....For God's sake, don't keep trying to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results! That is the definition of insanity, afterall (according to Einstein anyway).
I made it exactly one week into my behavior change plan before running into and succumbing to temptation. On day 7 I fell off the deep end -- sans rubber floaties -- straight into a pile of cookies and tea. Somewhere between the misery and mirth I felt as I indulged I tried to ascertain why I was able to be so steadfast during the tumultuous week of school and failed only once I was safely into the weekend and in the privacy of my apartment. The answer wasn't hard to come by:
The rush and regimen of school makes it pretty easy to stick to a schedule and not have too much time to sit around and day-dream of desserts. The hard part is when I go out to play - the late nights followed by late mornings disrupted my morning routine of breakfast and so when it finally came time to eat, boy did I...Saturday night was a late one and Sunday was wholly (but definitely not organically) disastrous. My "Slip-Up Sunday" was then followed by a "Slip-Up Tuesday" after I stayed up wayyy too late Monday night too. So I've decided that instead of pretending like I can be disciplined enough to stay strong in the face of friends and going out, I'm going to make an amendment to my plan. I'm allotting one "Slip-Up" Day a week. Now I can choose which day of the week I want to use for minor transgressions and if it's a good week and I don't need to use my day then good for me but it's not going to roll-over to the next week. AT&T, you may never hire me but it's OK because I'm a Verizon girl anyway! I think that's a pretty reasonable rule. Considering this weekend I'm going with my girls to GA to check out a potential venue for a friend's wedding, I need a day (well in this case, 3 preferably but i'll do my best to behave) where the alcohol and home foods don't count :) everything in moderation, right?? I felt better about this decision after reading Tim Ferriss' "Four-Hour Work Week" (which I highly recommend to anyone desiring to start their own business). In one chapter of his book he briefly relates an anecdote about how while losing 20lbs of fat in 30 days he would take one day a week off and literally eat everything he'd deprive himself of during the week to the point where he'd be borderline ill (read: 14 cupcakes in one sitting. i kid you not! Hello Utopia...) Now I won't be binging to that extreme (I'm thinking more along the lines of one of those paltry yet somehow $9 wraps they have at school if I'm in a rush and didn't have time to bring my veggies from home). I'm hoping if I have 1 day of normalcy should I need it then it will push the relapses much farther and fewer in between.
Also, a brilliant suggestion came in from a blog reader: JUICING! As soon as exams are over this week and I return from a weekend of (mild) debauchary I'm heading straight to wal-mart and buying myself a Juicer and a juicing book, I think this new plan has a lot of potential for curbing the cravings...
Well, the guilt of not studying renal pathology has finally overcome me. Time to call it a night but I'm curious to see where the week will go from here. Though after today's dining debacle, there's only one way to go and that's up baby, up!
