November 29, 2010

9 Days of Gluttony -- time for a fresh start!

After a really strong start to this challenge, where I've had almost no desire to sway from the paleo course, I took one bite of pizza on the Friday night before Thanksgiving and it just snowballed from there. It went from bad to worse. By last night, I hit rock bottom as I dug through the kids' remaining Halloween candy for the dregs. Yikes.

All week, I just couldn't stop! My daughter's B-day party, the craziness leading up to traveling for Thanksgiving that left no time to prepare good paleo foods, staying with relatives for 4 days, wine, my absolute favorite holiday of all times, more travel, sleep deprivation, wine and the constant access to my most favorite nostalgic foods. It all contributed to food overload and a gassy, bloated belly.

The worst part? While I feel bad about the pizza, b-day cupcakes and Halloween candy that I certainly didn't gain any benefit from, I actually don't feel any bit of remorse for the multi-day Thanksgiving splurge. I needed to stop running myself ragged and simply savor the pure joy of wild rice stuffing, Grandma's homemade white bread slathered with lots of butter and fresh real whipped cream-topped pumpkin pie that only happens once a year. This is a week wrought with deep traditions in my family and the menu and recipes from Wed to Fri of Thanksgiving week haven't changed for over 40 years. The food is filled with memories and emotions to hold all those carbs together.

What I learned:
1 - Grandma's homemade bread is like heroin.
2 - A dramatic change in diet wreaks havoc on your digestive system.
3 - Saying, "my next meal will be better" is a great idea, but Mondays are a fail-safe way to start fresh.
4 - I have lots of will power when I'm in control of the cooking. When someone else does the work, I find myself justifying everything.
5 - If I'm going to cheat, it should really be worth it. The pizza wasn't worth it. The wild rice stuffing and pumpkin pie was.
6 - When I missed reading the blog postings, I kept slipping on the stupid things. Staying connected works.
7 - WOD's strengthen my resolve.

Now, it's Monday morning, and I feel 100% ready to re-start. I packed my meatballs and a salad for lunch, apple slices and almonds for a snack. As I look forward to the coming weeks filled with Christmas parties, stress and difficulty squeezing everything in, I feel a renewed sense of strength and determination. Onward.

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like you had a wonderful time. And back in the game,

    Home cooking is a bigger temptation for me than even eating our, or the constant crap available in the office ... But as this is my first round, figure one holiday without won't kill me :-). My family is small though, and so it's easier to renegotiate some ingredients etc.

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  2. Great perspective Kim H! That was always my view re paleo and lord knows I ate my fill of all sorts of good stuff over T-giving. And by good stuff I mean bread, desserts and lasagna! Oh - and I second the digestive track issues. Yikes.

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  3. Nice post Kim. Get back on that horse, you can do it.

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