Today I went for lunch with my parents and my little boy. Anyone who is trying to lose weight knows that eating out can be tricky. Luckily with Slimming World it’s not as hard as you might think ... or is it?!
I thought about lunch all morning, I was going to have a chicken Caesar salad, no croutons and dressing on the side! The thought of it made me so excited as the place we went stuff their salads full of the yummy stuff like chicken and bacon but there’s still plenty of salad in there too! I couldn’t wait!
It was 12:30 and they had run out of grilled chicken breast. 😡 I could have cried. The on the spot ordering began and the disappointment made my ‘screw that im having chicken goujons and chips with loads of garlic mayo’ attitude rear its ugly head ... I RESISTED!!
I scanned the menu with the countdown theme tune in my head and everyone watched - Jacket potato with chicken, peppers onions and seeet chilli sauce. I knew I’d have to syn the sauce but it sounded nice and was going to be a much better option than the deep fried fiasco my ‘I’m just always going to be a fat girl’ voice in my head was telling me to do! I ordered steamed veg with it (talk about strange looks from the waitress) and I devoured the lot!
I asked afterwards about the sauce so I could better judge my syns and was surprised when I worked it out that it was so low! What could have been a really shaky start to week 4 on plan turned out ok AND I have a new go to food for if my first choice doesn’t pan out!
Making good choices and being prepared is definitely the way to win when you’re trying to lose weight but there will be bumps along the way. That voice in my head will never go away, I will always want the chicken goujons and chips with garlic mayo, but I need to weigh up which I want more. To be happy with my weight loss or to sabotage it for the sake of one meal?
You can’t always deprive yourself. A slimming world group leader has said before, ‘If you want a Mars bar, have your free or speed snack to see if that want goes away. Have two. But if you’re turning to toast and butter you may as well have the Mars bar because then the craving will be gone. If you eat your free or speed snacks and then your toast and butter, but you still want your Mars bar then you’ll probably just end up having it too! You’ll still have all the syns of the Mars bar, but the syns of the toast and butter too.’
One day, I’ll go in with no plan as to what I am going to eat and really want my chicken goujons and chips with garlic mayo, and it’ll be ok that I actually have it. That has to be a choice I make then and there. Today if i would have had it, I would have tossed the rest of the week out of the window as a mess just because of one lunch! It would have been a snap decisions and that is not what making changes is about.
This whole journey for me is about taking back control. I did that today and I’m proud!
