Thursday, June 19, 2014

Justification and the leftover trap


That happened the day before yesterday...fact.

It has been almost a week of less than stellar eating.  Actually, horrible eating.  A lot of it had to do with having so much food left over from Saturday and wanting to "get it out of the house."  Last I checked, our FoodSaver (affiliate link)  worked just fine.  But yeah, those homemade pints of ice cream (curse you Jeni!) (affiliate link) proved too strong when you feel like you "deserve" it after all of the crap you've been through over the past few weeks.  The temptation of warming up leftovers in lieu of cranking out a full blown dinner has just been too much for me to resist.

It needs to stop.

Well, we're out of leftovers so I guess it has no choice but to stop.  But still I look at the mindset and see how easy it can be to talk yourself into something quick and easy.  Last Friday, our friend came over to remove the carpet,  I was baking and cooking for the next day, we still had laminate to remove and it was getting late by the time he left for me to bust out dinner and then have to wait for the oven to cool before we moved it.  We got subs and chips for dinner.  (A regular sub, no monster sub or anything but still)

Saturday well, you know how that went.  So it was pork roast, mac and cheese and baked beans with the occasional cookie or ice cream sandwich.  That night we ordered pizza to refuel the boys and I had probably less than I would normally have on a regular high cal day so...yay?

Sunday we were so mentally and physically done that we had ice cream sandwiches for breakfast.  Not a typo.  I wish I could say I felt bad about it at the time but I didn't.  I do now but you know you're in that whole 'screw it' mindset when you're waving the white flag?  I let the Mr pick the spot for lunch to reward him for his hard work even though this was no longer a high cal day but you do that whole justification or "he deserves to be rewarded' kind of logic.  He chose a wing place (not a fan) and I got a quarter pound burger over a half pounder and we split a chili cheese fry which was seriously lacking in size so I guess that's a good thing.  Just as I was feeling proud of that decision, the new Reese Cup Oreos he came home with Thursday night began calling.

*shaking head*

Sunday dinner was leftovers so pork roast, mac and cheese and baked beans.  After dinner, I threw the leftover cookies in the trash.  Honestly, they weren't my best batches.  I was too rushed and they weren't worth the extra calories.

Monday was a decent breakfast, lunch was leftovers again and dinner was bbq pork roast pizza and a side of asparagus.  Yoga was on the agenda because we both felt severely out of alignment.  Then we saw a double feature at the movies and movie candy was had.  Oy.

Tuesday was painting the outside and waiting on the dumpster pick up and running on four hours of sleep.  No real work was done.  Breakfast was healthy, lunch was finishing off the leftover sides (who knew those things would stretch that long!??!) and fruit salad.  In between lunch and dinner were those pints of ice cream I mentioned.  I scooped us up a bowl of dark chocolate and my own creation of Biscoff cookie butter ice cream.  Yeah...it's as good as it sounds.  That's the problem.  Dinner was thankfully fish and veggies.

My water consumption has been pure crap all week and I can feel the water retention.  Now that the kitchen is almost back to normal, there's no excuse not to cook good, healthy meals.  I just generally feel crappy when I don't eat the best or have more sodium than I should.

I need to stop this madness before I end up in a serious backslide and take the Mr with me.

Have you fallen into the leftover trap?  How do you stop a backslide?  

(This post contains affiliate links.  Should you choose to partake in some retail therapy through them, I will receive a few cents to go toward blog expenses)

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15 comments:

  1. I guess the good thing in all of this is that we recognize when we make some stupid mistakes and cut our losses and move on. That is what makes us successful in the long run. The old us would have just given up by now because of the mistakes made. We aren't perfect all the time but if we can learn from our mistakes we will be successful!

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    1. Yes, definitely. The old us would've used this as an excuse to go on a three month binge and gripe about clothes not fitting anymore. I just hate that the little urge to soothe myself with food when I'm stressed right now has reared it's head. That's-a no good.

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  2. We are starting to get to the making too much food point for our family. My kids are nearly out of the house and don't eat with us much anymore. It is hard to start changing portion sizes when you don't know who will be eating, and lets face it, 3 days of the same leftovers for lunch gets you into that "I need something else to eat" mind set quick and before you know it your tossing your leftovers and getting a burger instead.

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    1. That would be hard to judge when you're cooking for more than just yourselves. But if they're nearly out of the house, they can always cook what they want if they choose to eat at home. Or you maybe make the protein (like chicken) and then if they use it, fine but if not, you can transform it into tacos, bbq flatbread, chicken salad for lunch, etc.

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  3. I think that's something, stress eating, you'll always deal with. I know it will always be a part of my life. What matters and the positive you should take from this, is that you recognized it within a week. That's a good thing! So you can kick it to the curb and ENJOY your awesome new floor. :)

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    1. I think the leftover thing was more out of laziness. I didn't feel like putting in a full day of construction crap and then making a big deal over lunch or dinner. Last night, after a visit with my grandma, yeah, totally had a mug of hot chocolate to soothe my tears. :-\ That I need to nip in the bud asap because I know darn well that does nothing but add pounds. Oy. I am glad it wasn't a month long slide into oblivion.

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  4. Leftovers are the worst. I had a Father's Day dinner here and have been taking a spoonful of the (Pioneer Woman's) cherry crisp every time I walk by the pan. Finally last night I threw the last of it away, but most of it was gone already, and I took one more spoonful before tossing it. I found it's really really hard to get back on track after straying so far off my path. I'm working on it....

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    1. Oh man, that was me with the ice cream. There aren't many things I can't have in the house for fear of temptation but homemade ice cream is apparently one of them. I'll have to make it when I know we're having company so I can share the wealth and not have as much at my disposal. Just be glad you threw any of it away. That's a win, no matter how much was left.

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  5. Wait, I'M not the one who invented "eat it all now, so there's none left for later..."? WHAT?!? Yep, I totally get it! It's un ugly situation that only leads to be B A D things. I'm just now getting my chit back together after a too long hiatus. You don't need ME telling YOU that you're gonna get your mojo back, you know you will. I'll be here for ya mama!

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    1. Sorry, girl. You don't have the patent on that one! :-) Thankfully the exercise hasn't slipped but we all know diet is one of the most important parts so... I'll just face the music Saturday and come up with a plan to keep myself in line.

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  6. I definitely fall into that trap a lot. When we do any kind of special meal we make way too much, and then it lasts way too long. Then we're sick of it, and fall into the fast food trap - the logic goes something like "we have all these leftovers so we don't need to cook, but we've been eating them for days so we're sick of them, so let's get a burger". Not sure how that makes sense, but somehow it does at the time. Getting back on track is harder.

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    1. Yep. I've done the same thing. I did mix it up a little one night by making the roast into a flatbread so it at least tasted different but we were done with it by the time we had the last of them. Funny the things that make sense at the time, huh? "Ice cream! Dairy! Strong bones and protein!"

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  7. I'm going through this situation right now. It has been happening all week. UGH. I'm totally beating myself up about it, but apparently not enough to do anything about it. Emotions, fatigue, anxiety are all triggers for me. Time to get back to tracking everything!

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  8. I try to send leftovers home with other people. If I am on top of my game, I will throw the rest away. When I don't I can wind up eating them for days so I don't "waste" food. It can be really hard to gain control again. It's usually one meal at a time for a while.

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  9. The backslide is something I've been dealing with for the past six months. I've had relapses on and off since all this stuff happened with mom (and before actually with some other personal things) and I can know things logically all day long, but emotionally, I'll justify until I'm blue in the face. I've often said that I need to get the information from my head to my heart...but my mouth gets in between! Someone said something to be that I thought was just awesome. She keeps sticky notes around her house for when she's feeling herself slip and ready to give in to a binge...she has notes in certain cabinets that simply say "no, f-off!!" for when her brain tells her go ahead, have a little somethin' somethin'. I thought that was brilliant! It cracked me up--but sometimes it's as simple as that. No bargaining, no negotiating, just a plain old "hell no." I have no answers here as I'm navigating through my own crap with this myself, but it's always good to hear what other people have to say on a subject. I learn a bit of something from everybody.

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