Compromises, Priorities & Putting Myself First

My husband has a saying that he's quite fond of: "Everything is a compromise." It's true, everytime we make a choice, we're chosing something in place of something else. I just turned on my bedside lamp; I chose lightness over darkness. I drank coffee this morning; I chose caffeine over crankiness. I ate a lot of candy this weekend; I chose instant gratification (that wasn't really even that gratifiying) over my health.

Several years ago I joined up with some friends and we tried to form our own little weightloss support group. We met at a friend's house once a week, we paid a couple of dollars, we weighed in, we got tickets for certain things (meeting goals, losing pounds, etc etc) and at the end of the month, the person with the most tickets got the money. It eventually petered out, but one meeting sticks out in my mind above all others: another friend of ours has acheived lifetime member status with Weight Watchers and she also works for them as a meeting leader. She came to one of our meetings to answer some questions and get us all going in the right direction. She asked us about some of our obstacles and I mentioned eating off my childrens' plates. Rather than throw away a couple of chicken nuggets and wasting them, each night I chose to eat them. She asked why I felt I had to eat them and I mentioned that they were expensive. She said, "Ok, so you are saying to me that you would rather chose a few pennies over your weightloss and your health." Well, HELLO TRUTH! Nice of you to make an appearance!

I was raised in a home where food wasn't wasted. Period. If I got up from the table and there was still food on my plate, my dad ate it. If we were at a restaraunt and I couldn't finish my meal, my dad ate it. Leftovers were repurposed and made into a new meal later in the week ~ or my dad ate them for lunch until they were gone. You don't throw away food. This has been drilled into my head since childhood.

When my friend pointed out that I was making a choice, it was like someone kicked me in the gut. It hadn't ever occured to me that I could chose differently.

I'm no longer afraid to toss out my kids' leftovers. If I find an item in my pantry and can't remember how it got there (or why I bought it) and I know it's not in line with my choice to be healthy, I'm not afraid to donate it (or toss it, if necessary). I do not intentionally waste food, but I'm no longer afraid to remove things from my kitchen if they aren't moving me closer to my goal.