The Futility of Futility

Angela - your post is a good reminder. Look, we all love to eat. I had a decent week, but I gained weight. We went to Five Guys on Saturday because we wanted to. We skipped breakfast and tried not to eat too much later in the day. It is going to happen.

Mom and Dad went to Georgia and they ate at Golden Corral - it is going to happen.

There was a birthday party and there was cake and so it got eaten - it is going to happen.

It is not the few slip ups that create our problem - it is when all we do is slip up. It is Futile to resist every food temptation - nobody can sustain a 1,500 calorie per day diet forever. We won't go to the gym everyday. All we can do is try to make the best decision we can every time we have an opportunity.

Here are the things we can do. We can:

A) Keep junk food out of the house. Don't buy cookies, don't buy bread, if you need snacks then keep some 100 calorie packs in the house. If you have a 1,000 calorie bag of chips, you will eat 1,000 calories. It is a lot of work and feels very guilty to eat 10 100 calorie packs (unless your name is John.)

B) Leave the take out food out. Take out food is great, it is easy, painless, tasty and cheap. On the nights you don't want to cook, try some ready made store food. (But not Stoeffer's Mac and Cheese.) If you MUST have take out - get the salad. Even a Buffalo Chicken salad is better than a whole pizza. Antipasto is always satisfying. It has a lot of salt, but better than a big mac and fries.

C) Don't drink calories. Just don't do it. There is non-dairy creamer and zero calorie sweetener. Leave the regular soda alone, go for seltzer. Make sure to watch drinks as they suck up calories.

D) Super small portions of yummy stuff. If you MUST have ice-cream, only buy the little tiny cups and eat one or two. Split a Klondike bar with somebody. Do something to keep the PORTION small.

E) Keep our heart in it. Ok, so fine, you messed up, you snuck a donut. You grabbed a bag of doritos on the way home. It happens - don't use it as an excuse to give up on the week.

F) Help others. This is the one that is more important. If you are not making the right decisions then people around you find it easier to slip up. If you can't do it for yourself, do it for your family. They get strength from you. You help them. If you are good, then they will be. If they are good then you will be.

G) Stay focused on the long term. You didn't gain the weight in a month, you won't lose it in a month. Stay focused on where we are going to be in a month, not next week. Look behind at where you were 6 months ago. Even if you have gained 25 lbs in the last 6 months, just think, you could LOSE those 25 lbs over the next 6 months.

H) Have a super week. Just work really hard on having one fantastic week. Micromanage your food intake, be super diligent, exercise every day. If you do and have a 5 lb week, it will give you inspiration to carry on.

That's all for now. Keep your spirits up. Bread is bad, Chocolate is a sin and Pizza does not exist!