Monday, February 28, 2011

Circumstances, Bad Habits and Excuses!

Have you ever allowed your circumstances to blast you off of your health and fitness plan? How about bad habits, do you fall back on them? What about excuses? Do you have any?

All three of these things almost got me today!

Work has been extremely busy and stressful lately and today almost got the best of me. It's been so crazy, that I feel like I've been stretched in all directions. Sadly there does not seem to be any end to this circumstance.

In the old days, prior to my weight loss and fitness plan, I would have handled this stress by using food to soothe my anxiety. Since I started my plan, I've learned some tools that help me handle stress better ~ Like exercise, taking time for myself, purposefully taking care of myself etc. My bad habits would have been...feel the stress, eat chocolate, feel the stress, eat other kinds of candy, feel the stress, McDonald's was the answer. Feel the stress, gave license to .... over eat anything and everything!!!

Excuses...back then, I had a zillion of them to keep me from making the right choice ~ Too tired, too stressed, I deserve to have the treats, I need this happiness ~ even if it is only for a moment.

Today, I was pushed to my limit. I had my nose to the grindstone all day and ended up working 1 1/2 hours overtime. The stress, added work hours and fatigue were the perfect recipe for me to abandon my weight loss and fitness plan. I started to feel the old bad habits begging to reappear and the excuses!! Well they were revving up in a grand scale.

I knew I needed to get to the gym, but tonight's routine would mean another 2 hours away from home. I just felt too tired to go. Then because I felt time was not on my side, I wanted something quick to eat and Mickey D's was calling my name. The battle was on and I needed to make some decisions, some choices. It could have gone either way.....

But my new habits kicked in. Not only did I get to the gym, but I had a great work out!! You know I did not even care that the gym was packed and I had to fight for the machines and weights I wanted to use. I did my full weight routine, 10 minutes on the Elliptical and 50 minutes on the Treadmill. Then I was able to get another bottle of water down and made my water intake goal for the day. Then I got home and had a healthy dinner. Calories were on target for the day. Success!!!

So even though life happens and circumstances were not the best, I did not allow those nasty old bad habits and excuses to bump me off of my plan. I stuck to it and did what I needed to do!!

I FEEL GREAT!!!

How about you? Do you ever allow life's circumstances, your old bad habits and excuses to bump you off of your plan or have you learned to push through no matter what?

Keep focused!

7 comments:

  1. Good job on the "mental" work of this thing!! Yes, I've allowed circumstances to bump me off my plan many times and probably will again in the future as will you. Neither of us are perfect! But there is victory in every time we "push through" and what I have learned is that the times of being bumped off plan are coming further and further apart! I am happy to say that I "push through" more often than I'm "bumped off."

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  2. CONGRATULATIONS! An awesome victory! Good for you!
    D

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  3. Good for you Joy! That must feel so good.

    Sometimes it gets the best of me....but I do feel like there are more days than not that I'm coping better and not turning to food.

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  4. Awesome job Joy!!! It's so hard when these things happen making those excuses easy to grab hold of, but you didn't and should feel so good about yourself. Here's a bit pat on the back and a high five too!!!

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  5. Good for you!! These past few weeks, dealing with midterms & work, I haven't had a ton of time and have been slacking off. I got lucky with a loss this week...but I know I won't always be that lucky.

    Thanks for the reminder that the resistance of temptations will be so much more worth it in the end!!

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  6. Oh yes, I almost let me old habits interrupt my losing streak this week, but I turned it around and gained control again. YAY ME! And yay for you, Joy! You're doing SO great! Keep it up, my friend! :)

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