Update.... Food 1, Cheryl 0

OK, so I failed pretty miserably last nigt on the boat cruise. It was SO much fun, and believe me, our family needed some fun. I'm sure that there were many things that led to my demise. The fun people I was with, being very hungry by the time we got there, (I had a protein bar with me but didn't eat it), and I wasn't paying attention to what I put on my plate. It all looked good, and was a buffet, so I took everything. SO BAD!!! I even skipped the healthy fruit and lettuce salad. Looking back my choices could have and should have been SO much better!

Here's what was on the menu...(and what I had) :(
Bruchetta Chicken (probably about a 4-5 oz piece)
New York strip steak (they cut it off the end for me so that it was well done, maybe 6 oz?) (Mine was pretty thin)
MASHED POTATO'S!!! I'm sorry but I had seconds of these. Dude, they were SO GOOD!
pasta salad with parmesan cheese and chicken. I just took a little and ate it first!
and this breaded fish stuff. I don't even really like fish, but it was YUMMY! and just a little piece, probably 3-4 oz.
Then they of course had a dessert section, I had pecan pie. It was a small piece, but I am SURE that the calories even in a small piece of pecan pie should NOT find their way in my mouth!
So yep, FAILED!!!

FOOD ONE-CHERYL ZERO!!!!!

I'm going to chalk this up as a cheat meal and hope that I've done well enough, and that I can bring it the next few days to make up for it. Wishful thinking makes me want to believe that maybe my body NEEDED a high calorie meal. lol UGH!
I'm going to drink lots of water today. Maybe that will help to?

On a positive note...I think I learned something about how to function within the "world." AND my determination is even stronger today. It's really life or death that I get this figured out. I also learned that it's a big stumbling block for me if other people around me are eating what I can't. It's not new news that I don't like to tell myself no. So when other people are enjoying what I want to eat, then I tell myself that I can have it and give up the fight pretty darn easily. But maybe I'm doing the same thing. Maybe my eating in an unhealthy way is making it hard for them to? Hmmmm, new thought.

Ohhhh we took some GREAT pictures that I'll try to post tonight. I also need to post our 5K pics!!! We have CAKE and presents with my sis in law tonight, but I'll get it done. :)

Tempting?? NOT anymore!

This week has been a little nutty! AND will continue to be for the next few days. I've figured out something that some of you I'm sure will say, "UM, DUH!" I've come to the conclusion that I need to figure out how to live in this crazy food filled world and still maintain healthy eating habits. I really don't do awful in situations of temptation and always have "just a little" but I'm seeing lately how often those situations REALLY come up in my life. It seems like this summer we've been part of a LOT of gatherings and they are ALL built around some sort of meal or food of some kind. And get this...not EVERYONE in the world eats healthy!!! Crazy, eh?
So...my new focus is on those situations. Chris and I do really well when we are in the confines of our own home, but put us in a different situation and we stumble and sometimes just fall flat on our face. I think I used to justify eating the junk because it's a special occasion, or I didn't want to hurt someone's feelings, or it's JUST THIS ONE TIME. But I'm very much realizing lately that it's more than just "this one time." It's ALL the time.

So... here's the deal. I'm done with that. We're going out for dinner tonight and I'm going to eat according to ME and what I need in my body, not what everyone else is putting on their plate. (It's a buffet!) DANGER DANGER! We're also going to my sisters on Sunday for lunch. I'm going to ask her to grill and take something healthy along to grill for Chris and I. We'll also provide a lettuce salad on Sunday so that we are SURE to be ok. My sis is an amazing cook and LOVES to do it. I LOVE to eat it so it's always been a good combo. But it's time that it ends. :) She'll love me even if I don't eat her food... Right?

I think I just need to prove to myself that I can function in the real world. We've mastered making our home a safe eating place. We don't buy junk. We don't bring it into our house. But we find it anyway out in the world. I'm going to live my life like it's one big TEMPTATION, like on Biggest Loser! I can do this! I can control what I put in my body in ALL situations!

How do you do it? What do you do to limit what you eat in social situations? Do you find it hard to?

DEDICATION vs MOTIVATION

I bravely opened up my blog today to whoever in the universe runs across it. If my little journey can help someone else be encouraged in their efforts to become or stay healthy then I'm all about it. Now...about 2 hours later after hitting the "Anyone can read" button, I'm wondering to myself what this means... and I'm SCARED! It means a WHOLE lot more accountability. When just a few were reading it, I didn't have to post if I didn't want to...I was just semi-committed. The few read it when I made a post, but there was a lot left unsaid.

If I had a bad day and ate caramel bars, then it was just a bad day. I wouldn't post about it. I'd write when I had an epiphany I wanted to share or when I had accomplished something great. But now... if I disappear for a few days, then it's out there, people KNOW! YOU will know! But I guess that's what makes a journey a journey. It's not easy, I KNOW that! There are great days and there are tough days. I make great choices and I make not so great choices. I'm not giving myself permission to have the bad caramel eating days, but more just acknowledging that they happen. And when they happen I will write about them.

I've been thinking about something lately. At the start of all this a year ago I searched and searched for motivation. On days where I didn't feel motivated, I'd sit on the couch watching TV because I just couldn't get MOTIVATED. Now...I think the trick is searching for DEDICATION... Motivation is fleeting and hard to find. Dedication is based on the reasons I started this whole thing in the first place. Dedication is built around ALL of ways I want my life to change. Those reasons are constant.

What do you think about that? Do you think it's more about MOTIVATION or is it more about DEDICATION? Can you do it if you're not motivated? If it IS about being motivated...how do you stay motivated? What do you do that helps you along and keeps you going? How do I get myself to workout when I really just want to take a nap? What works for you?

We Need a Plan Man!!!!

Ok, so I'm not such a great blogger...I'm not sure why. But, thanks for hanging in there with me while I try to fit this in with the rest of life!

I wanted to talk about something that has been bothering me. Every time we go to Iowa and I mean EVERY time... we fall off the wagon and eat JUNK the whole weekend. We go into the weekend with good intentions and then fail miserably.
Maybe its....
Too many people... other people have plans for us when we come home and those plans usually include food and not
food that fits into a nutritious, low fat, low cal diet. And it's DEFINATELY NOT clean eating!
Chaos... I don't do well with chaos. It makes me nervous and anxious and I just can't function well within it. Due to the
above mentioned "many people" there is indefinately a lot of people
They don't understand...They just really don't "get" what we're trying to do. They know we're trying to lose weight and
and they TOTALLY support it, but just really don't understand HOW we're trying to do this. I'm sure that part of the
time they think we're crazy, and part of the time, they genuinely don't understand good nutrition. My Dad this weekend
wanted to treat us and make us BROWNIES with his new mixer. And MAN...those brownies were good. Throughout
the weekend I ate FOUR!!!! They were cut really tiny, but I was SO glad when my sister's family came and ate the rest
of the pan!
Food available...My brother owns a bakery, YEP a BAKERY!!! We've been able to stay away from it and when we've
gone, we've been able to say no every time while we're there. BUT.. the stuff from the bakery are ALWAYS
available. Like this weekend, there were donuts on top of my parent's fridge. I said no to that, but not to the
shortbread cookies they had there, or those crazy brownies, or the mini milky way bars (I had two).
I don't know... I guess it comes down to that I just don't KNOW why we fall so hard in Iowa... it's like we cross the
border and crave bad food! AND I guess that it doesn't matter. We just can't do it again.

We put a lot of plans in place this weekend to do well, so our intention is there. We are just so easily derailed!
We stopped at Applebees and got a chicken sandwich with broccoli for our lunch on the way down on Saturday.
GREAT CHOICE and pats on the back for Chris and Cheryl...and we had planned ahead for the brownies. We were going
to eat one and then work out at the wellness center to burn those calories. Then my sister and her family came and we had a bonfire, HOT DOGS, BRATS, and my new favorite food of Satan... smores made with fudge striped cookies. I only had one, but wanted MANY MANY more! ugh!

So...what do you think. What do we do to set a plan and then KEEP that plan? It's easy to say "just make a plan and stick to it." But REALLY that doesn't work. So I need ideas! and some good ones! We're not going back for a few more weeks... so we've got time. It's a battle, how do we win it?
:)

oh.. and stay tuned... I have another post coming soon. WE DID OUR 5K!!! AND I have pics! :)
Fun times!