Are We Headed to the Bahamas or Not?

I was reading Dr. A this morning, from Dr. A's Habits of Health, and it struck me again what he says about making a "fundamental choice for health".  He says in Chapter 4:  "Once you make the fundamental decision to be healthy, you've made it your business to act in accordance with those goals.  You're taking full responsibility for your actions instead of letting circumstances drive your decisions."

I could tell you stories and stories of how I USED to manage my eating and drinking decisions, and the excuses I USED to make to rationalize why I ate "off plan".  They usually were circumstance driven and started with

"I was super stressed that day so I...." or
"I was celebrating so I...." or
"I was at the movies so I....." or
"I was so very bored so I......" or
"Everyone ELSE was having something and I was feeling awkward so I...." or
"Everytime I passed the breakroom the cake was in there so I...." or
"I was so tired and didn't FEEL like preparing my lean and green so I....." or

The list could go on and on, but it reminds me of a ship being tossed about by the waves, having no specific direction, just kind of out there, floating.  No destination, no navigator, no captain, no rudder.  Rudder-less.

Until I made the FUNDAMENTAL CHOICE for health, and began the task of SELF-MANAGEMENT. 

Whoah.  Brand new concept for me, self-management.  Behaving in accordance with where I have SAID I want to go. 

This way I USED to manage my health wasn't management at all!  I wasn't managing my food, I was allowing my CIRCUMSTANCES to manage ME.

Where are you headed?  Where are you now?  Do you have a plan to get there?  Have you ENGAGED your plan?  Hope is not a strategy, that is something I learned a long time ago but I can also utilize it in my goal to run the Paris Marathon in April of 2014.  I can say "I hope I can do it!" and then do NOTHING between now and then to prepare for it.  I mean NOTHING.  Not buy the ticket to France, not do the training, but every day tell you "I hope I can run it!"

Eventually you will wonder if I'm a crazy person, or just a little deluded.  Or both.  You would expect to see some MOVEMENT towards what I SAID I wanted, in terms of my BEHAVIOR. 

If I began to BEHAVE as if I were going to run the Paris Marathon in April of 2014, what would that look like?  Well, there are specific BEHAVIORS that I would need to repeat DAILY in order to get ready for that.  And if they day got closer and closer and everytime you spoke to me I had an excuse, some circumstance or feeling that came up day after day, different every time of course, that kept me from my training, YOU would determine that I wasn't really serious about running the Paris Marathon.

"Everytime I got my shoes on, I realized my favorite show was on TV......" or
"As soon as I would get up to get my workout clothes out of the dryer a friend would call".... or
"None of my friends are training for a marathon so I felt a little awkward doing the running every day..." or
"I was so tired at the end (or beginning....try 4:45 am I got up this morning LOL) of the day I just didn't FEEL like running...." or

You get the picture?  If I'm behaving in this way towards my training, then it is clear that I have NOT MADE the FUNDAMENTAL CHOICE to participate in the Paris Marathon in April of 2014.  That would be a correct assessment if I'm truly not behaving in a way that indicates a movement towards my goal.

It is the same with the plan.  Many times I hear (and have in the past said myself) "I just can't seem to stay on plan for one day."

My advice is not to analyze every reason why you aren't staying on plan, that would be like a cruise ship captain studying every current in the ocean, every direction the wind blows, and trying to somehow trying to protect against running into any currents or wind.

No.  Once that cruise ship captain makes the FUNDAMENTAL CHOICE to go to the Bahamas, he studies his chart, consults his map, sets his course, engages his engine, and every day he behaves in a manner of a cruise ship captain sailing his ship to the Bahamas.  Meaning, he stays on course. 

So instead of trying to minimize the stress, never go out, never celebrate, never see a movie, or any of that, decide for yourself whether you've actually made the fundamental choice to become HEALTHY.  If you haven't, then you'll be tossed by every current and every wind, and we just can't plan on avoiding those, they happen!  But if you've made that fundamental choice to become HEALTHY, then every day you will act in accordance with that desire. 

Rinse and Repeat!