The 30 Second Choice

Ms. Procrastinate here...

The last three weeks i've been giving this a lot of thought... choice. We make choices everyday. Good, bad, to finish what's on our plate, or to put the leftovers in the fridge for later. When you're in the grocery store we make a choice to buy healthy items or even not so healthy items. In the morning we have the choice to listen to our alarm when it goes off and get out of bed... or we hit the snooze button and think, "5 more minutes and i'll get up." I don't know about you but when I make that choice to hit the snooze button I know i'm not getting up for at least another 30 min. And every 5 minutes i'll hit the button and think, "just 5 more minutes" knowing that i'm lying to myself. *slaps hand to forehead*

I was once told that every time you say you're GOING to do something and DON'T do it, your self confidence takes a hit. Sooooooo true! And yet, here I am saying that i'm going to find someone to loan me their P90X or Insanity workout DVD's and i've only asked one person and never followed through. I said I was going to eat like a damn rabbit for 90 days and drink lots of water, but what's true is that right now i'm on my 2nd cup of coffee. Bad choices!

Also what I do reflects and shows up on others around me. Example: When
I stop blogging... iheartbread and Muffin Top stop too. Coincidence? Nope! When I care to blog they care to blog and vice versa.

So on to my thoughts about the 30 Seconds Choice... Granted a lot of people make great choices in those 30 seconds. For those of us with diet and weight loss issues, great choices maybe come once in a while. Let's face the facts here... if we made the right choices we wouldn't be in this position in the first place. I know 30 seconds doesn't seem like a long time but i'm not talking about the whole decision making process here.

I'm talking about the amount of time it takes for you to start talking yourself into the wrong choice. It only takes one thought to start you going down the shady path in your mind type of thing. Get it?! Example: I have 2 choices for lunch...Taco Bell or a homemade sandwich with grapes. The first thought the steers me towards the bad choice is "it'll be easier to drive a block and get lunch than take 15 minutes to hunt down everything I need to make the sandwich." Once THAT thought comes up i'll start to justify it! "And taco bell is so cheap anyways I might as well." It's so stupid!!! THEEEEEN I'll make my self feel better about making that choice. "So because i'm eating at Taco Bell i'll get a Diet Pepsi and do 30 minutes on the Wii fit." Ya... like that'll ever happen. I'll make up some other excuse later about how I don't have enough time to workout. Can anyone relate!?!?!

So my challenge to you readers (all 15 of you, lol) is to catch that ONE thought in that 30 seconds that gets you speeding towards the choice that isn't best for you. Write down what it is and put it up somewhere that you'll see it all the time, and ask yourself, "How often does this one thought come up?" You'd be surprised! And i'll do the same of course and let you know what it is.

Happy dieting everyone!

impossible

That's how i describe this Slim Fast bullshit. Maybe if I had a "normal job" with a "normal schedule" it would be conceivable, but with a person who works nights and doesn't wake up for "breakfast," it's not a good time.
Well, maybe if i got up early enough, had a shake, went to the gym, had a snack, got ready for work, had a shake, etc.... So it's either that it really IS impossible or I'm not giving it enough effort.

But I'll tell you what, be prepared. I'm hungry. A lot of liquid going in means a lot of liquid going out. My first day doing this I was quite weak and didn't have a lot of energy at work. I ran out of milk so I didn't do it for a few days and I felt better. Hmmm, wonder if there's a connection....
Of course when you're adjusting to ANY new plan, there's going to be lulls in energy. Maybe I notice it more because I have such a physically demanding job. Who knows and really, who cares?
I got more milk, I'm going to keep trying. Starting my day with a shake DOES remind me to take in less calories throughout the day. And my pants DID feel a bit looser this morning....

30 more days of this crap?!

That's my first thought. I'm on day one and I already can't stick with the program. I didn't go off and binge or anything, but I woke up late and got my schedule all out of whack. I had a shake this morning with 2% milk and some blackberries added to my milk chocolate flavored torture... ahem, meal. In all honesty, it wasn't bad. You blend it with some ice and for awhile, it's pretty filling. I had an apple before leaving for work and was planning on having a salad (joy!) when I got to work.
Buuuuut, I got a call when I was in the locker room that apparently I was late and was supposed to start at two instead of three. Oops. Oh well. I should have still gotten a break. Buuuuuut that didn't happen. I got a table and they stayed until preshit, ahem, preshift then I had to set up for a table at 5:30. Fortunately for me, we're starting these rotisserie specials, so we had to try the first one today. It was a balsalmic glazed lamb with minted olive oil on top of sauteed spinach and served with a quinoa pilaf.
I tell you what, that quinoa pilaf saved the heads of everyone at work. During preshift I could feel the belly start to rumble. I drank a couple glasses of water and was seriously looking at my knuckles wondering if I could gnaw them off without anyone noticing. Of course, the bread cart is wide open next to me and I could smell the fresh bakeness of it. Forget Chinese water torture. You want to drive ME crazy? Tell me not to eat it.
The plus side to not plunging into the bread cart headfirst is that I know if I could resist it once, I can resist it again. I gave up white bread, white flour and white sugar for awhile and didn't eat the bread and after awhile, I got out of the habit and it wasn't a temptation anymore. But that takes time.
Fortunately for me #2 is that we were busy, so I didn't have a chance to think that much about the pinball game going on in my insides. I did grab a banana partway through the shift and that helped curb the echo emanating from my digestive system.
I'm home now and I considered having another shake, but I wasn't sure if that'd be a good idea, so I ate a peach and made some hot tea. I'm hoping that'll fill the void. Because, frankly, I'm hungry.