I had a revelation the other day. I had just sent a message to my good friend, whose weight loss journey I greatly admire. She lost over 125 pounds with Weight Watchers and is now a WW leader. So amazing.
Anyhow, the message was this: "Took the kids to Culver for a shake and got myself a scoop of vanilla custard. Before I ate it I tracked it and it's EIGHT points. It's going in the freezer for my husband."
I mean, NO WAY I'm downing 8 points worth of frozen custard, right? The scoop was tiny, too. Instead, I went home and had 2 chocolate covered pretzels (5 points for 8 of them) and 2 spoonfuls of the kids' shake. And I felt good about it. I mean, right? Go me.
And then I remembered that I'd also turned down cherry cheesecake one of my staff brought into the office AND banana chocolate chip muffins. Pretty much, this was a golden day of self restraint.
And all that is good. It is. I am losing weight and so it's good to avoid those foods.
But then I realized something. Kind of like how what you hold your tongue about and DON'T say to people is really good. Like instead of telling this one guy that I think he sucks at his job, I bite my tongue. And I can congratulate myself inwardly for not speaking. But what matters more is this: what I DO say. Instead of patting my own back over keeping silent with complaints, I should be trying to find something positive and constructive to take its place. It's not what I DON'T do that ends up making the biggest impact. It's what I DO.
And so...with food. I should be proud that I skipped cheesecake, muffins, and frozen custard all in one day. But what my body knows is not the things I didn't eat, but the things I did.
Lightbulb moment, people. And it only took me 34 years on this earth. But I swear it made a difference. Since I had this epiphany (a rather dull one at that) I've seen things with different eyes. Because my body will NEVER KNOW that I skipped the frozen custard and cheesecake and muffins. Skipping those things won't be the key to losing the rest of this baby weight. It's what I DO eat that will make the difference.
