Green

Another meal made with ingredients from my garden, this one inspired by the colour green.



I harvested my first green beans on the weekend. It wasn't a large amount, but somehow just steaming this handful of Kentucky Blue Beans didn't seem to be a fitting tribute for these fruits of my labour.



I decided, that along with some cilantro from my garden, the green beans would go into a Thai Green Curry.



The dish was rounded out with shrimp, red bell pepper and a jalapeno I had in the fridge (mainly because it was green and I was really enjoying my theme).



And speaking of green, I served it up in these green pottery bowls, over Jasmine rice.



Lovely bowls aren't they? An anniversary gift from Husband's parents. If you ever find yourself in Middleton, Nova Scotia, you should stop by Apple Pie Pottery (I looked for a link, but apparently they don't have a website).

Beck Diet
Day 19 - Stop fooling yourself.
This was an excellent section for me. I always do well for the first week or two or three of trying to lose weight. But eventually it starts to feel extremely unfair, restricting myself all the time. Then, I will be confronted with something that I want to eat, that I know I should not eat, but I manage to make an excuse...I'll just allow myself this one treat...This won't make that much of a difference...I'll make up for it tomorrow...It doesn't matter anyway...

But of course it does matter. Which is not to say that treats are never, ever allowed. But if I want to lose the excess weight, I'm going to have to say no more often than yes. Those extra calories matter. They make a difference - maybe they wouldn't if I was maintaining...but I'm not there yet, I need to lose first.

So the exercise of the day is to make myself another little index card to remind me of all these things. To remind me that it's not okay to give in, just this one time.

Also, going back to Day 17's exercise which was deliberately serving myself too much food so that I could learn to stop eating when I am full. MizFit asked in the comments whether this was a stressful exercise.

The section in the book includes a transcript from a patient session discussing this exercise. The patient found it to be extremely stressful, which surprised me. If you know there is extra food that you are not going to eat, why should it be stressful? On Friday night at the restaurant, I ordered my meal knowing that it would be too much, that I would only eat half of it and I was not bothered at all.

Last night, we had our curry & rice. I had one serving, Husband had two. After eating, I went to pack up the leftovers. I thought there wasn't that much there at first, so I started putting it in a container for my lunch the next day. As I was filling the container, I realized there was way more there than I would normally eat for lunch. And at this point I did get stressed out. It was as if, by planning to take the leftovers for lunch, I was obligated to eat all of it, even though I knew I couldn't.

Since I did have it packed in one container, I took it to work for lunch anyway. When lunch time rolled around, I ate all of the shrimp & vegetables and part of the rice. Then I realized I was full and didn't want any more. So I stopped eating. Which is not an unusual thing for me, so obviously there was no need to get stressed about it. But I find it interesting that my reaction was so different in the two different cases. I guess I get stressed when the reality I am presented with is not in line with my expectation. I need to realize that I can adapt to unexpected situations, that I can handle it, and there is no need for stress.