A Lower-Stakes Slump
For the last few days I have been slumping HARD y’all. Eating crap, not logging enough hours of sleep, not hydrating, feeling junky and filling my body with junk in an unhealthy cycle. Granted, this used to be a lot worse when alcohol was in the mix; but it’s still no bueno and I need to get a handle on it.I weigh in tomorrow and I will have gained weight, I'm sure. I have about two months until I fly back to London for my MBA class reunion and I want to feel just as fab, if not better, than I felt for my high school reunion a few weeks ago. Starting tomorrow (fresh week, fresh points) I am re-committing to staying within my points until my reunion. I'm also going to start reading The Food Therapist by Shira Lenchewski, hoping that this book will help me get to the root of my eating issues.
I'm frustrated. Because at this point, I have tools. I have knowledge and awareness that I did not have before starting Weight Watchers last year. I have also conquered my alcohol cravings, a feat which I believed impossible until I achieved it. But now sugar has assumed the role previously played by alcohol in the rom-mom-com that is my life. And I know I have to dig deeper.Willpower is a finite resource. My willpower is running out routinely right now - just like all those days I would wake up and promise myself I wouldn't drink, only to open a bottle of wine during witching hour desperation. Every day I wake up and start tracking my points, determined to stay within my daily and weekly limits. But by the afternoon, my cravings take control and there I am, scouring my pantry for anything chocolate-y enough to appease. This doesn't happen every day, but it happened too many days this week (and this month, and this spring) and here I am on Sunday afternoon, feeling bloated and exhausted and sugar-hungover and weak.I was able to ditch my dependence on alcohol by educating myself and using the tools that Annie Grace gives us through This Naked Mind and The Alcohol Experiment. So many of these tools seem applicable to food cravings as well - yet I find myself balking at the commitment to using them in that way. I could make a list of non-negotiables (e.g. "I will not enter my pantry between 1 and 5pm" or "I won't eat chocolate alone") but, frankly, that just seems silly. And the stakes aren't nearly as high. I'm not going to crash my car if I drive under the influence of chocolate.This is not an emergency situation. While I'd like to lose a little more weight, I am still hovering within a few pounds of my original goal. Right now I'm just a girl, looking at a bar of chocolate, trying not to put it in my shopping cart. But just as I hit the wall with my relationship with alcohol, so too have I reached that point with sugar. Something has to change. I am tired of overeating sweets and feeling like I have no control over my cravings. It's time to put in the work.So this week I will start reading The Food Therapist. I'll write about it too, because writing gives structure to my soul-searching. I will also get more sleep, continue to slay my exercise goals (the one thing I nailed this past week!), and give myself grace. I deserve to feel my best and not beat myself up if I stumble along the way. It's time to turn this slump right-side up.