BulgingButtons

Not bad for a fat girl

Tag Archives: Food


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Week 4 Challenge – Quitting the Drive-Thru

Drive-ThruWell, so far, so good.

I still haven’t set foot in Starbucks (or gone through the drive-thru) since I issued myself the week 1 challenge. I still have managed to eat fruits and vegetables every day since I issued myself the week 2 challenge. And I survived an entire week of drinking no more than one soda per day. In fact, yesterday I didn’t even have one.

I like these challenges. Each one gets easier as time goes on, which is really the point. Hopefully they’ll become habits, replacing the poor habits I spent years developing and honing.

Of course, just because I’ve been doing these things doesn’t mean that all of a sudden I’m living a fit and healthy lifestyle. My sweet son was the first to point out that simply skipping Starbucks or passing on a soda means nothing if I pull into McDonald’s for a shake instead. Which I did. Once. So that leads me to the week 4 challenge.

I don’t even want to type this one. I’m afraid I’ll fail. But I won’t know until I try, and I won’t try until I issue the challenge. So… the week 4 challenge is to stay out of the drive-thru. Any drive-thru. Even if it’s only for my son. If we want fast food that much we’ll have to park and go in to get it. I don’t see that happening often, but I’m not ready to swear off fast food entirely.

Wish me luck this week. It means that I have to plan ahead for breakfast. That’s where I usually trip up. We rush out the door feeling like there’s no time to eat, but then I zip through BK, which takes just as long as breakfast at home would have, and for less money and significantly fewer calories, not to mention sodium and fat grams.

I can do this. Of course I can. I’m Wonder Woman. I’m powerful. I’m strong. I’m hungry. I’m off to find some breakfast and head to work. Let me know if you’re joining me this week in boycotting the drive-thru.


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To Cookie or Not to Cookie

I had a little trouble with the decorating

I had a little trouble with the icing

One of the best things about this time of year is the food, of course. And as you know, I love food. I particularly like sweets, as evidenced by my obsession with Hot Tamales candies, but I digress. This time of year brings all kinds of goodies, but the treat that says holiday time to me is a cookie.

I like to bake, but cookies aren’t my favorite thing to do. They tend to be really time consuming, and frankly I’d rather whip up a batch of brownies or a sheet cake and call it a day, but December calls for cookies, so cookies I shall make.

I have a few tried and true recipes that I’ve made over and over, and each year I choose one or two to bake. For many years I was invited to a wonderful cookie walk, and always came home with scads of treats, but then I got divorced, and since my former mother-in-law was the hostess I guess she thought it would be weird to keep inviting me.

It’s too bad, because she always had games too, with really nice prizes. I’m good at games, even Christmas themed games, so I would usually win. After the second time I kept my mouth shut. I think the other guests were a little annoyed that the one Jewish person in the room was winning the awesome Christmas themed gift each year. Still, I enjoyed the games and the secret knowledge that I knew the holiday better than people who had celebrated it their entire lives.

Fast forward to Christmas Season 2014. I’ve been invited to a cookie walk this weekend. I would like to go. I like cookie walks. I like cookies. I like parties. HOWEVER, I don’t need cookies, I don’t love making cookies, and I don’t know how many events I want to try to cram into my weekend. So here’s my dilemma, do I cookie, or don’t I?

Oh sure, I’m planning to make cookies at some point anyway, but if I don’t go there’s no pressure to get them done. On the other hand, I have some time to do them this evening. It will be festive. We can put on a Christmas movie or at least some Christmas carols while I’m baking. It will make the house smell wonderful, too.

On the other hand I really shouldn’t do the cookies, or go to a party to swap them for other cookies. They are counter-productive to my goal of making better diet and fitness choices. I know this, but at the same time I’m trying to cut myself a little slack over the holidays.

What I do know is that if I make cookies I will most likely go, but I will NOT make the same cookies I tried to do for Chanukah. They were most definitely a fail. A big, sloppy, embarrassing, yet delicious, fail. Oh well, they’re only cookies. I can always make more.

 


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Building Habits

NaBloPoMo_NovemberIt’s December 1, which means that I’ve officially succeeded in posting every day for the month of November, making me a NoBloPoMo winner! Of course I don’t think there are actually winners and losers for that particular challenge, but since I missed my 50,000 word goal for NaNoWriMo by a long-shot, I’ll take what I can get.

I’m actually pretty tickled that it’s December, and I still feel like I have plenty to write about. Rather than feel drained, I feel energized. I’ve gotten into a daily blogging habit, and I’m feeling the need to keep on going. Yay me. Too bad I’ve had so much trouble establishing other good habits.

I always seem to take one step forward then two steps back. At least as far as my health and fitness go. I want to lose weight. I want to move more. I want to get off my medication. But apparently I don’t want it badly enough.

Oh sure, I’ve been walking more, and I really am enjoying it, but it’s not enough.

I’ve also been trying to include more fruits and vegetables into my diet, but that’s not enough either.

My situation calls for more drastic measures. Measures that I don’t feel like I have at my disposal at the moment, like strength and determination and willpower.

I’ve heard so many times that you just have to decide to do it, then make the changes. For some reason this approach is generally offered by men. Maybe we really are wired differently in this aspect? Or maybe we’re all individuals and we each have our quirks and hang-ups. For me, it’s my weight.

It seems that for each good choice I make, I make five poor ones. I’m working hard to balance that out a bit. I’m going to try to keep on moving. NaBloPoMo_Original_0Today I tracked my steps with my phone (which means not all of them since I don’t carry it around all day), and I had more than I’ve had in the past week. The walk before work got me off to a good start. I have to thank my son and my dog for allowing me to join them.

If I can sit down and conjure words every day, then sure I can lace up my sneakers and take a walk around the block. I may even just walk myself into a new good habit.