4 Frenemies to Jettison From Your Life (Signed Your Size 10 Jeans)

You’re working hard at smart eating. Pounds are coming off slowly, but that’s a good thing, right? (One hundred percent: yes.)

You meet a newish friend for lunch, and tell her about your smart eating plan and she says, “I know the pain, twenty years ago I gave up cigarettes.”

Inside you’re thinking, well it’s not quite the same. We can give up cigarettes (which, btw, is a monumental accomplishment), but we can’t exactly scrub food from our lives.

And yet.

What if we could? Wouldn’t saying goodbye to food altogether make losing and maintaining after age fifty, like five thousand percent easier?

Yes, it would and yes it does.

Goodbye To Youuuu!

Obviously we can’t give up food entirely, but we can commit to removing categories of so-called “food” that look all happy and fun, but are not – repeat not – our friend.

This is how I kicked food out of my life:

First: Lose the Ding Dongs

I deep-sixed all processed junk food that you and I can find in any grocery store – phony-foods like bakery items, donuts, cookies, candy, the entire ice cream aisle and so forth – from my life.

Second: Get McSmart

I eliminated all fast food from my days like McDonalds, Dunkin, Starbucks and a billion of their brethren.

The one exception I make re: fast food, is when on a trip and we’re hungry (and I don’t have my trusty cold bag of food), we stop at Taco Bell. I’ll order one bean burrito “fresco style” meaning diced tomatoes substitute for something gross. (Google “nutrition” and “Taco Bell” for other smart meals.)

Third: Here’s the Skinny

I can see you nodding at the first two “give-these-up” food categories, but I’m afraid I’ll lose you on this one: eating in nice restaurants.

None of us want to give up eating out, right? Right.

So here’s what I do and it works beautifully: I take the large menu and constrain my options by ordering from one of two spots only: the appetizer or salad section.

If I go the salad route, I ask that any unhelpful ingredients like croutons, too much cheese, honey-glazed nuts, and anything fried (like taco shells) be left off. (And, as we’ve done forever, dressing on the side.)

But let’s say the appetizer and salad menus are both a no-go, in that case I order the smartest item I can find on the menu, and when the server brings our meals I request a to-go box right away.

Before I start eating I scoop half or more of the meal into the doggie-box and put it as outside of my vision as possible. I eat the other half of the meal for lunch the next day. (Do the eat half now, half tomorrow hack often enough becomes a great habit for not overeating in a restaurant.

That said, I largely order from the salad menu happy to get a large serving of veggies for the day. Do I use the dressing that’s on the side? I do, but I lightly touch my fork tines into the dressing before taking a salad bite.

Fourth: There’s a Party Going On Right Here

Special Occasion Foods. I can hear you now, “for crying out loud! Is this woman about to suggest that I don’t have wedding cake on my daughter’s big day? No pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving? Not even a slice of celebratory cake when my kids graduate from college?

Yes and no.

Here’s the thing, our long-term plan is that we’re training ourselves to celebrate events in ways that don’t put a focus on “food” that doesn’t have a shred of nutrition within.

There’s nothing wrong with a slice of cake at your daughter’s wedding. Or one slice of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. No biggie.

The problem comes into play when our entire calendar is packed with “celebrations” (coworkers’ birthdays, my grandson graduated middle school, my dog’s tumor isn’t malignant and so forth).

Take a good look at your calendar and if you’re celebrating with food on the regular, it’s time to find new ways to celebrate. For example:

• Weddings that you throw can easily lead to stress-eating, so eat well before the official meal. No time? Keep a sliced apple and Cliff bar in your purse. The idea is to sit down to eat relatively full. Spend your time dancing, taking photos or just attending to the wedding party.
• For Thanksgiving have a professional manicure and request an array of fall colors on your fingers (one nail burnt orange, one chocolate brown, another ruby red etc). When the holiday arrives, use your beautiful nails as a reminder to have one piece of pie only.
• Celebrate your dog’s wonderful news by taking her on a fun hike.

The second way to enjoy the occasional celebratory moment is to cut back on, say, dinner so that having a slice of birthday cake is not a problem.

The Magic Ingredient

Set yourself up for success by planning to develop these habits slowly. Give yourself sixty-six days (according to the English study I love) to establish the “I don’t do fast-food” habit.

Every Sunday or Monday, Journal-write exactly how you plan to avoid fast-food stops each day for the coming week. Planning is huge.

Why Measure It?

Plan to track your daily progress like this:

5-5-21 – Taking a new route home from work so that I don’t drive by Chick-fil-A. Day 3.

5-6-21 – Hope wanted to grab lunch with me at Subway. Felt safe explaining to her I’m working on my smart habits. Day 4!!

Recently, I tracked my “no sugar in the evenings” habit for seventy-two days until I realized that the habit had become a part of me. If I do the math — I’m doing it now — I’m actually on Day 117 having had no sugar after dinner. And since I don’t eat sugar during the day, I guess you’d call me a no-sugar person now.

Keeping track of my progress has been – and still is – a huge part of my success. Using OneNote I track all sorts of habits that I’m working to uplevel.

If we’re to stay lean and healthy in our food-gone-wild culture, playing a strong defense is crucial.

I’d love it if you’d share which category of food you plan to ditch once and for all.

Always remember, it’s not just you: health is hard!!

♥, Wendy