it feel pretty damn empowering to have the information stored away in my brain, ready to activate. Cheers to a new day.

BEFORE & AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER Some pix, thank goodness I took a few. I know, the difference may not be discernible to you, but it is to me. Aside from the fact that I have chronically bad hair, I cringe when I look at the first picture, taken just before starting Transitions. You can see that while I retained my hourglass figure (which, AHEM, I happen to like, thankyouverymuch), I also lost quite a bit of body fat.

I would show you the behind pictures, but, well, we'll have to save those for another day.

FINDING TIME

It's hard for me to create time in my life for this blog, because writing here is sort of ANTI what I know I should be doing.

Instead of writing about weight loss, I should be out moving my body.
Instead of chronicling my gains and losses, I should be ignoring the scale.
Instead of networking with other bloggers, I should be building my realtionships with people.

And so, it should please some of you to know that I am doing exactly what I should be doing! Living life, ignoring the scale, loving people.

But it doesn't bode well for being a good blogger. It doesn't bode well at all.

THE SCALE

As my life has taken this new direction and I have adopted this new lifestyle, I find myself caring less about the scale than I ever have.

I am a little embarrassed to admit that there was a time when I weighed myself more times per day than I care to divulge. Let's just say it was more than once and less than 10 times. And sometimes even in the middle of the night when i was up anyways, just to have the satisfaction of seeing a lower number than I was used to.

There have been times that I have banished the scale, tucked it away, willed myself not to step on. But if the scale was out, the obsession was in full swing.

These days, the scale has its usual place on the bathroom floor. Most of the time I ignore it. Maybe once a week or so, I hop on just for fun. Today was one of those days, and I was amused -- yes, AMUSED -- to see that I have actually gone up .2 lbs.

No worries, because I got dressed this morning and put on a pair of linen pants that previously I'd thought of as capris. Today, the hemline went all the way to my ankle. How could this be?! It's because my body has changed again and my waist must be smaller, giving the pants a new place on my hips to settle.

It's a strange device, that scale. It doesn't seem to tell you what you really ought to know, which is that if you are getting all the nutritional requirements your body needs, your weight will settle comfortably somewhere. Doesn't really matter where though, now does it?

DINNER PARTIES

So hubby and I belong to a group of 9 couples who rotate houses each month and host "Supper Club." The hosting couple picks a theme for their food or entertainment, everyone gets babysitters and we have an adult night of drinking, eating, game-playing and debauchery.

Themes have included most ethnic food groups -- Japanese, Italian, French, Chinese, South African, and more.

Some couples have chosen a more specific theme -- breakfast for dinner, "scary" food for Halloween, local food.

And some of the couples have chosen themes for the night and had the food correspond -- "Minute to Win it" with stadium food, "The Moth" night -- a stage set up for storytelling and a sit-down pasta dinner that followed.

Tonight is our turn to host and something told me that a "Transitions" theme would not go over well with our foodie friends.

So I thought about a night at a party while I was in the throws of the Transitions where the host has ordered some subs from a local pizzeria. I was starving and without any healthy meal choices, I grabbed half an italian and ate the meats/lettuce from inside. Somebody remarked that the bread is the most important part of the sandwich, with which I strongly disagreed. Bread without the inside of the sandwich tastes only like bread; the sandwich's claim to fame is what's inside.

So tonight, my husband and I will host a Supper Club extravaganza -- SANDWICHES and BEER. From Reubens to club sanwiches, veggie pockets to paninis, there will be something for everyone, including me. Because while nobody is looking, I will discreetly remove the bread and still get to sample all the goodness....