Does Your Deprivation Steal Your Motivation?

Woooo Hooooo – Yesterday, I actually did half of what I said I would. This is a huge improvement. Although I must admit, just the thought of deprivation in any way, shape or form, strips me of any motivation. I managed to drag myself to the farmer’s market and the grocery store, planned the weekly meals, however, I just could not convince myself to go for a walk, too tired after the farmers market. Oh yeah, and I didn’t eat any comfort foods, but boy did I ever chow down on random, not fresh, foods. Come on, I was tired after all that shopping. I felt like my blood sugar was a bit off and needed the carbs in those two toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and the giant bowl of kettle corn. In my meal planning found a great recipe for spinach and goat cheese crepes. It called for a half cup of beer in the recipe, so on my grocery list was one light beer. What did I do? You got it. I drank it to wash down those PB&J sandwiches! What’s a girl to do? It was Saturday night and I was thirsty, ha! Oh God, my lies never end. I need to practice “self-honesty” And, let’s not forget what a shinning example I am to my teenage daughter. I say this because I had to make a special stop at the store to get that one beer. The store where we do our major shopping at does not sell individual beers.

It went down like this - As we were driving home from the grocery store. “Oh honey, I have to make a quick stop because I need a beer for the crepes recipe, just wait in the car I’ll be right out.” I run into the little store, grab a single bullet Coors Light and wait patiently in line with the hobos and druggies with their single beers for their crepe recipe too. I am back in the car and sigh, “great, now I have EVERYTHING I need to get myself back on track. We sure picked some yummy meals for the week, I can’t wait to get started.” We get home, we both are putting the groceries away, guess what, I start eyeing that beer. Hum, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow starts chanting in my mind. No, I will resist, it’s all about TODAY. Move forward two hours, food is put away, I have had the PB& J sandwiches and I am ready to sit and read for a bit. My mind kept going back to the “cold activated blue mountain on that can. Hey why not? So I pop open the beer. My daughter walks through the room, “Hey Mom, I thought you bought that for the crepes,” I looked at her and simply said, Tomorrow…… Then we both burst out laughing. I told her to live by my example would be to not do what I do!

So now it is once again, today. I have all the tools and supplies (minus the beer) and a clear sense of focus in my healthy lifestyle arsenal. I am ready to get down to business. I don’t know how familiar you are with diets (no longer a politically correct word) or nutrition for weight loss plans, whatever the hell you call it, but let me tell you there are thousands of books out there on this subject. I personally have dabbled in at least seven thousand of them. And do you know why don’t they work? (Check out the poll I have listed on the upper right side of the blog). First of all, you have to “follow” the plan more than three weeks. Secondly, you need to be active beyond your daily activities and third it really is just calories in, calories out. I don’t give a damn what you are eating, it is simple math, fuel in vs. fuel burned, remainder is stored. Period. Which is why I always end up back with Weight Watchers. For me it is clearly about how much I eat, not what I eat.


This last weight gain was due to, now don’t laugh, because I told my daughter she had to change her eating habits. Limit the sugars and cut out that processed crap that the big box manufactures are so eager to shove into our children. We listened to Dr. Oz and read every label to ensure the following ingredients were not in the top five. It was the five of five rule – Saturated fat, hydrogenated oils, high- fructose corn syrup, sugars and enriched/bleached flour. Anyway, I thought at that point, if I am eating healthy then I do not need to monitor how much, it is all healthy, right? Healthy, but still calories in vs. calories out. You just can’t have six servings of whole wheat noodles in olive oil and Parmesan cheese and not gain weight. One bite lead to another, soon I wanted more and more noodles, less and less fresh vegetables and fruits, throw in some wine to have with that loaf of 100% whole grain bread and mozzarella cheese and I just don’t feel like going to workout, I will tomorrow. BAM I am up twenty pounds, what the hell, keep on going because I am having so much fun on this food fest the next ten pounds were just “bonus” pounds.

But that was all in the past. Today is today and I am ready to “count my points”, that’s Weight Watcher code talk for calories. One of the reasons I am attracted to WW is because they are tricky liars. For example calories are called points. You track points but not calories. It allows me to practice “self-honesty” without being completely honest. I feel like I am getting one up on myself. You subtract points for food and add points for exercise (fuel in / fuel burned concept) So it’s off to prepare one of my yummy recipes. Trick myself into some exercise, even if it’s minimal, track my points and be happy about it and do what ever it takes to stay motivated, TODAY! Maybe I’ll go into my library of self help books to help keep myself motivated for the day….. Ha ha ha

NOTE TO SELF: Must find a way to change deprivation into motivation!