Day 20 - Things work out, hunger is OK, and the abundance mentality.

Well, one again I do not have a weight for today since I am traveling.  I may try to find a scale tomorrow morning since it will be my three week mark. I did try to go to the gym tonight, but it is only open from 6a-7p, so they were already closed when I went there at 10pm.  Maybe I can get up and go before I have to start things tomorrow.

So I am still on travel for work, and I went to lunch with my colleague once again.  This time we went and got some Salvadoran food, which was actually really good, first time I'd tried it.  I got carne asada, which is basically a steak with rice and beans with vegetables, etc.  It was a lot like most Mexican restaurants, in that they served chips and salsa on the table and the food was similar.  I actually did really good, I didn't eat nearly all of the food and only had three chips.  Maybe 3/4 of the steak and about 1/3 cup rice and 1/4 cup beans, and about half of a pupusa with cabbage.  So I felt really good and not overly full, but was certainly enough food for my one meal, despite the fact that on travel we usually go to social dinner as well.  I apologize I did not get a picture of the plate.

But today it worked out that my colleague has an aunt that lives in the town we are traveling to, and wanted to go to dinner with her.  I told him no problem at all, and so I am not obliged to eat dinner, and it feels pretty good.  I'll admit that I am a bit hungry, since I am used to eating in the evening and not for lunch, but not so much that it's a problem.

One thing I've learned is that if you want to lose weight, you are going to be hungry sometimes.  That's all there is to it.  Some diets claim that you'll never be hungry, but sooner or later, if you are living on a calorie deficit, you will get hungry.  Your body very much wants to maintain its current weight, and it will send hunger signals when you eat less that maintenance.  But that's OK, once you realize that it's not the end of the world, it's OK to be hungry, it's not a crisis, then you can get through it.

There are several restaurants in my hotel, including a McDonald's and a Panda Express, which is one of my favorites, but I know I don't have to give in.  I can have that stuff any day I want, for my one meal, but that's not today, because I already had my one meal.  I don't need to have the scarcity mentality of "I can never have that", much better to have an abundance mentality of "I can have that any time, I'm just choosing not to have it right now."