No excuses

You know that little voice inside of you that stops you from trying to do the thing you know you need to do? I call it the "excuses" voice. It comes up EVERY TIME I am planning to do something I need to do. And I have to learn to recognize it and FIGHT it.

For example, say it is almost lunchtime. Here is the conversation in my head.

Me: "Maybe I'll have a spinach salad with grilled chicken."
Excuses voice: "But wouldn't a trip to the drive-thru at Jack In the Box be so much easier?"
Excuses voice continues: "You can have a salad tonight. One drive-thru meal isn't going to hurt you."
Excuses voice keeps going: "Besides, you have so much work to do. It would take much less time to drive thru Jack In the Box."
Excuses voice keeps going: "Plus, the salad would only keep you full for an hour or maybe two hours at the most. You'll just have to stop again and fix something else. You are just too busy for that. You need to get filled up enough to work for the next 4-5 hours."
Excuses voice keeps going: "You can have the salad another time. It's just one meal."

Notice the "me" voice never comes back. I almost always let the excuses voice keep going and talk me into doing what I really shouldn't do. It just keeps going and going until it convinces me. This happens with what I eat, exercising, cleaning house and every other thing I know I need to do (and sometimes even WANT to do), but I let that stupid voice win too many times.

It reared it's ugly head again tonight. But I won. The trick is recognizing it immediately and shutting it OFF.

I was planning to go to my exercise Zumba class tonight at the gym. My son was going to go to the gym with me, however, he came home from school with a headache and took some Advil and laid down.

The excuses voice started in immediately.

Excuses voice: "Well, since Blake isn't going, you really don't need to waste the gas...." I shut it down and completely put it out of mind.
As I'm putting on my workout clothes, it comes back.
Excuses voice: "You really don't have time to do this. You are on deadline and you have so much work...." I shut it down again, literally shook my head and kept moving forward.
On the WAY to the gym:
Excuses voice: "You know you don't even really have to go to the class. You can just walk around a store for a little bit and......" Shut it down again. Shook it out of my head.

The more I shut it down, the less the voice was able to get out. All the way to the class it kept trying to come up but I shut it down immediately, made it to my Zumba class, did the full hour (excuses voice was even trying to justify leaving early!!!!) and felt GREAT afterwards.

Not just from the exercising, but I felt victorious over that excuses voice that has mostly succeeded in keeping me from the life and health I deserve!!!

I think if I can remain aware of that voice and recognize it when it comes up, it could really make a HUGE impact on reaching my health and fitness goals.

Putting it all together

Well, I had my exercise going GREAT in July. But my food was very bad.

In August, I really improved a LOT in my food, but with my new job I didn't make the time for exercise. Then towards the end of the month when I corrected the "time" problem and MADE the time for exercise, I just flat out didn't do it.

Is September the month I finally put it all together?

I'm feeling pretty good about it!

Favorite meals

Here are some of my favorite meals that are helping me eat more nutritious!

Favorite Breakfast:

• 2 veggie sausage patties (Morningstar) and a fat-free Yoplait yogurt----LOVE this breakfast and it keeps me full for hours!!
• Small bowl of oatmeal with a little bit of honey for sweetness, with fruit such as strawberries or an apple
• Fat-free Yoplait yogurt with fruit---love to put blueberries in the Strawberry/Banana flavored one---and a Fiber One granola bar
• Fiber One Honey Clusters cereal with Light Vanilla Soy milk and fruit

With most breakfast meals, I have a 16 ounce bottle of water with the Lipton Green Tea "Energize" packet---blueberry/pomegranate flavor. (This is like my "coffee", since I don't do coffee!)

Favorite Lunch/Dinner:

• Sliced Chicken Breast on top of a HUGE pile of baby spinach leaves and tomatoes with just a touch of light ranch dressing---makes an enormous and wonderful salad
• 2 Wasa multi-grain crackers topped with turkey and half a slice of cheddar cheese
• Chicken breast with 2 vegetables---such as carrots, broccoli, black beans and big pile of baby spinach leaves
• Light, multi-grain Flat-Out wrap filled with salsa, black beans, onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, low fat grated cheese and mushrooms----this is by far my FAVORITE!!! Sooooooo good!
• Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice meal--always an easy stand-by if needed for time and convenience!
• One slice of whole grain bread with peanut butter (spread lightly) and honey with a fat-free yogurt or fruit
• 2 Garden Veggie Burger patties (Morningstar) with a big pile of baby spinach leaves---LOVE this meal, too!! I also have a very small amount of light ranch I dip each bite of the patty in

Favorite Snacks:

• sliced green apple
• banana
• Fiber One granola bar
• Those little Del Monte cups of Pineapple slices you find in the produce section----LOVE these!!!!! So refreshing!!
• All-Bran garlic and herb crackers with hummus
• Fat-free Yoplait yogurt---favorite flavors are Orange, White Chocolate/Strawberry, Strawberry/Banana and Cinnamon Roll
• Handful of almonds
• Strawberries
• Orange
• Purple seedless grapes!

Yummy!

Getting older

I am on track. I'm eating better than ever. My new job is making it more challenging to find the time to exercise, so that has stalled the last couple of weeks. However, I am working all that out and know I'll have a good routine down soon so that I'm taking care of myself.

I'm feeling a real shift in my mindset about health and fitness. It's a very good thing.

I'm 36 years old---going to be 37 in a couple of months. Health and fitness is becoming less about "looking good" and feeling confident and more about preventing sickness, disease and living a long life.

I am really starting to get freaked out about what horrible shape I'm in. The older I get, the more it's going to cause major, major problems.

Right now, even though I'm over 100 pounds overweight, I am soooo fortunate to not have any major health problems. But that will absolute change if I don't do something very, very, very soon. I'm reaching a real critical point in my life where my health and fitness matters a lot more to my life. I feel it so strongly.

What I eat matters more than ever right now. How much I exercise matters so much more now. It's not about looks. It's about being alive and LIVING. When I think about it that way, I feel such a sense of urgency that I didn't feel before.

I want to protect my body as much as I can against things like stroke, heart attacks, diabetes, cancer and all those other things. I don't have control over it 100 percent, but I have a lot of control over it.

What I eat and how much I move makes a HUGE difference in combatting sickness and disease. Again, even the most healthy people get sick. But I am at MUCH greater risk at my current state of health.

I'm just feeling such a wake-up call lately. I've GOT to change now.

10 pounds!!

I've lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks!

Obviously, I won't keep up that pace. My body is just shocked by all the changes!! But it sure is nice to get a little boost.

Some of my clothes are already too big on me! THAT is a great feeling!!

So I'm keeping it up. Healthy food and exercise---the old-fashioned way.

Weigh-in day!

I'm weighing and measuring myself every Friday and this week I lost 5 pounds in my quest to lose 50 pounds by Dec. 1!! Woooo-hooooo!! That is a good start!

I have eaten so well this week. Not perfect, but better than I've eaten in a long time over the course of a week. It really helped to keep my little mini-fridge stocked with healthy food that I really enjoy.

I never felt deprived at all. The one thing I probably did was eat TOO MUCH healthy food, but I'm going one step at a time. And my first step is switching to healthy food. The next step will focus on quantity. Right now I'm just going to focus on cutting out the junk. I'm not going to worry about quantity right now.

One of the best things I did was to cook 12 chicken breasts one night---with sesame ginger marinade yummm!!!---so they were ready and already cooked to eat conveniently all week long. Put a couple of vegetable sides with it and had a great meal!

I actually lost some inches, too, during this first week. I'm measuring just about everything---waist, hips, chest, elbow, neck, etc.---15 different body parts! I lost a total of 9.25 inches!

So Week 1----down 5 pounds and 9.25 inches.

Good start.

Good day

1. Got my new mini-fridge stocked with healthy food! (see pic)

2. After being laid off for six months, I got a job today!!!! AND it's even a job I will really love! Woooo-hoooooo!!!!

Oh yes.

It has been a good day.

Food list

Got my new mini-refrigerator yesterday! I really needed it, because I am now renting part of a family's house and there is just very little room in their refrigerator for me to stock healthy food. So that was a really positive step for me.

Now I will stock it with healthy food!

With my goal of losing 50 pounds in the next 19 weeks ( right before I go on the already paid-for and scheduled December cruise with my mom and sister), I will stock that refrigerator with healthy food I LOVE. Then I'm eating only this healthy food every 2-3 hours and giving myself one cheat day (Saturdays) for the first month at least. That way, when I crave crappy food I can at least tell myself, "I can have that on Saturday," and it won't seem so bad.

I'm weighing and measuring myself every Friday to measure my progress. I'm already exercising, so I just need to get the food part going.

I'm focusing on healthy food I really, really enjoy. And there is actually a lot of it! Here is what I will keep on hand as much as possible---as my budget allows.

• Almonds
• Chicken Breast
• Salmon
• Black beans
• Light Vanilla Soy Milk
• Skim Milk
• Fiber One Honey Cluster Cereal
• Bananas
• Strawberries
• Purple seedless grapes
• Pineapple---my favorite!!!
• Oranges
• Green apples
• Protein powder for protein shakes
• Mushrooms
• Green bell peppers
• Tomatoes
• Onions
• Salsa
• Low-fat shredded cheese
• Deli sliced turkey
• Wasa multigrain crackers
• Whole grain bread
• Oatmeal
• Peanut Butter
• Honey
• Wraps--high fiber, whole grain
• Mixed frozen vegetables that I can steam in steamer bags
• Yoplait fat-free yogurt
• Blueberries---to put in yogurt
• Fresh spinach
• Light ranch dressing--to drizzle only
• Baby carrots
• Fiber One granola bars
• Fat-free jello pudding
• Eggs--hard boiled
• Lean Cuisine meals---for when I'm really in a crunch for time, I know it's not ideal
• Veggie sausage patties--LOVE the Morningstar Farms Veggie Sausage Patties
• Veggie burgers---LOVE the Morningstar Farms Garden Veggie Patties

I won't be able to get all this every week, but this is my list to choose from. Then I can get what I can afford and what I have room for in my little mini-fridge each week.

And I really do LOVE all the food on this list! It's just a matter of making it a priority to have these foods handy, and making the time to prepare these foods.

Friday is my first weigh-in day!