Today started the way it always has since I started back 'on it', getting up, making the wife breakfast and a cup of tea and her lunch, reading for a while whilst she gets ready for work, then we both walk the dog around the big block, which is about a mile, give or take a few feet. Today was particularly jarring because of how cold it was (I always do the walk in my shorts, T-shirt and hoodie), but it was also refreshing.
Having done the walk, my wife leaves for work (she's a senior leader in a primary school, so no non school days for her) and then I do my stretches and my exercises, which takes me around 45 minutes, depending on the workout and how long I need to recover. I then have a shower before having breakfast, normally 3 rashers of turkey bacon, two eggs and baked beans; I have had this for four days now and I am still not bored of it. It was at this part of the day, the art where I normally do school work or housework, that things went a little south.
About this time, there was a knock at the door and two young me dropped off the side until my wife had ordered, so instead of going about my normal routine, I did a quick tidy, some stuff around the house, changed the washing over etc, the every day stuff which tales more time than you actually think it does. Because it does this, it was lunch time before I had finished.
I then moved the unit into the front room and started to take it out the box and then out it together. There were a lot of things to put together and the instructions had no writing, only images, which is great when you are putting things in holes and screwing screws into the places that they fit, but this was no IKEA manual. There were things you had to screw on that had no holes to screw them into, and no indication where they should go apart from a vague picture that had a cut line from the image of the object to the place is should, relatively speaking, go.
Having taken four and a bit hours to put it together on my own, probably 4 hours of that was deciphering the instructions, I finally had it almost complete and had stood it up, its full height almost touching the ceiling. Then I noticed that the back was on the wrong way round, so I had to then carefully pull the nails out, turn it around and put it back on the right way round. To say there were a few choice words would be an understatement.
However, eventually I had finished and I stood back to admire my work. I was very impressed with myself and I did smile to myself in appreciation at how good I really was. In the back of my mind I knew a fitter would have put it up in about 30 minutes, but I didn't care. But what does this have to do with my healthy eating? Simply this: during the time that I was making the unit, I had forgotten about my lunch.
Whilst I was making the cabinet, everything was absolutely fine. I didn't feel hungry or thirsty or tired. However, once I stopped and realised that I had skipped lunch and therefore not eaten for a long time, I was suddenly very hungry. My cravings for rubbish food, for mince pies, crisps, beer, etc was at an all time high. I even went so far as to get the mince pies out the cupboard and stand there staring at them.
Thankfully, because I knew that I had skipped a meal and knew, from experience that much harder to resist cravings would inevitably follow, I was able to realise that I was simply hungry because I had missed lunch and could control the cravings I had, so I opened the bin and chucked the mince pies into the bin to get rid of temptation. Although the cravings were coming thick and fast, just that knowledge that I was only craving because of a missed meal made my willpower much stronger, I could remind myself why and fight it.
So what has this taught me? Nothing new but it has reinforced my understanding of missing meals and increased cravings and that missing meals is dangerous, especially if you are trying to eat healthily. You're already fighting yourself and the desire to eat things that taste really nice but are really not god for you, so missing a meal exacerbates that and makes you more likely to snack and eat crap. Thankfully I won this time, but I don't want to do that again, as I might not be as strong next time and I don't want to take that risk.
Eat regularly and healthily throughout the day and you will be doing yourself a favour. If you miss a meal (don't) then stop what you are doing and eat. Have something healthy that can tide you over until you can have that meal, or drink a pint of water...just fill your stomach until you catch up. Better than that, don't skip the meal in the first place. At least, that's what I'm going to do.
I hope this helps. Oh, and talk to yourself about the way you feel, that also helps.
Until tomorrow, I hope that you stay strong in your journey.
Thanks for reading.
Sean.
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