Afternoon Tea

It's that weird weather where it feels warm in the sun, but if you are inside with your windows open it gets chilly. My hands were cold, and I could feel myself wanting to eat something even though I wasn't hungry. So I decided to make tea - which would address both problems.

Now I'm resting a bit and having tea. I'm going out walking again soon with OLP so the resting is nice.

For me, the key to making long term changes that will result in permanent weight loss is making sure that the changes I am making are not a "diet" or something that I am "on" or "off" depending on my mood or location or stress level or holiday. It is just taking my current eating - which is healthy - and being mindful of it. It is using a smaller scoop for the rice and realizing that 1/3 of a cup of rice is just as filling as 1/2 a cup. It is removing english muffins and bread from my house since I know that if those foods are here I will eat them extremely unmindfully. Actually, I will enjoy them fully, but in too large of quantities so I save them for when I am out and there is a limited portion. It is about thinking about what I am going to eat before I do, and checking to see if I really am hungry after lunch, or if I'm just cold and bored.

It is also finding exercise that I love to do, and that I will do and seeking out new places to go and new challenges. And I'm hoping the habits I set into place during this nice weather will continue to carry me when the cold and the dark return. It is easy to get up at 5:30 a.m. when it is light out then, but those days when it is still dark at 7 a.m. are a bit more difficult to like. But I trust by then my body will want its morning walk more than it wants to be inside.