No Motivation? What about Habits?

Yesterday I told you how motivated I am right now.  I am feeling determined.  I am telling myself that I will get these pesky, last pounds off no matter what.  I am still motivated today.  I feel the need to tell you that because I know that at any moment Motivation could decide to move on to someone else's house and I will be left mourning the loss.  It's happened before and it's not pretty.  I'm not a doomsday person at all.  I like to think of the positive but I also believe in being prepared.

Also, if you are not feeling the motivation that I am right now, I want you to feel that you have somewhere to turn.  I want you to turn to your friend, Habits.  Habits is one of those friends that you can find on either shoulder.  You know, sometimes he is wearing the red costume and sometimes he is wearing his halo and wings.  Even though he can be confusing I still consider him a friend. I have helped Habits change his life and he has helped me change mine.  In my life he now spends more time in the halo and wings than with the horns on his head.

My habits have changed drastically in my life.  When I started trying to lose weight I had an uphill battle.  We ate ice cream or frozen custard almost every single day in my house.  That was a habit.  It was a habit that all of us came to know as normal so when I tried to change my life, my entire family was in a bit of shock.  It was not easy but I conquered that habit.  It got to a point where one day Bryan mentioned going out for ice cream and I had to think really hard about that last time that we did that.  It had been weeks.  That was a sign of true progress.  We had made a new habit.  Ice cream was now a treat in our house, not an expectation.  On most days ice cream doesn't enter my mind anymore.  When I notice that we have eaten ice cream more than 2 days in a row I am conscious of it.  I know how easily that bad habit can creep back into my life and I've worked too hard to get here to let that happen.

Portions are another habit that have changed in my life.  I now know what a proper portion is.  I can say that when I learned that a proper portion of meat is 3 ounces and that's about the size of my palm, I was shocked.  I had been eating twice or even three times that amount for years and didn't have any idea.  I also didn't know the difference between 3 and 9 ounces of meat to begin with.  You could have served me a 9 ounce steak and told me it was 3 ounces without be batting an eye.

My life has changed. My habits have changed.  Most of the time I have good habits. I could go on telling you about all of them but then what would I blog about for the rest of the year? When my motivation weans I need to lean on those good habits because I cannot trust that Motivation will always be around.  If I trusted only on Motivation I wouldn't be able to lose all of the weight and I certainly would not be able to keep it off.

If you are not motivated today, look at your habits.  What habits do you have that are good ones?  Lean on them.  Listen to them.  Be conscious of them.  What habits do you have that are bad ones?  Focus on one of them at a time and change them.  There is no one thing that will keep you healthy.  It's a number of things.  These 2 are big ones and used together can be very powerful.

Until tomorrow,
Corinna

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect." -Romans 12:1-2

So, are you motivated?

I have been on this journey for many years. In those years I have found myself motivated for moments, hours, days or weeks. On a rare occasion I may have even been motivated for months.  My motivation comes and goes, ebbs and flows.  I know that now. I didn't know that when I first started on my journey.  I thought that once my motivation was gone, that all was lost.  That is far from true.

My healthy lifestyle has been easy for me that past few days because I am motivated right now.  I am feeling the motivation in my day.  I have had some very busy and stressful days but my motivation has not weaned through that stress.  I have been able to say no to the cupcakes sitting on the counter that Gabriella and I baked on Sunday.  I have actually been able to walk right by them several times per day, even while hungry.  That is proof that I am in a time of motivation.

I know you know what I am talking about.  You have had this motivation too. If you are not feeling motivated right now, you may not remember a time that you were but I know you have been there.  You know, it was the time when you were offered those chocolate chip cookies 3 times and said no each time with a smile on your face because you had just started your "diet" and was determined that you were never eating chocolate again.  Now it's coming back to you, right.

Motivation is a complex feeling.  We yearn for it to spurn us on to our next goal.  We expect it to do the work for us and then stay forever.  Unfortunately, it rarely stays forever.  We eventually have to lead our healthy lifestyle without our friend, Motivation.

I look at my 16 month old Samuel.  He is constantly motivated. He is motivated to take out every toy in the living room and then walk away.  He is motivated to cry until someone comes to get him.  He is motivated to get that game piece that everyone keeps telling him he can't have.  I need to look at his motivation and glean from it.

Thankfully, today I had Motivation with me all day.  I exercised this morning. I ate right all day.  I stopped eating when I was out of my budget for the day even though I wanted more food.   I turned to my to-do list instead of food when I was overwhelmed by the projects I needed to accomplish. Motivation kept me in line.  I'm hoping Motivation stays around for a long while.  When it leaves I'll have to move on to my next friend...Habits.

Stay motivated,
Corinna

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going." -Ecclesiastes 9: 10