Indulgences

Looking back through the last week or so, even more so when I sat down and read my food diary, it is pretty apparent that I've been allowing myself daily 'treats'.

Not a great idea, huh? If I want to achieve my targets I'm going to have to get some degree of control back.

Sure, I've felt 'hungry' - mostly for stodge, or at least I think I have, but I don't actually recall having only had starvation rations at meal-times which leads to a loudly grumbling tum! I've been eating a decent amount, in fact, rather more than a 'decent' amount. All this made me wonder why I'm doing the 'treats' thing to myself again, and an answer soon popped into view. It's my old nemesis, stress.

OK, sure, yes, work has been very hectic and the rest of this year is probably going to be quite hard, for a variety of reasons. Still, that didn't seem to have been too heavy a load until the week of the big freeze and the knock-on travel difficulties. That seems to have been the tipping point, and appears to have started this trend (so, here's poor excuse no. 1).

Then last weekend brought news regarding lovely hubby's health which kicked off my 'instant worry' habit, cue sleepless nights (poor excuse no. 2). This was closely followed by concerns over my mother's health (and here comes poor excuse no. 3).

Last Tuesday brought flooding (oh pee, belly, bum and other rude words!) and also health/hospital news from my sister (that's handed me poor excuse no. 4). Wednesday was pretty sane, but Thursday? Fretting about lovely hubby's hospital appointment, although, thankfully, we now have a positive outcome. And Friday night, news of my brother-in-law's redundancy (yet again, poor soul) and the flood returns... just as you think it's gone!

So here we go again - the fat lass eats!

Amazingly, the scales haven't reacted badly to my week of indulgences. I haven't lost anything (not surprisingly) but haven't gained either, so am still sitting at 71kg.

So, before things begin to go pear-shaped (or even more pear-shaped than I am already) this looks like the perfect point to say 'enough'. This cannot go on! I need to keep myself 100% aware of what I'm doing to myself and find other ways to handle my worries.

A practical start to doing this would be to 're-discover' some of my tricks from last year: only take the right change with me to buy a cuppa, pack a healthy lunch the night before, keep fruit and low-cal snacks within reach, etc. I've filled my work fruit bowl this morning with lovely oranges and apples so this week should be a little more prepared.

For another thing, I have to work on saying 'no' to the treats that other people bring in. I thought I had that sorted, but I've obviously drifted. I also need to figure out a way to provide some 'treats' for lovely hubby that don't involve naughty food.

I realise too that I need to add in more exercise than I'm currently managing. OK, so I walked from the far side of town on a couple of evenings as the traffic was so bad that it was quicker, but a midday walk** should be back on the cards now the ice has fled (at least, I hope it has), so I shouldn't be using that as an excuse to sit on my ass.

Update: Went out walking for just over an hour this lunchtime. The fat lass wins a prize!

Time to get proactive, not reactive. And to get active, full stop!