Thursday, October 25, 2012

Staying Motivated and Fighting Temptations!

There are some things that come across EVERYONE in a weight loss journey. I believe that every excuse of why we can't eat healthier, is just the easy way to keep eating the fatty foods we all enjoy. When you start something new, no matter what, there is always going to be an excuse to not follow through with it. I would have to say, that I personally think that dieting/watching what we eat is probably one of the easiest when it comes to making excuses. I have been known for making excuses of why I couldn't follow through with my goals, of eating healthier in the past. But that was just me giving up and not putting any real effort into it. I have tried multiple times in the past to diet and start loosing weight, but as soon as the temptations would appear I would give in and tell myself tomorrow I will work out harder to make up for the greasy burger. Tomorrow would come and I would eat another greasy burger and promise myself the same excuse of why it was ok to eat the fatty food. The next thing you know, all the work I put in prior to those poor choices was for nothing. When you are giving into temptations, you are not staying motivated to reaching  and obtaining your goals. Not only are you not building the strength you need to fight off all temptations, you are making it harder to stay on track and to keep pushing forward. I want to share with you guys what temptations we face more than we may realize, and how we can avoid them. Because I think once you have learned to resist temptations, you will be able to stay motivated and on track. . 




The second you decide you are going to have a healthy lifestyle, automatically things you didn't want to eat before will start to look, and seem like the most delicious things in the world. Your body knows that you are trying to avoid all of them, and naturally they will become the hardest temptations to avoid. This is the first thing that happened to me as soon as I knew I couldn't eat whatever, whenever I wanted to anymore. To my surprise, things I would see every day are now tempting me. I never noticed that all these things around me everyday were influencing my eating habits. Now of course I control what I do and choose to eat, we all do. We just maybe are not aware of the things that we see daily that can make our temptations 10 times harder to avoid. 

When your driving home from a normal day at work. There are billboards everywhere and a lot of them have food advertised on them. Not only will they not have the most delicious picture of a juicy burger on it, the brand or place will show people who are eating it, and they are always the happiest people on the planet because they are eating the tastiest burger. Then sometimes, but not always, the billboard will show the distance from that billboard to the fast food restaurant. So already you have all the key items that are tempting you to go purchase that burger, delicious looking picture, people looking happy enjoying it, and how far until you are there to buy it. All those things are there to draw you in, to go purchase that food. Now fast food has been an easier alternative for so many people, including me. You can just be on your drive home from work stop and grab dinner and not have to worry about anything. How convenient for anyone. Avoiding this temptation may be harder for most people but if you are serious about making gains and following through with the promise you made to yourself. When you see a billboard and you want to just have the food one more time and start fresh tomorrow. Instead of falling for what the ad wants us all to do, carry a protein bar or healthy snack in your car/purse. That way you get the craving of eating but not the fatty food. You saw food and craved food and you gave your body what it wanted. You choose what you want more, the lifestyle you are gaining or the lifestyle you had to make you where you were. This is honestly where your mind has to come in control of what your body wants.

Just after you think you might have escaped the taunting of billboards. You go home and turn on your favorite evening TV program, 17% of the commercials will be food and drink related. Now you are putting even more temptations in front of you. I can't tell you how many times I would see a commercial right after I just got done eating, and I felt like I was still extremely hungry for whatever I just saw during the ad. Commercials are a business of their own, they place products/food in front of you and display them in the way the will attract you the most. This form of temptation is what has always made me give into them in the past. But I found a way that has worked for me to avoid commercials if possible. Record the TV shows that you want to watch, and come back and watch them the next day. That way you can fast forward through the commercials and enjoy your TV show/program. Now I know there are times when you can't record the shows maybe because you don't have that option. If that happens to me, I just find something to do during the commercials. I put ear buds in my ears and watch a quick Youtube video, play a game on my phone, get up and empty the dishwasher. You may still hear the commercial, but you are distracted and focusing on what you are doing not what your watching.

Another form of temptation we face is the people we surround ourselves with. Just because we are making a new commitment to better ourselves, doesn't mean that the people closest to us will respect the decision. For example, I live with my parents and they are supporting me with buying the healthy food and supporting me with bettering myself. Instead of joining me, they continue to choose to eat fatty foods that I once enjoyed with them not too long ago. The temptation of throwing my small portioned meal aside for the Chinese take out ,sitting on the table right in front of me is there. When you make lifestyle change like this, you have to know that there is going to be people around you who will still eat those tasty fatty foods. Just because you stop doesn't mean the whole world stopped with you. Take it slow at first, prepare yourself mentally that these things will be around you and know how to handle the situation. Keep reminding yourself of how much all of this work WILL pay off in the end. For me it helped reminding myself that the food I am wanting to eat, is the reason I can't eat it now. Every single temptation we are faced with all has the same major solution. SELF CONTROL. Once you learn to have your self control and how to give up the surrounding world of temptations, and stay focused on what the end result will be. Everything will start to get easier after that point. Everyone is different some people may half self control the second they tell themselves they are going through with it. Others may need some help from friends and family. No matter what tho, if it takes you 1 hour or 7 months to gain the self control, just don't give in or give up. The saying time heals everything works for multiple situations. In this case, in time everything will become easier day by day. You just need to remain focused.

If you happen to give in to temptations, don't give up on yourself and think it is the end of the world. We all make mistakes and we all fall down once or twice. Find someone who is positive and upbeat and can relate to talk too. And put it in the past and instead of looking at how you could have avoided it, look towards how you will make sure it wont happen again. You can't ever change anything in the past, but you are creating and making your future everyday. Staying motivated is a hard thing to do, but with my experience just keep looking forward and stop focusing on the past really helps! 

I hope that this post helps you guys out! If you ever feel like you are the only person having all these troubles, remind yourself, everyone has the temptations facing them no matter what! It is just up to us how we fix them and take control of how we handle them! :) 

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