A Weekend Where I Didn't Eat My Weight in Ice Cream

In case you were wondering (you weren’t) how I did w/ OAHB this weekend, the results are in: I didn’t meet my goals of eliminating all my normal weekend vices...

...but, I didn’t fail miserably, either. Success!

Typically, when 5 o’clock rolls around on Friday, I'm dunzo with a week of moderation. Bring on the alcohol and make it a double. Happy hour apps followed by dinner at Taco Bell followed by a trip to the corner store for a pint of Phish Food? Hell. Yes.

The good thing about this kind of glutton-living is that it leaves vast room for improvement. Basically any changes I made in my weekend routine would help, so I wasn’t looking to be all Nazi with my diet over the weekend. This would just be setting myself up for failure - kind of like I did when I outlined some goals for the next few weeks.

My tentative list included:

No alcohol* (Ha. Feel free to have a laugh at my expense on this one)

No ice cream (as if)

No french fries

Dessert no more than twice a week

No cheese?

*The exception to the no alcohol clause was intended to be at a wedding we have in a few weeks. Too bad I broke this rule w/in hours days of setting it. At least now I don’t need to pretend to be sober for the next few weeks.

Like how I put no cheese at the end, followed by a question mark? Like I was giving myself a choice here. There’s no way in hell I can deny myself cheese. I tried it for Lent a few years ago and it was such a dark time in my life that it’s completely erased from my memory.

So this weekend I indulged in all the regulars; beer, bar food, ice cream. But the key word here is moderation. I had two light beers instead of my usual binge of Blue Moons. And I followed up the bar nachos with a sandwich from Subway. The 6-incher, no less. Unheard of for me.

When we went to Friendly’s for lunch on Sunday, I knew I would be getting ice cream, so instead of my usual chicken fingers, I had a meal off the “Under 550 calorie” section of the menu. Which was surprisingly tasty. Kudos to me and the Friendly’s chefs on that one.

I learned a lot this weekend. Like that I shouldn’t set unreasonable goals for myself. No alcohol or ice cream? Heffer, please. Limiting myself to two drinks at a time, or compensating a treat with a healthy meal plan beforehand are much more realistic options.

I also learned that there’s more to the Friendly’s menu than grease and ice cream. Who knew?

Comments

Yeewuz said…
Well done, my dear!
Anonymous said…
Is it bad that I totally believe you can do all this in moderation, but when you said no alcohol I scoffed. Moderation is key, when you deny yourself you end up like me eating an entire package of chewy chips ahoy cookies!
Brigid said…
So true! I don't want to end up face deep in a pint of Cherry Garcia, so I know I need to indulge myself on occasion. Thanks for the reminder!
Unknown said…
That's awesome Brigid!
I too cannot live without cheese, ice cream or alcohol. I think it's definitely good to have a designated cheat day once a week or once every other week just so you don't deprive yourself of all your favorites.
BTW, I nominated you for the Liebster award. Check it out!
http://thebackwardsbride.blogspot.com/2012/08/my-liebster-award.html