I try my best at the homemaking stuff, lol. It was a lot easier before I started McDougalling. You can cook anything from scratch and make it taste good with cheese, meat, oil, and gloppy cream of something soup. I still cook SAD meals for my family, but not as heavy like I used to. And more often than not, my vegan meals I try to make off the cuff fail miserably. It's a learning curve. I'm getting better at it. I wish Jan Tz was still on the boards because I use her recipes more often than not. They are simple and work well as side dishes for the meat eating family. I made her ginger bread quick bread this morning. She used white flour, but I use wheat. It turns out denser, but oh so good.
I'm reading through the AA Big book in support of my sister who is a recovering alcoholic. One thing that struck me was it said that the only kind of alcoholic that struggles the most with getting sober was the one that cannot be honest with himself. Such as, "I'm not that bad" or "this stuff really doesn't apply to me", and so on. It put me in mind of something someone once said on the boards here. I'm paraphrasing, and I also can't remember who said it, but it was something like, "the people who fail at McDougalling are mostly the ones who come here hoping the diet will cure their emotional problems, like anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. While good food can certainly help, those kind of things need to be addressed for what they are and proper treatment for them sought. Two different scenarios for failure, but I see a bit of myself in both. I think if I separate these thing out, instead of hoping for a one shot cure all, I have a better chance to succeed. Such as, I really AM middle aged. I really AM very out of shape and not healthy. I DO have very high cholesterol. These things can be best addressed with a no oil vegan diet and exercise. On the other side of things, I DO struggle with depression and anxiety. Learning better ways to cope, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, will address the root of the problem in a positive way than masking it with a food binge.
Like last night. We were making the rounds at my son's school open house and they had a cookie table set up. I know that if I eat one cookie, it will turn into three. So, I lied to myself and and took one cookie thinking I would be able to stop. Nope. One turned into three.
Had I just been honest with myself and my inability to eat only one non compliant cookie, I would have stayed on plan. Live and learn.
"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." - Virginia Woolf