an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of chocolate

oh, how it pains me to be this honest. It confirms a pattern I already knew, though--I start out with good intentions every morning, and it all goes to hell about mid-afternoon.

I really need to start focusing on preparation v. planning. It's one thing to say that I plan to do a certain workout later in the day, or that I'm not going to have any snacks in the afternoon. It's quite another to actually do those things. The key is going to be actively preventing myself from veering off the plan.

Take yesterday, for instance. I didn't make the best choices for breakfast, but I made up for it at lunch. Everything was going swimmingly...until the dude from purchasing brought me a gift from one of our vendors. A coffee cup full of chocolate. I hadn't planned on a snack, but the candy was hard to resist. Before I stopped myself, I had eaten two Reese's trees, a chocolate santa, and a kiss. Eight points, taking me into flexpoints for the day.

How could I have prevented this? I could have refused the gift. I could have thrown away the candy and kept the cup. I could have dumped the candy into a bag and taken it home to Noah. Hell, I could have put the cup in my desk drawer--out of sight, out of mind. But instead of doing any of those things, I set it directly in front of me on the desk. And ate 8 points worth of candy.

That wasn't even the end of it...I got home, and there was nothing to cook at the house. I didn't really feel like going to the store and then coming home to cook...besides, it was almost time for Lost. Rob suggested Outback after the show was over, and I jumped at it. Then Noah wanted cheese fries, there was bread, salad, steak...even making some wise choices (dressing on the side, easy on the cheese & croutons, small helping of cheese fries, barely-buttered bread, steamed veggies instead of potato, only eating half the steak...), I had a 17-point dinner.

What could have prevented that? Having a dinner planned in advance, and having groceries on hand. Also, having a healthier snack in the afternoon so that I wasn't so hungry when we went out. As much as I hate big shopping trips, I need to start shopping for more than two days at a time. That way, when I come home from work, all I have to do is thaw something and steam some veggies. Better for all concerned.

I also had exercise planned for last night, but didn't actually do any. It didn't even require going anywhere--just pop in a DVD, and put up with Leslie Sansone for an hour. And yet, by the time we got back from dinner, I had put exercise completely out of my mind. It was 9:00, I reasoned, and by the time I let my food settle, it would be time to go to bed. So instead of working out, I read a book.

How could I have prevented this? Well, I could have cooked and eaten at home, thus finishing much earlier. I could even have worked out BEFORE going out to eat. I could have changed my plan to a 1 or 2-mile DVD instead of the 4-mile, and still gotten some kind of workout in after dinner. It would have been better than nothing. The key here is making workouts a priority, rather than an afterthought.

So yeah...I really need to start preparing for these late afternoon derailments, since experience has shown over and over again that they're going to happen. It just comes down to making the right choices just as easy as the wrong ones.