I've got a case of the "Tomorrows"

So I used to be one of those people who would do things tomorrow.  I would start exercising regularly tomorrow.  I would stop eating chocolate tomorrow.  I would eat healthier tomorrow (cause there is left over cheesecake in my fridge).  I had the "Tomorrow syndrome".  A couple of years ago, I did a mind shift and got rid of my tomorrow thinking.  We start things today; we keep going today - that was my new mantra.

Well fast forward and here I am today caught back up in the tomorrow syndrome.  For a couple of months now I've been trying to get my eating back on track - I have caught myself thinking more than once that I would start tomorrow (cause there is a party this weekend and I don't want to limit myself).  And there it is...the biggest danger in my journey to getting healthier.  I started thinking in absolutes.  I have to limit myself to only eating green stuff; I have to exercise an hour every day in order for it to be worth it; I have to eat no sweets.  Trust me...this is a trap.

The only time my mind shift ever worked is when I stopped thinking in limits or absolutes.  I trained myself to say "15 minutes is enough if its all I've got to run" or "go ahead and have the cookie but just have one instead of a whole row".  What I am remembering is it is about changing the way we live so it becomes second nature, and not about dieting or being the fastest at completing a 5K.  It is about health and choices.

Say it with me...It is about health.  And I learned I can be healthy even if I only get out a couple times a week to exercise.  I can be healthy even if I splurge on wine and chocolate every once in awhile.  And that splurging that one day does not mean I have to "start over tomorrow".  It just means I need to remember the reasons I can't have chocolate and wine every day - because it is unhealthy for me NOT because it messes up my diet.  In fact, I banned the word diet a long time ago and started thinking in terms of choices. Way better way to think especially when I'm trying to teach healthy bodies to my 2 pre-teen daughters!

I find when I get to write it out (why I love blogging), it helps me re-focus and get my choices back in line with where I want to be.  So here we go...started using MyFitnessPal (thanks Sonia!), boot camp tonight (thanks Liz!), and a full water bottle on my desk. 

We do it today.

And when I need to, I will go back to my other blog to remember all the reasons why the mind shift is a good thing (BTW if you used to follow me there I'm not blogging there anymore - going to just use this one).