I always think I know everything, and it’s a real shock to continually find that I am learning new things about myself every day. I keep a daily food journal and I eat food that I planned and shopped for in advance. My over-arching guide is my food protocol, which essentially says that I don’t eat added sugar or gluten, and I use intermittent fasting.
Last week while at my daughter’s house, I went to Safeway and bought a gluten free cake that I ate over 3 days during my daily eating windows. Gluten free cakes are small and expensive. However I didn’t put this cake on my meal plan, even when I knew I was going to eat it the next day, and the next day. I can have exceptions to my food protocol if I plan them 24 hours in advance – so the cake would have been fine as long as I wrote it on my plan. It was a really simple thing. Why didn’t I do it?
This is where having a weight loss coach comes in really handy. I didn’t see eating the cake as a problem at all. I was at the grocery store, I saw the cake and I wanted it and felt that I deserved it. Then I bought the cake and ate a little each day – and the result was that I didn’t lose any weight last week. My coach asked me about 5 different ways about the cake – “Tell me about the cake?” “Why did you eat it?” “Did you have this cake on your plan?” “What about following your protocol?” Then the clencher question – “Do you follow your food protocol or not?” While I was talking with my coach I thought she went a little overboard as she kept questioning the cake thing, apparently she could see clearly what I could not. After our call I started wondering why she kept asking me about the cake and my protocol. All of the sudden it was like I woke up. Wait a minute! Do I follow my protocol or not? Do I follow my protocol and not eat sugar? It turns out that I don’t eat sugar – well, unless I happen to want something, and then I eat whatever I want…
One of the mantras that I used early in my weight loss journey was, “I would never dream of cheating on my husband – I won’t cheat on my food protocol either”. I have certainly kept part of this mantra and as you can guess it is my food protocol that I have been cheating on. In reality you can’t change anything if you aren’t aware of it. Now with my awakened awareness I can see that I need to believe and act like a person who follows her protocol, no matter what. I have a family reunion coming up soon that will let me practice. I can’t wait!
