Day 100: Fighting Temptation and Adjusting to Change

Adjusting to Change

Proper nutrition and daily exercise can easily be compared to a precision automobile. There are a number of parts that make it go and perform at a high level. If one of those parts malfunctions however, the vehicle can easily be left on the side of the highway waiting for a tow truck driver named Tex to haul it off to the mechanic shop.

I have found that the best way for me to be successful is to be consistent. When I wake up at the same time each day, plan my meals ahead of time, track my nutrition, and follow my exercise routine I am much more successful than when I don’t. In a perfect world keeping that type of organization and schedule comes pretty easily, but what about in the real world?

What happens when we have a teething child that is up crying for a big portion of the night, or we have a big deadline at work that keeps us working well into the night? What if we travel for business and finding good wholesome foods on the go is nearly impossible? The truth is I’m still trying to figure that out myself.

Wednesday night we had a sad little boy up most of the night battling teething. Now I generally sleep through about anything (trains, rainstorms, small explosions), but this particular night Brady was absolutely hysterical. Jackie was up with him for longer than I was, but I ended up being awake from about 1:30 to 3:30am. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, but because of a conference at work I had to be at the gym by 5:00am. That means I had to be out the door by 4:30 (yes, 4:30). When I changed the alarm to the new (absurdly early) time, I accidentally changed am to pm. So I was short on sleep and laid down on the couch at 3:30 (big mistake). You can probably see where this is going; I slept right through the gym session. I woke up at 6:00am with a text message from Skyler asking me where I was. I FELT AWFUL! Not only did I miss out on my workout, I left Skyler sitting alone in the gym at 5:00am. He made special arrangements to meet me there early and I left him hanging.

The truth is things like this are going to happen. We’re going to screw up. I didn’t deal with it real well. I was ticked off for at least half the day. I was definitely disappointed in myself. I wasn’t happy about messing up, but there was nothing I could do about it at that point. I decided to do the only thing I could do. I rededicated. We obviously want to avoid these types of things from happening, but if they do, we just need to refocus and figure out what we can do to not let it happen again. I personally am going to check and recheck my alarm every night before I go to sleep. That way even if I am up for part of the night, I’ll have that alarm to push me out of bed in the morning.

Fighting Temptation

In 24 hours I will be faced with my biggest potential monkey wrench. I am going on a Disney Cruise. That’s right, a cruise. Weight Loss’ worst enemy. A cruise is the nemesis to all things healthy. A smorgasbord of food is at your beckoned call 24 hours a day. This doesn’t mean I’m not excited to go. I’m stoked to spend some good quality time with my awesome wife and two awesome boys. It is just going to be a challenge.

I do have a few things going for me. It’s only a 4 day cruise so that’s good. Our two excursion days include playing on the beach and going to a water park so we do at least get to be active on those days. They do also have a gym onboard (pretty typical), but that means I have to get myself out of bed at the same early hour and get my workouts in. When it comes to mealtime I am going to have to practice some serious willpower. I’m excited for a challenge but a little nervous too. You probably won’t be hearing from me until next weekend, but I’ll let you know how it goes.

There are 88 days left…how are your goals coming?



One Response to “Day 100: Fighting Temptation and Adjusting to Change”

1. winslowlds says:

   October 27, 2009 at 4:44 pm

   I like how you create an atmosphere of tension about your cruise and the illusion of temptation. I however, cannot be fooled with your trickery Ryan. All of us know about your support system i.e. your Bacon following, facebook friends, and ,most specifically/importantly, your family/wife. I am certain there will be severe beatings if she catches you attempting to pilfer any non-approved foods. Rock on brother, see you when you get back. Did Skyler forgive you?

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