Things that take me off piste! (Diet wise anyhow)

1. Chocolate/ butter 

Ok! They may seem at opposite ends of the spectrum but I lumped these 2 items together is because a) they are 2 of my most favourite thing and b) because since joining SW I have mainly tended to side step them - butter more so than chocolate! Invariably though this has made me acutely aware of how they  taste! This brings into play the old saying - a taste of honey is worse than none at all! Yes it plays to my all or nothing nature, so, I can't buy a 4 finger kit kat, eat 2 today and keep the other 2 for later/2moro I will always convince myself that actually.......

Sometimes I feel this is akin to being an alcoholic, you take action, you recover, then it becomes about not relapsing!

2. Socialising! 

Now hands up if you have a full and fabulous social life, filled with family and friends and momentous occasions. Yes sometimes it's easy to make good choices, eat before you go is an option often bandied around at my slimming world group, do flexi syn and so on and so forth! But what do you do when it's occasion after occasion? That question is very difficult to answer if like me you embrace life to the full! To party poop or not? I suppose the key thing here is balance? 

3. Native food!

Lets face it- who doesn't like

 fish & chips, 

Beef stew & dumplings

Or for me the double whammy I have my equivalent nigerian foods

Sometimes you just want these foods- it's how it makes you feel! Ignoring the way you may feel after you have eaten it! 

4.Travelling

Now! Holidays are one thing, what I am talking about is the day to day commuting, the stresses and strains of it, especially that #firstcc, signal failure, points failure, defective trains, we must not forget the leaves on the track or the wrong type of snow… on an on… delays that make you uncomfortable and unhappy, thereby pushing you in the direction of the  small shop on the platform selling a plethora of goods to make you feel better.  Not just that, there is something about a train journey that makes me want a latte and chocolate.

 

Well before SW, I often  would have a latte and Cadbury Snack on the way into work, I felt that I had all but eradicated that habit, but  of late, I have found it creeping back in one form or the other.

 

5.Laziness

Let’s face it, sometimes we are just dam lazy.

We don’t want to cook

We don’t want to think about what we are eating

We are too tired

Its easier to have a bowl of cereal and plop in front of the tv

 

6. Holidays:

A distraction from the norm! You know the chance to really let your hair down, relax and shake of the strains of every day life for a couple of weeks.

So, if you go abroad it could be all the  foreign food, fish and chips by the seaside, cream teas, whatever… the point is you are relaxing its easy to take your eye completely off the ball.

Enough said

 

7.Time pressures

When things do not go according to plan:

Late trains

Work pressures

Little johnny’s sick

And so on and so forth

 

Are you really going to remember that you are SW every time this scenario rises? Somehow extreme hunger often gets the better of me in this scenario! Step in the crisps or the chocolate. Or even worse both of them! 

 

8. Boredom and denial

 

Well I think we all know that sometimes boredom often disguises itself as hunger! God forbid that we should recognise and occupy ourselves with other stuff, I.e. Stuff that is not food! As it has been proven time and time again, that sometimes we just think we are hungry when in actual fact we are probably just thirsty.

It could also be that we are bored and just need to do domething with our hands-like eating while watching tv or reading a book! 

 

So, the questions these pose for me are:

1 How do I recognise these scenarios and the impact they can have?

2 Once recognised what can I do to minimise the impact of these on my well being?