I am encouraged by my results to date. Mainly because I have had the will power to stick with what I have started, specifically no more afternoon candy bars – actually no more candy bars period – and no more after dinner snacks.
Of course, I still make a few token passes at the pantry. Poking my head in there in the evenings just to make sure the snacks are safe. A quick mental reminder pops into my head and turns my body right around.
One other behavior that has changed is that I help my wife with dinner more. I am making an effort to make the salad every night. This is all for very selfish reasons. I want to make sure there is enough food to satisfy any food cravings so I don’t go chowing down more food after dinner. If I make sure that salad is available, then I finish dinner with a relatively full stomach. Plus I get the added benefit of connecting with my wife.
With all of this said, I do feel myself slipping a little. Like today, it is 10:30AM in the morning and I have already eaten the two small bagels I have for lunch. This means I might feel the urge to have another complete lunch in the early afternoon. I need to rethink my breakfast. Breakfast is simply a bowl of cereal. Regular Cheerios and honey nut Cheerios combined together. Time to think about “beefing” up breakfast a little more, maybe an egg or oatmeal. Something that sticks to the bones and fills me up.
I have been thinking about what I am doing with this blog here and would like others to benefit from my efforts. If this blog motivates you to make a change in your life than I consider what I am doing a success. I would like nothing more than to hear that the sharing I am doing with you gave you the motivation to reach for your goals and work through them.
Writing this out is a catharsis (edit: I had to look up this word to make sure it was the right word. I had an idea of what it meant, but I wanted to be sure … “the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, esp. through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.”) for me. And for me, there is nothing like a little publicity to make things happen. For whatever reason and often to my wife’s chagrin, I thrive on adversity. If something is too easy, I flounder. I get bored, I lack the motivation to get off my duff and get going. This is an area of my life that I could use a little balance in. With that said, spilling my guts to the world and putting my “reputation” on the line makes me accountable. While this might be perceived as a weakness, I am playing to my own strengths in accomplishing my weight loss goal which I will state again for the umpteenth time. “I plan on losing 23 lbs by the end of December 2007.” There, I said it again so it must be true 
Time to get off my soapbox and chill out on the preaching. I invite you dear reader to add you comments. What do you want to accomplish and when? You might be pleasantly surprised by putting your intentions in writing. The world works.
[tags]weight loss, intentions, goal setting[/tags]
