At Shawn’s old job, top managers and their significant others would be treated to a week-long conference where meetings involved masseuses and their power lunches were around the pool (get my drift?). The company would give each manager an envelope of cash at the start of the week to cover the expenses for meals that weren’t had as a group.
I’m getting to the point . . .
The first year that Shawn and I went, we received our envelope and opened it in the room. It came with a paper that explained how much was budgeted for each meal. It was a jaw-dropping moment for us. $150 for dinner? $75 for lunch? $50 for breakfast? No way! We would never spend that much. Who eats like that? We certainly weren’t accustomed to spending so grandly for meals.
Then we actually went to one of the restaurants on site and saw burgers, the cheapest item on the menu, for $15. Suddenly, it made sense. Everything is relative. We were in a very ritzy hotel and the cost of staying (and eating) there was greater than we were used to. Sure, they could have given us less money for dinner, but then we wouldn’t have been limited to burgers and fries with a side of water for our meals and that would have taken away from the experience.
The same is true of eating. Yes, you can eat “cheaply” and keep your calories ultra-low. I’ve done it. But that kind of dieting isn’t longterm and it isn’t healthy either. You might lose some quick pounds, but you open up your body for injury, illness and gaining back more than you lost because you compromise your immune system by essentially starving yourself. And in the end, that never works out well.
So, to eat a successful diet, you need to get over the sticker shock — yes, you might use a quarter of your days calories on breakfast. You might use more than half your calories at lunch. Where ever you use them, make the calories you “spend” count. That means forgoing the snacking for the sake of snacking. That means savoring each bite, even if you are only having a few of a high ticket item.
Everything, in moderation.
