Saturday, February 21, 2009

Getting back on the wagon: let's define.

Here's the scenario. You are taken out for lunch. You see the bread basket and, starving, estimate maybe 2 Points/roll. You eat two.

You discover later that the rolls at this particular Small Chain are double the points you thought. This means you are out of Points to eat dinner. Moreover, because you've already eaten out twice this week (happy birthday!?), you have consumed your allocated 35 "floating" Points per week. You can only earn so many Points from exercise, and anyway, you are incredibly sore and need to take it easy today.

If you skip supper, you will feel cranky and stressy and maybe end up just eating loads of high-carbohydrate foods later. If you don't skip it, you are guaranteed not to lose weight today. I mean, the point of counting Points is to stay within them.

Which is it? How does one get back on the wagon in time for dinner? This scenario keeps knocking me off my wagon this week--again, happy birthday?--and, because I'm not sure how to turn it around, I end up off the wagon well into the next day.

3 comments:

Narya said...

And not just off the wagon, but dispiritedly walking along behind it, wishing you could catch up already, because remember being sore from the exercise?, but just getting farther behind.

Perhaps you can plan ahead of time for say, three weeks of the year: birthday, christmas, thanksgiving, where you will allocate an additional number of floating points. (I don't know how they work, exactly, so I don't know how many make a meal.) That would enable you to continue working with the Points concept, and recognizing that you may gain weight this week, but not getting into too many of these dilemmas.

I dunno; just a suggestion.

Meanwhile, I find that I can, in fact, skip dinner. I have to make sure I eat breakfast, but if I drink water and go to bed early, then I don't mind so much. OTOH, I am Not Succeeding with the ARP lately, and this is going to be a difficult week (they don't call it Fat Tuesday for nothin'), what with at least three dinners out planned so far, and possibly as many as five, depending on what we do tonight and Friday night before the hockey games.

And, seriously, happy birthday.

kStyle said...

I like the idea, but points do not float to the next week. But you've got me thinking...identify the tricky times of year, and plan ahead however possible. Maybe I can downgrade some bday lunches to bday tea next year. Maybe I can find non-food ways to celebrate with people, though that is tricky. I asked two different people to join me for a birthday swim/jacuzzi soak, and both declined.

Narya, this is a tough time of year! Hibernation instincts are still in effect. They whisper, "Eat and sleep. Sleep and eat."

Actually, I do have SAD, which is a big part of the problem. A symptom is carbohydrate cravings. Carbs increase seratonin production. This is a large part of why I can't seem to skip dinner: I need the seratonin boost. I can skip it all I want in the summer. Do you have any SAD?

Enjoy your Fat Tuesday! And thanks for the bday wishes.

Narya said...

No, I didn't mean float the points to the next week, I meant expand the number of points for a given week. helps you continue to keep track, even though you know you're going over. The birthday/celebratory tea thing is a VERY good idea, though; there's something about sharing food/drink that is essential to celebrations, i think.

I don't think I have SAD (though Friend has a touch, I think), but I do miss the sun. It's shining brilliantly into my apartment right this minute, and I love it. I find that I have more trouble with the cold and gloom in the sense that everything takes longer because multiple wads of clothing must be involved in every last thing.