some lessons learned while traveling

Progress:

Okay, I’ve screwed up a fair bit on my trip, before and during (mainly before, see previous posts).  However, I think it's worth pointing out all the progress I’ve made in my evolution to being a healthy eater.  In my Standard American Diet past, vacation road trips have always been even worse than at home.   Road trips meant driving long distances while eating home-made chocolate chip cookies, potato chips, and gorp made from peanuts, raisins, and m&ms. That and coffee would keep me awake while we put on the miles.  Then we’d still have meals at restaurants.  Now I don't desire any of that and don't pine over the restaurant food I'm not eating--it doesn't look appealing to me.  That's progress!   I’ve just got a few remnant habits to throw off and I sometimes stumble as I encounter them.  The stumbling points on this trip were 1) feeling like I needed a treat like the cookies and the cherry essene.  To be honest, both of these have squeezed out things I like better. I finally got to eat the soup and spinach I brought tonight.  2) feeling like I need a snack to stay awake while driving. My snacks have just been celery and carrots so healthy, but it is not necessarily to eat all the time. I do feel better when I give my digestion several hours in between meals, just as Fuhrman says. And there’s two of us so we can switch drivers when we get tired. 3)  Travel-mate continues to eat her favorite snack foods: cookies, chips, pretzels, and gorp.  A tiny part of me saw her eating cookies last night and I think made me a little weak when I saw the peanut butter.  For the most part though, I don't wish I were partaking in any of that SAD food, so it is progress.   In a way, I am vicariously enjoying the food through travel-mate without having to suffer the consequences.  I feel guilty about that because I don't want her health to suffer.  

Discipline:

Today's enjoyable pudding reminded me that there are some foods that I don’t want to give up altogether, like nuts and occasional dried fruit (though chocolate is one I do need to give up).  So I have to regulate them so I can enjoy them as treats occasionally. One thing I try to avoid in my life is discipline. I have a negative reaction to discipline due to some personal reasons. But, it’s time to get over that. If I exercised a little discipline then I could have an occasional treat.  Some forbidden foods are necessary—the ones that act like drugs on my body and cause cancer and heart disease. But I don’t want to forbid too much. So I think I just need to come up with ways to make it easier to be disciplined. For example, when I make a delicious sorbet or ice cream, it usually makes 2 servings. So, knowing my weaknesses, I can make them when I know there will be one other person to help me eat them. Similarly for some of the other treats. Only make pie or cookies for big gatherings or plan to give away most. There are two reasons for this. 1) If my attempt at discipline doesn’t succeeed, I will overindulge. 2) even if my attempt at discipline does succeed, I will have to be eating this stuff for a few days and crowding out other stuff that, again, I like better. I really only want one helping of these treats usually (the rational part of me, I mean).