I can't eat whatever I want, however much I want, whenever I want and stay trim and healthy - it's not going to happen. I don't have the genes for it and I just have to be real with myself. It's sad but true - overindulgence is a sin that over 70% of America partake in multiple times a day and we wonder why have twenty-somethings dropping dead of congestive heart failure! There just comes a time when we have to start bellowing, "NO!!!" to all of those little voices that constantly come up saying, "You can eat what everyone else is eating," "You're depriving yourself," "You're not doing youthful things like eating pizza and ice cream and drinking soda," "You're too busy to cook, eat fast food," "You're too tired to get up early for the gym, you need your rest," - these are just tools meant to keep you in bondage and keep you from the life you are really meant to live.
I'm not some skinny little fitness trainer all wound up in my spandex work out clothes preaching to you here, ladies and gentlemen. I am an overweight lifer - I have been obese my entire life. I have no idea what I would look like at a normal size much less trim and healthy - but I will, my friends, I will. To jumpstart this journey, I have been on a 40 day juice fast - let me tell you, this has been the most difficult and the most rewarding thing I have ever done in my entire life. I know that as I walk into this new life, I will not go back and I can rest assured that all the generations to follow behind me will be not be the same. I know now that no temptation that will come my way will be too big for me to overcome. I always have the fact that I resisted for forty days, so, this one time, this one day, I can resist just one more time.
I'm not saying I won't ever, ever splurge, that's just a ridiculous notion and a self-sabotaging, unattainable goal. But "splurging" can't be a lifestyle, a "splurge" is meant to be just that, a deviation from a normal, everyday routine. I happen to be the type of person who is going to plan my splurges - everything in moderation, friends! During the fast, I've splurged a couple times with tasty shakes from Smoothie King - add a little fiber, protein, and a multi-vitamin and you've got a tasty treat! But how does someone who has lived a lifestyle of "splurge" change to an "occasional splurger" in the real world?
Well, my best advice is to give yourself scheduled splurges, break it up - one breakfast, one lunch, one dinner, and one desert splurge a week. This gives you something to look forward to, helps you plan for special occasions, keeps you from feeling deprived, and still helps you stay in control of your body and weightloss. For me, this method allows me to go out to lunch with my co workers once a week (something I have desperately missed), dinner with my girls once a week (or maybe even a date should it ever come along), and have my McD's chicken biscuit or Cracker Barrel Eggs in a Basket w/ Bacon once a week (so not organic but just so good!). If you know you are attending a birthday party, a wedding, or a shower, then you have a plan in place that won't cause you to be in a mental battle for the entire time that you are there. You will be relaxed, be enjoying yourself, and be doing what everyone else is doing. You now have choices built into your lifestyle. It's taken 28 years of bad choices to get me here but only 40 days of good choices to turn it all around - that's pretty incredible when you think about it. How many years have you been fighting this battle? Think of the freedom you can have just by refusing to deprive yourself and starting to give yourself choices.
For years I have been camped out at a crossroad - well, actually, who am I kidding, I've already began to decorate my newly built house there! This fast has forced me to tear down those walls, pick up my belongings, and pick a path - there will be no going back. Plus, fasting once a week, shocks your metabolism back into gear and gives your digestive system a much needed rest and since I've got a ways to go still, that's always good news! What crossroad are you at? What decision do you need to make to step onto the right path? One more choice to get started and a lifetime of good choices to go to be the very best version of you that you can possibly be. What are you waiting for?
Make sure to check back for the last week in the series - "How to Break Your Fast."
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