Why Did I Eat Three Tacos for Dinner Last Night?

Last night was not the worst eating night in my life- not by far- but it was frustrating and I think all too common for a lot of people.

I was rushing through my day and wanted something healthy for dinner. But I needed to feed my family happily. I didn't have anything planned out (some foreshadowing to the problem) and I had some frozen ground beef in my freezer. No problem I thought- I'll make tacos- with rice on the side for my family. Ill make my own taco with mostly lettuce, some meat on the top, add some avocados, and then topped with great salsa. On the side I decided to roast some sweet potatoes and zuchinni with olive oil and spices.

The plan went along beautifully- but I noticed when I was making dinner that I was hungry, really hungry. I finished making dinner and then realized I forgot the veggies- so I quickly peeled, diced, spiced, and threw it in the oven.

Dinner began- the plan worked well. The kids were happy and I had my one taco- 3/4 veggies, a handful of taco meat, and avocados on top with salsa.

But when I was done I realized, I was still STARVING and the veggies weren't even close to being done yet. So I munched on some green peppers slices. But I was still really hungry. So I thought, no problem, I'll just have one more taco until the veggies are done. But ofcourse before I could even realize what I was doing- I had eaten two more tacos. I felt ravenously hungry, and then grossly overfull. As I was looking for some diet coke to settle my over filled stomach the oven rang- my veggies were ready.

Every problem when it comes to eating can have a cognitive solution, a behavioral solution, or both. This problem was mostly a behavioral issue and it stemmed from two problems. I had neglected to make a detailed weekly meal plan for myself because Sunday was a fast day and I wasn't thinking straight. Because of that I had a rushed breakfast, had a very small lunch, and not as many snacks as I usually do.

Basically I had put myself in starvation mode, and the brain cannot make good food choices when it's too hungry.

If I had to do it over again- I would have had a bigger breakfast, a mid morning snack, a nice sized lunch, a snack at 3:30 p.m., and then I probably would have been able to keep to my original plan. I also might have made a whole pan of roasted veggies at the beginning of the week so I could have pulled it out and just quickly heated it up. I also would have been careful to monitor my water intake because often thirst is mistaken for hunger, and I had run yesterday in the morning and was probably dehydrated still from this gross hot sticky weather.

The CBT moral of my taco saga is:
-Plan ahead what you're going to eat at the beginning of the week
-Eat regularly and plentifully throughout the day to keep your metabolism revved up and your brain continuously able to keep to your plan and make good food decisions
-Convince yourself to drink a full glass of water before taking an extra helping

Better to learn from what happened then to let it happen again while berating myself for overeating. Let's hope for better controlled taco nights in the future!