In my year of getting into the best shape of my life, I’ve noticed something. There is always an excuse—a birthday party, Thanksgiving, a super bowl game as to why I should have the day off from being healthy. I could come up with constant excuses. But the truth is that’s life. Life will always throw me a curve ball that will make it harder to be healthy. Instead of taking the day off, I really need to find a way to make healthier decisions on days that are tough because those tough days are never going away. I need to learn to live with them. Since I was blessed with a large family I could probably have an excuse a week if you count birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays. Heck I celebrate my own birthday five different times each year. That’s five excuses in one month. And I’m not the only March birthday in my family. I celebrate Christmas every weekend between Thanksgiving and the week after Christmas. I have a life of celebrations. It’s great, but I can’t let it be an excuse.
I have a full, busy, fun life. I hope that’s not going to change. What I need to learn to change is how I interact with that full, busy and fun life when it comes to my food choices. It’s not going to be easy for me. I love to eat. My favorite food is pasta (perhaps from my Italian heritage). And I actually like a fried Irish breakfast for which I blame my Irish ancestors. I just enjoy food. And that’s okay. But I need to learn to make healthier choices about what I eat when large amounts of good food is put in front of me.
I won’t always have success, but I have to try. All those days can’t be days off or my entire life would be a day off. A full life can’t be an excuse to skip out on health. I don’t try to skip out on exercises on those days, so why should I be able to eat whatever I want?
