Living Intentionally

I met all my weight loss goals for today: no fast food, no sweets/desserts, at least 20 minutes of exercise (25 minutes on elliptical). I didn't drink 64 oz of water but definitely drank more than I usually do. I have found that if I want to lose this weight, I need to diet intentionally. It works for me to set my goals the night before. It works for me to set short term goals (for a day, for a week) for surely I can eat differently and fit in exercise for just one day (or week).

It was my dad who taught me about the power of playing mind games on myself. He was an avid runner and played many a mind game on himself throughout his years of training for marathons and triathlons. Many weekends as a teenager we would run together. Saturday mornings were our "long runs"
(the longest I ever ran was 13 miles!!). He taught me how to keep on when I wanted to give up. I would look for something up the road and tell myself, I can walk once I get to the next mailbox. And once I got to the mailbox, I would tell myself, well, I made it here, I can go til the next mailbox. And on and on I would go til I finished what I intended on running for the day.

So it is with dieting. Surely I can go just one day without sweets. Surely I can find 20 minutes of my day to exercise. And today, I did. And it feels great, which is good motivation, to do it again tomorrow.

Goals for tomorrow (Thursday, March 7): no fast food, no sweets/desserts (other than Medifast), 64 oz of water, at least 20 minutes of exercise.