Singing for a smaller me

A combination of factors including a whole heap of unforseen stress left me with the decision to not track food this weekend. I know! I know! During stressful times the first thing I should do is track my food. On the other hand, it seemed as good a time as any to practice intuitive eating and see if it works.

And I'm going to have to call me and intuitive eating an unequivocal FAIL. Maybe it's because I don't trust myself or my stomach to accurately send the hungry and full signals, but this weekend's experiment confirmed what I feared: me and intuitive eating do NOT mix. The signals are broken. If there's food in front of me I'm going to eat it.

However, I might have set the experiment up for failure. Starting on a day including a tea party birthday party (with tea sandwiches! and petit fours! and scones!), followed by a trip to Outback Steakhouse with wine, and ending with two large gin and tonics doesn't seem so much like an experiment but a trip to that wonderous place: Cheat Land. And it's probably not the best idea to schedule the next morning's brunch for dim sum while consuming the last of the second aforementioned gin and tonic.

Okay, this wasn't so much an experiment in intuitive eating as it was me being lazy and not wanting to track what foods I ate. Fortunately, I didn't stray too far from the path and managed to keep most of my food choices on the healthier side even if I did eat too much.

Valuable lesson I've learned: once I've finished eating what I planned to eat, I need it gone from in front of me immediately or I will keep on eating. I had to pour dressing, water, and half and half all over the won ton strips from the Chopped Ahi Tuna Salad I had at Outback or I would have eaten all of them, not the pinch I had in my salad.

I'll say this for certain: me and food have a problem. If I'm not constantly vigilant, I'll go right back down the road to regaining the forty pounds it's taken me five months to lose!