New Year, New Atttidue

Okay, so I'm pretty exhausted, but I need to write about New Year's Eve.  I'm going to try to bullet-point my thoughts.

• GOOD: I did not eat anything off-plan until mid-afternoon on New Year's Eve, shortly before the guests arrived. Last year I'm pretty sure I let the entire day go because I figured it was a loss anyways.
• NOT SO GOOD:  I was not mindful of what I was eating and I went overboard with the appetizers. It's easy to just grab "one more chip" or "one more mini hot dog", "one more piece of chocolate", or "one more sweet meatball".  I knew dinner (and dessert) was coming, but I kept on eating.
• GOOD and NOT SO GOOD: My stomach was not happy with me. I had that overstuffed feeling, and I felt bloated and gassy most of the later part of the evening and into the next morning.  So "NOT SO GOOD" because nobody likes to feel that way, but "GOOD" because I had a tangible feeling of discomfort that I did NOT enjoy.  I certainly don't want this to become a habit.
• GOOD: I did not eat too much at dinner. Maybe because I was stuffed full of appetizers....
• GOOD: I did not have too much dessert. Even though that's the part I was looking the most forward to, my stomach was crying "oh dear god, no more food!" and I mostly listened to it. I took small tastes of each thing, and I enjoyed them. THIS is how I meant to handle the appetizers. Just a little taste is fine. I need to work on drilling that into my brain. Work in progress.
• GOOD: I think this is the most important part. The next morning, I had a choice. I could let myself go for another day. There was a TON of leftover food, including cookie cake, chocolate cookies, sugar cookies -- as well as fresh challah rolls from the Rockland Bakery with cream cheese and lox.  I really wanted to.  That's what I did the year before -- I let the next morning go, which turned into the whole day. But in all honesty -- I was still feeling full from the prior evening. As much as I LOVE challah, and lox, none of that food was going to make me feel good. I hemmed and hawed about it on the inside for a long while. Honestly -- I thought about what I'd have to write on this blog to justify my decision to knowingly "cheat" for one more day.  In the end? I decided it wasn't worth it. I needed to contain the damage and get back on track. I did it. I felt OK with it. Drank a lot of water and ate a medifast bar late in the morning. 
• GOOD: We gave away a LOT of the leftovers. Some to my friends to take home, some to my parents. We put the uneaten candy/chocolate in a bag and we will serve it when our friends come over again in early February for our annual Superbowl/Puppybowl party.  Even D (husband) agreed that getting rid of the temptation was a good thing for both of us.
• NOT SO GOOD: I had a splitting headache a lot of Friday and had trouble sleeping.
• GOOD: D let me sleep almost all morning on Saturday. I am tired, but I feel better. My hunger levels aren't quite as stable as they will be in fat-burn, but I'm getting there.

So, I see a lot more GOOD than NOT SO GOOD. That's pretty good, right?

I'm proud of myself. I was able to make a conscious choice (for one night) to let myself enjoy the food-part of the social world, while remaining accountable for my choice and immediately refocusing on health the next day. I don't know what the scale will show on Monday, but I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll see a neutral number. Maybe it won't go down, but hopefully it won't go up. And if it does, I will try to see the positive in the situation and look at it as a test. Will I let a number knock me off track? Or will I regroup my concentration and strength and kick some ass next week....