Last night I had a hard time sleeping and stayed up very late. After awhile I got physically hungry, but I had no calories left, and I found myself craving all kinds of rich foods.
I did ok by just ignoring the cravings for awhile. And to help with the hunger, I ate a can of sliced beets. I really like beets. The pickled variety contains a lot of sugar, but these were just plain sliced beets. They are a relatively low calorie vegetable, loaded with good nutrition. For that reason, I did not worry about the few calories that they do contain. Eating them helped my hunger pangs. But I was working on technical stuff, and some things were not going my way. That added a little stress to the equation, so the cravings returned with a vengeance.
I started zeroing in on all the good things we have to eat in the house and my focus settled on the Fritoes Scoops and a small amount of Hot Bean Dip that was left in the fridge. Again, I had no calories left for that at all and after the beets, I can’t say that I was really, physically hungry anymore. Still, they were calling my name. I almost got them out and ate them, but mentally, I was trying to talk myself out of it.
Finally, I like to think I took the leadership role with my inner child. First I said, “Ok, just go stretch out on the couch and think about this for a few minutes”. That was a really helpful tactic. Because while I was lying there, I thought of things like, what all I had eaten that day, and how I have already lost 11 – 1/4#, and how I wanted to see a loss on the scale tomorrow morning,… So it refreshed me a little and kind of balanced my mood. Then I said, “Ok, you can have the fritoes and bean dip in the morning. Right now, have a glass of tea, and in the morning, have the fritoes and bean dip for breakfast”.
Interestingly, this few minutes of rest allowed me some time to settle down, so pretty soon after that, I just got up and quickly cleaned the kitchen. Then I went to bed.
The adult in me did prevail. And the scale showed a 1/4# loss this morning, which I am very happy about! For breakfast, I enjoyed Fritoes Scoops and Hot Bean Dip 🙂 I suppose I could have bribed my inner child if I had needed to. “Put this off until morning and you can order a book from Amazon”. Something like that. Whatever works!!
Calorie counting requires a little bit of self-discipline from time to time. Sometimes you just have to gently put your foot down and be your own good parent. I’m beginning to realize, it is important to love and care for yourself as you would, your own child.