The Mind Marathon

The other week when I was sick and missed boot camp my mom asked if I was to the point where "I needed" to workout. The short answer was "no" I've never been an exercise junkie, I enjoy my workouts and if I miss one I'm disappointed but it is still a choice I have to make everyday to drag myself out of bed or drive to the gym after work instead of home. However in the overall scheme of my weight loss journey it's probably the easiest choice to make. The hard choice is the ongoing mind marathon of choosing what to eat! In a perfect world I could surround myself with good food, banish all the candy, cookies, high fat food, and light n fluffy simple carbs. But my world isn't perfect and every day is a mental struggle to make the right choices. The first month I could say "No" to bad food so easily, but now after making good choices for months good choices are SO much harder to make and it is so easy to rationalize making a bad choice.


Also it is just mentally draining to think about everything I eat, I'm not obsessed about everything I eat, but I am mindful of everything I eat. Being mindful is great, tons better than mindlessly putting food in my mouth not caring that I was gradually poisoning myself. But being mindful is mentally exhausting, I lifelong marathon that I can no longer afford to walk through. So how am I going to keep jogging this mind marathon?

• Better meal planning! This is probably where I continue to struggle the most I'm not planning most of my meals so I spend a lot of mental energy throughout the day thinking about what I'm going to eat. So I'm going to regroup and make a game plan this weekend to help me with my meal planning.
  
• Reward myself with non-food presents. I've decided for each week that I complete all my food journal, I get an eBook, for those of you that don't know I love reading and if left to my own devices I would read an eBook a day so this has the added benefit of also helping my bank account.
  
• Pamper myself, at least once a month with either a massage or nice long bath. Taking time to recharge is what has helped me the most to stay on track both physically and mentally.   

Hope this helps me before I hit a wall in my mind marathon!

Quick Update

Hello Everyone! Wow I can't believe it's already December 16^th and I haven't blogged yet this month....for shame....As I'm sure is true for most of us It has been one crazy month so far. It started out getting ready for my choir concert which was awesome. Then last week at work I found out my company is merging with another bigger company. The company we are merging with is a great company  and I'm excited but in the short term its lots of work for me to do before the merger. Alex came home for Christmas last Saturday! So happy to a have him home for an extended stay. But with everything that's been going on this month it's been a hard fought battle to stay on track. I was sick earlier in the month and missed three boot camps :( and I haven't been home most nights for dinner. Amazingly I'm still on track to meet my December weight goals but it's going to take some extra will power to stay away from all the delicious Christmas treats. Promise to blog again tomorrow!

Choir Concert

I was a Toy in Santa's Workshop