A greater yes...

In the book, the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey says that the secret to saying no to a given temptation is to have a "greater yes" burning inside you. This past week, even while flirting on the edges of burnout, I've had no problems saying "no", particularly to food. In the course of a normal day, I always have people offering me snacks because I'm usually sitting at their desk working on their computer and this makes them think of me as a guest. This week, I've turned them all down, except the office that had a plate of fresh strawberries. I knew I could get away with two or three of those. But the endless stream of donuts and cookies, those I resisted. The girlscout cookies in a box under my desk, those I resisted. The M&M's that seem to be in a bowl at every second or third desk I come to, resisted. The extra Mountain Dew that someone got out of the vending machine and offered to me, resisted.

So, what is the greater yes? Why am I able to resist? First, there's those before pictures. Honestly, my underlying goal is to never look like that in a picture ever again. Second, there's my martial arts classes, where I don't want to just wear a black belt, I want to feel worthy of a black belt. I just don't feel right about teaching people who are in better shape than I am. I feel like developing martial arts skills without developing the body that can deliver them effectively is a waste of time. Third, there's my mother, who suffers from alzheimers. Seeing her go through that has shown me that you just never know how much time you have. At 41, I hope the best years of my life are still ahead of me, but I can't assume that any longer. Think about it. If you had only a few months to live, what kind of shape would you want to be in to spend them effectively?

Today, I overdid my cardio. I did my stationary bike workout before work, I walked at lunch time, I did a short mid-afternoon walk, and then I walked again later in the evening for about 25 minutes. I felt good about it at the time, but after doing some reading online tonight, I'm wondering if my daily calorie intake is too low and my daily calorie burn is too high. I'm also wondering if I should divide the challenge into two parts, concentrating on weight/fat loss for now and then working to add muscle later. It's something I will have to research further.

I laid out in the sun a for a little while after work today. I didn't get very good light because it was late in the day, but I enjoyed it none-the-less. While I was out there, stretched out on a towel in my lap swimming suit (the skimpiest one I own), my neighbors came out on their back deck. I was tempted to cover up with the towel or put my soccer shorts on, but then I decided "to hell with it". I don't have a perfect body or much of a tan, but I'm getting there, so why hide this thing I've been working so hard on?

Every day, I'm trying to learn new things in this challenge and to add new ideas and practices whenever I can. I've been reading, looking at pictures of past champions, etc. Today, I joined the St. Louis Body for Life Yahoo group. I haven't really spent any time there, but I liked some of the stuff I've seen so far.

One of the things I could probably work on is sleeping enough. I tend to run on about six hours of sleep a night and I think I need more than that now. And on that note, good night.