Lock and Load - Stocking the Arsenal for Battle: 2/21/11

Any serious dieter knows that in order to lose weight, the very first thing one must do is rid their cupboards and fridge of ALL disallowed food items on their new diet.  Right?  That said, it means simply that it's idiotic to have Cadbury Creme Eggs in the fridge when you can't eat just one at a time; you can't have Wonder Bread available when you're committed to Ezekiel.  If a dieter isn't willing to clear out the fun cereal, Tostitos, Coke Classic, and hidden chocolate stash, then WTF is the point?  Why bother???


You can't have ANY crap in the house and lose weight.  I know that I have made the mistake in the past of convincing myself otherwise.  Sure as shit, every time, I find myself sitting in the kitchen at 10:00 p.m. with a (second) heaping bowl of Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch in front of me, wondering why I didn't at least eat it slowly enough to taste it.


This was last night, for me.  Talk about a diet-buster.  I spent the 13 hours prior to this binge doing what I normally do on Mondays; starving, pining, nibbling on such low-calorie, ridiculously healthy things as a single scrambled egg on a dry piece of Ezekiel toast, herbal fruit tea, a Finn Crisp Rye cracker (yes, ONE...) with a wedge of 35-calorie Laughing Cow Light Blue Cheese smeared pitifully on it, a quarter cup (yes, the teeny-tiny one) of pumpkin seeds, a vanilla (because I can't stomach plain-flavored anymore...) Greek-strained yogurt with about 50 blueberries thrown in, a few red grapes, a few raspberries, and two tiny squares of cheddar cheese.  That's it.  That's all I had eaten all day yesterday.  AND... AND... I also did TaeBo!  The 20-minute Basic workout, in my flaccid, flabby, sweaty glory.  It wasn't pretty.  But I got all the way to the end, and I did every move, though not as elegantly as Billy Blanks does it.


My point is, because I had the @#$*^ Cap'n Crunch in the house, there it was - on the counter - tempting me - when I came back upstairs after my workout.  I was prepared mentally to make a nice, steaming cup of black tea, and maybe fix a small salad or have some hummus on a couple RyKrisps.  YUM.  But NO; instead, I inhaled two giant bowls of Cap'n Crunch Heaven and milk in less than 10 minutes, and blew a literally PERFECT dieting day to hell without being able to stop myself.  I have ZERO control with certain foods - a long list of foods, actually.  These are the foods that cannot be in the house when I'm trying to lose weight, and the only way to ensure this is to not buy them in the first place, not even for other family members who may or may not beg for them.


So, that's my Good Diet Advice tidbit of the day - rid the house of all anti-diet foods and beverages.

But...THEN what???


A good dieter must then sit down and do their homework, that's what.  In other words, BRAINSTORM.  I made lists of every diet-friendly meat, dairy product, vegetable, fruit, frozen meal, beverage, snack, supplement, and condiment that I loved and shopped directly from those lists.  I filled the cupboards and fridge with nothing but healthier, low-calorie, low-fat, low-carb, mostly white-flour-free, minimally-processed foods that I can plug into my "menu" throughout the day at any moment to battle this bulge.  It works.  As my ever-wise husband might say, "Having the right ammunition for the impending battle is essential."  Right?

Here is a pictorial trip through my arsenal as it looks now.  
Try not to drool.