Even having a daily plan of healthy meals and snacks can easily be thwarted by unexpected surprises that may pop up on any given day. Has that ever happened to you before - eating healthy all day, not a single thing detrimental, and then a friend or loved one pops up with a pizza for a sports game or brings over a cake to celebrate someone's birthday? Or a work colleague bringing in a dozen doughnuts or cupcakes for everyone to snack on in the office?
Yep, this can and does happen possibly far more frequently than you may have thought which can be very frustrating especially for someone who has made a commitment to improve their health. Nevertheless, even if these situations are out of our control, there are steps you can take to help better your chances of overcoming the temptations you will find yourself confronted with.
For instance, just the other day at our weekly Tuesday teacher staff development meeting after school, I walked into the room with tables full of mini Snickers bars and cups of pretzels and potato chips. As innocent as that may sound, were you aware that each mini-snickers packs a walloping 45 calories! And how often do you eat just one? More like 4-6 of those little guys. And that's not even taking into account the salted pretzels and chips that were staring at me for two hours.
To make matters worse, a huge cake was brought in towards the end of our meeting in "celebration" of everyone who had a birthday in the month of December and January. Here was the pinnacle of unexpected surprises! Up to this point of the day I literally had a perfect day of eating - only about 800 calories up until 3pm. Then to have this surprise pop up was definitely something I did not want, but unfortunately it was one of those unexpected surprises I had absolutely no control over.
A year ago I would easily have eaten ten mini Snickers, three cups of potato chips, and at least two pieces of cake. Add all that up and you get a grand total of about 1,500 calories! And that's not even an actual planned meal - just junk food.
So are you wondering what I ate at this particular meeting? A grand total of two mini snickers!
I know, I was proud of myself too. This was only possible due to the fact that I have been consciously planning out my meals every week and sticking with what I've set out to do. However in addition to that, I've also planned for situations such as these unexpected surprises that pop up from time to time.
Here is what I did...
Once I saw there was going to be unhealthy snacks littered in our meeting area, I immediately went back to my classroom and grabbed two bottles of water and an apple (I keep water and healthy snacks handy at all times in my room). Then as I headed back down to the meeting I drank an entire bottle of water to help curb my urges to munch. During the meeting as my eyes started wandering towards the snacks, I ate my apple and drank the other bottle of water. I wasn't craving any snacks after that and I really had only consumed about 100 total calories as opposed to more than 1,000 if I gave into the temptation.
By the end of the meeting as everyone was passing around cake and our meeting was coming to a close, I did treat myself to two mini Snickers as I left the room, proud of how I handled this unexpected surprise.
Hopefully the next time you are confronted with a situation like mine, you will be able to escape without littering your body with useless calories.
It can be a difficult to avoid the temptation especially if you are used to regularly eating unhealthy snacks. However when you truly recognize that filling your body with useless, fattening calories will do your body no good, you will soon be able to avoid situations like these and be proud of the fact that you are sticking with your weight loss commitment.
Stick with your plan to lose weight now, and you will reap the benefits in the future.
Gregory L. Gomez, M. Ed, has been teaching 5th grade in the LAUSD for 12 years and has recently embarked on a journey to lose weight, eat healthier, and finally get in shape! Follow his progress on http://healthychoicesinlife.com/ as he strives to lose 60 pounds through dedicated exercise and eating healthy. From healthy eating guides to a step-by-step manual to help tackle the process of losing weight, readers will find the latest information to combat the rising obesity epidemic and start getting into shape at http://healthychoicesinlife.com/lose-weight.
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