This Wednesday at work I walked by room where there are almost endless amounts of treats such as bags of chips, sodas, and candy bars. I am not talking about vending machines with these things available for purchase. These items are free for the taking for those granted access to this room, and I have been granted access. When I worked in this office ten years ago, I would hit up this room on a very regular basis. I would be especially happy when they had the Twix bars available. Back then, I would also make sure to get a couple of sodas for the day as well. Since I have started back in this office in October, I have not been in this room once. It is not because I do not want what is in that room. While I no longer drink soda, I still do enjoy a nice chocolate bar or a bag of chips. Instead of hitting up that room on Wednesday, I had a banana, orange, and two vegetable patty sandwiches I brought from home to eat. Are these as appealing as a Twix bar to me? No, but they are not bad. Sometimes, not bad is better for us than getting what we want. This is especially true with what we eat.
When I was heavy, I knew in order to lose my weight I needed to change the way I ate. Back then, I used to eat every meal for pleasure, and I would often snack as well on wonderful things such as Twix bars between meals. My daily meals sometimes included three trips to a drive thru a day. I would get a breakfast burrito for breakfast, a burger meal combo meal with fries and soda for lunch, and for dinner I would have pizza. Is it really that shocking this lifestyle led me to being over 300 lbs? With this said, I made a change and dropped over 135 lbs. over 6 years ago, and I have kept the weight off. From this change, I was led to choose the food I brought from home on Wednesday over eating the food that was in that room.
So, did I decide after all those years Twix and other junk food were out of the equation for me? No. Actually, my lifestyle still includes opportunities for Twix, pizzas, chips, and much more. However, I have learned not to eat every meal for pleasure. I have developed a lifestyle change I call, “eating as a chore.”
Why did I choose the name “chore”? Many people hate doing chores after all. If my goal was a lifestyle change, shouldn’t I have come up with a better name for this? The answer is no. Chores are something we need to incorporate into our lifestyle. We need to clean our bathrooms, pay our bills, (which can include paying someone to clean your bathroom hence it is still in the chore realm), shower, brush our teeth, and visit the doctor for our annual health checkups. If we do not do these things, then the results could be a stinky bathroom, losing our homes, being smelly, rotting teeth, or not detecting a health issue early enough before it becomes a major issue. Eating healthy should be considered in the same vein. If we do not eat healthy, then the results are potentially being overweight, health problems, being lethargic, and much more. Therefore, like the aforementioned chores, this too can be treated as a chore. Hence, I feel, “eating as a chore,” is a very appropriate naming logic.
I feel chore is also an appropriate term because while chores are something we need to do on a regular basis, we do not need to do them every day. If we skip a week cleaning our bathroom and clean it the next week, then it is typically fine and not stinky or moldy. If money is tight for a month, then if we call our creditors and explain the situation and make a proper payment the next month, they typically will not penalize us much other than a small fee. They rarely report us to the credit bureaus in these situations as well. Will your teeth rot if you forget to brush one night before going to bed? No. Will bad consequences happen if we do not do these things at all on a regular basis? Yes. We do chores to avoid bad things from happening. Eating healthy works the same way. Are we fine if we eat an unhealthy meal now and then? Yes. Are we fine if we eat unhealthily every meal or most meals? No. Hence, this is the same structure as a chore. We have a chore to eat healthy.
How do I manifest this chore of eating healthy then? Six days a week I keep my calories between 1200- 1600 for weight loss and go up to 1800 for weight maintenance periods, and then I have a free day once a week where I go over 2500 calories. My free day is where I can look forward to eating Twix, chips, pizzas, drink beer, etc. This gives me something to look forward to. Does this mean I can’t have these item on my healthy days? No, but if I do have a 240 calorie Twix bar, then my calorie count remaining for the day is 960-1360 if I am trying to drop weight. Do I really want a Twix bar to account for that much of my food intake for the day? In most cases no, but there are days I can fit one in. I find though it is better just to wait until free day. Instead, I will eat, (and did eat), the banana (100 calories), orange (50 calories), and veggie sandwiches (450 calories) for a total of 600 calories.
How does my food taste? While I did enjoy the banana and orange, the veggie sandwiches were not the tastiest. However, they were not bad either. They are just a bit bland. Would I rather have a flavorful pizza slice? Yes, but two veggie sandwiches are a lot more food and a lot more filling than one slice of pizza would be at 400 calories, (if I could keep the calories in the pizza slice that low). Therefore, sometimes it is better to go for the choice that is not bad instead of choice that is tastier. Hence, I like eating as a chore.
One more thing to note about chores in general, sometimes they can be fun. Painting a room, mowing the lawn, building a deck, and taking a shower are chores that many people enjoy doing. Not everyone does of course. I certainly mow my lawn because I have to rather than I want to. However, the point is a chore can potentially be fun. In that sense, you can make tasty healthy meals that you look forward to eating. Myself, I love my 120-calorie apple maple flavored chicken sausage, my 120-calorie three-ounce slice of ham, and my 100-calorie cookies and cream flavored frozen Greek yogurt bars. Eating as a chore does not always mean you eat things that are not tasty. At times it is quite the opposite.
With any lifestyle change it is important to find what works for you. This is especially true when it comes to eating habits and what you eat. If you hate broccoli, then do not eat it. Find something else. There are plenty of healthy foods out there to choose from. Some are quite fun to try. You never will know if you will like or hate something until you try it. Personally, by doing this I have learned that I love brussels sprouts when they are prepared properly. Conversely, I have learned, for me, frozen supermarket escargot is every bit as horrible as it sounds. Back to the broccoli, if you love broccoli, then you may love doing your chore by eating it. Well done. If you find you do not hate it, but it is not your favorite either, you may decide to eat it now and then because it is good for you. If you eat it in these circumstances, then you have learned the value of eating as a chore. Welcome to your new potential lifestyle.
(Entry – March 7, 2021)