Plan Your Cheats

Tomorrow is Memorial Day and we're supposed to go a big cookout. There's going to be lots of food there. Lots and lots of carb laden foods. Here's the thing, I would like to go and have a good time with my friends. It's very easy to do mindless things when you're having a good time. If you're going to a party, potluck, shower, wedding, holiday, etc., you need to plan ahead of time.

Will you be cheating? If the answer is no, then there are a few things you can do.
*Eat before and not eat there, you really have to stick to your guns though. Or you can take a diet friendly snack.
*You can ask the hostess what's on the menu. Find out if there will be food that you can eat. If you're low carbing it and it's a pasta party and pasta is your weakness, I'd gracefully bow out unless you have nerves of steel. I mean of the Superman variety.
*Ask if you can bring a dish that caters to your dietary needs if you really want to go. That lessens the burden on the hostess.
*If it's a potluck, take food you can eat. Potlucks tend to have lots of starchy foods so you have to be careful.

If you will be cheating...
*If you're going to your Grandma's house and she makes the worlds bestest mac n cheese EVER, it's not going to hurt you to have some mac n cheese. Emphasis is on some. If your Aunt Ruthie makes out of this world apple pie, have a small, very small, piece.
*You may be going someplace and have no idea what may tempt you so you can limit yourself to a couple of things.
*You can do what I plan to do and have a spoonful (an eating spoon, not a serving spoon) of whatever tickles my fancy and eat slowly. I'll also be sure to eat lots of protein to help keep my blood sugar stable.**

Here's the thing. Food is not something to be conquered. Yes, I have a lot of weight to lose. Yes, there are things I should not be eating. We Americans have such a bad relationship with food. Food is to nourish us but it's also a joy. A meal around the dinner table with the family, a dinner party among friends, the celebration of a marriage or a baby, the coming together after a death... Food is apart of life. When you accept that and see it for what it is, you can learn to relate to it in the right context.

So what happens if you go crazy and eat everything in sight? At the worst you wake up the next morning with a food hangover, feeling bloated and like doggy poo. It doesn't mean you've failed. It means you've made a mistake. Don't beat yourself up. Don't hate yourself for it. We make mistakes. The key is to learn from them. Being healthy isn't static, it's an ongoing pursuit. Even healthy, skinny people make mistakes.

~Amy

** One of the purposes of Atkins is to stabilize the blood sugar to get off the carbohydrate rollercoaster and prevent diabetes.