Tuesday, March 11, 2008

What is a Regular Week?

Kathy from Kathy Calculates is one of my favorite blogs. I look forward to visiting her blog daily and today she wrote about a seemingly harmless comment that I left her: "Here's to a REGULAR week of oat bran, fruits and veggies." I love special functions, family gatherings and other related events that throw a bit of spontaneity into my food choices. I have pretty much stuck to the same breakfast and lunch for at least the last six months. My breakfast has changed from yogurt, fiber one and fruit to oatmeal and peanut butter, but for the most part, the points have remained unchanged. My lunch does change as I pack what is available in the house, but I always stick close to the same amount of points for lunch as well. My dinners are where I change things up. I like it that way and rarely plan what's for dinner before getting home from work. Planning my whole menu ahead of time would make me bored, which is something I am afraid would set me up for a snacking disaster.

The special functions, etc. help change things up and I do enjoy them, but I tend to eat too much and am always happy when my REGULAR week returns. Over the course of the last year, it has definitely been those REGULAR weeks that have gotten me where I am. I would not go so far as to call them "normal" weeks as nothing seems normal nowadays with three kids, a pregnant wife, and going through a major kitchen remodel.

TUESDAY TIP:
I just finished watching the Biggest Loser and one of the "Trainer Tips" hit me. Plan a "cheat day" each week. After viewing the show, I hopped on the WW website and there was already a nice thread started about the subject "Cheat Day" I have been eating more food one day a week. Got the idea actually at my WW meeting when someone suggested it as a way to get your body moving in the right direction. I definitely track everything I eat and do not go over my weekly allotment for points, but I do specifically pick one day, usually during the weekend to eat a little more. It has worked for me and I will continue to use my one day a week to eat more, but do I call it a "cheat day"? Probably not. I'm not cheating, I'm just trying to trick the system a bit. Call it cheating if you wish, but it does seem to work.

2 comments:

Andrew is getting fit said...

Sounds like a good plan.

Kathy said...

Back at ya, friend!!!
I'm just so happy that my "regular" eating is the healthy stuff now and the "aberrant" eating is the calorie-laden variety...it used to be just the opposite!
I think a lot of us ride that wave of eating more on certain days, and, like you, I tend to do it more on Sunday. I know that I'm going to want to munch on something during the races I watch, and so I plan ahead for that. I have popcorn usually but go in for the whole bag instead of my usual smaller portion. Or sometimes I'll fix pizza on pita bread about half way through. My husband enjoys breakfast out on Sundays and that is the time I will have an egg and a slice of ham...maybe half a pancake with sugar-free jelly on it...instead of my usual oat bran or oatmeal.
And I call that Good Planning rather than "cheating"!!!