Thursday, July 11, 2013

Post Vacation Rituals

…with food. 

With my recent lifestyle change I have been paying attention to what I put in my body. Now, I don’t want you to get the wrong impression, I’m not the hippie psycho that HAS to be all natural, all this or all that…I just like to put a main filter on what I am consuming.

A typical day for me will consist of a smoothie, a green juice, a small snack and a bigger meal that I try to eat at lunch-time. Training my body to get used to its new way of life was no easy task as I love chocolate cake and ice cream as much as everyone else.

This is the part where this thing called “vacation” slips into your life and you allow yourself to indulge not for just one or two meals, but for a few days! In my own philosophy I think it is important to let yourself have a sweet treat or something fried every now and then because it’s important to understand that it’s not about never eating those goodies again, it’s about portions and control.

So vacation. Vacation brings (for my family) fried food in the form of fish n’ chips, the occasional ice cream, the morning walk to Dunkin’ Donuts—donut included, the extra snack at the random bar you decided to grab a beer at & so on. You see what vacation did there? Processed fats, hydrogenated oils, sugar for days, your BFF sodium, and some extra carbs on the side!

Others may not struggle with weaning off these bad YUMMY foods, but I definitely do. The minute I feed myself all those things my cravings ramp up. I have a hard time getting them under control and getting back to my normal way of life. It’s things like the free bagels at work yesterday…did I need one? No. Did I eat one anyway? Duh. It was delicious. But you see that bagel then effs up my craving system for the rest of the damn day. So how do I get it to stop?

Water. Water is a small miracle. After all those nasty foods my hands were so swollen from the influx of sodium and other crap that I put in my body. The best way to counteract the sodium is by drinking lots of H20 throughout the day. Not only does water help me reduce swelling but it keeps me FULL and less likely to reach for the random bagel, check out the chip drawer or snack on all the free m&ms our office has to offer—a blessing and a curse I tell you.

On Monday evening I knew I had to get my ish together quickly or the rest of the week would be a gorge-fest. Environmentally-friendly people please don’t hate me but I bought a 3 liter bottle of water from the grocery store so I could CHALLENGE myself to consume the whole thing. I work best if I can challenge myself. Playing a sport for years really paid off. And guess what?! I drank the whole thing. My rings fit onto my finger again. I lost a half of a pound…not a lot but come on that was definitely from the water drinking! I haven’t convinced myself to run yet… ;) Maybe today or maybe tomorrow—running is for another post.


Of course there are a whole other host of tips and tricks that will help to get you back on track. But after this 4th of July, water has been my key. 

Now go fill up a glass of water and enjoy!

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