Hummus in the car and a Burger at the Chateau
I ordered a salad instead of fries – honest.
The day started healthily enough – I pawned off the rest of the buttermilk pie on our neighbour before heading up to Lake Louise for the Ski for Heart event – a fundraiser for the Alberta Heart & Stroke Foundation – with enough well-thought-out rations in the car to keep us sated for a week had we ended up in a snowbank.
I made hummus (it was supposed to be green pea hummus – add about a cup of thawed frozen peas to your usual hummus mixture – but we were out) with toasted whole wheat pitas, and a banana loaf loaded with flax and a handful of raisins. One of the most important weight-loss lessons I’ve learned was from Girl Guides: Be Prepared.
But by dinnertime we had enough snacks and the boys were tired an needed a regular meal. I had an event at 6, so we ordered room service (cheaper than most in-hotel restaurants anyway, and W could have the run of the room). Honestly – we were just going for bang for our buck here. I adore the Chateau Lake Louise, but the food is pricey, and the Gouda burger was a steal at $17. I truly did order it with a salad, and it arrived with fries. Not my fault. The burger was spectacular. Totally worth every bite. We shared it, on the white-clothed table they rolled into our room with china and flowers, along with a 10″ thin crust pizza, saving a couple slices in the mini bar fridge for tomorrow. So between the three of us, portions were under control. And we ate pears for dessert, and drank water. And I didn’t even say to myself, self – you had burger and pizza anyway, you might as well have some of Mike’s chocolate stash and then really hunker down tomorrow. Or rather I did, but just didn’t listen.
I am not a believer in the concept of cheating in relation to food – there is nothing good that can come of it. How do you feel about yourself when you cheat? Terrible. Guilty. Small (and not in a good way). Guilt is a terrible motivator, and sets you up to believe you are weak-willed and incapable of accomplishing exactly what it is you’ve set out to accomplish. I reminded myself of this for years before I cut myself some slack, and it made all the difference. Rather than berate myself for my obvious lack of willpower (another word I have come to strongly dislike) I find it somehow makes it easier to acknowledge how difficult it is. There is nothing more natural than to get hungry and crave food – particularly high fat, high sugar, high calorie, tasty food. Do we feel guilty about feeling tired and giving in to sleep? Being hungry and loving to eat is not a character flaw.
I’m sorry I haven’t exactly been forthcoming with the healthy recipes yet this year.
And I think if I am going to do this right I should get over mydamnself and give up some numbers already. I might have been procrastinating until after I lose a few pounds. (Which sort of defeats the purpose, no?) Or hoped maybe you wouldn’t notice. It’s easy to hide behind my laptop and deal out healthy recipes and snippets of advice, but if we’re going to talk about it, lets talk about it. Walk the walk and all that. (Or if you don’t much care about this stuff, I wouldn’t be at all offended if you skipped through to another food blog.)
210 this morning. Although I spent much of my life at over 300 pounds (and I still cringe to share this, knowing that so many opinions of me change upon hearing it), 200 still seems like such a big number to be on the wrong side of. (I am close to 6′ tall.) As many of you know I lost half my weight – 165 pounds (from 330 = 165 pounds) by eating properly and exercising. As you can imagine, it’s a long story – I’ll spare you the details for now, but might as well get all these numbers on the table.
After being pregnant for what amounted to an entire year (52 weeks – I lost the first baby at 3 months and got pregnant again almost right away) and having W, and all that comes after that (you lose weight breastfeeding my ass), it nudged its way back up and has hovered around 210 for the past couple years. Still a long way from 330, but uncomfortable nonetheless.
Last Sunday I was 218, but as you know I jump-started the week with a bout of stomach flu that made it a little easier (in the worst possible way) to get quickly back on track. (You always see a quick drop at first, so don’t think I’m crash-dieting my way into those skinny jeans at a rate of 8 pounds per week.) I would be happy to make my way back to 170, and tone up a bit – increase my muscle mass again in the process. (Considering muscle weighs more than fat, 170 with no muscle tone looks and feels very different than a fitter 170.)
Wow, you’d think I had at least half a bottle of wine on board with that ramble. Sorry.
January 09 2009 | eating out | 81 Comments »
