Here's something I've learned in the 9 weeks I've been on this journey: You only have partial control over your enviornment but you have complete control over your response to your enviornment. Here's what I mean- you can control your enviornment partially in that you have a say over the kind of food that you keep in your house that will either cause you to eat healthily or tempt you to eat crap; however, you can never have complete control over your enviornment because there will always the luncheon that you go to that all of the food has already been preordered or your co workers will inevitably bring donuts to the office.
And all too often because people base their ability to lose weight and eat healthily on their ability to control their enviorment they FAIL- because you can NEVER control your enviornment 100% of the time. People who live like this are trying to side step a major yet necessary lesson- which is self-control. You can only avoid going out with friends and avoiding family outings so long before you either hurt all of your relationships or go and binge like a crazy person- there is a BETTER way.
Instead of trying to control our enviorment we have to learn to control our response to our enviornment- that needs to become the focus. And I am convinced that this battle is on that takes place in our minds. There are literall hundreds of ways to learn to control your response to your enviornment- many of which you have undoubtedly read on blogs. Because we all think differently and have different reasons for wanting to lose weight the things that can help us be in control of our responses are going to be different.
Just for fun, here are my top 5 ways to deal with temptation (a.k.a- control my response to an un-ideal enviorment):
- I will physically get up and go to another room (away from the food that it tempting me), clear my mind, and ask myself 2 questions: 1- Is this food worth me not achieving my goals? Or more specifically I will remind myself of one of the billions of reasons I have for needing to lose weight and ask myself if it is worth that. 2- Will this choice to eat this food be because I am in control or because "it" is in control?
- I keep a picture on my cell phone of a pretty unflattering picture of myself and if I feel like I'm getting ready to make a choice that is unhealthy then I'll whip my phone out, look at the picture, and ask myself if I want that picture to be how I am forever.
- I make a deal with myself I will drink a full glass of water first and sometimes even brush my teeth and if I still want "the temptation" in fifteen minutes then I'll have it. Usually my cravings are just momentary and partly out of boredom- and most of the time they will subside after 15 minutes.
- I will log into this blog account and ask myself, "Do I really want to have to write tomorrow to everyone that I just GAVE in to temptation?" It also helps to look at what day (out of 365) that I am on and remind myself that I am committed to being hardcore this year so that I don't have to spend another year obese.
- I ask myself this question: "Will anyone make this decision to say "no" to this food for you?" It is one of my biggest struggles to remember that being me being obese won't suddenly go away or change one day- it is going to take ME making one good decision after another good decision to be able to live a healthy and normal life.
I know that this is a lot of mental stuff- but like I said I believe that this is where the ability to succeed or fail truly lies. Thinking that we can control our enviornment all the time is unrealistic and the key to failure and I am convinced that this is at least 90% of the reason that so many struggle with losing weight.
Believe me, I have opportunities to give into temptation every freaking day; but by using some of the tips above I have been able to avert the temptation at least most of the time. For example... :)
Yesterday, a guy I work with randomly brought me a vanilla latte back from Starbucks (does he like me? Probably) haha but of course he didn't know that I only drink skinny lattes (aka non-fat milk and sugar free syrup) so what was I supposed to do? I would have felt bad if I had just let it sit on my desk all day going to waste but I would have felt equally as bad for drinking something that would set me back 6 POINTS!
What was a girl to do? Well... I immediately went to the bathroom and dumped 3/4 of it out! LOL! That way I could still enjoy some of the yummy latte while still not throwing everything else out of wack- a fair compromise I think! Hey- you gotta do what you gotta do! :) So talk to me! What do you think about this controlling your enviorment vs. controlling your response to it? Any good tips for either?
Peace and Love!