Monthly Archives: October 2014

Temptation and Victory

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Greetings Everyone and Happy Halloween!

This time of year is hard for weight loss with so many holiday goodies going around. However over the last few weeks I have drastically cut back on the amount of sweets that I allow into my diet, sticking mainly with fruit and sugar free snacks and have been getting a lot more decisive with my use of “No.” By combining diet and exercise I have dropped 8 pounds in the last three weeks.

Today my employer had a special treat for their employees: box after giant box of donuts, and big containers of coffee and pumpkin spice cappuccino. Mmm.

So this morning I decided I would have a donut, after all it’s Halloween right? I went down to the cafeteria got my cup of coffee and a plain donut and headed to the staircase. I made it only 10 feet when my steps came to a stop and I started staring at the donut in my hand. It was cold and dense and filled with sugar and gluten. I could already feel the weight of it in my stomach, the sugar crash and the unchecked cravings that were sure to follow. The donut now looked neither innocent nor appealing. I gulped hard. Desperate for a way out, I asked a coworker if she would split it with me. She declined. I was stuck with the whole donut.

Burdened, I dragged my feet back to my desk where the donut was promptly wrapped up into a napkin and placed in my purse so I wouldn’t think about it. This provided momentary relief but still weighed heavily on my mind. “What do I do with it? I am not going to eat it.” After a while of working I finished my coffee and threw the disposable cup away. It was then I had a sudden realization that I could do the same with my unwelcome sweet.

On my next break I walked over to the garbage can, drew it out of my purse and I threw that whole donut away, and it felt good.

Afterward I was so empowered I wrote “Donut, you will not defeat me!” in my journal and it was a breeze to decline the candy basket when it came around.

Weight loss it a battle but I am ready for the challenge. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

-Anna San

Knowing My Mind

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I recently started my weight loss journey and have upped my gym time and reduced my snack purchases. Despite these rather significant changes, it took four weeks to lose a pound and some change. After my doctor’s appointment yesterday I realized I am going to need to make some more committed changes and face my “mortal enemy” …the food tracker. (lol) Food tracking is something I’ve disliked since I was a teen. Being tied down to logging my food portions and calorie counts when there’s so many components and it only takes a second to consume seems like a bad deal so… I don’t do it. However this is the same thinking that gave me all these pesky extra pounds to contend with. If I don’t know what I’m eating… how can I have a nourishing diet or achieve a lasting weight loss? Not gonna happen. So tracking it is.

Temptation

After I went to the gym today I was really tired and hungry so I went to McDonald’s drive-thru. I ordered the grilled chicken wrap and a large diet Dr. Pepper. I was advised that they were out of grilled chicken and it would be an 8 minute wait – unless I wanted to have crispy… <-Temptation: Speed, Ease, Convenience… The little voice inside said,  Plus it’s a lot more calories.

I politely declined and said that I would wait.

When I pulled up to the window they told me that the diet that I ordered was out and offered to swap to a diet Coke which I accepted and was pulled up to wait for my wrap. When I took a sip of my pop I was surprised that it was Dr. Pepper. Did they actually have the diet or did they give me regular? I rarely drink regular pop and it took a few sips for me to realize that it was indeed regular. <-Temptation: Drink it. You already have it. It would be wasteful,  inconvenient and take more time to get it replaced… The little voice inside said,  Plus it’s a lot more calories.

I set my jaw and waited 8+ minutes for a crew member to bring my wrap. When she came, I asked for the drink to be replaced. After she walked away, I looked in my bag and… it was a crispy wrap. That was it.

I brought that wrap back in myself. Got my replacement drink and then a crew member when bagging my new wrap asked if I had fries with that. I said “no”. And then “no” again. And then the lady at the front counter was like “Are you really really sure?”

“Yes. I am really really sure.” And I got my bag and left.

A month ago I would have caved after experiencing so many temptations and inconveniences. However, I am working too hard to consume all the calories that I just burned, just because it is “inconvenient” to get what I ordered.

One thing that is becoming crystal clear is that weight loss is a battle and unless I know my mind, I won’t be losing weight. And that is not acceptable.