I have encouraged people to join me in a challenge to be healthy for the month of May. After all, the vain side of us wants to look fabulous for summer right? I would be totally lying if I didn't admit that part of the reason I have renewed this journey now is because I want to look good on a beach in Hawaii. I can say with totally honesty that it is just a small part of my reasoning though. I mostly just want to feel healthy and the time to start is now.
A few people have asked me to clarify what the "May Challenge" is. I have referred to it in other posts and the question made me realize that I hadn't put a lot of thought into it other than: "Be Healthy".
I have given it a bit more thought now and although I REALLY want to emphasize that this is your journey and you should challenge yourself to whatever will work best for you, my suggested parameters around the challenge are as follows:
1) Figure out what worked for you when you were the MOST successful on your journey to health.
2) Assuming it is still possible to do this make a very strong commitment to do it until May 30th.
If doing what you used to do is no longer possible (example: you were running but now have a broken leg), figure out what IS possible and do that.
3) Commit to getting yourself back on track immediately after you recognize a slip-up (not tomorrow, and definitely not "after the weekend").
4) Be kind and forgiving to yourself if/when you slip-up. We are all human.
Can you do that? If so commit now and post updates on how you are doing on my blog posts.
If you happen to be reading this blog later in the month of May it isn't too late. It is never too late to start. The only thing to remember is that you can't start until you start. So start.
There we have it. A May Challenge!
I had a bit of my own challenge when it came to dinner yesterday.
Breakfast and lunch were easy. It's not pretty as it was "leftovers on the go", but I had the following:
Mixed Berry Almond Muesli
Chicken Vegetable Noodle Bowl:
When it came to dinner time we decided to call friends to go out. It was Saturday night after all.
So we made a good food choice and decided to go for Sushi. Smart right?
I thought so too, until we got there and I realized that they were serving "All You Can Eat".
While it is possible to do an "All You Can Eat" and be healthy, I know myself well enough to know that it would only be a matter of time before I was gulping down Fried Rice, Tempura, Sushi Pizza, and Chicken Teriyaki AS WELL AS Sushi and Sashimi.
Our friend Karen had an easy out. She is vegetarian so nobody questioned it when she said she was doing "ál a carte" instead. While theoretically that should make it easier for me to make a decision to do the same, it actually increased the pressure to make the wrong choice. There were four people there, one had opted out, which left three people in a Japanese "All You Can Eat".
People generally get plates of food and share it, and if I opted out I reduced the number of items that would be ordered to share for the other two. So I started thinking that my choice would be affecting their dinner.
The dilemma almost tipped me over the edge, but the voice in my head was saying: "Alan, if you really want to change your relationship with food you have to actually change your relationship with food".
I sucked it up and said: "I think I'm going to order á la carte too". Nobody said a word. The pressure I had put on myself to order otherwise had clearly all been in my head.
So I made an extra good dinner choice (I had Premium Sashimi to skip the rice) and allowed myself the indulgence of a large Sapporo Beer and a scoop of Red Bean Ice Cream. The dinner came with Miso Soup and a Side Salad (I figure the dressing is probably the same as 2 Tbsp of Thousand Island dressing which is 5 Smartpoints), and I decided I had done well enough already so I enjoyed that.
I know for certain that if I had gone for the all you can eat option I would have had two scoops of Red Been Ice Cream and a scoop of Green Tea Ice Cream.
This Saturday night was better than most.
I start my tracking week on Monday (so today is the last day of my current week). So far I have used my daily points, my weekly points, and 12 Fitpoints. I've got this!
Changing how I eat out is going to be one of the hardest challenges for me I think. I will totally still have Burger, Fries, and Beer nights...just not as often as before. Last night I did my best to make sure the evening was about what it was supposed to be about: Seeing good friends.
Alan
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