Self Sabotage

Last week during one of my Bible study sessions, I came across this verse that I thought was an absolute perfect depiction of my weight loss journey:

I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. But I can't help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things. I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can't make myself do right. I want to, but I can't.  When I want to do good, I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. ~Romans 7:15-19

I don't know about you, but this describes my weight loss journey almost to a tee.  I have sabotaged my weight loss efforts time and again by telling myself things like:

"Housing this entire package of Oreos in 2 days won't hurt - I'll get back on track after that."

OR

"It's been a terrible 'off plan' week, I'll finish out this week as I please and start again next week."   

I've had 2 weeks in a row most recently where I've fallen back into that thought pattern.  I know I'm capable of eating mindfully, but lately I've been eating mindlessly.  Just like issues in relationships somehow always point back to poor communication, challenges with eating always come back to poor planning.

I know there are things I am doing well though.  Every two weeks I come up with meal ideas for a two week time frame.  I write down 3 breakfast options, 3 lunch options and 4 dinner options for the two week period (bear in mind that there are only two people in my household - so lunches/dinners often turn into leftovers).  I'm good at this part!

What I'm NOT good at is sitting down and planning out a day.  Even though I plan out a menu, I don't calculate the PointsPlus at that time.  I just write down the meal ideas (which are almost always recipes that I have to calculate the PointsPlus values for).  This is obviously one area that can use improvement.  If I knew the PointsPlus values of my meals before I ate them, I would be in much better shape, instead of waiting to calculate it after the fact.  I realize how absurd this sounds, but I'm obviously lazy.

Case in point: last night I made this beef stroganoff from the Eat What You Love cookbook.

While her recent cookbooks do list PointsPlus values, the version I have only lists the old Points value.  So, I knew it was going to be approximately 7 PointsPlus for the meal.  Turns out it was 8 PointsPlus for just the meat mixture alone - that did not include the 5 PointsPlus for the serving of egg noodles!  To combat this problem I could have cut my serving size in half, but that thought never crossed my mind until after I finished the 13 PointsPlus meal!

Next approach to meal planning/success:  calculate the PointsPlus values of all recipe menu items ahead of time!

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Posted by: Tukiyooo Self Sabotage Updated at : 12:17 PM

Wednesday, March 14, 2012