Finding Creative Solutions: Post-Work Binges

I continue to struggle with bingeing when I get home from work in the mornings. Fortunately, this is only 3 days a week, and even more fortunately, even though I definitely overdid it all three mornings after work this week, I tracked every BLT (bite, lick taste). And up until a few minutes ago, I was in the red in terms of my Weekly Points Allowance.

Then I got strategic.

My job is physically demanding. And stressful. And for some reason I want to KEEP convincing myself that I don't need extra food on those days, but I am wrong, wrong, wrong! If you follow the latest, greatest version of Weight Watchers, there is something called the Personal Points Quiz. It takes into account your current weight and the physicality of your daily activities. But the quiz is pretty simplified. In fact, I'm not sure where I fit in the quiz. I'd classify my job as very physically demanding, but I don't do it all week long. I do it for 36 hours, all packed into three nights (hmm, could that be why I STAY hungry during work nights?!?). So, I picked the next level down, which states something like, "on your feet most all of the time". Somewhere in the middle sounds reasonable to me because there are definitely days post-work that I sit around like a knot on a log, especially after a particularly exhausting few nights at work. So, with the middle tier choice, this takes my daily points allowance from 27 to 30. So, after changing my target, even with the terrible food choices that I made this week, I am no longer in the red. Big sigh. Lots of guilty feelings leaving my mind right now...

Think of it this way. I can eat 30 points per day, and plan on accepting that it is not realistic to come home from work and go straight to bed in the mornings without eating. (I tried this on Monday and I seriously had a growling stomach and a killer headache and didn't get to sleep until after 11am (usually I'm asleep by 9am), and that was ONLY after I raided the kitchen). I will go into this new strategy accepting the fact that there will also be days where I tap into my WPA after work. What I want to work on changing is that instead of coming home and eating THIS menu:
almonds (2-3 servings)
cheese sandwiches on hot dog buns with mayo
olives
Luna bar

....maybe I can come home and have a Boca burger or something. They don't require mass amounts of energy to prepare (something I'm also lacking in the mornings, which often leads to me just snarfing down whatever is within reach and already prepared). Plus, I'll feel satisfied and not guilty or ashamed.

I've been examining this behavior for the whole time I've been working the night shift (3+ years). It is obvious that I have extra energy requirements on these days. So, I think it makes sense to accept this and plan accordingly. I have a feeling this will prevent late night pizza orders and post-work snack-a-thons. I think even with the extra points added in each day of the week, I'll probably still consume the same or less points. And this is because I'll be more satisfied. I HATE starting the first of my 4 days off from work each week being in the hole in terms of points. Especially when I can't even look back and say I spent those points on anything worthwhile. (Hot dog bun with cheese and mayo. Seriously??)

So, this is an experiment. And since I'm changing things up mid-week, I'm willing to accept that this may all blow up in my face with a huge gain on Saturday. This is a risk I'm willing to take in order to restore harmony to my food menus. Because quality is SO much better than quantity! ALWAYS!

Back in 2000 or so, when I first did Weight Watchers, there was no WPA, you had a "bank" of any extra points that you didn't consume from your points range, plus any activity points that you earned. I think my range was 24-27 and I ALWAYS ate 27 points, daily. I never did a great job of keeping up with the banked points, or activity points, I just know I ate my max each day, and usually had one day a week where I splurged, and then I worked out a lot. It was a successful combo and helped me to look amazing. So I am not sure why over the years I've kept trying to convince myself that I should go in the other direction and LIMIT myself on points. This has always, ALWAYS been disastrous for me. Slowly, I'm learning to listen to my body, and I'm confident that I'm going in the right direction here.

I want to be proud of my food choices, and I never want to feel irritable or resentful because I'm not getting enough fuel. Coming home and eating every convenience food that I can get my hands on after work is a strong message that my body isn't properly fueled at work. The only other time I've ever eaten like that in my life was after intense tennis practices in high school where we practiced from 8am-Noon and then headed back out to the courts around 5-6pm for another couple of hours of drills, sprints, track running, and of course actually hitting the tennis ball once and a while. Feeling ravenous is always a sign that your body needs energy. But putting junk into your body is only a quick fix, and ultimately probably leads us to repeat the cycle over and over.

I'm very excited at the prospect of this, and also I've been toying SetPoints somewhat as well. SetPoints are another Weight Watchers terms where, instead of measuring certain foods, you can just eat until satisfied ("satisfied" being the key word there) and just count a set number of points for the food. I find this works well with things like brown rice served at restaurants, fruits and veggies, tofu, etc. I've used SetPoints for cantaloupe tonight because I plan on just dishing some out after the gym for a refreshing post-workout snack. I didn't have a lot of points left for tonight after this morning's food showdown, so with the set points, the cantaloupe will be half of my "dinner", and I'll just eat until satisfied. I'm looking forward to seeing what the scale does on Saturday, and very thankful that my work week is ovahhhhhhh! Now I can focus on healthy food menus, catching up on my To Do list, and getting in some quality time at the gym. Yay for Me Time!