Diet and motivation

Previously I've said before this is the first real diet I've ever tried and that is true, While I've done workouts before I never REALLY looked that closely at the food portion of my life.  The longer I've been doing this the more I've realized that it's more of a lifestyle change than an actual diet.  About 95% of my meals have been from my own kitchen (not including the cheat days).  To me this means that I know exactly what is going into my body as of late.  The veggies I pick tend to be organic and the ingredients list on anything I use as a side (Hummus, Salsa, etc) I make sure has the shortest ingredient list as possible.

Now most people understand HOW to lose weight and to get healthy and despite their best intentions just lose the way. There aren't any shortages of diets and fads out there, I spent some time yesterday reading about the new diet pill that may be approved by the FDA in a couple of months. The justification they were using was there wasn't an option between eating healthy with exercise and gastric bypass surgery.

I think that in order to lose weight you do have to have some motivation, whatever it is.   I've set myself up with a great support system of friends and have used as many tools as I can without being overwhelmed to track that progress. Staying the course seldom means taking the easy route.  Just yesterday for my lunch I was running late and didn't have any motivation to prepare it.  I thought just running to fast food quick and then just got to cooking, I threw chicken and vegetables into the Wok and lunch was done in about ten minutes.  Less time than it would have taken me to load up the girl and drive to McDonald's and back again. 

Finding ways to continually remind yourself why you are working so hard to achieve your goals isn't that difficult.  I picked placing a before picture of myself on my phone, blogging about my journey, measurements and having a great support system.  Other things you can do are to write your motive on a post-it and stick it to your bathroom mirror. Jot it down above the grocery list on your fridge. Even consider repeating your motive out loud to yourself whenever you are tempted to make poor choices. If you genuinely connect with what drives you to succeed, you will be unstoppable!

Yesterday while looking for diet fads to talk about, I also cleaned out and read through my emails.  I subscribe to The Toilet Paper and get an email from them a few times a week.  I HIGHLY recommend checking that site out and subscribing.  It gives me some fun things to talk and think about and has a good variety of subjects, most importantly it's FREE!  In one of the recent issues they emailed me it had and article about diets that fit perfectly with what I was going for....below is a great description of some "fad" diets. Thanks T.P for helping me keep it clean. (pun intended...insert groan here)

Hallelujah Diet	Devised by Rev. George M. Malkmus and based on what he believes God wants us to eat. “Aww, fish and loaves again!”
Cabbage Soup Diet	What is this? The Great Depression? You’ll wish it was after slurping down a bowl of this pathetic slop. Thinking the Cabbage Growers of America are behind this scam.
Cookie Diet	Mrs. Field’s these are not. A perfect diet if you are blue, furry and live on Sesame Street. Oh yeah, and have had your taste buds ripped off your tongue.
28 Day Raw Detox	That’s not your ass, it’s a salad shooter. Three days into this vegan nightmare and you’ll be able to smell a Five Guys within a 10 mile radius.

They even provided a link to this picture showing just how long diet fads and gimmicks have been around.

I really wonder how many of these things sold.......