Something I saw on the Weight Watchers message boards a couple of years ago has stuck with me.
A woman who was new to the program asked for snack suggestions. "Don't just tell me to eat fruit," she said. "I'm not the kind of person who reaches for a piece of fruit."
When I read this, all I could think was, "well, you're going to have to become the kind of person who reaches for a piece of fruit."
When I am in my not-caring mode, eating mindlessly and gaining weight, I am also not the kind of person who reaches for a piece of fruit. I'll go out of my way to eat salty snacks and candy while fruit can sit there and go bad.
When I'm on, mindful, and losing, as I have been these past four months, I give the salty snacks and candy a pass and eat two or three pieces of fruit a day - nothing too exotic, either, just apples, oranges, bananas.
That's just one of the transformations I have to make, from the kind of person I am when I am gaining, to the kind of person I need to be to lose and keep the weight off. I have to become the kind of person who reaches for a piece of fruit, the kind of person who stops eating when her hunger is sated, the kind of person who gets to the gym three times a week no matter what else is going on in my life.
What about you - what kind of person are you striving to be, in the realm of food and fitness?