Day 260 Let The Challenge Begin and Some Keys To Success

Day 260

Let The Challenge Begin and Some Keys To Success

I've often said that my biggest challenge is time management. My schedule does not have room for an afternoon nap. The best strategy is to get done what I need to get done and then go to bed early. I've done that a few times in the last week and it's felt wonderful. This evening, close to five, instead of jumping outside and mowing the lawn like I needed to do, I decided to take a little snooze. Just an hour, I thought. An hour turned into two, and come seven pm I still needed to mow the lawn, workout, decide what we were having for dinner, go to the store, cook, and write. The lawn was the first thing to get cut so to speak. Don't feel sorry for me! I bring this time crunch on myself! I have very few household duties, and when I procrastinate, they bunch up together.

I jumped up at almost 7pm and quickly left for the store. After mentioning our enchiladas in last night's blog, I decided I would once again make the scaled down version of Anderson Enchiladas. I keep the ingredients basically the same, just smaller, portion sensible versions. Instead of making two pans, I made just enough for each of us, with no leftovers. I used the high fiber tortillas and half the ground beef and cheese. I actually used less than half the cheese I would pile on before. They were very good and each enchilada checked in at 220 calories. I enjoyed one with a serving of tortilla chips and chunky salsa. It was a wonderful 400 calorie plate. We were all comfortably within our calorie budgets at the end of the meal. No Zantac needed!

I entered the Summer Challenge today on another blog. It might be too late to register, I think you had to do it by June 1st. Everyone that loses at least 15 pounds will have a chance to win a fantastic prize! I love challenges! If I were a little more computer savvy, I would post a link that says “click here,” but I'm seriously deficient in my computer understanding. The blog address is www.getfitby40.blogspot.com My blog is so plain jane because of this lack of computer skills. But like I've said before, I'm OK with that.

Speaking of challenges, I'm speaking at the kick off event for The Ranch Wellness Center Optimal Health Challenge on Thursday evening. It's not a weight loss challenge, it's an overall health challenge. Losing weight definitely gets you points, but a person can win the challenge without ever losing a pound. Dr. Amy has asked me to speak about the mental adjustments I've made and the overall positive effects of my good choices in losing weight. There are so many positive effects, I'll have to pick the best, or else I'll be speaking all night! I'm honored to be a part of it and it's still weird to think that 260 days ago I would've had zero business talking to anyone about anything other than overeating and lounging. I could just imagine that speaking engagement... “OK, the first thing we need to do is make sure we always have ready to go, a good pillow and some antacids.”

After going through 260 days of this journey, and losing 170 pounds so far, I can tell you without a doubt, it gets much easier! If you're on a similar journey, my best advice is to be consistent with your commitment. Set the rules and stick to them. Because once you do this, and you start feeling and seeing positive results, it just catapults you to new levels of strength. I knew from the very beginning that I didn't have any room to rationalize even one bad choice. I knew my history. I knew that if I really wanted to finally do this and stick with it, I had to do some things differently. I had to completely throw out the excuses and rationalizations that tripped me up so many times. Despite my “everything is permitted” style, I still might sound really strict sometimes. I do because if I don't, I may try to take advantage of that weakness, completely going against what I want and need to accomplish. I've said many times along this journey, after searching for the reason I could never get it together 100% before, I concluded that I was my own worst enemy. I was taking complete responsibility for my morbid obesity and demanding something better from me. I did and I do, that's a really big part of my success so far. Something better for me means sticking with the plan everyday. It means being consistent and not giving into temptation while making myself feel better with rationalizations. The importance level is way too high to be soft about the rules I've set. That's something I've talked about before at the “Lose To Win” Seminars. Making it a top priority and getting really dramatic about sticking to the plan is a difference maker! It doesn't matter if you have 20 or 200 to lose. If you make it a top priority, a really serious deal, then you have a much better chance of accomplishing the goal. Too many times in my past, I didn't get real serious, and I always ended up making excuses and rationalizing bad choices until I was completely off the wagon. I always said how important it was, I always dreamed of what it would be like to be successful at losing the weight, but when it came right down to it, Mr. Funny-Happy Go Lucky guy was too easy going to ever get real serious with myself. I was way too easy on me. It never took too much for me to rationalize a bad choice. I'm still a fun happy kind of guy, but when it comes to this journey, there's no compromising the commitment. It's too important.

I've said from the very beginning “keep it simple.” Keeping it simple helps me stay on track. I don't worry about too many things other than calories and exercise. I haven't counted a single fat gram, a single carb, or even attempted to calculate my “net carbs,” or anything like that. Calories in Vs. calories out. And I don't count the calories out either. I don't stress over knowing exactly how many calories I'm burning while working out. I know what a good workout feels like, that's all I need to feel. Simple equals 170 pounds lost. And since it is a very simple approach, I can spend more time focusing on staying committed and on track and less time driving myself nuts with little things that don't matter. Am I making sense or just rambling at this point?

Tuesday will be a long day. I must manage my time very carefully tomorrow to get everything accomplished that needs to be done. I need to get some rest. Thank you for reading. Goodnight and...

Good Choices,
Sean