Chapter 5, Week 1, Day 1 Lay the Groundwork

What a difference 24 hours make. After feeling in control of my food thoughts yesterday, today I'm fighting feelings of disappointment and discouragement. This morning, I made my way to the dollar store chocolate aisle and bought a box of Junior Mints. "It's a smaller package than the mini Skor bars," I said to myself. "Officially the diet part doesn't start for two weeks," I rationalized. An hour or so later after consuming the chocolate, my stomach inevitably started to rumble; but, I embraced the hunger. It wouldn't be too bad if this was the only instance of poor food choices for the day, but unfortunately it was only 9:30 a.m.

I had lunch plans so I knew eating challenges lay ahead. Unfortunately, my lunch mate brought her own lunch, and I made the snap decision to get a McChicken meal at McDonald's. I would feel better about the day if this was the final instance of poor food choices, but unfortunately it wasn't.

I don't even know what possessed me to pick up three chocolate cookies less than a half hour after my McChicken meal.

What I should have done is read my newly created ARC (Advantage Response Card), which was the first task of the program. The ARC is a tool that will help overcome sabotaging thoughts. I wrote on a card all the advantages of losing weight. The other part of the task is to implement a system to remind myself to read the ARC twice daily and "whenever you find yourself struggling with cravings, temptation, or sabotaging thoughts."

It's interesting how your reasons for dieting changes over a couple of decades. As a teen and in my twenties, I was more concerned with how my weight reflected in my image, but now I'm more concerned with health issues. So, why do I want to lose weight? What did I write on my ARC? From my perspective, the advantages to loosing weight are:

- I'll be in better health
- I'll feel in control of what I eat
- I'll be more physically fit
- I won't struggle with food choices
- I'll look better
- I'll be able to wear a smaller size
- I'll be able to look in the mirror
- I'll have more energy
- I won't be embarassed to eat in front of others
- I won't wasted money on junk food
- I'll have a normal relationship with food
- I won't have such strong cravings
- I won't feel guilty for unplanned eating
- It will feel good to resist junk food
- I want to minimize the mommy pouch

Wow, that's a big list.