Tomorrow is by 34th birthday and tonight my family and I are going out to dinner to celebrate. I haven't eaten out in over 56 days since starting eating healthy so I'm a little apprehensive about dinner. I am confident that I won't go overboard. The challenge will be finding a lowfat meal on the menu. To prepare, I'm going to see if I can find their menu online. That way, I can look up the nutrition content in some of their entrees to make sure I select a lowfat healthy choice at dinner tonight. It's safe to say that I'll probably be eating an entree consisting baked chicken breast since that's most likely to have the lowest fat content but we'll just have to see.
I was planning on getting a sitter last night to go out dancing with my friend but I decided against it. Not only was I super tired from housecleaning topped off with a four hour run/hike but I realized I wasn't mentally prepared to drink alcohol yet. When I have dieted in the past I would be doing super great... My confidence would be through the roof and I would feel super sexy and ready for a night out in the town. It was always the icing on the cake, all of the hard work I had put in was paying off and I looked and felt great. I would go out with friends to celebrate some occasion (usually a birthday) and also to celebrate my weightloss. We would have some drinks, laugh, dance, have some more drinks, and laugh some more. Everything would be going great, that is until we left the bar ... I don't know about you but I always get super hungry after a night of drinking and I don't crave carrot sticks and apple slices. No, I crave greasy fat and salty carbs. This meant that a night of drinking was almost always capped off with a trip to Jack in the Box (the only fast food place open in my area). When I drink I find it almost impossible to say "no" to my vices. This means that I ALWAYS end up smoking (I quit six years ago) and binge eating on the fattiest, most unhealthy food imaginable. But it wouldn't end there. The next morning I would wake up SUPER hung over (I can't drink without getting hungover anymore). I would sleep half of the day (wake up early but take two to three naps throughout the day). I would be so tired and feel so crummy that I wouldn't have the energy to get up and make food. I always managed to snack on crackers and other lowfat food. I'd make the kids mac and cheese for lunch... And then around 6pm Id be starving and trying to figure out what to make for dinner. Did I really want to eat baked bones skinless chicken for the umpteenth time? I would ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS order a pizza at this point. Pizza is my hungover food and I can't ever seem to get away form that. Mentally Id reason with myself that I didn't eat all day (except for s few crackers) so I'd be under my daily calories so it was fine. This was always the start of the end for me.
So you see why I'm not ready for a night of drinking yet. Of course there's a chance that Id do okay. I may only have one or two drinks (which would make me go over my daily calories). And maybe I would opt for healthy snacks when I got home. And maybe I would not be super duper hung over so maybe it would be easier to make good choices the following day. But I'm not risking it.
I looked back at older posts from 2009 and 2011 and what the both have in common is the fact that I would fall of the wagon soon after a night of drinking. Coincidence? I think not.
In the past I wanted to be healthier but that was only about 1% of the reason I was trying to lose weight. These days it more 70% is about being healthy while 30% is about losing weight. Drinking alcohol, especially in excess is NOT healthy and never will be. Most importantly though, I feel like complete crap the day after I drink, even if I only have s glass or two of wine. Sometimes I can get away with having a glass of wine with dinner and not feel like complete crap the next day (like when my friend came over for dinner a few weeks ago) but other times I'm not so lucky. I'm sure I will drink alcohol at some point but the longer I can go without it the better prepared I can be when that day finally comes.
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