Thoughts after Week 2

Although not technically over, the hard part of the second week is over. At this point, I have three weekends, two full work weeks, and two more weekdays ahead of me. I'm nearly halfway.

I think my reactions to seeing and smelling fatty, sugary, very-n0n-paleo-ly foods has definitely been different this week. I still want these things when I see them, but the desire passes much more quickly. Its become a lot easier to focus on the positive aspects of this diet, ie what I AM able to eat, as opposed to the negative aspects, ie the delicious foods that are completely forbidden.

That said, its not obvious whether this is a function of the mental effort involved in extended dietary discipline, or a function of changing my body over to strict paleo inputs. Probably a little bit of both, but I think the mental aspect is the major player here. Which is actually a great thing. Although when I started planning this month it was mainly for dietary and performance reasons, I quickly realized that this would be quite a mental challenge.

See, I tend to be a very compulsive eater. The least bit of stress sets me off, dreaming of unhealthy comfort foods (this compulsion is actually almost gone. hm..). Also, whenever I'm kind of hungry (ie not completely full) and I see or smell something kind of delicious, I want that food right then. If I'm hungry and I walk by a pizza parlor or bakery, I will think that pizza or pastries sound fantastic. This makes shopping very difficult when hungry.

Now, I'm usually fairly good at resisting all of these temptations, but that's kind of a relative term. I can justify eating deliciously pretty easily by telling myself its a one time, spur of the moment deal. Which it seems like it is, because hey, its right when I saw those pizza rolls and ice cream that I realized what I was really craving right now was pizza rolls and ice cream. What a coincidence! Surely this coincidence merits a bit of indulgence?

Like I said, frequently I resist this scenario, but not nearly enough. What's worse is that I don't feel that I have much control over it. Some weeks I'll just throw in the towel and not even try to eat well. I had one of those last month; it was disgusting.

So the first week was full of behavior like this, only without giving in. The rabid desire to eat cheese and cookies was still there, but it was a bit less distressing because I couldn't linger on it too long, knowing it wasn't an option. This second week has been noticebly easier in that respect. There have been temptations, including a cheesecake at the office, onion rings, pizza, brownies, a different kind of brownies, turkey burgers. The temptations have been on par for a normal week, but the time I spent obsessing about them was a fraction of what it usually is.

Hopefully this is a permanent power, something that stays with me for a long time. I think I'll still be able to get worked up over some really diet destroying food, like fried twinkies and frozen pizza rolls (so good, so un-paleo), but if I am less distracted by every little thing, maintaining a good diet will be that much easier.