Food: Cravings VS Decisions

So, I have come to realize that fast food (and junk food in general) has become ingrained in my daily routine. It's one thing to plan all my meals and only keep good food in my house, but I have certain triggers that make me crave junk that have been hard to resist.

For example, yesterday was kind of a crazy day. I had breakfast, then a protein bar for lunch, then I had several things to do in a row where I could'nt stop and eat something. So I wound up driving home on the highway in traffic and starving. My typical routine used to be to swing by a drive thru and pick up some junk on my way home. I have a Weight Watchers app on my phone, so I was looking at all the point values of the food I might want and deciding what I could eat and still stay under my points budget (before I started driving).

That is when I realized that the ROUTINE of the junk food is as bad as the junk food itself. Sure, I could get a grilled chicken sandwich and small fries and stay under my points budget, but that would do nothing to break the routine or habit I have of swinging by a drive thru on my way home (usually from work, but it could be anywhere).

So I was good and went straight home. I intended to have a salad, but it was all wilty and gross, so instead I dug some frozen waffles (blueberry and whole grain) out of the back of my freezer and had that with light syrup, and I had points left over for later and I chose to have popcorn while watching TV. I know, you aren't supposed to eat in front of the TV, but I figure I'll tackle some of my issues in order from worst to...least bad?

Then when I was watching TV, I kept seeing commercials for my favorite foods and favorite restaurants. For example, Red Lobster is running their endless shrimp special. My stomach is growling for shrimp just typing this, and I'm not even actually hungry. Mmm...shrimp...But again, endless ANYTHING would not be good for me right now.

So I resorted to the technique I use when casino commercials come on (to read more about my compulsive gambling, read here) - I covered my eyes. I'm a VERY visual person - I can hear casino commercials on the radio or TV and be a little perturbed but OK. It's actually SEEING the commercials (especially when they show slot machines) that causes me problems. 3 1/2 years after my last bet, I STILL cover my eyes with my hand when a casino commercial comes on.

This works very well for my compulsive gambling, so I decided to try it for restaurant commercials. And you know what? It helped.

Another example of battling a routine craving is that my mom and I go out for lunch about once a week. I was craving breakfast food today, so I printed off the nutrition information for Village Inn and IHOP and brought them with me. IHOP had far more nutrition information available, so that is where we decided to go.

I LOVE breakfast food. Pancakes, French Toast, bacon...yummmmm...So when we got to the restaurant, I really wanted to do something like strawberry banana French Toast - which probably wouldn't have been too bad now that I think if it - or pancakes with bacon, eggs, and hash browns. That REALLY would have been a killer. Luckily they have many Simple and Fit (I think that's what they call it) menu items. One is called the Simple and Fit 2X2X2 - and it was scrambled egg substitute, turkey bacon, and 2 pancakes. The whole thing, including a tablespoon of butter and sugar-free syrup was only 12 points. I get 38 points per day and an extra 49 per week, so 12 points for a meal out is actually really good.

And it actually tasted pretty good. The turkey bacon had sort of a different consistency than regular bacon, but still tasted pretty good. With a little salt and pepper, the scrambled egg substitute tasted pretty close to regular scrambled eggs. And since fake sugar doesn't bother me, the pancakes were almost as good as with real syrup. So I was still able to fulfill my breakfast food craving in a much healthier way. I have to admit though, it was a little bit tough watching my mom eat her bacon cheeseburger. I just had to remind myself of the bigger picture. I'm tired of being tired, I'm tired of my back hurting. How badly do I want the burger compared to how badly do I want my back to stop hurting?

So that's my latest update and musings on food and my problems with it. It will be interesting for me to see how many of these types of issues come up and how well I will deal with them.

Thank you all so much for your support, encouragement, and sharing of your own success stories. It all means more to me than I can probably put into words.

:-)