I am sure at some point in my life I have had peppermint bark before this Christmas morning.  Never do I remember not being able to stop eating it.  It was so damn good that I could not stop myself.

The devil in disguise

I had it before breakfast… during the meal… and then managed to down more after a big home cooked meal, even though I was full.  Now I have had issues with self control and food before, however I would like to think the steps that I have taken over the past 5 months have put things into a new perspective.

Then there was the very large container of chocolate covered almonds that I received as a gift from a co-worker.   I hesitated to open it on Saturday afternoon.  Not even two hours later I told my wife I had to throw it out.  We were devouring it one handful at a time.  In fact, I was making up excuses to walk through the kitchen to grab handful after handful.  However I did not throw it out, I just hid it.  I mean, c’mon, there are starving homeless people all around us… who am I to just throw away food… such delicious, tasty food.

So on Sunday afternoon I went in for another round.  Interestingly enough it turns out my lovely wife had found the secret spot.  It wasn’t so secret… there was just a box of crackers covering them up.  Wouldn’t you know since Anne devoured the crackers in the corner, she was bound to find the nuts.  So there we are on Sunday afternoon negotiating how to finish off the last of the large jar and I am thinking to myself… what happened to me?  A week ago I am counting every single calorie entering my body.  Today I am throwing all of my rules out the window and now just counting handfuls instead of actual serving sizes.

It’s something about the season.  I can tell myself over and over that I am going to stay disciplined and stay within my plan – but it doesn’t happen.  I even plan in a cheat day for the holidays… but for both Thanksgiving and now Christmas, it has turned into a cheat weekend.

I realized yesterday after I stepped onto the scale and had it going in the wrong direction, that I had not logged any calories eaten or burned into my Lose It! app for over a week.  Now I know I have to get back to the basics.  I can think that every day I am eating “about” the same amount of calories because I am pretty much eating the same foods on a daily basis.  But what has given me results so far is when I actually take the time to enter the information in and see where I am at minute by minute and hour by hour to help plan the rest of my day.  If that’s what I need to do every day, then that’s what I will do… even after I reach my goal weight.

So until we meet again Peppermint Bark.  You may have won this round… but I will be back.  Stronger than ever.  Both physically, and maybe more importantly, mentally.