Thoughts on MOMENTUM

Well, as you know, I wasn't happy with my monthly progress pics this past weekend. The gut is my problem area- big time! I was hoping to have taken off more inches there. Anyway, my disappointment turned into a really funky mood and I spent several hours "talking myself off the ledge" so to speak.

For me, that means talking myself out of eating emotionally, be that eating too much or (worse) eating the wrong things. I managed to get through it and today is a new day! My weekend was stressful and full of disappointments on different fronts. Yikes!

I have been thinking a lot about momentum. Do you remember when you were a kid and rode your bike? --- as you would come towards a hill, if you peddled fast and built up your momentum, you could usually make it up the hill -- unless it was especially steep. But if you did not build up your momentum, the hill could simply not be conquered.

If the hill was steep and you couldn't make it at all, since you were young and still had your optimism, you would get off the bike and walk it up the hill until you could pedal again. You did not give up.

Losing weight and getting into shape are like the biker facing a hill -- its only going to be doable with momentum. Every time you break your rhythm with a cheat meal or skip your exercise you put a damper on your momentum, and if it happens frequently enough it will affect your results in a negative way, which could start a downward spiral that we are all too familiar with.

The next thing you know, you stop even pretending that you are still on your program. So let's keep our momentum. If you can't make it up a hill on your "bike" walk as slow as you need to until you can get back on! Take responsibility for your food choices. Every time we make a choice that is good for us and furthers our goals, we make it easier to make the right choice again next time.

This is what kept me from eating like a pig over the weekend. I didn't want to hurt my momentum -- for as hard as it is to keep it going sometimes, it is ten times as hard to let it go and then have to start all over again. And as we all know, everytime we have to start all over, the hill gets bigger and bigger -- for some of us it becomes a mountain!

No f-ing way did I want to spend the next week working like a fiend and counting every calorie, NOT TO MAKE PROGRESS -- But to make up for a weekend of crappy eating and no exercise. The thought of it kept me in control, just barely, I admit, but I pulled it off.

Ok---- so Sunday, yesterday, I started ChaLEAN Extreme and did Burn Circuit one. Today I did her burn intervals and the Ab Burner. I also made some slight changes to my diet that will cut my calories by about 200 per day.

I REALLY want to have good results at next month's progress report. I want to have lost more inches around the middle, to have increased my strength and stamina, and to be able to honestly say that I did my best to get the results that I want.

I signed up for daily mile which tracks the miles you walk, run or bike and the hours you spend weight training or doing cardio. There's a cute little widget on the right that will always tell you the last time I worked out, what I did, and for how long. There's even a little button you can click to motivate me and cheer me on!