Moderating or Abstaining

There is one month to go until our holiday in France. We have been looking forward to this for more than a year.  A sunshine filled European summer, road tripping around the country side and lots of delicious food to savour. But with the summer, comes skirts and dresses and bathing suits. And down comes crashing all of those insecurities that are always lurking in the background. I am doing my best to embrace my body every single day. To be grateful for the things it allows me to do, the adventures we go on together. But a part of me knows that I also don't treat it with as much love and respect as I should.

I love food. There's just no two ways about it. Right now, we are watching the latest episode of Masterchef with the effervescent Gordon Ramsay at the helm. We spent the evening after work cooking up a feast of flat egg noodles stir fried with vegetables and a Malaysian style sauce, paired with a couple of steaks on the Weber and Panko crusted eggplant coins in the oven. Earlier in the day, I was spoilt with a pecan choux puff for morning tea and I could not walk away from a small, tempting punnet of sour dried Japanese plums at Daiso. Actually, I did walk away to get cash out from across the road and then rounded back to buy it. My point is, sometimes I can overdo it with food. It has become a comfort more than a source of energy and nourishment for  my body. Eating it in excess makes my aura dull and sleepy instead of vibrant and shimmering.

But with the holiday coming up around the corner and the paradise of bread and cheese awaiting me, it is time to make some changes. Yes, I am trying to cut back now just so that I can squeeze in that extra baguette and croissant and chouquette for breakfast for a day in the future (or at least just one of the above). I also need to learn to listen to my body and recognise when I am full, or when I am simply bored or stressed and looking for a distraction. I already know from previous experience that my body is at its optimum when I eat three square meals a day, filled with vegetables and minimal snacking. Minimal. Snacking. Probably the hardest 2 words in the dictionary right now.

After a brief consultation with my former personal trainer/former nutrition student husband (key word being former), I tried to convince him that the best way would be to plan for three square meals a day, each incorporating some form of vegetables, and one snack at any time I deem appropriate. He immediately vetoed my plan and advised that the best way forward was to ban snacks completely for the next 4 weeks. I regret to say that I agree.

In her book, Better Than Before, Gretchen Rubin explains the differences between being a moderator or an abstainer. They are two different strategies in order to control a habit. Moderators indulge regularly in small doses, where as abstainers, well, abstain. Abstaining in itself may seem hard, but in reality it can be easier because the decision has already been made. No snacking. It's a rule. I don't need to decide what I can snack on, or how much, or what time. There is only one option and it has already been made. No need to think or spend any more time on that matter. I don't think this a strategy which I have used before. But we have already agreed on this plan of action. I'll just have to keep picturing that French bakery far away, waiting patiently for me to follow my nose to its entrance.

You can read more about the habit forming method of abstaining here.