Life Doesn’t Control Me…I Control My Life

Rarely will you ever do anything harder in your life than try to lose weight. Alcoholics can stop drinking, smokers can stop smoking, but when you have to lose weight you can’t just stop eating. The temptation is all around you. It’s the one “addiction” that everyone will say to you, “just have one piece,” or, “one bite won’t hurt.” You never hear someone say to a recovering alcoholic, “just have a drink with me; it’ll be fine.” For some reason most people never fully understand how difficult it can be on a person to eat healthy, exercise, and take control of their health and life.

Temptations are everywhere you look and it’s hard to keep your priorities in focus. This is when knowing what you want and being willing to do what it takes to get there is paramount. It’s not enough to say, “I want to lose weight.” You have to be willing to focus, make plans, and prioritize your life around the goals you have set for yourself. You have to control your life and stop letting others control your life.

When you prioritize your life and your goals to lose weight, you realize that food isn’t about having an incredible experience with each meal. It’s about supplying your body with the right fuel it needs to be in good shape. You have to find a way to enjoy the foods that offer a healthy, long lasting life like fruit, oatmeal, vegetables, protein shakes, etc. Although the occassional cookie, cake, fried fish, and mashed potato is good, it has to be enjoyed in moderation. If you want to lose weight, moderation isn’t daily even if you exercise. It is more like once a week. Daily small treats are what stall the scale. Once a week treats are what move the scale down. By the way, I said once a week and not the whole weekend.

If you really have weightloss as your priority and not just a want, you pass up the candy dish, you throw out your child’s leftover french fries, you avoid licking the spoons when making dinner, you say no to a piece of birthday cake at a party, or you make your salad and yogurt when your husband shows up with pizza and beer on Friday night. People who do these things on a regular basis see great results. Those who don’t wonder why they don’t lose weight even when they workout 7+ hours a week.

The next time you are faced with a small decision like the candy bowl or the gang going out to lunch stop and think about what you want more. Does this piece of candy or the temptation of a restaurant fit into my priorities? Just stop for one minute and think about it. That may be all you need to start seeing better results in your weightloss journey. Remember, losing weight is a combination of a lot of little things that add up to big losses in inches and pounds.
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I’m back from Vegas and back to blogging. It’s good to be home and back into my routine. This morning started off less than stellar, though. Chris set the alarm to wake us at 6:00 a.m. for morning cardio and unfortunately he left it on vibrate. Thank goodness I woke up at 8:30 a.m. and got us all out the door. That meant I had to move cardio behind weights, but I got it in. Rather than doing 60 minutes of steady state I opted to do 30 minutes of interval training on the treadmill.

Today’s Workout: Shoulders (ab intervals between sets)

Superset One: 3 sets
Bentover Flyes
Upright Rows
Running Toe Taps

Superset Two: 3 sets
Arnold Press
OH Press
Full Range Side Raises

Superset Three: 3 sets
Single Arm OH Press
Single Arm Fly
Lateral Raises

Set Four: 3 sets
Pop Squats

Cardio: 30 min. Intervals on Treadmill. Walk 2, sprint 1 on 0% incline.

Daily Food Journal:

B – Oatmeal with banana and 1 tbsp of peanut butter
L – right after workout…egg white sandwich with soy crisps
S – cup of mixed fruits – fresh
S – Protein Snack Bar (Atkins 140 calorie)
D - 4 oz. Flank steak with baked sweet potato cubes and green beans
S – Sherbet

Just a quick brag here, too. I weighed exactly the same this morning as I did the day before we left for Vegas! Yay me!