Breaking the Bad Food Habits and Rituals

Movie Madness – So today I ventured out to the movies with Miss “Almost 3” and her cousins (we saw Madagascar 3 for the second time), the point of this story is that for as long as I can remember whenever I went to the movies I would as a minimum get a choc top Ice-cream, then usually chips or popcorn, jumbo frozen coke or soft drink. This week I swore I would have 7 good days of food so a trip to the movies was going to be a challenge. As I was standing in line juggling Miss “Almost 3” as she had just woken up and was very clingy and whingey (an awesome combination) I reached for My Fitness Pal app on my phone and did some quick calorie counting; choc-top approx 350 calories, movie popcorn approx 35 calories per cup (not to mention the salt content), I did not even consider a frozen coke or other soft drink. So I successfully navigated the Candy Bar, I got nothing for myself but a bottle of water, I bought the kids choc-tops, popcorn, juice and frozen coke, 1 food item and 1 drink item per child. I did grab about 5 handfuls of the kids popcorn which I allocated in my daily intake. I also packed some Vita-wheats with vegemite as a snack to nibble on. I honestly think my “OLD” self would have bought chips, drink and choc top which would have been close to a full day of calories.

I also remember as a child when we went to the movies that my dad would finish his choc-top before the previews had finished and would go and get himself or all of us a second ice-cream to have during the movie.

Take-away Trouble – Some of my other bad habits that I have gotten into over the years, ordering way too much take-away Chinese, Thai or Indian, I always want entrée, I loooove spring rolls (I could live on entrée style food), high carb noodles (I don’t eat rice), plus too many dishes for 2 adults and 1 small fussy child. We rarely can finish it in 1 meal, especially since the Lap banding surgery and therefore we don’t just have 1 bad meal but often 2 or 3 because of the leftovers. So recently I have been cutting back BIG TIME, no carb type noodles, so an example of a Thai order for me personally would be Spring Rolls (can’t give them up) and a chicken curry and eat half of each, usually this keeps me at an acceptable 500 calories for the meal and keeps me happy to have a night off cooking or out with the girls.

Friday Night Pizza – We have a great Pizza place nearby Woonona Pizza Kitchen and 1 of the ladies who works there is lovely, we have a good chat about what Movie we are going to watch that night, generally a kids movie as I go in there with Miss “Almost 3” in tow. Pizza has become a Friday night “Ritual”. The problem in our house is that Hubby and I do not like the same sort of pizza. We order 2 of their small size pizza which is actually called a large and Miss “Almost 3” has diverted away from Pizza and will just eat garlic bread, so we have the same problem as with other Take-away where we have the equivalent of a whole pizza left over and then have it for dinner the next night. This problem I have not yet resolved, however a friend suggested that this be a once a month treat and not every week. I do love Pizza, it would be up there on a list of favourite foods, I would say top 3.

Petrol Station Problem – Fuelling up the car has its challenges, god help me if I have to do it when I am hungry or late for a meal or in a bad headspace. Those marketing and product placement people certainly know their stuff (although it is not rocket science), leaving chocolate and “tiny” little morsels near the check-out. Reverting back to childhood my parents would often buy us an ice-cream at the Petrol station and this is a hard habit to break. As a grown up if I had eaten not long before a “Servo” stop then I felt that a dessert Ice-cream was warranted. If I hadn’t recently eaten then a giant bag of chips, coke AND Ice-cream would be the “norm”, I really begrudge paying $3 for a bottle of water and stupidly am happier to pay for a flavoured full sugar beverage. It takes all my strength when I need petrol to NOT buy a snack. I am trying to overcome the drink issue by constantly making sure I have a sports bottle of water in my car. I am no angel it doesn’t always work, but I am TRYING to make better choices.

I am sure I have many many other rituals and places where I make poor food choices that need to be addressed, I guess the positive I can get from this is that I realise I have a problem and I am trying to do something about it.