Wow, did I eat badly this week.  I'm not sure I could have eaten worse if I had tried and I don't know why.  Movie theater popcorn- which I haven't been eating.  A Burger King double cheeseburger.  Peanut butter eggs.  Way too much sodium, not enough water. It wouldn't bother me so much except I feel like crap.  I have a headache, I feel bloated, dehydrated and unhealthy.

The sad part is I worked out really well.  I had an excellent week.  I guess one way to look at it is, "good thing I had such good workouts or this overeating would quickly affect my weight".  But I don't want to feel like this at all.  Nothing I ate is worth feeling like this.  I want to be healthy, strong and energized.  I want to feel good about myself.

As I think back through my week, I see what some of my mistakes were.  First and foremost, I didn't have enough food made up ahead of time because I only made a quick trip to the grocery store.  I was out of egg whites so I didn't have my egg frittata made up.  I was out of Salmon.  I ran out of lettuce for salads.  No broccoli.  I know better but last weekend I did some other stuff instead of preparing my food and I paid for it.  Since I didn't make time for it Sunday, I really should have done it on Monday.  Funny if I don't do it on Sunday, I don't do it at all.  That's not very good thinking.

I also didn't have my normal snacks available at work.  No yogurt in the fridge.  No granola bars in my desk.  So when I ran out to grab something, I remembered that I had a Burger King gift card.  Why not use it!  Yuck, I remember why.  Because I don't LIKE Burger King.  It's not the taste really, it's the after-effects.  I can feel that saturated fat clumping up in my arteries.  I get very thirsty from the high salt.  It's just not a good feeling.

There is always something more fun to do than go to the grocery store.  There are definitely more pressing priorities than spending an hour in the kitchen on a sunny Sunday making egg white frittatas.  But my fitness is important to me.  I know this one.  If I don't have things organized, I don't do well.  I have to have my environment set up for success, not failure.  Now that the weather is going to be different than it was all winter, it won't be as easy to spend those few hours getting set for the week.

Thankfully, I know this one too.  It only takes three days of eating clean to feel much better.  So- guess what I did all afternoon?

1) drank lots of water

2) went grocery shopping

3) cooked broccoli, red pepper, feta, egg white fritatta

4) cooked a pound of salmon

5) chopped cucumbers, red peppers, tomatoes and onions for salad

6) pressed turkey burger patties and froze them individually

These are the things that I know work for me.  When these strategies are in place, I make much better choices.  Your strategies may not be the same as mine, but I bet if I asked you what strategies have worked for you in the past, you could list several.  They are still available to you!  They are your arsenal, your toolbox.  Bring them back out and put them to use.

If you are like me, you will always be someone who could easily default to junk food.  That's just me.  If they were low calorie and made me feel awesome, I would live on pizza, french fries, oreos and ice cream.  But they don't so I choose differently.  Not because I am so wildly in love with broccoli.  It's good.  I like it now (didn't used to).  No, I choose differently because I am wildly in love with the feeling of health.  And being proud of myself.  Of feeling good about myself.  And not feeling out of control about by weight.

At any moment, no matter how bad your day or week or month has been, you can choose differently.  Your weight will not change overnight.  Weight loss is a slow process.  But the way you feel about yourself, the feeling of empowerment, the feeling of loving your body and your life can be yours.  All it takes is a few simple choices that get you moving in a direction in which you believe that these things are possible for you.  And they definitely are possible.

Now get moving!
 

Your at home workout so far:
3 sets of 15 tricep extensions
3 sets of 15 bicep curls

3 sets of 15 shoulder presses

Now get 10 or 15 pound dumbbells and add 3 sets of 15 chest presses.  Slow and controlled, all the way up then all the way down, elbows straight out.  Use your abs and exhale as you press upward!  If you don't have a ball, use a bench or the floor.