Tuesday, April 26, 2016

From Oatmeal to a Sopapilla … One Step Forward and a Pile of Fried Dough Backwards

When it comes to dieting, you cannot demand perfection. If you expect to be able to maintain your diet perfectly day in and day out, you likely are setting yourself up for failure.

My menu items on a recent Sunday represent what can happen during the course of a diet. In the end, this kind of good and bad diametric really must be expected.

On Sunday, I began the day with a bowl of oatmeal. I have long heard that there are solid benefits to be realized through regularly consuming oatmeal. Of course, the health benefits of oatmeal exist provided a person doesn’t slather it with additions like sugar or even butter.

I had a moderate serving of oatmeal. I ate most of the serving. I accompanied my morning meal with a cup of coffee and a small glass of grapefruit juice.

I actually felt fairly proud of my breakfast selection. In fact, over the course of the past few weeks, I’ve done pretty well in selecting healthy breakfast food items.

Lunch rolled around, in the aftermath of what proved to be a slightly frustrating morning. Frustration can be a trigger for me to engage in a round of binge eating.

Stuck in a certain part of town awaiting a professional-related activity to finally commence, I popped into a Mexican restaurant which serves authentic cuisine. I ordered an entrée that contained a selection of fairly healthy items.

I did pay attention to portion size. The portions served were huge. I managed to consume only part of what was presented to ensure proper portion size.

As so often has been the case in restaurants for me, I was tempted by dessert. Since I launched my weight loss efforts, I have managed to forgo eating dessert when dining out. But, today I broke down. I ordered what proved to be a ginormous sopapilla. And I ate the whole darn thing. And I liked it – a lot.

I share this to make a legitimate point. Striving to improve oneself is always a process of progress coupled with some backtracking. The same holds true for dieting and striving to establish a healthier lifestyle.

In this case, I did not beat myself over the noggin for busting my diet by eating the huge (delicious) lump of fried dough. Rather, I spent some time examining why I was motivated to eat so much of a dessert item.

Having a dessert in an appropriate portion from time to time is not counter to my diet plan. I love dessert and I have been enjoying a small dessert once or twice a week. In this case, I ate something that was the equivalent to five desserts in one sitting according to my diet plan.

As I made mention, I was feeling frustrated that day. Frustration for me really translates into a type of stress. In the end, I was motivated to eat the sopapilla in its entirety, slathered in honey (by the way), primarily because I was feeling stressed.

Because I am off course on keeping up with my blog, this meal actually occurred a couple of weeks ago. Since that time, I have not gone of course when it comes to desserts. This unplanned and large dessert did not destroy my dieting efforts. In fact, the situation became a beneficial learning experience in the final analysis.

Stay tuned.

www.mikebroemmel.com



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