Snack Habit Changes

POST MORTEM

I am an idiot. There, I said it. I learned a lot from this, and previous similar projects due to finally keeping meticulous notes on what I am actually eating. I’ll try to keep the lessons and problems short and to the point.

Problems going into it:

1. I am a stress eater.
2. When I get bored, I eat.
3. I have “phases” - Morning = Sweet, Afternoon = Salty, Evening = Sweet.
4. If I don’t drink soda for a while, I don’t miss it. If I have it once, I immediately get hooked (again).
5. I overcompensate. So when I don’t allow myself snacks during the week, I just splurge and devour all kinds of stuff when I can. More than I would if I didn’t restrict myself.
6. I just really love carbs.

What I learned from this project:

1. A good sleep schedule means I don’t feel the desire for snacks anywhere near as much.
2. TAKE YOUR DAMN MEDS. In my case, when I am on my ADHD medication I just do not feel the need to snack at all, and when I do its stuff like fruit, regardless of my “phases”.
3. You can really ruin your body with sit-ups.
4. No, seriously, you can really ruin your body with sit-ups.
5. Tea is a good soda substitute.
6. DO NOT COMBINE COFFEE AND ADHD MEDICATION. (I knew this beforehand, but I forgot. Once.)
7. Rather than cutting out snacking, figure out healthy snacks. Make sure to have high quality apples around the house.
8. I am stubborn as a mule. When I get told I can’t, I want to. And no amount of reason will get an idea out of my head.
9. Find a better super market I am comfortable going to.
10. God I just fucking love Salt & Vinegar chips. So much.
11. Be aware of my phases for what I want and when they happen.

The biggest points are honestly just getting better quality snacks when I do get them, because I feel less like eating all of it immediately. Other than that, I found that green apples are something that I can really substitute almost any time.

Honestly… I had no issues in the past week. I think a big part of this is me managing to mostly fix my sleep schedule. I noticed that when I don’t sleep well, I make worse decisions when it comes to what I eat and drink.

It’s gone surprisingly well this week. I think I can actually pull off the Week 4 goal.

Well, it mostly worked. I’ve barely snacked beyond a cookie or so per day in the past few days! Softdrinks has been an issue, but even that has not been more than 1L per day, and none in the past two days!

My abs and back are in AGONY. I have done my “exercise” for a few days now. I’ve gone way overboard doing on average 127.8 sit ups in a day for three days to compensate for snacking. It sure worked as a deterrent because I was in so much pain today that I didn’t snack.

Somehow however, I feel like intense pain is not the best way forward.

PROJECT READJUSTING TIME!

So, I always do these kinds of things after Week 1 after learning from the previous DK30’s. I reexamine how much energy I have, take a look at the goals I set myself before starting and sometimes (foreshadowing) completely change a project.

Things I learned this past week and things that I was reaffirmed in:

1. I am a stress eater. Yes, it’s not healthy, but I have not found an alternative yet. I was noticing that I was getting progressively more stressed during the week, leading to completely drained batteries and … yeah, I broke my goals. Ended up doing 4 a week, which was fine honestly. It’s better than 7/7.
2. I need to think about what I am snacking on rather than whether I snack at all.
3. This was a poorly conceived DK30 when I look at point 1, and I will thusly be changing it.

The changes: Yeah. We are allowing ourselves to eat, and instead we are going to do 1 sit up per gram of snack consumed. Yesterday I did 70 sit ups.

Alright: I had some snacks during Wednesdays D&D, but honestly: It felt like I was eating calories for the sake of eating calories. The amount of snacks I consumed was way more than I normally do. Not really sure why, I think there’s something going on there in the back of my head that I’m unaware of.

Today? Honestly, I have no idea. I just drank a TON of tea, and finished the last bits of popcorn before they were going stale. I hate food wastage. I’d call it like a “success” in that so far I’m sticking to it, but I gotta not binge like my life depends on it. That’s just dumb.

Day 1: Turns out today is my cheat day.

Finally got some access to Disney Plus and I have been BINGING The Mandalorian. I got a big bottle o’ coke and some good tasting crackers and devoured them while finishing the first 9 episodes of it.

I have zero regrets, and I’m confident I can hold out tomorrow :D