First a little life update from me. I recently started moonlighting at a fabulous restaurant. And when I say fabulous I mean the best. The food is amazing. All of it. And while it’s fresh, local and totally worth it to eat; it’s throwing a wrench in my eating plan.
If you are new here let me explain. The way I keep my diet 80/20 (80% clean eating, super healthy, 20% indulgence) is I only indulge on the very best foods. I try to avoid things like day old pizza, cream in my coffee and all those little random things that pop up. I keep it clean at home and all of my “planned” food is clean so when something decadent presents itself I can dive in without guilt.
Well now something absolutely mind-blowing is presenting itself to me 5 days a week. Shit. And while I haven’t gained any weight I can feel myself getting a little softer in places that were tighter before. Shit.
So I’m sharing with you my plans for handling this in case you find yourself in a similar situation. It also provides me with some accountability to share where I’m at.
It’s time to regroup. Not “get back on the wagon” as there is no wagon and I’ve fallen off of nothing. I’ve been eating awesome food. I’m not mad about that. I just need to regroup with an actual plan. Which is to say there is no such thing as “spiraling out of control” just “time to regroup.” (Change your perspective = changing everything).
My regrouping plan is to get extra clean at home. This means loading up on fresh veggies, particularly my leafy greens. Focusing in on being diligent with my green monsters in the morning, fresh salads at lunch, raw almonds… good stuff.
The next step is to up the ante in my workouts. This is something I am always trying to do but whenever I refocus on my workouts not only do my strength and performance improvements motivate me- but my diet naturally cleans up as I need the premium workout fuel.
Finally I am going to start packing snacks at work and showing up with a green monster in hand. I’ll probably pack this green monster with a little protein powder to make it more of a meal and just have some food in my bag for when I need a quick bite. For me this usually means something like cashews and dried mango. (yum).
This is the part where I should probably say that I’ll cut back on eating the awesome food at my job. So far I’m giving this a big maybe. (It really is that good, hello lobster!) I’m thinking that the other measures will keep me more full so when we get to try new menu items I will naturally eat a smidge less.
What’s the point Mama? I don’t work where you work? Well you live where you live. And what I hear more from clients about food than anything else is that they can’t keep their families from butter and bacon. And you work where you work. Which may involve brownies in the break room on birthdays and bagels on Friday.
So indulge. If you want to. Enjoy the good things in life because no body likes a cranky, hungry bitch. But be mindful of all your other choices so you are adding that brownie to an awesome, fresh foods diet and not to frozen pizza and cheese burgers. And make sure that if you indulge– it’s only on the best!
Hope this is helpful. I’ll keep you posted on how the plan works. =)
xoxo, Mama
Perfect timing in my life for you to share this! I don’t work directly around food, but I am surrounded by good eats and awesome restaurants every single day. So, I’m taking some of your ideas and applying them to my life: better eating at home, only splurging on the really worthy stuff, and stepping up the exercise because it helps me stay mindful. Thank you for sharing this!