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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Can vs. Should

“Just because I can, doesn’t mean I should.” I had to keep telling myself that over the past several days. I was reading labels to make sure it was appropriate for my program (right fat, right sugars, etc.) and told myself “I can have that.” But then I realized that there was no nutritional reason to eat it. I would be eating it to be eating it and it would in essence be empty calories. In essence it would be snacking on something that my body doesn't need. In essence it would be old habits creeping back in.

I don’t know if I jinxed myself by saying I want food to be what it’s intended – as life support – but the thoughts have been strong the past couple of days. (And for the record, I don’t believe in jinxes either!) For instance, I was grocery shopping this weekend and found myself looking at the Orville Redenbacher SmartPop! – specifically the kettle corn. Sure there are only 110 calories per serving. Sure there are only 2g (3%) total fat and not even enough significant sugars to list. There’s even 4g of protein per serving. Sounds like it’s a win/win! But what is a serving? One serving is 6.5 cups of popped corn. SIX AND ONE HALF CUPS. That’s like a whole week’s worth of evening snacks maxing out my pouch capacity!

Another example is that I made some cookie-esque desserts that the boys could pack in their lunches. Using Splenda and such, the cookies technically “fit” in my program. They’re not necessarily unhealthy, but they’re not healthy either. I won’t lie and say I didn’t have any because I did. I’ve had 3 since I made them on Sunday. In general, that’s not bad. For me it’s not good either. What was the nutritional, life supporting value in those cookies? I still need to use my “snacks” to hit my daily protein minimums.

Will I ever be able to “snack” again? Maybe. But it’s way too early in the game for me to get into that mindset. I still don’t have the control over my food addiction to allow this to happen. If I start snacking for the sake of snacking, I will be back in the boat I was before…the one that’s slowly drifting out into the deep waters of obesity and health issues. I refuse to let that happen.

Just because I can, doesn’t mean I should.
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"I praise you [God] because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." ~Psalm 139:14

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