Sunday Solution?

As I've mentioned here before, Sundays, well weekends in general, but Sundays are particularly difficult for me food-wise. It's because the meal times are off my usual schedule and my body wants to eat at times I know I shouldn't.

My husband and I go to an early morning church service on Sundays. Because I don't want to sit there with my stomach growling, I have coffee and a nutrition bar while getting ready to go. Once the service is over, it's mid-morning and a weekly ritual for us is to go out to breakfast. We go to a special little diner that we enjoy as much for the people who run the place, as the fare they offer. I do usually eat sensibly: 1 egg scrambled, 2 slices of bacon, an English muffin, and coffee. And yes, of course, I would rather fall face down in a short stack of buttermilk pancakes smothered in Maple syrup! Who wouldn't?? But I know it's best to save that kind of meal for a very special occassion. [I think part of our problem these days is that in our self-indulgent I-want-it-now society, we've saved nothing for special occassions. But that's a topic for another day.]

Even though I eat that fairly sensible breakfast, it still means that by noon, I've had as many calories as I've usually had by 4 o'clock in the afternoon on any other day of the week. I was already thinking I would need to do something to keep myself out of the pantry mid-afternoon looking for a snack, when my husband suggested we go to a movie. Great idea. And since I'm never really tempted to eat theater food, (I find it overdone in size and price), I knew I'd be OK. The feature we wanted to see started at 1:30p. By the time we got home it was after 4p and I had a cup of tea to tide me over until I started working on dinner. We eat no later than 6p most evenings because we don't want to eat too late. All in all, the day went well and I got through it under my daily caloric total.

Now I'm not advocating you go to a movie every time you want to keep out of the pantry or refrigerator, but the idea of spending your time elsewhere to take your mind off food is a good one. The thing is, I wasn't starving when we got home from the movie. My body had forgot about eating because my mind was otherwise engaged. Often eating isn't about hunger, it's about boredom or mindless eating out of habit. Break the habit, break the boredom and you'll have a better chance of winning the battle and in the end, winning the war.