To Know Thyself is the Beginning of Wisdom

I fail at my diet every day at 1pm. Or rather, sometime in between 1pm and 5pm. It’s that weird afternoon time where I’m prepping lunch, thinking about getting dinner ready, and my kiddo is home from school and wanting a snack. There’s a lot of time spent in the kitchen, much of it just sort of puttering around without much of a plan. I have excellent intentions. Make a beet salad. Eat spinach. Peel a carrot.

And then I find myself re-discovering cake.

And not only does all my good work all morning go out the dang window, but I’m playing an un-winnable game of catchup for the rest of the day. All for the joy of putting some flour, butter, sugar, and eggs into my body.

So this week, I’m trying something new. In the spirit of Knowing Myself, and Knowing that 1pm is the Witching Hour for me, I am planning ahead. Very adult of me, right?

I’m going to space out my breakfast so that I’m not starving by 1pm. And I’m going to plan exactly what I’m going to eat, and put it out on the counter when I’m making my breakfast so that I won’t have to go hunting for it.

And most of all, I’m keeping myself busy during that time. I will plan ahead for some self-care time, and get my family involved in the game. It’ll be fun – like, let’s see how relaxed we can make mom, without her having to resort to food!

I am also going to set some alarms, so they trigger my behavior. Every half hour, between 1 and 5, I will have an event pop up, with some inspirational quote, or something to remind me of what I’m doing (and how having my face in the cookie jar isn’t a good look).

I’m hoping that this will be the start of a lovely change in my afternoons, and I will report back tomorrow to see how it went!