When I was in 3rd grade I had a friend named Keenan Jenkins. We "went out" for, like, a week. I don't actually remember what that means, besides holding hands and hanging out at recess, hahaha! In some proceeding summer of 4th or 5th grade, I went over to his house. His parents owned horses, and he and his brothers loved to ride bareback. Well, I had been riding horses since I was four (because my Grandpa Robbins owned a ranch with lots of horses), but it was always in a saddle. So at Keenan's house, riding bareback was going to be a new experience. Luckily, he didn't make me try to do it alone. He let me ride behind him. And it was fun, for about the first five minutes. Then I started to slip slowly off. I don't remember any dialogue, just images and sensations. I fell off the horse, and I took poor Keenan with me. He landed a little better than I did. I fell off, onto my side, in a patch of mean thistles. It hurt, besides getting the wind knocked right out of me. The funny thing is, I cannot, for the life of me, remember if I tried riding bareback again that day, or if I just watched my friend ride his horse without falling off of it.
Goals in life can be just like riding bareback on a horse. You've got the groove for a little while, and then unexpectedly, you fall off. And that's life. You're going to fall off, no matter what. But it's important to get up, and try again.
Doing Shred at my mom's house was almost too easy for me. All the foods I needed to eat were there already, and she has a treadmill in the basement. Well, I am no longer at my parents' home, and I fell off of the horse named Shred.
Now, this is not a post about my defeat, because I do not see myself defeated. Shred is not a punishing diet change in any way. If you fall back into a bad eating routine, don't feel discouraged, because you can go back to the things you've learned while doing Shred, like eating healthy food and consuming proper portion sizes.
I'll explain what's happened to me.
Friday was the big travel day. I had packed snacks, both for Alice and myself, so that I could eat on my time schedule successfully, and eat the healthy foods I wanted to eat. That part of my trip was successful. Then after Ben picked us up from the LA airport, we went to Wendy's, where I ordered a small green garden side salad and a small baked potato. So eating out was also a big success. The problems didn't start until we actually got home.
See, Ben ate at his parents' house a lot during the three weeks I was gone, so there wasn't really anything food-wise (besides rice and beans in our food storage) for me to make or eat. So we had to go out shopping. Which we totally did, but after only buying half of what I needed for ONE WEEK of Shred eating, it was really expensive, and Ben suddenly wasn't as convinced as he was before. But at least I had the foods I needed to make a healthy dinner.
Then Saturday came, and we needed to finish shopping. I planned out my week, wrote down all the foods I would need, and we did round two of our groceries. I knew I had to stream-line my menus so that we were buying the most common kinds of foods to eat. And I knew that I needed to plan for three people, so I did. Ben was happier knowing that he was included in the food bought both days, something he had misunderstood the night before.
Saturday night, my Shred menu said that I was allowed two pieces of cheese pizza (4-inch wide crust, 6-inch long slice). And this, my friends was where it all came undone. Saturday night, we also wanted to go to the drive-in down in Santa Maria to watch the double feature of Noah (with Russell Crowe and Emma Watson) and Non-Stop (with Liam Neeson). So on our way down, Ben and his brothers Steven and Michael and I, stopped at Little Caesar's and picked up two Hot 'n Ready pizzas.
At the movie, I ate too much, because I was distracted. I made myself sick. Those slices of pizza were more like 6-inches wide, 8-inches long than anything, and they had pepperoni's all over them. And I ate three slices, not two. Oh dear. Did I mention that we had also brought nacho cheese and tortilla chips to make nachos? I didn't? Well...we did. And I had a serving that was two portions bigger than I should've eaten. Oh yes, I was very, very, very sick.
But that is not where the carnage stopped.
Sunday was Fast Sunday. For Mormons, that's the first Sunday of the month where we start a fast with a prayer so that we can have a purpose to our fast, and then we don't eat or drink anything for 24 hours or for two consecutive meals. So, as you might guess, I knew this was going to be difficult for me. Well, I chose to fast for two consecutive meals. And I did. After church, Ben, Alice and I always go over to his parents' house for Sunday dinner. And I knew this would be tricky.
Our nacho fixin's were still at his parents'. A whole unopened bag of chips, half of another, and most of a jar of cheese con jalapenos were there, just waiting on the kitchen counter. I watched myself take a small bowl, fill it with chips and cheese, and wondered who on earth was controlling my body. But that was my dinner. And I had a second bowl right after. Followed by a small bowl of rice to sop up the remaining cheese in the bowl. I was horrified. What's happening?! I was internally screaming at myself.
But the horror show had one last act. When we got home that evening, there was a frozen pizza in the freezer. Which we cooked and ate, over a funny show called Space Dandy that is just goofy. I wondered to myself what I was going to do, and tried to remind myself that tomorrow was a new day, and that I would just have to start over.
Well, today IS a new day. I woke up, made oatmeal for breakfast for Alice and myself (Ben was already at work at this point), put 1/2 cup of mixed berries on my oatmeal, drank an 8 oz glass of lemon water (the water here is absolutely disgusting, the chlorine makes me sick, literally), and decided to type up this blog post. I don't want anyone to think that Shred is easy, because it's not. You have to work at it, and I am not perfect at it. I had the biggest mess-up in three weeks for the past two days, but I didn't let that stop me. I am trying again.
Because that's all you can do. Try, try again. :)
Goals in life can be just like riding bareback on a horse. You've got the groove for a little while, and then unexpectedly, you fall off. And that's life. You're going to fall off, no matter what. But it's important to get up, and try again.
Doing Shred at my mom's house was almost too easy for me. All the foods I needed to eat were there already, and she has a treadmill in the basement. Well, I am no longer at my parents' home, and I fell off of the horse named Shred.
Now, this is not a post about my defeat, because I do not see myself defeated. Shred is not a punishing diet change in any way. If you fall back into a bad eating routine, don't feel discouraged, because you can go back to the things you've learned while doing Shred, like eating healthy food and consuming proper portion sizes.
I'll explain what's happened to me.
Friday was the big travel day. I had packed snacks, both for Alice and myself, so that I could eat on my time schedule successfully, and eat the healthy foods I wanted to eat. That part of my trip was successful. Then after Ben picked us up from the LA airport, we went to Wendy's, where I ordered a small green garden side salad and a small baked potato. So eating out was also a big success. The problems didn't start until we actually got home.
See, Ben ate at his parents' house a lot during the three weeks I was gone, so there wasn't really anything food-wise (besides rice and beans in our food storage) for me to make or eat. So we had to go out shopping. Which we totally did, but after only buying half of what I needed for ONE WEEK of Shred eating, it was really expensive, and Ben suddenly wasn't as convinced as he was before. But at least I had the foods I needed to make a healthy dinner.
Then Saturday came, and we needed to finish shopping. I planned out my week, wrote down all the foods I would need, and we did round two of our groceries. I knew I had to stream-line my menus so that we were buying the most common kinds of foods to eat. And I knew that I needed to plan for three people, so I did. Ben was happier knowing that he was included in the food bought both days, something he had misunderstood the night before.
Saturday night, my Shred menu said that I was allowed two pieces of cheese pizza (4-inch wide crust, 6-inch long slice). And this, my friends was where it all came undone. Saturday night, we also wanted to go to the drive-in down in Santa Maria to watch the double feature of Noah (with Russell Crowe and Emma Watson) and Non-Stop (with Liam Neeson). So on our way down, Ben and his brothers Steven and Michael and I, stopped at Little Caesar's and picked up two Hot 'n Ready pizzas.
At the movie, I ate too much, because I was distracted. I made myself sick. Those slices of pizza were more like 6-inches wide, 8-inches long than anything, and they had pepperoni's all over them. And I ate three slices, not two. Oh dear. Did I mention that we had also brought nacho cheese and tortilla chips to make nachos? I didn't? Well...we did. And I had a serving that was two portions bigger than I should've eaten. Oh yes, I was very, very, very sick.
But that is not where the carnage stopped.
Sunday was Fast Sunday. For Mormons, that's the first Sunday of the month where we start a fast with a prayer so that we can have a purpose to our fast, and then we don't eat or drink anything for 24 hours or for two consecutive meals. So, as you might guess, I knew this was going to be difficult for me. Well, I chose to fast for two consecutive meals. And I did. After church, Ben, Alice and I always go over to his parents' house for Sunday dinner. And I knew this would be tricky.
Our nacho fixin's were still at his parents'. A whole unopened bag of chips, half of another, and most of a jar of cheese con jalapenos were there, just waiting on the kitchen counter. I watched myself take a small bowl, fill it with chips and cheese, and wondered who on earth was controlling my body. But that was my dinner. And I had a second bowl right after. Followed by a small bowl of rice to sop up the remaining cheese in the bowl. I was horrified. What's happening?! I was internally screaming at myself.
But the horror show had one last act. When we got home that evening, there was a frozen pizza in the freezer. Which we cooked and ate, over a funny show called Space Dandy that is just goofy. I wondered to myself what I was going to do, and tried to remind myself that tomorrow was a new day, and that I would just have to start over.
Well, today IS a new day. I woke up, made oatmeal for breakfast for Alice and myself (Ben was already at work at this point), put 1/2 cup of mixed berries on my oatmeal, drank an 8 oz glass of lemon water (the water here is absolutely disgusting, the chlorine makes me sick, literally), and decided to type up this blog post. I don't want anyone to think that Shred is easy, because it's not. You have to work at it, and I am not perfect at it. I had the biggest mess-up in three weeks for the past two days, but I didn't let that stop me. I am trying again.
Because that's all you can do. Try, try again. :)
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