Weddings. Like any American celebration, one of the key elements is food and drink. Lots of it. Being at the end of week 1 of PCP and still on the half diet, I was full of trepidation. I have never been so mindful of every bite in my life. Presented with an entire afternoon of non stop food, wave after wave coming from the kitchen, the hardest part is just maintaining a concept of how much you have eaten, thus far. Being a special occasion and all, I allowed myself some flexibility, but tried to keep focus and not just eat everything I could.
While there is no way I ate as little as I had been eating thus far, I think I did an impressive job of not giving in to the constant flow of food. I only made one trip to the buffet line, and made a conscious effort to take small amounts of each thing. However much I put on my plate that looked reasonable, I would take one scoop/slice/piece/whatever less. I also tried to space out my consumption. I had one or two appetizers when I arrived at the reception, then stopped. Maybe two hours later we had the meal proper and I had only one plate. I then let the cake sit on my table for a good long while before I finally dove in, and even then, I didn't finish the slice.
It was all delicious of course. I did not let my reduction of quantity impair my taste buds at all. If anything it was more delicious since I knew with each morsel I was not going to get a refill. So I enjoyed it while I could. Also, while the diet may not have been a 100% success, I did take my jumprope and pushup bars and was able to get my workout in every morning even though I was far from home. I felt really good about this and got some rather startled looks from some of my earlier to rise friends. They've never known me to be an athletic person.
In the end it was wonderful, challenging, and satisfying. Being able to move about at the after party without being overwhelmingly full like everyone else gave me a little twinge of pride. Though I was absolutely amazed when people at the hotel started ordering pizzas and hamburgers in the still fairly early evening. These were they same people I had seen going up to the buffet 2 or 3 times and piling in the appetizers in the beginning. My stomach definitely wanted more food, but it was also certainly not hungry in the way it is if I skip lunch or push dinner back an hour. Much like when I stayed voluntarily sober for 9 months and really started to see how much my peers drank, with my burgeoning PCP eyes I feel like I am really seeing how americans eat, and it's kind of frightening.
Man I hear you. I am hosting BarCampSeattle this week and there will be beer, cupcakes, and pizza. Oye! Packing a lunch is my only way survive.
ReplyDeleteAs I thought about the wedding experience more, I hit upon a great motivator: jealousy. Specifically the jealousy of other people. It sounds awful, I know. That word has such awful connotations. But here's what I noticed.
ReplyDeleteInitially, people (many of whom were good friends from college) would see me not eating much and respond with dubious sarcasm. I'm already a skinny bastard, so they made the usual comments about how I should fatten up. But afterward, and after a couple meals of seeing me really stick to it, and some conversations about what PCP was, their attitude changed. They stopped poking fun. Mostly, they started to ask questions with respect, and here's the kicker, just a twinge of jealousy.
It was very subtle but one of my friends opened up and said that she was honestly jealous of my focus, dedication to the project, and most of all, will power. I encouraged her and said I didn't think it took that much, and that anyone can do it. But man did it feel good to hear they people were impressed. It was this feeling that I was able to harness to get through the feast as well as I did (which could have been way better). But man it could have been way worse to. I could have fallen off the wagon, but then everyone would have seen it, and they all knew I was doing this program.
Always helps to have the ego stroked a bit when on a fitness diet. I'm going at it alone and it's been a bit of a bumpy ride for my family. The real pay off I suppose will be when I got back to Canada for a visit and my gut is gone.
ReplyDeleteOne note about willpower. It really helps if you truly want to change. After thirty four years of neglecting my body, I was finally ready to do something about it.
Good on ya, Seabass
Sean
And, yeah, you do look good in a kilt--heh.
ReplyDelete