Showing posts with label attitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label attitude. Show all posts

Friday, August 1, 2014

August 1st, 2014 It's The Living

August 1st, 2014 It's The Living

Two different co-workers stopped me today, independent of one another, in order to comment on my changing appearance. The people that see us everyday are typically the last to notice because it's a gradual change--until they do a double take and realize, oh wow--some changes are happening here! They see the care I take in preparing my lunches and they see the food I keep in the employee kitchen. I often share some of what I'm preparing too, especially extra fruit. When I started making my food tweets a non-negotiable accountability tool, I also started getting some mild teasing from colleagues about snapping pictures of anything and everything I eat. My obvious success has pretty much shut those down.  Also, where I am emotionally, mentally and physically--is helping me be a better studio-mate. I'm taking more pride in a job well done. I'm going the extra mile. I'm being proactive on certain projects. Why? Because I feel so much better about ME.

I'm excited about the swim on Monday evening. I've received several messages from some wonderful people about their nearly identical struggle in this department. A couple have even gone as far as committing to doing it with me. Not here of course--but in their part of the world. That's exciting to me. Monday evening when I'm overcoming and accomplishing this personal swim challenge, so will others. I absolutely cannot wait to share the details with you here on Monday night. If you're doing it too--I hope you'll also share your experience here! I plan on shooting a short video and taking pictures too. This is a big deal to me. Am I a little nervous? Yes. I have a feeling my nervousness will be relieved upon entering the pool and will amp up again when it's time to climb out of the pool and head back to the locker room.

I plan on sleeping as long as I like in the morning, so I've taken advantage of some extra time tonight to catch up some on emails and blog reading. I've also made some changes to the left hand side bar of my blog and I've changed a few other things in the name of general blog maintenance.

I haven't accepted advertising on my blog for the longest time. I did try Google Ads once, a very long time ago--but immediately shut it off when I found advertisements making ridiculous weight loss claims. Uh, no. It was early in 2009--Day 165, five years ago, when I wrote the post "My Integrity Isn't For Sale." 

I've recently decided to accept specific advertisers--but only for things I use and believe in, naturally. I don't expect a rush of advertising--and that's not the goal, but soon you will see a logo on the left hand side of my blog for Pyure Brands Stevia. I've reached an agreement with Pyure Brands that is very simple. When I use their product in preparing something, I'll mention their brand. And the Pyure logo will adorn this blog. I'll likely contribute recipes to their growing list. That's how this started. I Tweeted my cinnamon and stevia baked pears and Pyure brands immediately requested permission to use the recipe, sending me product in exchange. That works for me!

My oldest daughter Amber and I attended a Readers Theater performance tonight of the Pulitzer Prize winning play "Fences." It was so incredibly powerful. Amber and I share an appreciation for acting and moving stories and this one was tops in both regards.

After the play, we picked up her boyfriend KL and headed for dinner out at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. I stuck with the tried and true, employing my strategies for successful restaurant calorie budget navigation! It was a great evening. Feels good, you know? To be so alive, aware and present each day. This whole process is about much more than a shrinking waist line and smaller number on the scale. That stuff is happening too, of course--but it's the living--the different perspective, changing attitude--the being more present and aware, the feeling of peace and clarity, these are the most powerful things along this road.

I'm extremely excited about where we're headed. At the same time, I've exercised the ability to bring it down to a nice calm focus on today and today only. Grant me the strength to make it through another day and I will. And those days add up quickly. I'm overjoyed.

I chose to make today my no workout day. I will be hitting the Y tomorrow and Sunday late morning/early afternoon for my next workouts. And of course, the swim on Monday!

My meal tweets:














Thank you for reading and for your wonderful support,
Strength,
Sean
Posted by at 4 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Monday, July 14, 2014

July 14th, 2014 Not Exactly What I Planned

July 14th, 2014 Not Exactly What I Planned

I'm usually well prepared. I woke up this morning to not a single egg in the fridge. I enjoy starting my day with eggs of some kind and fruit. My breakfasts are nearly the same most mornings, with slight variations. If it's an omelet, what's inside might change. The eggs seem to keep me satisfied longer. My back up plan this morning was steel cut oats with diced apple and cinnamon. It was good, but not exactly what I planned. And that seemed to be the theme of the day.

It was mid-morning when I realized I was out of lunch items in the employee fridge, so I ran home and prepared a good lunch. On the way back I had a front end blowout just as I was pulling into a parking space at the downtown studios. My back up plan was the station remote vehicle because I couldn't use my spare. I called the tire place and made arrangements to get my car fixed tomorrow. This wasn't exactly what I planned.

I was very tired by the time I got home mid-afternoon. I decided a good nap before spinning class was a great idea. I had been looking forward to spinning class all day long, even though it will likely be the toughest workout I've endured to date. I'm genuinely excited to climb back on the cycle because I know what it does to my body. It's good. I set my excessively loud radio alarm clock for 4pm. This would be a solid hour and fifteen minute nap. I turned on the NPR Fresh Air podcast and set the sleep timer for ten minutes. I don't think I lasted three minutes. I was out and sleeping deep, as sound as I possibly could. I was sleeping well. So much so, that when the alarm started blaring (loud enough to likely be heard in adjacent apartments), I didn't budge.

With the radio volume blaring as loud as it goes, filling my entire apartment with noise, Mother Nature decided to lend a hand with a big thunderstorm...still, I peacefully slept. When I finally opened my eyes at 5:08pm, I was disoriented and frantic. The alarm had automatically shut itself off after an hour of rockin' my pad and the thunderstorm was still rolling. The immediate urgency of the weather (which I should have been covering live in-studio) and the list of warning notifications on my phone had me frantically dialing a colleague, hoping and praying she was on the air in my place. And she was. Thank goodness. At 5:11pm I sat on the side of my bed and realized there wasn't any way I could make the 5:30 pm spinning class. Had I been awake, I still wouldn't have made it to the class because I would have been on the air covering this pop up thunderstorm. I decided to pull myself together and get into the YMCA for my regular elliptical workout. I grabbed some turkey and cheese for a pre-workout snack and headed out. It was good, but not exactly what I planned.

The entire day wasn't exactly what I had planned and yet it was still a great day. I had moments of frustration. I experienced potential temptation when a co-worker generously and innocently gave me a small Italian pastry she picked up from Starbucks (I re-gifted it to the break room where it's anyone's treat--anyone but me). I now know I must get new tires tomorrow--that's an unexpected expense--slightly stressful and I had genuine disappointment in missing the spinning class. And of course the incredible stress of waking up in the middle of an unexpected summer time thunderstorm when I was supposed to be in studio and on the air covering it, instead of sleeping through it. 

Through it all, I somehow maintained the integrity of my calorie budget, had a great workout on the elliptical and enjoyed a fantastic home cooked dinner before making my way to the store for a long overdue grocery shopping trip.

I'll have my favorite eggs in the morning. I'll get tires tomorrow. I'll climb aboard the spin cycle for an intense workout tomorrow (unless Mother Nature calls me into work). It's all good. And then, as a nice punctuation to an otherwise out of sync day, this happened:

As I made my way out of the YMCA a very nice lady spoke to me. I was still firmly in the grip of an 80's music party in my head, but I could tell she was speaking to me, so I removed an ear bud. She told me she reads my blog everyday and that she's proud of me. She said that what I do was inspiring to her. She expressed how she sincerely appreciates the decision to include the meal tweets in this daily blog because she doesn't do Twitter. She told me we had a mutual friend in Cathy at the hospital. She also said she's already lost 25 pounds. I congratulated her and thanked her for the kind words, then we wished each other well as we continued on toward the parking lot. An encounter like that lights me up like hardly anything else. It inspires me even more and reconfirms that what I'm doing is important, not just to me, but to others. And that's a feeling so good, it's hard to describe. I sat in the big station vehicle for a moment, turned off Billy Idol and gathered my thoughts. This was exactly the way my day needed to go. It was perfect, really. You see...

Having steel cut oats and fruit as a backup breakfast reminded me how fortunate I am to have good food ready to go. Having a blowout at 5 mph as I pulled into a parking space at work was a blessing. If that tire had decided to give way on Highway 177 last night, it could have resulted in a tragic accident. And if I hadn't over-slept my nap and the storm wouldn't have happened, I would have been in that spinning class today and I wouldn't have met the nice lady on my way out of the Y tonight. Oh--and I forgot to mention how I ran into Andy, the spin class instructor at the grocery store. I had a wonderful conversation with him about the class and weight loss. It was perfect and had my day been aligned differently, this delightful grocery store visit wouldn't have happened.

A good or bad day isn't necessarily dependent on the things that happen, it's decided by the perspective and attitude I choose. Today was a great day even though it wasn't exactly what I planned.

Thank you for reading,
Strength,
Sean

Today's meal tweets:






Bonus Tweet: The grocery shopping trip...



Posted by at 9 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)





Copyright © 2008-2020 Sean A. Anderson

The Daily Diary of a Winning Loser. All rights reserved.