Trickery

I’ve been trying to lose weight for quite a while.  I recommitted to the process at the beginning of this year.  So what is my great weight loss for the year thus far???   Well….maybe we don’t want to talk about that.  Suffice it to say that it’s not pretty.  It may even be a gain of a pound or two. (nothing bigger than two or three).

So what’s wrong? I've lamented this fact in previous posts. What is different?  What am I doing wrong????  And then there was an epiphany. ~~This is the cue for the angels to sing~~

Well, this epiphany is not really mine to claim.  This is a friend’s epiphany that I am blatantly stealing.  You know who you are but unless you chose to come forward and lay claim…your secret is safe with me.  J  (and I apologize dear friend for any artistic license I take with your epiphany!)

It started with a question about what to eat for dinner.  Subway sounded good…(mmmm yes, it does!)  My friend was having a ‘strong day’ or else something simply  possessed her to actually go online and build her sandwich to calculate the calories.  She was wanting to get a foot long…….and then she found out that the whole sub that she would have ordered had she not had a moments burst of non-complacency that caused her to look up the actual calorie count would have cost her 1040 calories.  Now I don’t know what my friend is striving for each day in her total daily count…but I can tell you…she’s not THAT far away from her goal weight…and she’s not as tall as a giant!  Therefore, we can safely assume that 1040 calories for a sub would pretty much decimate her daily caloric budget.  At that moment my friend knew…..her struggles to maintain and even lose were not caused by genetics, they were caused by her mindless intake of food.

You see, our minds are easily swayed.  We are obsessive compulsive about measuring our food out for a while and then all of a sudden our minds tell us that we can pour that cereal (or ice cream or whatever food)   in the bowl and estimate it.  It is so tempting, it’s more quick, it’s more free and it saves on dirty dishes!  (the dirty dishes win me over quicker than anything else) But seriously…..regardless  we know how much cereal to pour.  We may get our portions right that first day.  Afterall, we DO know.  We just made a cognizant decision.  We are being careful.  Day two rolls around and we decide to wing it again…day three and day four the same.  By the time a few days have rolled around we are no longer thinking about our portions, we are simply pouring the food into the bowl and slowly (or not so slowly as the case may be) our portions get larger and larger.

We are brainwashed.   Subway has brainwashed us.  And let me say, I like Subway and am not bashing them.  I will continue to eat there…..and furthermore, I commend them for their superb advertising and for being in front of the 8-ball in terms of trying to push themselves as a healthy option and for putting general calorie counts on their cups and napkins long before it was required in any state. (at least I think they were long before required in any state)  However, the fact remains that they have brainwashed us through their advertising.  When I think of Subway…the first thought (ok, maybe the second thought….after mouth is done watering, because first and foremost I am a food addict) is of Jared.  Jared lost an obscene amount of weight eating Subway subs everyday.  We've all seen the commercials about Jared.   They are billing their food as healthy.  And yes, it is and can be healthy….or at least not too bad (depends on what you order, what toppings, what size)…I’m not bashing their food.  But we have it in our heads that we can go to Subway and order what we want and voila we will be thing the next day. (cuz that’s the way it SHOULD work you know!).  We think it…and thus we go into Subway and eat mindlessly without thought to what is going into our  mouths.

Our weight loss efforts are not being hampered by anything other than our complacency!  We become complacent.  We THINK we are following the ‘plan’.   We convince ourselves that we are doing out best. 

But in reality?   We are failing ourselves.

So meanwhile, I'm putting one foot in front of the other.  I'm focusing right now on eating my correct portion of fruits/veggies a day.   It works.  :-)   And yes, they are tasty too!