I haven’t gotten back into the mindful eating groove yet. Part of that is likely due to my schedule being different this week. I’ve felt like I’ve needed a coffee for lunch to make it through my training class, and dinner has been whatever I’ve felt like while visiting the grocery store after work. I didn’t really need to stop at HEB after work yesterday, but I was fixated on mangoes. Of course, the mangoes weren’t the only thing I picked up.

I got a little container of chili, which had both beef and beans, so it was somewhat high in calories and definitely high in carbohydrates. I also got some Swiss cheese for some reason (I need to get out of the habit of buying “snacking cheese”).. Finally, after grabbing the mangoes, I saw that cherries were on sale, so I got some of those as well.

The mangoes weren’t ripe yet, so I saved them, but I somehow managed to eat all the cherries. And, over the course of the evening, I ate all the cheese as well. And the chili was what was actually for dinner, so that was gone early. In the end, I’d consumed an excessive amount of food, and I’m not sure why my brain didn’t register that at some point before it was too late. Portion control is a real problem for me; if I’ve fasted all day, I can eat a lot at night without really thinking about it. I think the fasting works as long as the meal that breaks the fast is reasonable, but I’ve gotten out of the habit of being mindful of that.

Anyway, I weigh about a pound more this morning. The cheese just has to go. I’ve said that before, but I’ll need to avoid it because it’s high-calorie and no-fiber. The chili wasn’t a great choice because of the carbohydrates from the beans, but that’ll be easy to avoid because I don’t often think about chili when it’s nearly 100 degrees outside. The cherries weren’t a bad choice, but eating all of them was, so I’ll probably need to avoid them until I figure out portion control.

I still feel like I’m burned out despite the change from my daily job to the training class. I suppose that’s because I’m not getting much else done. Any sort of work seems like one continuous slog if nothing significant or satisfying happens in the non-working hours. Whenever I’ve had a job like the one I have now, I’ve made the mistake of giving it too much of my time and energy outside of work, and that has to end. It’s just bad for me, and it makes sticking to the weight loss effort hard because there isn’t much of a break in my stress level.

I don’t have anything more to report, and my second cup of coffee awaits…