Sunday, December 12, 2010

What's in your log?

Ok, so it has been a few days...have you completed your task?  Do you have your food log nearby? GREAT! Let's take a look at it and let's start at the top- breakfast.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you have one of the following things listed for your breakfast:
1. Nothing
2. Coffee
3. Coffee and bagel (or other pastry probably from your local coffee shop)
4. Boxed cereal (that you only keep in the house because of the kids*cough, cough*)
oh, and lets' not forget the orange juice.

What is next? Snacks, nahhhh who needs 'em. Just lunch, or maybe not.  I'm guessing that most of you worked through lunch without eating, or if you were really lucky one of your co-workers picked up take out from a nearby restaurant/sub shop. Or maybe, just maybe you had a microwaveable entree.

Afternoon snack? Nahhh, no time- just a soda please..oh and maybe some candy from the jar on your office mate's desk.

Dinner?  I'm going to guess that most of you had a large meal, if not the largest all day, most likely consisting of something that was prepared rather quickly - carefully chosen from the thousands of convenience foods available to us in the grocery store. Topping it all of with either a 100 calorie snack pack of some type of 'cookie' or low-fat/fat-free ice cream.

How did I do? Probably not too far off, although there are always outliers...  This is what the typical food intake of a person that says "I eat pretty healthy", or "I don't eat bad at all" would look like. Well, let's take a little deeper look here.  Think back to the analogy used about completing tasks at work.  When you are taking the next step in a project you are usually fairly certain that the next step is the CORRECT step.  How do you KNOW  if it was the correct step? Well, it leads you in the direction that you want to go..or maybe even gets you to the end result - completion of the task. SUCCESS!! It isn't rocket science.  What if you are unsure about the next step?  What if the step you took didn't seem to get you where you thought it would?  No brainer-you generally ask the advice of someone who has either completed this same task before, or someone that may have more knowledge in the area you are working.

So I ask are your steps (food/meals) helping you to accomplish your task (improved health, weight loss, physique changes, improved sports performance)? If the answer is "No", then you are not taking the right steps. OR better yet, you ARE taking the right steps--they just are not the steps that lead to the end result you are looking for.  They are exactly the right steps to get you 180 degrees from where you wanted to go.  Good news though, thanks to your food log at least now you are aware of the steps that you are taking.  You can't change anything until you know what you are doing.  So it is time to face the facts- the steps you are taking are NOT getting you where you want to go and you are unsure what steps will take you there.  Admitting it is always the first step.  Now ask for help

Review your log,  admit it isn't working,  ask for help = APPLAUSE

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