Trying to get a grip

Emma and Ellie on the porch

I threw out food yesterday. The important part was the almost-full box of individual bags of Skinny Pop Popcorn recently purchased at Sam’s. I could have found someone to give them to, but it seemed important and symbolic to put them in the trash.

There was nothing wrong with the popcorn. I knew how to count it and enjoyed a little bit of “normal”. Except I forgot that my normal snacking was abnormal, and the popcorn led to other things like cookies or eating an English muffin for dinner because I loved the jam. Which is now completely eaten up – it was wonderful! – but I’m not buying more of it.

I looked back at my Noom food logs to see what I ate back in the beginning when I was starting and extra careful and motivated. Popcorn wasn’t anywhere in there, and I didn’t miss it. I ate lots of green grapes (which I don’t even like but they were satisfying) and individual boxes of roasted red pepper soup for snacks, and learned that if I plan and balance my meals, I didn’t really eat snacks – and didn’t miss them.

It’s also time to cook. Back in January I cooked and stocked up the freezer, partly in anticipation of pandemic shortages but also to make sure I had plenty of easy to grab food that fit Noom. I’ve actually eaten most of the prepared things and need to restock with chili, stew, meat sauce, chicken teriyaki, and soup. I can make another batch of gazpacho to eat or drink as a snack or before a meal to add veggies

So today I’m making chili in the crockpot and inventorying the freezer and pantry before making a shopping list. I need to see what I have and work out a plan for cooking as well as organizing the freezer so I can find what goes in there instead of just shoving them in the front.

Also today I’m off to the appliance store to buy a new microwave since mine conked out yesterday. It’s probably at least 12 years old so I shouldn’t be surprised, but since I use it all the time, this requires rethinking what I eat until the new one can be installed. Probably salad – sigh, I’m sick of salad – but you eat that cold.

But first, thank you all for the hugs and comments and kind words to my hard day post. They helped more than you know.