When I'm at my best dieting and exercising, I have a routine. It's when I'm thrown a curveball -- however slight -- is when things go awry.
I have not had the greatest two weeks. I have stuck with my running. I skipped Friday but absolutely made myself run Saturday, so I've been three times a week several weeks in a row now. So that's the good part.
But the bad part is my diet is gone out of the window. It's because I'm not in my routine.
My routine is to cook a big meal on my second day off of the week in eat it the rest of the week for dinner at work. I haven't done that in five or so weeks. Why? I have no good reason. But it's thrown me off my routine. My brain has an automatic "out." "Oh, well, I don't have any dinner, and since I don't have any dinner, there's no reason to make breakfast and lunch. I'll just grab something on the way to work to cover all three meals."
And while QuikTrip is convenience store heaven on earth, it's not a good plan.
Everyone is so pressed for time that we seek convenience. But we all have time; we just don't like appropriating that valuable commodity to things that aren't as fun.
I like cooking; I enjoy it. But there are so many things I feel the need to do on my days off, I use excuses to not cook. Even though cooking takes very little effort for me, I still put it off.
I can't continue to do that. I must get back in my routine. I think mapping out my meals a week in advance so I can look forward to them will work. I already am craving chicken tacos, so I will make that this week.
And hopefully by the week after that it will be cold enough to make chili.
If I have dinner prepared, all my other meals fall into place. I don't have my excuse, and the anchor of my routine is in place. It's when it's not when things go downhill.
