Breakfast: 8am
1 Butterfinger Visalus Shake
Mid-Morning: 11am
1 Chicken Thigh
16oz. V8 (Spicy Hot, mixed with water… *grrrrrrrrr*)
32oz. Water
Lunch: 3pm
1 Butterfinger Visalus Shake
Mid-Afternoon: 4pm
1 handful Pepperoni Slices
32oz. Water
Evening: 6pm
1 Chicken Sandwich on Rye (w/Mayonnaise, Tomato & Mustard)
32oz. Water
State of Being:
Another day of,… I guess I’ll call it… “Variable Consciousness.” Meaning, I was very tired, pretty much all day and I kept napping for about an hour at a time. I think it’s because of the store trip yesterday. That always manages to wipe me out, somehow.
Aside from being logy all day, I feel pretty good.
Also, I have to confess… not a slip, not a cheat, but a very, very *near* cheat and some addictive behavior.
I bought a couple bags of tortilla chips at the store yesterday.
My father, (who gave me a lift to and from the store) called me on it as we were loading things into the trunk of the car, and I responded with something like “Nah, I’m pretty sure if I just bake them and have them with lots of protein, it’s fine.”
This was one of those addict’s-lies that you manage to convince yourself is true as it’s passing from your brain to your mouth. But, it was a lie just the same. I’m ashamed of it, but I’ve already corrected the mistake and now I’m moving on.
Both bags of chips have now been torn open and emptied into the dumpster outside my apartment.
But, I still wanted to come clean here about the slip. Full transparency. It was my mistake, my screw-up and I admit it.
It won’t happen again.
I wish I could tell you that that kind of temptation is an isolated incident. But, it’s not. The slip is a rare thing. It’s really the first time it’s happened and I didn’t actually eat any chips. Just came close. But, the temptation to slip happens every single day. At least two or three times, there’s a moment when I really have to fight it. However, along the way, I’ve learned some things about how to do that effectively…
1. Don’t be hungry! You’ve got two things that can work against you here; the habituated temptation or “cravings” if you prefer, and actual physical hunger from having not eaten something recently. This is the reason I try to make sure that I eat every few hours. If there’s something in my stomach, the cravings have to face me alone without their much bigger, much stronger, older brother *actual hunger* backing them up. Resisting cravings is much easier than resisting hunger-driven cravings. This is number one for a reason. It is by far the most important thing on the list.
2. Don’t “Resist” as such. Eat something that’s ok to have on your diet and then immediately find something else to do. Wash your dishes. Do some laundry. Vacuum the living room. Post to a blog. Call a friend and chat. Read a book. Play a hand of solitaire. It doesn’t matter as long as it’s something that will engage your attention for at least twenty minutes. Usually, you’re done after this. The craving will be gone and you’ll only realize it once several hours have gone by and you notice that you haven’t thought about the craving in all that time. But, just sitting there resisting it is, in a way, still letting the craving have its say. Don’t do that. Don’t try to block the craving, instead deflect and redirect its force to something else. Your attention has been piqued by the craving, now feed that energized attention into some other activity. Resisting a craving is like an endurance trial. It’s you against the craving. It’s your raw willpower against the force of habit. It’s arm wrestling. On the other hand, redirecting a craving turns it’s power toward something more useful while simultaneously defusing it. It’s getting both of those arms to work together on something rather than simply wrestling one another.
Cravings, remember… are a part of you. The mechanism of the temptation is a part of your mind that is only happening because you have habituated its persistence. In other words, if the craving had a mind of its own, it would believe that it was just doing what you wanted it to do.
You have a craving to breathe in and out every few seconds. When you resist that craving and hold your breath, the temptation to breathe never once thinks of itself as being “bad,” or “harmful” it’s just doing what it's been conditioned to do through habit and instinct. It’s the same with your cravings for sweets or carbs or whatever. Those things provide an immediate good feeling when you eat them, so the craving thinks that it’s just like your craving to breathe. It’s there to remind you to do something good. It doesn’t realize that it was given bad orders (by you) to begin with.
Because it’s a part of your mind, you can absolutely task it to something else if you do so in an easy and natural way, rather than trying to arrest and force it. I firmly believe that open, raw resistance of a craving only strengthens its resolve. So, instead, just find something else for that mental energy to do with itself.
This is your MIND against your Mountain, remember?
The only advantage the mountain has is inertia. Weight. It can’t *do* anything other than sit there and be in your way.
Your mind, however… has no such restrictions. It’s kinetic. It can move. It can change. It can strategize. So, utilize that to its full potential. Don't try to fight your mountain by acting like a mountain, yourself. I promise you will lose that battle every time. It's like trying to stop a knife by flexing your muscles so hard that they're more solid than the blade. It's not possible. It's better to simply evade the knife and attack the arm holding it.
When you slip, (and you will) it’s ok, so long as you immediately redirect and regain control, moving everything back to task. It's ok, so long as you fix it and learn from it. Then it's not "failure." It is, instead... Progress. Mine out the foundations of your mountain and it will come crashing down in good time. You do that by sharpening your mind via learning from experience and applying what you've learned effectively, rather than solidifying and blunting your mind through raw stubbornness. The mind is a razor, not a club.
Remember also that perfection is impossible for a human being.
Progress, however is not only possible, it's inevitable. It is what you do naturally. This challenge is all about you taking control of what you’re progressing toward. But, you will progress toward something either way. That's life.
I'll do a video on all of this soon.
I’m looking forward now to helping some friends get started on their own 90 Day Challenges and forming a strong support group between us. I’m thinking of starting a Facebook community for my team. I think that would be awesome!
See you tomorrow!
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