The Weekend Challenge

Ladies and gentlemen, here I am on Day 4 of the 21 Day Fix, and thus far, things are going very well.

I have stuck to a meal plan all week long, and haven’t been sucked in by any “treats”.  I’ve been trying to eat clean as much as possible (except for the pea soup, of course), watching portions… I’ve even given up my beloved steaming mugs of hot chocolate.  And I’ve been OK.  Watching the number on the scale dip a little lower each day is the reward, and it’s a reward that feels good.

The 21 Day Fix workouts have been wonderful.  It’s been quite some time since I’ve been excited about a workout.  I love that they are only 30 minutes long.  I love that sometimes I use weights, sometimes I don’t.  I love that each exercise lasts 60 seconds followed by a short rest, because when Autumn tells me, “Anyone can do anything for 60 seconds,” I really believe her, and I push myself to finish it.  When the half hour is up, I can’t believe how fast it went, and how sweaty I am.  I’m certain this is the next program I will be purchasing from Beachbody, because I’m quite interested in seeing how it works if I follow the nutritional side of things and using the container system that they offer with the program.

But here’s the problem I’ve been battling lately:  Weekends.  For whatever reason, no matter how well I do during the week, I always seem to kill it on the weekend.  Any progress I make Monday through Thursday gets destroyed by the time Friday evening rolls around.  I’ve fallen victim to that age-old prank the mind plays, when I talk myself into, “It’s OK to have the bacon cheeseburger and spicy fries, because you did SO WELL all week long!  Treat yourself, Jilly!”

Yes, treats are allowed.  There will always be bacon cheeseburgers and spicy fries in my life.  But since Christmas, the treats have been happening at a regular frequency, and they keep knocking me off track.  I need to space them out more.  I can’t put in 4 good days, and then go overboard on a weekend of treats.  Just doesn’t work that way.

Originally, I thought this would be a perfect weekend to stare down the treats, because I really had no plans – at least, none that revolved around food.  That is, until I realized my niece & nephew are on March Break this week and decided it would be fun to take them to the movies on my day off tomorrow.

Dun dun dun…  Movie theatre popcorn… Peanut M&M’s… Boston Pizza just a short piece away…

This weekend, I have presented myself with the Movie Challenge.  And I am DETERMINED that I’m going to survive it.  But it’s going to be tricky.

You see, I always get the kids each a Kid Combo at the movies – a little colourful box of popcorn with a side of candy and a slushy drink.  Then I get myself a large popcorn with extra butter, Peanut M&M’s, and a big ass Diet Coke – because, you know, I need to share with the little people.  These kids are children of my own heart, and love popcorn as much as I do, so they always end up running out and I refill them from my big bag of p-corns.

Oh, and yes, I may eat 90% of it myself.   It doesn’t take very much of my giant popcorn to fill their little boxes.  I don’t even tell them I have the Peanut M&M’s stashed in my purse, I just sneak them out and eat them myself when it gets dark and they are wrapped up in the movie and don’t notice.

Then there’s the possible stop at Boston Pizza afterwards.  I always promise myself that I’ll order something light, but then I fall down the rabbit hole of Cactus Cut Potatoes and delicious cheesey pizzas - “I’ll take a Small… the Individual size looks too tiny” – and, of course, the notorious dessert menu that twists my arm every damn time.

When I was discussing these movie/dinner plans with my sister this morning via text message, she said, “I think you’re trying to eat healthy this week, so maybe we won’t do supper.”  And I said, “No, no, I can eat healthy at Boston Pizza… it’s the popcorn I’m worried about.”  But really, it’s all just one big booby-trap, isn’t it?

So here’s the mission:  Small popcorns for the kids at the movies, and a small for Jill too – when it runs out, it runs out.  Sorry kids.  And no hidden Peanut M&M’s in the purse.  I’ve also done my Boston Pizza research on their website, and have decided I will be getting an Individual sized Tropical Chicken or Szechuan Chicken pizza, depending how the spirit moves me (and on a regular thin crust, not multigrain as I usually do to be “healthy”, because, as it turns out, multigrain is a trick – it’s more calories than the regular thin crust) – they are two of the lightest options on the menu, ringing in at 500 cals or less, and are the smartest choices I could find.  No appetizer.  No dessert.

This is the mission, and I DO  choose to accept it.  I want to stay well behaved this weekend so that I can commence week 2 of the 21 Day Fix ahead of the game.  No more one step forward, two steps back.

Say a prayer, people.  I’ll hopefully be back to report success next week.

Happy Thursday!