DAY 40: To-do List

The fortieth progress report:

I read my Advantages Response Card, NO CHOICE card, and It's Not Okay, Get Back on Track, and Believe It! Response Cards at least twice.

I read other Response Cards as needed.

I ate slowly, sitting down and noticing every bite: Some Times

I gave myself credit when I engaged in helpful dieting behaviors: Most Times

I wrote a food plan for tomorrow and monitored everything I ate in writing.

I did spontaneous exercise.

--- I did planned exercise.

I took steps to enrich my life.


CREDIT ACCOUNT: $46.00

Having a party tonight certainly enriched my life, but it also put a dent in my diet effort.

First, unless Herculean house-cleaning chores count as exercise (and I did work up a sweat and get my muscles burning), I didn't fit in any exercise today. I had thought that might happen but I had also hoped for the best, especially with making up my missed weight training.

Then, I had problems with eating mindfully and remembering to give myself credit, since I was so focused on preparing for tonight.

Still, day went leagues better than the day of my last party!

This time I managed to eat dinner beforehand, plus I ate everything else on my food plan, except for a snack, before the party started. I had promised myself I wouldn't eat anything at the party because I didn't want to have a chance to slip up while standing at the buffet table. But since I had skipped that snack and someone brought fruit salad to the party, I allowed myself to make that substitution. And my will power was at maximum strength and I had only the fruit salad during the whole party!

It looked a little tricky though at the end of the night when I was trying to get rid of the leftover food. Someone left an almost full package of the world's best cookies! I really wrestled with myself over that one. I tried to convince myself I could keep them and be responsible about eating 1 or 2 a day, but I knew that as much as I hated letting them go, that would would be better (and safer). I'm not sure I would have been strong enough to stick with the right decision, but a friend who understood my dilemma volunteered to take them. Thank goodness!

Altogether it was a great day, since I dealt well with a lot of obstacles and gave my confidence a big boost! I even came up with an idea for a goal I can start working on now, to fulfill today's step.

At the start of the year, I decided to take a walking tour of England in an effort to incorporate more exercise into my life while also seeing more of my favorite country. So technically I've already been working on this goal for 8 months and my weight isn't what's preventing me from going, but there's no harm in using it as part of the program anyway.

The stumbling block is I've figured out that I can't swing England this year (not while I'm unemployed and pinching pennies!). So instead of giving up the idea, I've decided to try it somewhere closer to home, such as Yosemite National Park. I'm not as keen to see that as I am the English countryside, but it is supposed to be incredible, I would definitely get some exercise, and the trip should be much more affordable. So my first step is to plan where to go, what to do, and how much it will cost, and I've marked my calendar to complete this first step by next week.

Mission begun!