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!