No Surprise: Up Again

Well, January has proved to be a troublesome month for me as far as sticking to my eating template (though exercise/activity has been spot on... you cannot out-exercise bad diet choices!).

Up to 127 this morning because of my weekend out!

Nothing to do but say, of course my weight is up - staying up all night, drinking wine, nibbling on chocolate, definitely not getting my veggies in.

January has been a month of off plan, off routine days/weeks AND a month of higher weights:

Let's see what I've done this month:

- New Year's Eve in Manhattan and recovery from that party and tons of off plan food

- a weekend in a cabin/skiing, communal meals and drinking

- pretty much a week long off-plan family meals surrounding my grandmother's death and services - lots of sugar and grains

- another weekend in the city (Brooklyn this time) with meals out and social eating/drinking

So.. I had maybe two weeks (weekdays only!) of eating on my Paleo template. Definite reason why my weight has been up all month. I have not been OVEReating, though I did do some emotional eating when my grandmother passed, I haven't been out of control.

But that just goes to show you why I weighed 135 when I was eating the Standard American Diet (despite counting calories) and easily maintain around 122/123 when I eat on the Paleo template. It is food type and quality that affects my weight (and I believe a lot of that weight is inflammation and bloating, rather than pure fat, because the weight falls off within a week or so when I am back on track).

I'm not going to beat myself up or belabor the point. I know what my weight is and what my health is like when I eat on plan. And I know what it does when I veer off. The facts are clear!

This month was hard, but that's no excuse. I made some poor choices and I made them knowing the consequences. I ate for fun, I ate to quell anxiety, I ate for pleasure, I ate out of sorrow. I never binged (don't want to go back to that part of life) but I made poor choices based on emotion rather than based on what will strengthen my body.

I'm not going to get on a pedestal and say I will never make poor choices again - I am an imperfect human, I use worldly pleasures to soothe stress/depression/anxiety at times, I don't always look at the big picture, I err. But what I will say is that I recognize where I am failing and faltering, and February will be a different month than January (perhaps not perfect, but miles better!).

So here is a toast (with coffee!) to recognizing our mistakes and ACTIVELY working to improve upon them.

Namaste, friends <3