A Unique Challenge for February #weightloss #weight #Health #Wellness #Care #Fitness

Challenges, goals, challenges, goals… many of you are probably thinking, “Katie, will you EVER learn?! Finish the goals you already started before setting new ones!”

Well, I can just blame bipolar, right? 😉  Seriously, though, this isn’t anything major–and it’s just for a month. February. I deliberately picked the shortest month of the year for this!

In pinpointing my snacking habits and why I’m having such a hard time breaking the bad habits, I came up with a solution that I am 100% certain will work. The problem is that I have to be 100% compliant, haha.

When the kids were little, we used to sit down for dinner (almost) every evening at the dining room table and eat together as a family. As the kids got older, we started watching TV while eating, and then eating at separate times that are convenient for each of us, and then the worst–eating in our bedrooms.

Once in a while I notice my kids carry a huge pile of dishes out of their bedrooms to the kitchen and it infuriates me–if they’re going to eat in there, at the VERY LEAST they need to put their dishes away immediately! But honestly, we shouldn’t be eating in our bedrooms at all.

I’ve also gotten to the point where I feel like I need to multitask 100% of the time, which includes eating. Eating just for the sake of eating seems so–boring? unproductive?–to me. I can’t imagine myself snacking at night if I literally just sat down at the table for a snack. No phone, no book, no TV, nothing. I wouldn’t want to eat!

Soooo… you can see where this is leading. For the month of February, I’m going to challenge myself to eat ONLY at the table and with ZERO distractions. I can eat whenever and whatever I want, sticking with my usual vegan diet, but it must be eaten at the table and with no distractions.

This isn’t anything profound, I know. It’s discussed in all of the “intuitive eating” and “non-diet” type books. I’m not doing this for any reason other than to hopefully get a jumpstart on breaking the bad snacking habit. Will I continue to do this forever? Ha! I will be pleasantly surprised if I make it through three days.

My only exceptions will be for ice (because I’m obsessed with chewing ice and I literally cannot fathom giving it up) and for tea at night. (Oh, and water.) I’m hoping to replace my snacking with a good cup of hot tea. (Definitely not the same I know, but I can dream.)

The only other exception I can think of would be is if I’m eating with other people–if we get together with Dave and Renee, for example, we might snack while playing Euchre. But I can only foresee that situation occurring maybe once or twice.

I asked Eli if he’d like to try it, too, because he’s notorious for eating in his bedroom. I picture this to be even harder for him than it is for me! I’d like to think of an award for him if he does it–he does best with an incentive. Remember I offered him $365 if he could go a year without pop? (He was super addicted to it.) He did it! So, maybe he’ll surprise me. 

Mostly, though, I want an incentive for MYSELF. Yes, it’s childish; I’m an adult and I should do what’s right whether I get anything out of it or not. But this is going to be one of the hardest challenges I’ve ever tried. So, I’ll have to think about it tomorrow and then decide what my incentive will be before I begin on February 1st. Maybe we should start a pool of how long I’ll actually last on this one 😉