Weekly Meal Plan May Week 4: Back From a Break

Last time I post I had decided I was going to take a bit of a step back from things and I took a bit of a bigger step than intended. The couple of weeks that followed were pretty tough. I have had a lot of stress in my life this year and I think I was fooling myself into thinking I could manage. It all got a bit on top of me and I needed a bit of time to myself. So I took a few weeks off blogging. I couldn't come back on here repeating the same thing again and again, as it wasn't helping. I just couldn't face it. I was still posting my usual food posts on social media, but not as much and I felt like I was just going through the motions a bit.



It all came to a bit of a head last monday evening, I'd had an awful day at work and I knew it wasn't going to get better as the week went on. I wasn't able to run out my frustration after falling at the weekend and I had eaten badly since the previous Thursday so felt bloated and sluggish. I was basically having a really bad night and feeling really low. I was texting my sister,  she told me that that I'm not perfect and I need to go easy on myself. She said taking a few days off 'being good' was not going to sabotage all my hard work and it might be just what I needed. I knew she was right before she even said it, but I needed to hear it from her.

I woke up the next day and I knew if I went off the rails entirely I wouldn't feel better but I needed to take a step back. So I decided to give No Count a go for a few days. No weighing or measuring portion sizes, just sticking to good healthy food. I have to say its been great. I found it quite easy and by Friday was feeling much more myself. I did a couple of counting days on Friday & Saturday and am back to No Count now. I think for the next while I am definitely going to be sticking mostly to No Count but sprinkling in a few Counting Days here and there to mix things up.

I'm trying to still take a break from the scales for a bit but I could tell from my clothes that the weekend and not been good to me and I couldn't help myself having a sneak peek. It wasn't great, but before I stood up there I decided that the  number was just for me. I'm not going to focus too much on the number until I can get my head straight and focus more on how I am feeling. I will go back to class once I can get on top of things a bit more, but for now I'm focusing on myself.

I'd forgotten about my little star chart I created at the start of the month until I went to write today's post. I went back and filled in up to today thinking it would be mostly read, and I was pleasantly surprised to see double the amount of green to red. The red/green days not only correlate to what I was eating those days but how I was feeling in myself and I think that is almost as important to track. It also shows the direct link between food and my mood which i need to make a bit of a break from. I would love to hear from anyone who knows some techniques to help separate emotions from food! 

This weeks meal plan is all No Count, and while I have included the SmartPoints in my plan I will be a bit looser with my portion sizes so not paying much attention to the numbers. I'm easing myself back into blogging, but have a few recipes up my sleeves that will be coming soon so keep an eye out!