Baby StepsThrough My Morning... Baby Steps Through My Afternoon.......

Howdy, Kristin here.
Yesterday, I was a hot, flaming red inferno.  Today, I'm more of a muted violet.  Today is better than yesterday was.  A few breakthroughs...

I've decided that guilt is one of the biggest factors that is preventing me from losing weight.  Not guilt itself, but the inevitable landslide that follows the guilt.  This guilt happens when I cheat on my diet.  The landslide is immediate, and devastating.  I'll explain:

I have this handy dandy little eating plan all worked out for myself.  It's foolproof.  It includes my favorite treats.  It includes indulgences.  It's at least 50% nutritious, which is adequate for a hungry dieter.  It has all the makings of an eating plan that can succeed.

It looks something like this:

Morning (between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m.)
Coffee/tea/Coke, fat-free dairy, whole grains, and fruit totaling 350 calories or less.

Afternoon (between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.)
Tea/diet pop, fruits & veggies, and protein totaling 350 calories or less.

Evening  (between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.)
Tea/Coke/Sangria, 2% milk, protein, veggies, whole grains totaling 500 calories or less.

Daily total = 1200 calories.  

I know I said I wanted to be LESS restrictive, but for me, less restrictive means not denying me my all-time favorite beverages, which are Coke Classic and Cruz Garcia Real Sangria.    LOL

So this is what I mean by my eating plan being "somewhat" nutritious.  At least my daily 8 ounces of sangria is packed with flavonoids, right?

So HOW am I ridding myself of cheating guilt, you may wonder?

Baby steps.

I've given up my goal of dropping 40 pounds by swimsuit season.  
(The relief I immediately felt was astronomical.)


Instead, I am severely narrowing my focus from the 4-month goal, not just down to a month or a week or a day-long goal, but to a very focused, hour-by-hour eating plan.  I'm sick of getting half-way through a day on track with my eating, and then mid-afternoon, have a 500-calorie Reeses Peanut Butter Cup binge, and after that the rest of the day is all shot to hell and turns into one giant calorie explosion.  Something wacky snaps in my brain.  Am I the only one this happens to???  I make one little slip-up... sometimes one that is small enough that a treadmill walk could fix it... but I get so down, so fast, that I just say "fu** it!!!," and I'll just sum it up by saying that it's pretty damn easy to consume over 3000 calories after 8:00 p.m. when you give it 110% effort.


So, baby steps from now on.  One meal at a time, one workout at a time, general goals in mind, but no diet disasters following a single slip-up.  I have to train myself, somehow, to recover from the guilt and disappointment that always follows an instance of cheating, and instead of blowing the whole day after I cheat, just shrug it off and say, "You're human!  Don't worry.  If you don't lose your resolve, you'll burn off the calories in that one slip-up in no time."


This is by far my biggest challenge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3JPa2mvSQ4&feature=related