When, Not If

One post a week a dull blog doth make! I'll remedy it.. really I will. About as soon as I fix my bad eating habits too. Psshaa! Ya right!

This weekend was fun and relaxing. A nice drive down to New Ulm and visit with the in-laws. Megan was happy to have us disappear and spend the rest of weekend with Grandma and Papa B. Andrea and I just messed around downtown New Ulm, the hotel, and then dinner. Somewhere in between we watched some TV, the last half of "Balls of Fury", parts of Aliens vs. Predator, and did some reading. (I worked on D&D)

Dinner was at our usual spot: The Lamplighter. I would highly recommend this place to anyone who finds themselves visiting New Ulm. Is it the best quality food in the world? Probably not. But damn do they have the best waffle fries & fry sauce. All I ate last night were fries, fries, and more fries. I threw in some chicken fingers to round it off, but honestly, I could have just been satisfied with the fries.

I want to eat better, but I can't. For probably the last 6-8 months I've been wanting to "eat less junk, and only eat the things my body needs." Basically, stop eating things for pleasure. For the first 2 years of my changing habits, somehow, I found the will power to do exactly that. But somewhere along the way I lost that. I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out why, and it finally dawned on me: reason & consequence.

When I first started changing, there was a reason for eating different. That reason was to lose weight. So every time I was offered a cookie or had an opportunity to eat free candy, it was easy for my brain to go "eat that, and you'll undo all of today." Bam, done, easy decision. The decision was reinforced by the reason, due to the consequences of the action.

But now, with the fact that I don't need to lose weight, and with how much I run each night, eating badly doesn't really have much impact. Sure, if I eat REALLY badly a few days in a row I might see a few extra pounds on the scale, but then I just run it off and a few days later come back down. I bounce between 183-188 on the scale, and during extremes, 180-190. I.e. after a high mileage week, or after a high calorie weekend.

The reason to eat right is gone, replaced with simply the fact that, "It's better to eat healthy." And the consequences are gone, replaced with the fact that I run off most excess calories. So I guess the search for motivation to change eating habits will continue...