Last week was a fairly stressful week for me and not for the usual reasons. Well, the usual reasons were there as they always will be, but in addition to that I got a call from my bank. It seems that someone used my debit card number to have themselves a little shopping spree and log on to some dating websites (Ironically, some of them were Christian dating websites). Clearly the first thing to do was to cancel my card and I had to wait all week to get a new one. I had been staying at work a bit later than usual so by the time I got out the banks were closed leaving me without any easy way to get cash. A few years ago, I would have unconsciously just buy the cheapest food night in and night out, which usually turns out to be the worst kind. But I made a conscious decision to head on over to the grocery store and buy healthier food in bulk, enough to last me the week.
The only disadvantage would be that I had to prepare and wash and cook all my meals, eating away more time out of my day. However, I had forgotten how much I loved to cook. If I ever take the time to actually write down what I’m throwing together, maybe I’ll do a couple of posts where I discuss my recipes. That way those of you who know can tell me how much healthier I’m actually eating if I just make all of my meals. Of course, I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t had prepared my own meals, I would be scarfing down take out burgers and nuking some frozen pizza. I’m sure we can all agree that that’s not the healthy choice.
While I don’t consider myself a religious person there are plenty of people around me who are pretty devout Catholics. After all, I used to be one of them. Seeing the black smudge on a lot of people’s foreheads could only mean one thing: Ash Wednesday was upon us and subsequently that meant that fish and vegetarian meals would be easy to come by and afford. Meat isn’t unhealthy per se but when one lives in a country where it is all too abundant… Well there is such thing as too much of a good thing and when you’re a chubby blogger like me, a vegetarian or vegan diet isn’t the worst thing in the world. And I managed to eat mostly vegan and vegetarian meals for the better part of a week resulting in losing just under 2 pounds in said week. Go me!
Without going into the details here my week was much more eventful than having to deal with a stolen debit card and not in a good way. Needless to say it was a very stressful week but forcing myself to make my own meals wasn’t just the healthy decision but it also rekindled my love of cooking. That’s right, ladies, I cook. It’s a little more effort than to just go and buy the pre-packaged food in a store or fast food joint or something, but to me it’s worth it. It clears my head and depending on what I’m making my mind is constantly trying to figure out what to do next, how much of something I need, what I need to chop or prep or wash, and on top of that there’s the time factor since no one like burned food.
I’ve commented before on how stress can lead me down a path of self-destruction as far as my own personal weight loss goals are concerned. The way I’ve dealt with it before is to engage myself in an activity that requires all of my focus. It doesn’t have to be a particularly daunting task for it to be enough to take my mind off of things. My brain just has to be preoccupied. Sometimes I’ll do something creative or play a video game but conversely I can get the same result if I find myself doing a repetitive mundane task at work. But the cooking thing not only works perfectly but I can also control my personal intake and monitor exactly what I’m consuming. I’d be lying if I said I never considered looking into making a career out of cooking, but I’m pretty confident I was built to sit in front of a computer in some capacity for a living. It is, however, a great hobby and my inner nerd blames Alton Brown for expanding my horizons. Thus far it’s been a long road to being healthy but it’s the little things like making a meal for myself that lets me know that I’m taking a step in the right direction.
