Habits

As we make our way through the fifth day of this new decade, I am bundled into two sweatshirts, in bed under a down throw, watching episodes of Air Emergency on my DVR.  Why do I watch this stuff?  Luckily, I don't fly very often, so I don't allow myself to get too bothered by these plane crashes.  And I feel a little bit like it is important to remember the people who were lost on such flights, so this is a little way that I can do so.  Anyway, that isn't my topic for the day.  Instead, my topic is going to be the changing of habits in this new year.


I trolled through the BlackBerry app center a few days ago, looking for some sort of food diary to use for my "eat less, move more" campaign.  And I found a great one that can be synched with the website FatSecret.  I really like that feature because it means I can do most of my food tracking on my BlackBerry but use more advanced features on the website.  I decided that Monday would be the day that I would start changing my habits toward the better.


However, before starting to track my new, better habits, I decided to spend one day tracking my food when I was eating the old way.  And that led to my use of the FatSecret program on Sunday, a workday, which is probably a good representation of the worst of my eating days.  After all, a day at work for me usually means two trips to the cafeteria, one for breakfast and one for lunch.  And I sometimes have a small meal before I leave for work at 5:30 AM.  I then snack on whatever I find in the unit, and then on my way home, I often stop for something to eat (usually via a drive thru), as by the end of Sunday, I am exhausted and hungry and can't imagine going home and making dinner.


Well, the results of that day of tracking were sobering.  I won't admit how many calories I ate that day, but I will say that it was more than anyone should eat in a day.  Well, it wasn't more than Michael Phelps should eat while he is training...I am not that bad.  However, it was a large number of calories.  It was not hard to see why I need to change my eating habits.  It was right there in that food diary!


A trip to the grocery store involved the purchase of several types of fruits and vegetables, and I have even been eating them!  I also bought some snacks that don't involve processed carbs or sugar or huge amounts of fat.  I got rid of some of the junk in the house, especially the stuff that my husband won't eat.  And when I woke up on Monday, I started anew.  I put that day of bad eating behind me and started fresh.


Here's hoping this will be the time that I manage to put my food-related demons behind me and make new habits that last.  And I know that I am not alone in this struggle...so here's hoping this is all our year for success!