Consistently eating well is the key to losing weight. Period. But as anyone who has changed their dietary habits to lose weight can tell you, consistently eating well isn’t fun and it isn’t easy. But we can all agree eating well is even harder when we don’t have time, flexibility, or control.
Isn’t it harder to eat well when we can’t plan or cook our meals? Isn’t it harder to eat well when we can’t choose the restaurant we want and the dish we want to order? And isn’t it so much harder to eat well when we have to eat with people that aren’t trying to lose weight?
Wouldn’t it be great if we never had to face these situations? If we could eat alone whenever we wanted and always had total control over the food around us? If eating well was always easy?
If only. Unfortunately life is unpredictable and socializing around food is an unavoidable part of life, which means that we’re going to find ourselves in difficult eating situations and on a regular basis. Situations where we won’t have control over where we’ll eat, what foods we’ll have to choose from, and who we’re going to eat with.
For instance, we may find ourselves at a business dinner where there is an unspoken expectation to drink and indulge in desert. Or we may find ourselves at a birthday party, a family gathering, or some other social event where we’re surrounded by loads of junk food and there isn’t a vegetable or lean piece of meat for miles.
You know what the hard truth about losing weight is? It’s the choices we make in these difficult and frustrating situations that really determine if we’ll lose weight.
I understand how hard it is to go against social pressure to eat and drink and to avoid downing junk food when starving and that’s all that’s around, but to lose weight we just cannot let social pressure and the lack of food options force us into making poor decisions.
To lose weight we have to stay disciplined. At business dinners, we have to limit our alcohol intake and we have to say no to desert. At social gatherings we have to say no to chips and brownies, even if it means going home hungry. We don’t have to like it, but we have to do it.
We have to say no because our bodies don’t care why we’re eating. Our bodies just know that we are eating. And our bodies are going to store every potato chip, scoop of ice cream, bit of cake, glass of wine, and extra beer the same way, as fat. If we give in to social pressure, indulge on special occasions, or choose junk food over hunger, we just won’t lose the weight we want.
It sucks. I know. But the next time you find yourself in one of these awkward situations remember this; “it’s the choices we make in situations like this that really determine if we are going to lose weight or not.”
To Our Health
Zach
