What's my plan...Choose Your Hard

I have been meeting a lot of new people out and about and have been sharing fitness and importance of healthy eating with them...lots of times it seems to be brought up in general conversation because it's a struggle we all have.  One of these lovely women that I met the other day said something to me that has really stuck....Choose Your Hard.

Everything in life has a consequence around it....nothing is truly easy.  When you feel like you may be at your lowest point and health and exercise has taken a back seat in your busy life...fitness and exercise seem like the hardest thing in the world to get back around to.  Then there is the other hard.  The tears you may shed as you go to your closet and figure out what you can wear that day that doesn't make you look like how you feel on the inside.  It's the hard that is trying to keep up with your kids as they play at the park and you told yourself...this would never be me!  It's the hard that is making a poor food choice and then letting the guilt set in with you and it only makes the whole experience snowball into more hatred and guilt you have for yourself.  It's the hard remembering when a parent tried to reach out to you way back when to try to help get you on track...and it was just too hard to bare to accept that maybe you needed that help.

Working out everyday is hard.  Getting to bed early so you can get up early is hard.  Prepping your home with healthy and nutritious snacks and dinners that are not crazy high in fat and calories when you have NO TIME to do anything is hard.  Figuring out what is the right thing for me to eat that I will still enjoy and no longer have that horrible craving is hard.  Not making this all into a BIG thing in front of your kids because you don't want them to have any concerns for themselves is hard.  Removing yourself from the kitchen to go to bed early so that you stop grazing on crap is hard.  It is all hard.

So the choice is yours.  Which of these hards do you want to face every day and what is your tipping point to make you realize that you can in fact choose the right one and it won't be so hard forever.

I was asked today how did I approach my "diet" when I started all this.  Most of us know what are the things we should be eating and the things we shouldn't be going near at all.  So not having cookies, cakes, anything sugary in my immediate area is the first step for me to success.  That is not to say that I do not partake in sweets as allowed...If there is room in my food log for the day...a cup of ice cream is happening for sure!  

I think I then just started figuring out things that I liked that kept me full and were low in calories.  There wasn't a plan per say that I followed...but a lot of trial and error.  I again really don't have an issue have a delicious taco salad almost every Tuesday night...I look forward to it.  My breakfast is the same thing and has been the same thing for well over a year.  One envelope of Wegmans Maple and Brown Sugar Weight Control Oatmeal...I bet for the past 365 days I have had that for breakfast at least 350 of them.  

Lunch is usually a wrap of something...Deli Turkey, Leftover Grilled Chicken, Leftover Ground Turkey Taco Meat, Blackbean Chipotle burger.  Those are my four lunches added with lettuce, tomatoes, onion, avocado, feta, cheddar, sour cream, salsa (all weighed and measured)...whatever goes with what I am eating.

Dinner is pretty routine too.  Turkey taco Salad, Turkey Ragu, Turkey Chili, Turkey Barbecue Burgers with Sweet Potato fries, Fish Stick Tacos, Chicken Over Salad, Asian Chicken with Cauliflower Fried Rice, Salmon&Brussels Sprouts&Sweet Potatoes, Chicken Parmesan, Meatballs and Spaghetti, and Chef Salads.

WATER, WATER, and MORE WATER!!

I do not have much of an issue having things in a loop.  There are nights were we will make something different for the kids then we are having but we are trying our best to make that less and less.  We weigh and measure EVERYTHING!!  I may have the kids down at the table...a quick grace is said and then my husband and I finish plating our food as it takes a little bit longer to get it all together.  I guess that's hard but to know all of what I am eating so that I can be sure to have a spare 220 calories for my cup of ice cream makes it all worth it. 

Another question I was asked today was what was it that finally pushed you to change your habits?

January 2014

I knew what I was doing was not going to get me anywhere good.  And that lovely night of January 25th 2014 when I JAMMED myself into a dress to get to my husband's work party...I COULDN'T breath, literally unzipped the dress while walking out of the hotel...want't to die and cry and just be out of there ASAP.  I knew I had put it off long enough and it was go time...I had to get serious.  I knew what to do...I had done it before but this time it was going to be forever and I was going to push further than I had before.  This was it...no more kids...no more excuses! 

I picked the hard that was getting on the treadmill, logging food, and saying no to more food and bad choices.  I just had to do it.  There really wasn't any other choice.  If I stayed with the other hard of feeling like crap...it was only going to get worse...and that would have been horrible for my body and my soul.  So I chose me and all the hard that is associated with a daily struggle with yourself to get and stay on track.  There are days that I want to eat like crap and not do my run but they are far less than they once were.  I know that myfitnesspal will keep me on track and let me still enjoy the foods I want when I have earned them.  That is not hard.  We are not children...we are adults...and we have to have that realization that hard work pays off...you have to make that decision for yourself.

So ...what is your plan...what hard are you going to pick...what can you do today to help get you to a better place tomorrow???  Accept that it's a process...accept that things take time...accept the help and support of others...accept that there will be days of failure...but remember there will be sucess and it will be one of your proudest moments.

Embrace the suck...Choose You...Choose the right HARD!!