A waiter approached. "What can I get for you?" he asked.
"A diet, please. And chips," she replied. "keep them coming."
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This is how I feel at Mexican restaurants. At any restaurant really, where your meal is preceded by a basket of something. Bread, chips, peanuts -- It's all bad. Chips are especially enticing to me. They're small and thin. When accompanied by a hearty salsa, they're almost a health food, right? Yeah, not so much.
If I'm having an especially stressful day, and you're lunching with me, you'll know it if I suggest Mexican. Pay attention to the basket of chips and watch them disappear before your very eyes. My eyes will glaze over and I'll get into an eating zone. I can actually feel a sense of calm come over me. And then later the guilt (and the nap, as Mexican food makes me sleepy). I have eaten Mexican so often that the wait staff at one of our local eateries knows me by name.
It's what they call "Mindless eating." I've been a mindless eater all of my life. As a youngster I would come home from school, grab a bag of chips and a cola and plop in front of the TV to watch Gilligan's Island or The Brady Bunch or both. I'd sit there happily munching away, not realizing all of the calories I was consuming. Back in those days I was relatively active (my mom would yell, "it's too nice a day to be inside watching TV!") so somehow I managed not to weigh a ton. But, eventually all of those bad eating habits caught up with me. I started gaining weight. Then I'd diet and take it off. Then I'd gain it back. Take it off again. And so on, and so on.
Weight Watchers has always been my diet of choice. I still know the points value of many foods. I learned the tricks (small plates, eating slowly) to try to stop this pattern of behavior. A 3 oz. serving is approximately the size of the palm of your hand or a deck of cards. Twelve tortilla chips equals three points. I used to count out 12 chips and put them on my place mat. I'd break them into smaller pieces so it seemed like I was getting more. Salsa is free! You can eat as much as you like. But those darned chips. They are like a siren's song to me.
There's nothing inherently wrong with Mexican food. Or Italian food. Or any food for that matter. Really, it's not the food. It's the eating of the food. It's the shoveling in without tasting or appreciating the flavor. I can eat at any restaurant as long as I pay attention to the following:
- Portion size (just because they bring you a bucket of food doesn't mean you have to eat it)
- Carb count (how many carbs are in a portion and what exactly is a portion?)
- Protein (does it have any protein? It needs to have some to sustain my sugars until my next snack or meal)
It also helps to ask myself, "why am I eating this? Am I hungry?" Or am I instead stressed or sad or some other emotion that I medicate with food. It takes a discipline that I don't always have. But I'm working on it. Right now things are good. My sugars are normal. I'm not making daily visits to the company candy drawer. I didn't eat any of Tiffany's upside down pineapple cake that her mom brought in for her birthday.
Which is not to say that I won't be at a Mexican restaurant tomorrow. But for today, for this moment, I'm full.
Great blog post. Your experience, minus the Diabetes, is mine. My whole life I have been on one "diet" or another. I too find Weight Watchers helpful on my journey toward good health. As one child among six kids, there was a lot of mindless eating that went on in front of the TV...Brady Bunch, Dark Shadows, and yes Gilligan's island!! The snacks were a little bit healthier in the 70's (We did not have chips and pop), but there were still plenty of calories consumed before a full dinner. This past year I have been on a journey of seeking a higher level of health through mindful eating and intentional exercise. No food is off limits, I just try to stay aware of each think that I put in my mouth...not always easy...but it seems to be working. Regarding the "full" feeling...other than exploring all those inner demons that may be making me "hungry", or a "bottomless pit", I have found a much more practical solution. Fiber. (Did I just sense your eyes rolling to the back of your head) LOL. The more fresh fruits and vegetables I consume, them more full I become. So, in addition to any meal, I try to consume lots of fiber. Some days I feel like a horse. It is gets tiresome to chew sometimes, but after my sister's colon cancer diagnosis this summer, I have a renewed energy to focus on this way of eating. I deny myself nothing but try to stay mindful of the overall health/wellness picture. Another part of mindful eating is truly enjoying those nacho chips when a do decide to have them...I eat them with no regrets, and yes if a nap is the end result...that is not so bad either :)
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