You Can't Take a "Break" From Your Body

So I'm in the great Lone Star State of Texas right now, I flew in yesterday (NOT on American), and I thought it would be a great thing to talk about what I do when I am NOT doing my "usual routine" in my "usual habitat" (I sound like a chimpanzee in a zoo.......ha ha).

So, I decided to lift the curtain on this trip and give you a play-by-play of my intentions while I'm at my business conference.

BUT FIRST, let me tell you what I USED to do, when I was looking at this whole process as a "diet".

Back in the day, before I realized that this was truly a lifestyle choice, and I didn't want to be miserable anymore (howz THAT for a lifestyle choice!), I used to use ANY break from my NORMAL routine, be it a business trip, a vacation, or heck even a 3-day weekend, as an excuse to "take a break" from my body.

I'd go into it halfheartedly bringing a few Medifast Meals with me, you know, because I had to say I had given it SOME effort, knowing FULL WELL that by day 2 I'd abandon my half-hearted effort and just eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.

I deserved it, didn't I?  I earned it?  It was so hard?  It takes so much effort to "do" the plan and to "be" on plan that come on can't a girl catch a "break" and cut loose every once in awhile?

And I'd come home from a 4-day trip having gained 5 pounds.  Easy.

And so, so tragic. 

Why?  Because no matter where you go or what you do, you take your body with you.  And just because I am not at my house or at work in my "normal" routine, doesn't mean that my body has magically STOPPED processing "extra" calories in the SAME WAY it has ALWAYS processed extra calories....by storing them as fat.

So, every trip I took I was actually getting "fatter".  Every 3-day weekend, every vacation, every break from my normal routine left me a little bit fatter than I was going in to the vacation or business trip or 3-day weekend.

Finally, FINALLY, I stopped the madness.  How did I do that?

You know what I'm going to say already.  You know that I'm going to tell you that it is SIMPLE and that ANYBODY can do it. 

The realization that my body had caloric limitations that would never EVER change hit me like a ton of bricks. 

The knowledge that I HAD to submit to the REALITY of how my body operated in order to fully realize my dream of living my BEST LIFE literally hit me in the face like the pavement does after a fall.

And we can truly never take a break from that process. 

So we can truly DECIDE what life we want to live, and LEARN the Habits of Health that can bring us closer to that life every day, until one day our dream and our reality merge in some other-worldly misty Hollywood movie-type ending where everything actually works out exactly the way we want it to.

We can do that. 

Or, we can think we can keep taking these well-deserved, well-earned "breaks" from the plan which only serve to undermine what we SAID that we wanted.

So the way that looks like practically for me on this business trip is that the time I would normally spend eating chips and drinking margaritas in the hotel bar I will be working out in the fitness center or going for a run.  Those Medifast Meals that I brought with me?  I ain't going home with any.  I am using them.  And saving a TON of money by not having to eat breakfast lunch AND dinner in the hotel restaurants.  That water bottle I brought?  I am filling it up and refilling it up. 

And that "small" turquoise business shirt I bought from Costco a few weeks ago specifically to wear to one of my meetings?  I just had the meeting, I wore it, and it looked GREAT (If I don't say so myself)!  Who knew that some day I would be able to wear a semi-tailored tuck-in business shirt in a size SMALL? 

I must have known it.  And then I must have acted on it.  Yep, that is exactly what I did.  And YOU can TOO!!!

So when you catch yourself thinking "I want a 'break' from this plan" just ask yourself if you plan on leaving your body behind too?  Because that is impossible.  And you will feel SO much better at the end of your trip knowing that you did all you reasonably could (which is a lot, by the way, I think we don't give ourselves enough credit for what we can actually accomplish when we put our minds to it, nor do we set the bar high enough for ourselves....) to remain ON plan even amid lapses in your normal routine.

Rinse and Repeat!