28 Day Challenge Day 17 & 18
The R Word- – Resistance
Well it’s Day 17 & 18 and I’m not quite sure what to write about. Perhaps I will talk about resistance. Anytime you decide to better yourself there will always be resistance. You want to go to the gym and what happens? Everyone and their dog shows up to interrupt your plans. Or you plan for dinner and you get invited out, now you have to either tell the people you are going to visit what you are now eating or you need to plan ahead and eat before you go. Resistance will always be there. Someone will say to you “That diet is not sustainable for the long term” and totally bring discouragement to your soul. Or your invited to a Birthday party and everyone says you gotta have a piece of cake and they all comment on you not eating a piece. Or your good friend comes over and makes picture perfect perogies and expects you not to be tempted! Resistance, it is real. The battle is real!
Even with resistance I have managed to get all my exercising done!
Another form of resistance is when you try to share what you are doing, and you let people know that this would help them in their own life. Whether it is diabetes, high blood pressure, IBS, heart disease or any other ailment, when you try to share about all the testimonies of how this way of eating has healed them, you get a nonchalant answer of how they eat healthy already and are doing fine. Resistance, its like no one wants to hear about what you are doing. However, you must come to the conclusion that this is your journey and you are doing this for you. Nobody else but YOU! So share when you can but don’t be disappointed if no-one wants to listen. I have come to the conclusion that they are all watching me to see if I can actually do this. Watching to see if I will stick to it. Watching to see what I will eat when out in the public eye. Watching to see if this way of eating is even doable or sustainable. They are watching and I will follow thru.
Life happens and life will always interrupt. So what is the answer? Preparation, we must be prepared. Having groceries in your house certainly helps. When a craving for something sweet comes, having dried mangoes, apricots and medjool dates in your pantry will satisfy. Having beans in the fridge prepared ahead of time helps as well. So when a day comes that you don’t have time to make something you can at least stick to your plan. We have had to go to the hospital 3 times this week, 3 hours away and it took planning , packing and being ready. You must think ahead and be ready. To the hospital I brought fruit salad, beans and dressing, when I bought lunch it was salad, which I scooped my beans onto and topped it with dressing and some avocado . Very filling and I was satisfied and easy preparation that anyone could do.
I had left over fruit salad at the hospital but forgot to take a picture but this is what it looked like.
So in life you will always have resistance. However what are you going to do when resistance comes? Are you gonna cave and say this diet doesn’t work, it’s too hard, its just not sustainable. Or are you going to suck it up, deal with it, make right choices and follow your plan regardless? The choice is yours. Temptations will always be there however it’s the choices you make when tempted that will say whether you are victorious or whether you have fallen off the band wagon. On the way home from the hospital Don bought my favourite jalapeno and cheddar chips, and I endured the smell all the way home. I didn’t cave because I had a plan, I got out my fruit salad and veggies and dip and ate those instead. I responded to the temptation and was victorious, and you can be too.
What do you do when you fail because of resistance and temptations? You pick yourself up, dust yourself off and continue with your original plan. There is no need to quit, just start over again right where you are at. It’s that simple. Don’t complicate things when your not perfect. None of us are, so quit thinking you have to be. The day you fail is the day you realize you are human. Don’t think you have to punish yourself for it. You can’t do penance, it doesn’t work! So face it for what it is and start over, it’s as simple as that!
So this time of almost 50 minutes could have been interpreted as a total failure, and here the battle is in the mind. I could choose to be discouraged or I could choose to be encouraged that I actually completed my 3 miles no matter how I felt!
So in conclusion, you will have resistance. You will have temptations. Life does happen to us all. You will fail at some point. You must plan and be prepared. You must decide to get back up and start over when you fall. And you must realize you will never be perfect. So set your goals and live each day to the fullest, being thankful for all things no matter what life brings.
Love you all, Megan Elaine
