New post on my blog, Blood Drops & Braille Dots:
How do you decide what to eat and not eat?
My "plan" is sort of based on avoiding chores? Eating can be a chore and a lot of times, if I run into a blueberry scone, I can think "hmmm, interesting, blueberries are a superfood, it looks yummy, do I want to spend 2-4 hours dealing with it?" and the answer is usually "no". I would self-deprecatingly claim that "oh, I'm just lazy..." but to me, it's not worth it. If I eat a lot of vegetables, I feel like I recover more quickly from runs and, perhaps coincidentally, my BG is relatively flat which, in turn, makes it easier to go for a run, or sit on my butt, without BG flying all over the place. It's also nice to have people visiting my desk remark "you are so healthy!" all day while I munch on carrots, broccoli, cheese and nuts instead of donuts, cake and the usual "office diet".
We stopped at Starbuck's yesterday to get some coffee on our way to Milwaukee and I noticed they have Kind bars. I'd offer to "trade" her scone for a Kind bar. Perhaps they're supposed to unload the baked goods but the cranberry Kind bars are a more reasonable 18ish G of carbs (I think, the one's @ Starbucks might be a different "model" than the boxed ones @ Whole Foods? They looked skinny).
That being said, I will still indulge in big, greasy food pretty regularly. This has been a slight problem these days as Mrs & Junior have been bringing dinner home after the late Friday PM dance class, leading to lows (from the big bolus) followed by highs (grease, meat?) that take all night to clean up. Running season and no dinner Fridays can't come too soon for my BG!
Great post Jen. I know that internal struggle that you speak of well. And I've also decided that it's just easier not to have that debate with myself so I live by the same rules you've put forth so clearly. It makes life much simpler.
I also can relate to what you describe Shawnmarie. My husband has been following the same food rules that I live by for the last year and he's lost about 40 pounds. But there's always that mandatory meal out for work or with family that makes me obsess.
More often than not I've learned the hard way that keeping it simple food wise makes the rest of my life much simpler. Better flatter bg, more energy, less stress in general.