I thought it would be helpful for me to kind of talk about what’s going on in my life right at the moment since I have a new development which is kind of interesting. You may remember that in my blog post two weeks ago I decided to forgo resolutions for the new year. Guess what? Life happened. Even when you are managing your mind and you make a thoughtful, deliberate decision you still may end up having to change course.
I’ve been having some stomach pain and some other g.i. symptoms (which nobody really wants to hear about) and when I finally went to the doctor and got checked out it appears I have a fatty liver, a couple of gall stones and a kidney stone or two. I was kind of pissed and surprised because, other than a couple of arthritic hips that were replaced, I enjoy good health. I discovered in conversations with my doctor that my problem was too much fried food, too much fatty food and, sadly… too much alcohol! I knew that my diet could use some improvement... but that much improvement? Yikes.
I really like wine and during the pandemic I have been imbibing a little bit extra. Who am I kidding? A lot extra. I’d like to blame the pandemic for all my current woes, but if I am honest with myself, my wine-drinking has been going up over the past few years. It’s funny, but I find red wine to be the most seductive of alcohols. If I am out, and I know that I don’t want to overdrink, I order a dirty vodka martini, because I only ever want one. I don’t make those at home. Too much work. Beer makes me feel full pretty quickly, so I don’t ever drink too much beer. But red wine? That’s a siren song for me. It’s also my buffering tool of choice. Don’t want to feel that feeling? A nice glass of red wine will smooth the rough edges of my day right down.
As for food, I am clearly not paying enough attention to the quality of the food I am putting in my mouth right now. I refuse to beat myself up over it, but I am also not going to make excuses about it either. Like many American women, I have thought about food and my weight every single day since around the age of 15- and not necessarily in a productive way.
Every day I was either happy about my weight or unhappy about it. I thought about it more, or I thought about it less. But I thought about it every day. That’s almost 15,000 days I wasted time thinking about my weight instead of creating something, or loving someone or learning something new.
I have to reform my eating and drinking habits, and it’s not with my weight in mind. It is not what I look like on the outside, but how healthy my body is on the inside. I also want to clear up some mental space that is right now filled with what I will eat and how much I will drink.
Fortunately, coaching has given me the tools to tackle both of these issues and I am going to take you along as I coach myself to stop over drinking and change my eating habits for the long term. There will be bonus content posted on this new journey as I travel it. I hope you will come along and see how it all works!
