Why the bag is bad

Last night, for reasons that are unimportant, dinner wasn't ready until extremely late in the evening (around 11:00 pm). Since I get up at 8:00 am, eating dinner 15 hours later is a bad idea. Because I really wanted to eat the dish I was cooking, I decided to snack on something to try and tide me over until the food was done. The “snacking” occurred around 9:00 pm, and, unsurprisingly, I was famished.

The choice I made to snack on was cheese and pita chips. I was tired (and hungry). The plan was to eat just a few chips (4 or 5, about a half serving) and about an ounce of cheese. Instead of serving myself the number of chips I expected to eat, I just dragged the bag into the living room with me. Big mistake. In the end, I ended up eating about 3 servings worth of chips and about an ounce and a half of cheese. I didn't end up overeating for the day, but I'd used all of my dinner calories on this snack. I ended up skipping dinner after that.

Don't get me wrong, this wasn't the end of the world or anything. I'm not beating myself up about it, but I'm fully aware that this was completely imbalanced nutritionally and a very poor use of calories. I didn't feel satisfied after eating that stuff, just full. And I woke up burping garlic from the seasoning on the chips.

There are 2 lessons I should have learned by now which would have prevented this from happening and the frustrating thing is that I know these things very well already yet stupidly just set aside what I know to be true. Literally, I thought of these things and just ignored them.

The first lesson is that I should never wait until I'm famished to eat a meal. If dinner as planned won't be ready at a time in which I can reasonably eat, I should plan a meal that can be eaten and eat the dinner as leftovers the next day. Or, I should never plan a meal that I'm pretty sure won't be ready until very late.

The second lesson is that I should never, ever (EVER) eat food with multiple servings directly out of the bag. This is a rookie mistake for people who have problems with eating too much or eating mindlessly. One should always remove the amount desired and place it on a dish then put the remainder away. My guess is that, on some level, I wanted to eat more than planned because I was so hungry, and I did what I thought would allow me to eat more.

I'm writing this post mainly to help reinforce what I should already know, and in no way to punish myself for what I did. I'm not big into the self-flagellation routine when I make a mistake or a bad choice. Frankly, I think that's a counterproductive way of addressing a lapse and as much (if not more) about getting attention and creating drama. Beating yourself up for a mistake is no more effective than people tormenting you for being fat as a motivator. It actually makes it harder to make good choices, not easier, since it makes you focus on your failure instead of your potential to succeed.