Decisions I make that frustrate me

After my last post, I was planning on having an evening snack. Popcorn. It's a good snack, provided you do it right. But picture the scene... 9:30 pm, watching TV with my hubby. He gets himself a bowl of cereal, and I'm starving. Suddenly, whatever craving I had for popcorn goes out the window, and I need to have those Honey Bunches of Oats (I swear, he sabotages my plans every night—I have no willpower). So I give in, and I have the bowl of cereal instead of making the popcorn. My problem with cereal is that I can't seem to stop at one normal-sized bowl when I eat it for a snack. I have a bowl, then I add a little more cereal to use up the milk, then I add a little more milk to use up the cereal, and so on, until there's nothing left. So I'm sure that I consumed way more calories in my "bowl" of cereal than I would have in my bowl of popcorn. 

Why do I make these dumb decisions? In part, I think I was very hungry and wanted something to eat right then, instead of waiting the three to five minutes it would have taken me to get out the air popper and make the popcorn. How sad is that? I was willing to consume twice as many calories because of a three to five minute wait? This is why I can't lose 10 pounds. I make stupid decisions.

I'm not sure that yesterday was much better. I did pretty well most of the day. Oatmeal for breakfast, apple for a mid-morning snack, soup at lunch with a grapefruit and some pretzel sticks, yogurt for an afternoon snack, two 1" squares of Dove dark chocolate for a treat. Dinner was ok. Meatloaf and a small baked potato. Then I had a popsicle for dessert (all natural and only 60 calories). Even to that point, it wasn't bad. But after we came home from an event that evening, I was hungry. Nine-thirty rolled around and I decided to finally make popcorn. It was great. But when I was done, I was suddenly now craving something sweet to counter the salty popcorn. I found three Sarris' malted milk balls that were left over from my daughter's Easter basket. I ate them. They were good. And the night would have been fine had I stopped there. But no, I had to be a glutton and consume more chocolate. So I went digging for a chocolate bunny, and found one filled with peanut butter (my favorite combo!). So I ate half of it.

Sure, you may think this isn't a big deal. And in the grand scheme of things for how I ate yesterday, it's not. However, all of these small bad decisions that I make day in and day out continue to add pounds, not take them away, or even let me maintain my weight. These small bad decisions add pounds. Every week. And that's why they are the decisions I make that frustrate me.

To counter all of this negativity, I vowed to try to focus on the positive. So on the brighter side, I only ate half of the peanut butter bunny. I could have had the whole thing, but I chose not to. I closed up the wrapper, and set it aside. I also made the decision to make the popcorn. Again, Jack had his bowl of cereal. I was tired, sitting there on the couch, watching him prep his snack at the TV tray next to where I was sitting. But instead of giving in again, I talked myself into walking to the basement to get the popcorn maker and make myself a bowl of popcorn. So yay for me!

And today's rendition of "what I like about my body": my hands. They're petite and cute. And they look pretty when my fingernails are painted (and how about those monkey jammies?).