I wish the message of this post was completely unnecessary.  If only I could cruise along my health life at that perfect fuel efficiency of 40 miles per hour.  My aspiration is no matter what roadblocks or detours emerge, I gracefully navigate them with the greatest of ease.

Unfortunately, that is not how I work.

I have actually written an unpublished post on my health cycle patterns.  I’ve never put it out there because 1) I never could figure out how to graphically illustrate it, and 2) I’m never in one place for long, so it seems outdated as soon as I’m ready to post.

At this moment, I’m coming off some lousy eating.  Ironically, I’m currently sitting in a newly renovated McDonald’s drinking tea, thanks to the free wi-fi and its close proximity to my son’s guitar lesson.  Two weeks ago I was thoroughly enjoying New Orleans and its amazing food.  While my violent, sweaty reaction to red chili pepper kept me from the cajun food, I did my best to indulge in beignets and fine dining.  

You can’t convene seven women with twenty-four-year friendships and not indulge.  

While we all nourish our bodies with leafy greens, berries, and salmon at home, eating plans were thrown out as quickly as the drinks were thrown back.

Returning home, I cleaned my food up for a few days, then bam! Dinner guests, crawfish boil, Jimmy Changa’s Tex-Mex, and jelly beans hit me last weekend.

How many times can I fall off a wagon?

So here I am again, trying to hit the reset button.  I know myself well enough not to create rules.  Calorie counting is obsessive and time-consuming.  Points and cheating go hand in hand.  Food-specific abstinence leads to withdrawal and overcompensating later.

My plan?  Small, specific changes.

• Reduce the afternoon snacks.  For some reason, I feel I need a snack when 5th grader, Speedy, rolls his bike in the garage after school.  Snack is fine.  Snacks (notice the plural) is the reality.  More often than not, I end up consuming a meal’s worth of calories.  I need only enough to tide me over until dinner.
• How much do I really need?  Just because I’ve always had a certain portion, do I need that now?  Tonight’s dinner is baked steelhead trout.  Maybe I don’t need the full six to eight ounces I typically serve myself.  I bet I can decrease the amount placed on my plate and be satiated just as well.  Keep the habit out of portion size and listen to what my body needs — or doesn’t need.
• Watch the wine.  I’ve talked before how I love incorporating a glass of red in my evening meal prep.  In fact, that post was one of the most widely read ones I’ve published.  The sad reality is they are unnecessary calories.  Yes, enjoying a glass while chopping vegetables relaxes my shoulders and mind.  But I can get along just fine without it (for a while).

I wish I had the willpower to make significant changes, but I know myself.  Depriving myself will backfire.  I just need to remember that small steps yield small results.  If I stick with it I’ll feel back to normal, probably just in time for our summer vacation.  May the cycle continue…

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How do you reset?  Do you watch the type, amount or timing of food you consume?