It’s Wednesday, so we’re about halfway through our healthy week.
If things are going well, you may be feeling proud for passing by break room snacks, choosing the salad instead of the burger when ordering lunch and downing a few bottles of water during the work day instead of sweet tea. Or, if things aren’t going so well, you may be thinking that you will just start again on Monday. Maybe your choices haven’t been the healthiest, and you have dinner plans tomorrow night, and company this weekend, and you figure you might as well just go with the flow and start fresh next week. Maybe you’ve done some negotiating with yourself. “I can have an extra piece of pizza tonight; I’ll just get up and run tomorrow morning!” Sound familiar? How about eating all of the cookies because tomorrow, you’re completely giving them up and won’t ever eat them again? Or going out for a “last meal” before your diet begins? Yep, we’ve all been trapped by the diet mentality, convinced that if we can just have what we want right now, surely we will happily comply with the consequences later.
The truth is that there is no such thing as a last meal, and we can’t trade a splurge today for penance tomorrow. Healthy habits are a zero sum game that starts anew every day. Stop bargaining with yourself and seize today with no expectations that you can fix it tomorrow. Do not save up calories; do not burn them in advance; do not do something today anticipating something else later. Make today healthy because you deserve to feel great today. Tomorrow, you’ll get chance to do it again. And again. And again! Sure, there will be days that are better than others. Don’t worry about that. Just give today your best effort and the big goal will take care of itself. The day is full of opportunities to make a choice that promotes greater health for your body. The more of these choices you make, the better off you’ll be. But, you don’t have to take all of them to be on-track for healthy living. If you feel frustrated about missing an opportunity to make the healthy choice, commit to choosing it at your next opportunity.
Aristotle said we are what we repeatedly do.
This week, give yourself opportunities to succeed over and over and over again, and prove him right.Click HERE to learn more about the Wellview services available to you. We can’t wait to work with you!
– HEATHER FUSELIER, CHWC, CFP, TTS
Health Advisor | Email Heather
