Special Occasions

Chris is teaching me that when special occasions come up you have to have a plan in place BEFORE you go to them. You have to decide what you will eat and what you will not eat before you are face to face with the food.

I can eat anything I want to, just not as much as I want. She told me to "take a bite or two." If it's something that you can't stop eating, don't start (don't take even one bite).

I didn't plan before I went to a birthday party last night (and I didn't talk to Chris about it either). I knew that my daughter was making her delicious potato salad and I was looking forward to eating some. I knew I would eat my burger without a bun. What I didn't think about was dessert.

It was an ice cream cake. No one asked if I wanted a piece (that is my last "hint" that it's my choice and I can say no), I was handed one. I was almost finished eating it when I realized that I hadn't even THOUGHT about eating it. I hadn't decided that I wanted to eat it, I hadn't decided to take a certain amount of bites of it or to eat half of it or anything. I just ate it.

In the past I would've been very mad at myself which would've spiraled me into an eating binge (I know, it doesn't make sense) but I remembered what Corey (a naturopathic student I had the pleasure of seeing) said to me. One time she looked at my food diary and said, "You had a hard two weeks. Lots of things happened. It's over. Now you have a clean slate."

Today is my clean slate. Actually, every time I sit down to eat is a clean slate. The last thing I ate (good choice or bad choice) is in the past.