July 11th, 2014 The Difference Between Taking Advantage and Taking Good Care

July 11th, 2014 The Difference Between Taking Advantage and Taking Good Care

The keys to a successful day for me in the food department is good planning. I practice the "Three P's," Planning, Preparing and Packing. Today was one of those days were the "Three P's" was critically important. With a 10am-2pm location broadcast a short 45 minutes after my post-show prep time, I knew there wouldn't be any time to "throw something together" or run home to prepare something for lunch. I also knew that if I didn't plan, prepare and pack, I would likely be super hungry during the lunch time broadcast and resisting the free food offerings would be considerably more difficult.

I expected the client to be grilling hot dogs, hamburgers or brats--or ordering pizza for everyone. Instead, around noon time the client offered to buy everyone burgers and fries from Freddie's Frozen Custard and Steak Burgers. Freddie's is a regional fast food chain founded in Wichita, Kansas, about an hour North of Ponca City, Oklahoma. When they arrived in town, the reception was overwhelmingly positive. They have incredible food, not calorie friendly by any stretch, but very delicious! Thanks to my good planning today, by the time the offer came for a free burger and fries, I had already enjoyed my wonderful lunch (see Tweet picture below). Saying "no, thank you" is much easier in the absence of hunger and desires to binge. It wasn't too long ago, I might have eaten mine and accepted their offer too!

By mid-afternoon I was back at the studio finishing up some things and cutting the rest of a cantaloupe I had in the break room fridge. I didn't want it to spoil over the weekend and I was in the mood for a snack anyway. I finished my work and headed out to Silvertop Farm to pick up some fresh lamb chops. I've never tasted lamb. When I discovered Silvertop Farms had a freezer go down and now they were frantically selling their stock of fresh, farm raised lamb at 50% off, I couldn't resist the opportunity to try it on the cheap.

I picked up the lamb and before I could leave, the owner of the farm (named Mary--as in, Mary had a little lamb--okay--it was funny to me) asked if I could produce and air some kind of commercial expressing the urgency of their situation. They needed to sell the lamb now before it completely thawed. I hurried back to the studio to write, produce and get their urgent commercial on the air. It worked beautifully too. I spoke with the sales director of Silvertop Farms shortly after 8pm and their phones hadn't stopped ringing with 80% of callers making purchases. It was a great "radio works" story!

I didn't make it home until almost 5pm and by then I was exhausted. My exhaustion doesn't have anything to do with the quality of sleep I'm getting, like it was not too long ago, now it's all about quantity. My schedule and time management skills do not work well together most days and nights. I needed a nap this afternoon, even though it was almost 5pm. I took it--setting my alarm for 6:30pm, then oversleeping it by an hour and a half. A three hour nap in the middle of my evening didn't do anything positive for my schedule, but it sure felt good on my body. I missed my window of opportunity for a Y workout and after a late dinner decided this would be a no workout day after all.

The positive side of this is: I'm having incredible amounts of patience and compassion for myself these days. During my initial weight loss, there wasn't an "excuse" or circumstance big enough to preempt my daily workout, especially during the first year. Looking back, I realize how unforgiving I was and how it certainly gave me consistency--but it also gave me reason to be exceptionally hard on myself at the mere thought of having a rest day. I'm realizing now, that what I'm doing is something I'll be doing for the rest of my life and I'm not striving for perfection, I'm striving for consistency--and I don't mean specific consistency in my daily workout schedule and food planning, I mean consistency in my overall dedication to taking extraordinary care of myself. I have that and taking tonight off from the gym or walking trail doesn't change this commitment.

I no longer have reason to beat myself up for perceived shortcomings. The truth is, I'm doing exceptionally well, above and beyond what I thought was possible not too long ago. Could I use some tweaks? Of course! If I could engineer my schedule to finish everything each day and be in bed by 9:30pm, that would be phenomenal. If I would start drinking about 50% more water than I do now (most days struggle to drink 8 cups), I would be doing my metabolism and body, in general, wonders. But all in time, all in time. I shall proceed with a confident patience and a bendable self-compassion, both of which are tempered with an acute sense of honesty, a total and complete realness and that's where the difference is found between taking advantage and taking good care.

Time for the meal Tweets! I'm not including snack tweets. Only breakfast, lunch and dinner tweets here--if you want to see the rest of the food/exercise and "in the moment" live tweeting throughout the day, you're welcome to follow my Twitter feed: www.twitter.com/seanaanderson If you're interested in seeing the food and exercise diary in written form with the bonus nutritional breakdowns, friend me on MyFitnessPal, username: SeanAAnderson. You do not need a Twitter account to view my Twitter page, however you will need a MyFitnessPal account to gain access to my MFP profile and daily data.

Dry grilling this pita breakfast sandwich on a Foreman Grill transforms it into a quesadilla! W/yellow apple. 364 cal pic.twitter.com/xVMz1Xb6AS
— Sean Anderson (@SeanAAnderson) July 11, 2014

Lunch on location: Turkey slices, guac W-1/2 srv light sr crm, gala apple, LC wedge, 3/4 srv rice chips. 528 cal. pic.twitter.com/wBXqkS7dgy
— Sean Anderson (@SeanAAnderson) July 11, 2014

Grlldchick. brst (7oz), pineapple (6.5oz), avocado (68g), light sr crm(15g), tomto, onion, rice chips (28g). 601 cal. pic.twitter.com/GXzERoe6xL
— Sean Anderson (@SeanAAnderson) July 12, 2014

Thank you for reading and for your continued support,
Strength,
Sean