Along this health and nutrition journey I’m on, I have discovered something very important about myself. When it comes to dieting, I’m lazy! As Dad would put it, I have a terrible case of Yzal Syndrome (that’s lazy spelled backwards). The funny part is, this laziness works for me. Let me explain.
When I started this journey back in October, the mess got real! Not only did I start walking and doing more resistance training and toning, but I also began to use the food tracker in my phone’s health app. It has an impressive amount of food already in it; it’s nothing to find a Trader Joe’s cinnamon raisin bagel or one of the half-dozen varieties of Canadian bacon we could have in the fridge and with which I’d make a breakfast sandwich (with a blend of egg whites and Egg Beaters, also in the app). Basic foods, especially my typical breakfast choices, are pretty easy.
Then there are those dishes that reflect our family’s love for cooking. Around Christmas especially, we made a variety of cookies and confections, plus we were given some homemade goodies, as well, and
each and every one had to go into the app. That means, I had to figure out all the nutrition information (I do that at Spark Recipes), putting every ingredient in the computer and seeing what I get. Oh my gosh, who has time for all that? Dinners and lunches are one thing, but it’s just not worth it for snack foods. This is the point where I get lazy.
Let’s say I’m feeling peckish, and my choices are a couple of cookies whose recipes I’ll have to input, or a half-serving of cereal. I will literally determine if I want to go through the trouble of dealing with the recipe, or if I want to take the cereal option before committing to the snack. The cereal will have far less sugar than the cookies, less fat, and fewer calories, plus have a whole bunch of vitamins and minerals added. Even better, if it’s one of my usual breakfast cereals, it’s already in my phone. Being lazy like this has saved me a lot of empty calories over the past few months.
Do I eat cookies and sweets? Yes, but only if my calorie allotment leaves room for them and I really, truly want them. My health app gives me 2100 calories a day; I personally strive for close to 1600. If I’m sitting at 1543 after dinner, then the sweets aren’t happening. On the other hand, if I think I want sweets because I’m bored, I’ll pick up the knitting. (So far since Christmas I’ve knitted a scarf and two hats, and am working on a prayer shawl. I fight a lot of boredom munchies.)
Give yourself permission to be lazy in some areas as you’re striving to meet your goals for the year. Unless your goal is to be more ambitious, in which case, this won’t work for you. Be diligent in working towards your goals, but also know that you’re going to miss your mark some days. There is grace for those days; shrug off the disappointment and tell yourself, “Tomorrow is another day and another chance to get it right.” It’s better to start over anew each day than to quit completely because of one screw up. You’ve got this!
