So it's the WEEKEND!

As I begin to type this blog, it is 4:50 pm on the East Coast.  YAY!  Another week!  We made it through another week! 

Uh...Oh!  The weekend.  That means the weekend is here.

You know the one, the one that comes every Friday at 5:00 pm and gobsmacks us in the face because, let's face it, just because a weekend DOES come EVERY week without fail doesn't mean that we are PREPARED for it when it does!!!

For some, weekends are THE time that we fall off track.  WAAAAYYY of track.  I'm not just talking a little extra healthy fat or 1 extra ounce of protein off track.  I'm talking 2 glasses of wine, some cheese-then-who-really-cares-after-that-because-I-so-totally-screwed-up-my-plan-already-so-may-as-well-eat-whatever-I-want-until-Monday-morning kind of off track.

This is the point in the blog where I mention, by the way, that this type of thinking if self-sabotage all-or-nothing thinking which will get us what we've always got and not something bright and shiny new, like Optimal Health.

OK back to the weekend.  Do you sometimes feel like it is SO easy to stay "on plan" at work because of the following reasons?:

1)  We are so busy we can't even THINK about food
2)  We are so busy we don't have time to EAT anything but our Medifast Meals
3)  We are at "work" and we are distracted, and we are also "working" on our plan.

But then when the 5:00 bell rings, all MAYHEM breaks loose?

Why is that?

I have a little insight, at least I can share what goes through MY head when the self-sabotage thoughts come:

"I deserve a break"
"I deserve a treat"
"I've been working so hard, I deserve to let loose"
"I really really want it"
"Did I mention, I really REALLY want it?"

For some reason, when I truly identified the thoughts though, they represented a true break from reality.  What I mean is they represented a very VERY incorrect way of viewing my reality.

Reality is that actions have consequences.  I know this to be true every time I have adhered to the Medifast 5&1 Program as written, and every time I have not.  It is simply so.  And me having a temper tantrum on the floor and refusing to act like the adult that I KNOW I am won't change reality.

I can no more take a break from my body as a yellow canary can stop being yellow.  It just isn't possible.  When I am on vacation, when that work bell hits 5:00 pm on a Friday, something doesn't just MAGICALLY happen to my body which makes it process extra calories in a different manner than it has processed them my entire life.  IE, storing them as fat.

JUST because I WISH that would happen does not make it so. 

And what DOES happen when I make the decision to try to test that theorem AGAIN, is that my body does the exact same thing it always has.  It is so predictable, really.  And I'm shocked and amazed come Monday and I'm up 3 pounds.  Really.  Shocked.  And.  Amazed.  And then I wonder "Why?"  And then I wonder "Why me?" and the pity party begins.

So a long time ago I made a decision.  I would put my big girl panties on, and KEEP them on even through the weekends.  I would do MY part and stay ON PLAN, and my body agreed to respond like it always has to either a calorie excess or a calorie deficit.  My body did not disappoint. 

SO WHAT that it was slow?  1.9 pounds per week loss over a long period of time still ends up being 130 pounds GONE and into a size 4 pair of jeans from a size 26.  Was I perfect?  Heavens NO I wasn't, but the times I WASN'T really made me lose time.  I don't regret it and I don't advocate it.  It just was.  It was my journey.  And I am here to tell you that it doesn't matter if you've been OFF PLAN on the weekends for the last 5 months, THIS WEEKEND make the decision to remain ON PLAN.  Then do the same thing next weekend.  And you will finally, FINALLY, get the results you seek.

You can't take a break from your body.  So change something.  Do the plan.  Honest, it works.  But you have to do ALL of it not just the stuff you like. 

Keep on keeping on, my friends!