The Pizza Pig-Out Challenge

Here I am at the beginning of six weeks! Not too shabby, eh? I'm pretty surprised, actually, to have gotten this far, which is a good attitude to have considering the challenges ahead of changing some pretty entrenched habits.

One habit I've had for quite a while is the habit of pigging out.  I'm starting to notice how often advertisers try to persuade me to indulge in some eating extravaganza, usually involving high fat, high sugar or high salt foods in massive quantities.  They try to make such indulgence look normal, an everyday occurrence in American households. They know people are addicted to fat, so they can count on getting people to go to a restaurant where they can get a 10-ounce steak smothered in fried onions and mushrooms, with "loaded" potatoes and chocolate cheesecake for dessert.  Or how about the burger places that tout their biggest, juiciest, double bacon and three-cheese half pound burger for only $4.65 (limited time only)? The number of all-you-can-eat restaurants has certainly risen alarmingly over the last twenty years.  And food and chef shows on TV have become very popular--the word foodie has entered our vocabulary with a positive connotation (unlike its counterpart in drink, alchie).

What's really amazing is that all this is happening at the same time that the government is trying to get everyone to stop eating so much bad food by regulating the food service and grocery industries. I guess that's America--land of contradictions.

So, all that is a way of explaining how tough it can sometimes be not to indulge the way I used to (way back in February).  I have to keep telling myself that I can't eat like that anymore.  What's a little harder to tell myself is that I don't want to eat like that anymore.

I had a chance to practice my new more sensible habits this past week.  We had a pizza party at work this past Friday to celebrate someone's retirement.  I helped put the party together and made sure there was plenty of pizza for everyone who wanted it.  I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to eat any pizza, though, since that has always been a pig-out food for me.  But once everyone had gone through the line, I decided I could risk one piece.  And I had some salad, too, with fat-free dressing.  The pizza slice was very large, I have to say, and it was delicious.  But I tried to practice my "thin gourmet" technique and eat slowly, chewing thoroughly, stopping between bites and enjoying the flavors.  I must admit it worked pretty well, since by the time I was finished eating that one piece, I was full and didn't want to eat any more.  In the past, I would've breezed right through the first and second pieces and then, if there were any left, talked myself into having a third piece with the excuse of not wanting any pizza to "go to waste."

Of course, figuring out how that pizza slice fit into my food plan was another challenge. I looked up the nutritional information on the restaurant's web site, and it gave me a ballpark figure, so I worked it out somehow.  I counted it as a special meal at which I ate a reasonable amount of pizza. What's different is that I didn't just write it off as an anomaly and try to ignore it.  I've done that in the past.  When I'd fall off the wagon, I'd say "Oh, well, now's my chance to eat what I want for a while." Shirley warns us about that.  It's why she insists on an hourly accounting of food consumed: each hour you can start over. 

So, I guess this week I can claim I faced the "pizza pig-out" challenge and won--at least in this first contest. I'm sure there are many more such contests to come.