Ah Sunday. Day of rest? Not so much. Day before the battle starts, more like. A time to prepare myself mentally and emotionally and.....foodally? ITS A WORD, DAMMIT.
We all know the familiar feeling of the day before you have to go back to work. The dread, the mourning of another weekend come and gone.
Today I will be making my shopping list for the week and planning out what I will be eating for the days to come. This helps my wife and I not only save money, but sets me on a path that I know I can follow.
I plan out our lunches, plan out our dinners and do a few things associated with those. After recipes are compiled, I make sure that it fits within my calorie allotment for the day. In this case, the lunch will be the same thing I have had for lunch the past few weeks because it is so damned good and it fits nicely within my meal plan. I will post a recipe this week on just what it is.
Lists for shopping is important to me, as is shopping with my wife. Both of those things keep me on track and away from dangerous spot purchases that I feel that I need and will never really use. I also like to see just how much fresh produce we buy because it makes me feel like I am doing something else right.
After we get home from the grocery store, we will be cooking portions of our meal for the week. This also helps me out by getting my mind right. "This is what I am going to eat. I will not be going out, I will not be ordering in. This is lunch."
Meal prep is a powerful tool for me. Thankfully both my wife and I are very simple people and don't mind eating the same thing for a week straight. Every day I have the same breakfast (and have for the past year or so - a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on 100% whole wheat toast and two cups of coffee), plus lunches and dinners tend to be the same thing a week at a time. Not many people can do this, but we see it as being easy, not something we have to fret about and not difficult to cook or clean up.
This is only half the fight though.
I will be preparing myself mentally for what I will NOT be doing this week: getting something else to eat.
I have a long daily drive to and from work. On good days, only an hour and ten minutes. On bad days, nearly two hours. For me it was tradition and comforting to get something on the way home from work from the gas station or from a fast food place. Anything ranging from a bag of chips and a coke to-get this-20 piece chicken mcnugget with 2 spicy mcchicken sandwiches and/or 2 double cheeseburgers, fries and a coke. For me only. And after that I would eat when I got home.
I wasn't hungry when I got there, I just did it because it was there.
I ain't doing that anymore. Every time I ordered I felt ashamed. I felt ashamed because of wondering what the order taker and staff people thought but also because I know I shouldn't be eating it.
Also - this is the first time I have copped to ordering that massive amount of food to ANYONE. That order is unhealthy. I am saying it out loud. That is unhealthy, but admitting that is a step in the right direction.
Today I am mentally preparing myself, analyzing what I can do to avoid the feeding frenzy that happened along the freeway, preparing my tools and getting ready to take care of business for my health and myself.
I am not going to feel ashamed this week because I am not going to be doing it. The vicious cycle is stopping. Boredom doesn't equal hunger, Matt. Frustration at my job isn't hunger. Food won't fix it. ITS JUST F*CKING FOOD.
This is going to be a successful week. I am going to eat along with my meal plan, I am going to drive home sans-unhealthy attitude and snack and I will come home to a wonderful home-cooked meal. I have a weigh-in and progress check on Wednesday, my group meeting to look forward to on Saturday and a fantastic 3-day weekend on the other side of this week.
Have a great week, people, and as always
Keep on walkin'
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