On April 6th, I started a 21-day “no junk” challenge.
I
weighed myself to kick it off but didn’t post the pic I took of the
scale (and have since accidentally deleted it in an effort to clear up space on my phone...wah wah). I had gained some weight the previous week since I had been out
of town and ate a BUNCH of things I don’t normally eat and didn’t
exercise the way I wanted to
for the most part.
Now, I’d like to do a little diary-kind of review over the past 21 days.
• April 6: no problems. I’m always good on the first day of a challenge or a diet. Nothing tempts me! I am invincible!
• April 7: accidentally ate 2 little
pieces of candy from co-workers. HOWEVER! I did refuse a donut that
was offered by another co-worker. So…win!
• April 8: still going strong. There
was mighty temptation at work this day. Cookies and pastries out for
all to enjoy. I refused. And I was actually only a little tempted.
But, the moment I was like, “oh one cookie won’t kill me”
I stopped myself. I told myself “no” immediately and said, sure, in
the big picture it won’t hurt anything…but you are trying to do this
challenge and it is ONLY 21 days long and you’ve done similar challenges
where you cut out all junk food in the past and
did just fine and those were for longer periods of time. I no longer
wanted the cookie. WIN!
•
April 9: yet another good day. With my low calorie fresh-home-made
curried chicken salad in whole wheat pita pockets for lunches this week,
I have been consistently UNDER my calorie threshold each day, but a
good bit too…even without
exercise factored in! And I haven’t even been hungry! So, I might see
about finding some sprouted grain pita pockets and having some
fresh-home-made chicken salad again next week for my lunches! I will
add more curry paste if I do as I can’t taste the curry
paste at all in this week’s batch. I will also cut down the amount of
lime juice used.
•
April 10: had a 5% off coupon from Target from my pharmacy rewards
program that expired this day, so I figured I’d hit Target up for some
groceries before work (gotta get what I need to make my healthy shrimp
alfredo for the next night!
Also, getting what I need to make the mushroom & goat cheese
quesadillas I’ll be eating for lunch most of next week). I didn’t find
everything I needed at Target so I went to HEB (local chain grocery
store). As I was walking around HEB, there was all sorts
of junky foods and even though I was hungry (hadn’t eaten yet), none of
it was appealing. None of it. WIN!
• April 11: this is the day before the Capital 10K! 7th
biggest 10K in the nation! Anyway, in the spirit of running a race the
following day and hoping to get a PR as well, I need to carb load.
Normally, I go to Olive Garden
or whatnot and get me a plate of shrimp alfredo. Now don’t you worry, I
still had my shrimp alfredo, but I made it myself! I have a bunch of
shrimp in my freezer, so I just thawed out 4 oz of it. And I have a
recipe for semi-healthy alfredo sauce, so I
whipped that up and served it over a double serving of quinoa pasta for
some carbo loading!
•
April 12: I had my usual pre-race chocolate chip bagel from Einstein
Bros Bagels. I also bought a banana when I was at Target the other day
and froze it so that I could make a banana-almond milk-vegan chocolate
Shakeology smoothie to
accompany the chocolate chip bagel before my race. Normally, when I do
these “no junk” type challenges, I nix all restaurant foods as well.
However, I’ve been craving BBQ and, honestly, as long as you don’t get
the high calorie side dishes, BBQ is pretty
healthy and not super high in calories. So, I met my friend David for
lunch after running the Capital 10K race at Terry Black’s BBQ in Austin,
TX. It’s a spin-off of my favorite BBQ restaurant: Black’s BBQ in
Lockhart, TX. Same family, same recipe. I passed
on the banana pudding, coleslaw, cobbler, and sugar-packed sweet
potatoes. I got some of the BBQ beans for a side and called it good.
Well, it was all good until later that
afternoon when I started feeling sluggish and blah and decided that I
wanted donuts and an iced latte. Oops. Oh well, the donuts and the
latte were good, and so was I. I got it out of my system.
I try not to regret eating things I “shouldn’t” be eating when I eat
them because that starts a vicious cycle of emotional eating. So I just
accept that I ate something I “shouldn’t” have eaten and move on. And
usually, when I eat something I shouldn’t necessarily
be eating, it’s a one and done kind of thing. It’s not like I’m going
on a junk food bender.
• April 13: start of week #2. Back to
the program. I did an 8 mile run this day that I had to drive to get
to the place I wanted to run it at and I parked in a grocery store
parking lot, so post-run I got myself a chocolate milk…but that’s
not junk, that’s a legitimate post-run recovery thing and I ran a good
run, so I earned it.
• April 14: went to the gym this day.
My gym is Planet Fitness. I know that they do the whole once a month
pizza night, Tuesday morning bagels and cream cheese, and then the
Tootsie Rolls that are at the front counter 24/7. I don’t even
pay attention to when these things happen because they aren’t anything I
am going to partake of. Anyway, when I got to the gym this morning,
there was a table with boxes of bagels and containers of cream cheese
all over it…and a sign that said to limit yourself
to only 2 bagels. I thought about grabbing one since even without
exercise I was going to be under my calorie allowance for the day, but
ultimately decided against it. I’d much rather have some melba toast
with peanut butter and honey on it after dinner
if I am still hungry come the end of the day. But, I didn’t have that
either. There were dark chocolate chips at the end of the day, however.
• April 15: Schlotzsky’s had a deal
going on for this day because it is Tax Day. A free original! Those
are fairly “not too bad” for you as long as you don’t get any sauces on
them and I don’t, so I had this for lunch on this day! But,
it does still have about 570 calories, so I’m very glad I went for a 5
mile run this day. I also worked a double shift at work so I went to
the store before work and stocked up on strawberries and cantaloupe for
my extra snacks to make it through 16 hours
of work.
• April 16: this was another double
shift at work, but it was pre-planned so I made sure when I bought the
strawberries and cantaloupe the day before that I got enough for both
days!
• April 17: fried chicken happened. I was just craving it and couldn’t get it out of my mind, so I had some and now I’m good.
• April 18: had a 5K this day in the
morning. Post-race there was bagels and Chick-fil-a. I had one of
each. There was a party. There were hot dogs, potato salad, brisket,
meat & cheese rollups, summer sausage, deviled eggs, pie and
cake. I didn’t hold back too much. I also don’t regret anything.
• April 19: had some quality girl time
with my awesome friend Amanda. We went and saw a movie and movies
involve junk food. I got the fish and chips and honestly, it wasn’t a
huge serving of either fish or chips like some places give
you. I’d say about half of what you would get in a regular restaurant
is what I got.
• April 20: WOOHOO! Boston Marathon
today! Also, start of week #3, the final week…dun dun dunnnnnnn! I ate
according to my eating plan this day.
•
April 21: fail happened. I woke up feeling horrible…got hit by the
allergy truck. I got a sausage, egg and cheese croissant sandwich and a
couple small plain kolaches for breakfast and a Schlotzsky’s small
pepperoni pizza for dinner.
Ugh.
• April 22: fail happened…again.
Still not feeling great. Jack in the Box for breakfast and then there
was a spread for a going away party for a coworker at work. This is it,
though. No more junk until I go to Oregon. Even though this
particular challenge ends this weekend, I’m going to just continue to
stick to it until my vacation next month. And, even then, I’m still
going to do my best to make the healthier choices during my visit.
• April 23: day #1 again. Haha. But
seriously, I’m starting this over like I said in the last entry. I’m
going to control myself with the exception of a couple PLANNED meals out
on the 25th and on May 2nd and those
are only because I have races the next morning and I want to “carbo
load” for them. And then maybe I will also eat out on May 3rd when I go to my friend’s house for the day after National Scrapbook day to do some scrapbooking.
• April 24: holy cow! I cannot be
trusted with food. Plain and simple. Someone please take away my food
privileges. Seriously. I’m not joking. I had Taco Cabana today.
• April 25: I went to Red Lobster and
gorged myself on biscuits, a full order of shrimp alfredo linguini, and
then some apple crustini dessert thing that was delicious. The biscuits
and the alfredo were planned as I had a half marathon
the next morning and this is my usual night before a big race dinner.
• April 26: FINAL DAY! Had my half
marathon this morning, went to Schlotzsky’s for a pastrami and swiss
sandwich, no chips and then Frito pie for dinner (chili and Frito's with
cheese).
I did my final weigh in today, April 27th because that would be after I completed the 21st day, which was yesterday the 26th.
Overall, I’m glad I did this challenge. I do love to get away from the
junk
that, honestly, I really don’t even like eating. But, because in the
back of my emotional mind, “it’s comforting” to eat that crap when
really it’s not. It makes me feel worse after I eat it than I felt
before I ate it.
And,
of course, part of the reason I took up this challenge was because I
had just come off a week of overindulging in foods I don’t normally eat
and seriously needed a detox, for lack of a better term. I needed to
flush all the junk out
of my system and get my body back on real, whole, healthy foods. I had
also gained a few pounds during that week of overindulgence, so I
needed to get rid of the bulge as well. And, I obviously completely
failed at that. I’m not shifting the blame off myself.
No one forced me to eat those foods. I made the decisions to eat it.
But, I had a lot of anxiety the last couple weeks and I don’t exactly
cope with high anxiety very well. I’m going to TRY to not eat junk or
restaurant food (except for this Saturday because
I have another race Sunday morning) until I’m in Oregon next month
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