Beth Geiger
I dream of cake
These past weeks have been hard. Since the start of the New Year, I have found myself daydreaming about food all-too-often. It’s definitely the worst at work. We have a small kitchen on the floor of my office. And during the holidays, whenever I’d go fill up my coffee or water, I would be greeted with one holiday treat after another. And I would tell everyone that I couldn’t wait for the treats to be gone so that I could get back into a healthy routine, and stop facing temptation.
But the treats are long since gone – and the temptation remains. In my mind, I still picture those treats on the counter. So when I turn into the kitchen and see only empty space before me, I get disappointed. It’s almost physical – like it’s my body that’s missing the treats and not my mind.
I’ve heard that it only takes 21 days to “retrain” the brain to new habits. I’m not sure how that applies to weight control and food cravings, but I do hope that it does. Obviously, switching someone’s life to a deeply healthy lifestyle is an evolution – a journey made of small, individual steps. But as Day 21 of the New Year approaches, I hope that the resolutions we’ve formed over the past three weeks are starting to become “habit”…so that it once again becomes easier to enter the kitchen without hopes of cookies, and contain the dreams of cake to the sleeping hours (if at all!).
The Better Choice
What started simply as calorie counting has turned into a lifestyle for Elisabeth. She shed 100 pounds of unwanted fat through eating small meals every few hours and burning as many calories as possible (six days at the gym a week). Currently, she’s helping her boyfriend – a self-proclaimed meat & potatoes man – to adapt some healthier eating habits from her “flexitarian lifestyle” (mostly vegetarian with the occasional free-range chicken breast).
Beth is a friend of a friend of mine but I loved her story and her dedication to living a healthy life.
Here is the first look into her life and how her transformation has changed her life.
On Sunday night, I did a little shopping at Tower City with my boyfriend on his way to the airport for his return flight to Harrisburg. (Ah, the joys of a long-distance relationship! He lives about 5 1⁄2 hours by car from Cleveland and – for a quick weekend visit – the $200 direct flight is a no-brainer). While we were there, we decided to grab a bite at Houlihan’s. I should mention that I don’t usually frequent many chain restaurants – but dating Andy, I’ve found myself in more of them – something that we’re both planning on changing in the New Year.
As Andy and I looked at the menu, I automatically started my regular scan for anything healthy and vegetarian. Nope, nada, nothing. There usually isn’t, but I always look anyway. So it’s my job to make the menu work for me – and with these types of menus, I always scope out the burger section first. Oftentimes you can substitute a veggie patty for the standard beef. And since chain places rarely make their own veggie burgers, their typical frozen patty-version makes calorie counting pretty easy. And by choosing the steamed veggie, holding the bun and adding a salad, you can cobble together a pretty good meal. But no such luck here – no veggie burgers. Which sent me into salad territory to scope out an option with the least amount of tortilla strips and bacon with a maximum of actual veggies. I’m not at all shy about asking the waiter to hold those types of items, but if I’m spending $11 on a salad, I’d like to have more than just lettuce in my salad!
As I was figuring out my order, my boyfriend was narrowing down his finalists: grilled chicken breast with mashed potatoes and asparagus vs. baby back ribs with fries. I probably should have suggested that the grilled chicken was the better choice, but I didn’t say anything. After all, this relationship is pretty new and I don’t want to start pushing my healthy choices onto him (aka, “trying to change him”). So I stayed quiet.
A few minutes later, as a half rack of ribs and towering pile of fries got placed in front of him, I had a revelation. All these healthy ordering habits that have become so second nature to me were slowly born over the past seven years by many, many individual decisions. “No, I would not like fries with that.” “Can I get those veggies steamed, please?” “Instead of the potato and garlic bread, can I have a side salad? And yes, it is okay if there is an up-charge.”
It’s not like I became this super-careful orderer overnight…it just kinda happened…as, one time after another after another, I found a healthier option. The trick is pretty simple — whenever someone asks you, simply pick “the better choice.” It doesn’t have to be a perfect choice – but pick the better one.
Next time Andy is wrestling between ribs/fries vs. grilled chicken/veggies, I will definitely encourage him to make the better choice…and keep reminding myself to do the same!
