Responsibility199

You bet your last sip of water I am talking about Attitude again today. Oh, by the way; Happy Saturday 🙂

Today, lets compare unsuccessful ‘weak’ attitudes and successful ‘strong’ attitudes…

Weak Attitude: “My whatever joint hurts, so I can’t exercise today.” Ok, this may be true and rest for the injury may be best. However, if we let the negative of that reality spiral on us, those of us who can be defined as obese will too often use the injury as reason to justify diving into a bag of pity-party food. Raising hand, admitting I have done it.

Strong Attitude: “My whatever joint hurts, however I can work out other parts of my body safely while my injury heals.” Just the act of doing something alternative and productive to accommodate the injury will go a long way to thwarting any desire to engage in the destructive behaviors of a pity-party. Plus, the exercise is good for you too 🙂

Oh we can’t do just one comparison. So here is a second bonus compare just  for you Saturday bloggers…

Weak Attitude: “It doesn’t matter what diet I try, they all do not work for me.” It may be true our attempts to use diet plans have not resulted in our desired  weight loss. However, that does not mean that the diets themselves failed. There is little doubt that we have failed in our use of the diet. When we blame the diet plan, we will blame anything and everything but ourselves for failure. We can’t resolve a problem until we honestly identify the cause of it. Hint, the cause of the problem is our bad attitude!

Strong Attitude: “My chosen diet does not allow for rocky road ice cream. Even though I could probably survive just a taste, or two, I have made a commitment to my plan, and I am sticking to it.” We drive the plan. Plans do not drive us. Plans only work when committed to and execute as planned. Do anything less and our progress will slow, or halt, or reverse.

Weak or Strong; chose one and got going; Saturday awaits you. Enjoy!

Pic credit: http://www.mondaymusings.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Leadership-and-Attitude.jpg

Excuse me, but I’m going to keep speaking about attitude until I get mine back to where it needs to be. Today it is better than it was yesterday, this week better than last week; but not yet where it must be to consistently lose weight again.

We wake up each day to a choice, we get to choose our attitude for that day. Yesterday is just that, our past. Tomorrow is just that, our future. We cannot live in the past or in the future and succeed at today.

It has been said that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. We can choose to tackle life with an attitude that we will do whats right and be better for it, or, not.

It is in that moment, that split second in which we choose our attitude, where we choose whether or not we will succeed that day.

We get to choose!

Ok, lets choose, ready?

I am! I choose an attitude of believing in what I am doing, of knowing how to do it, and loving what I am doing.

And you?

p.s… Speaking of attitude, Nacho has too much ‘tude getting all relaxed in my chair; bad kitty!

When I was a young adult I didn’t have an appreciation for attitude and it’s role in success. After a trio of decades I began to acknowledge how a positive and aggressive attitude could make the difference in the results in teams at work. Applying the right attitude injects ability into that which is worth doing.

For me, experience was needed for that realization to emerge. In my fourth decade I discovered the application of attitude also works at home. An attitude of respect and appreciation applied at home launches our contribution to each other and emboldens our courage to overcome the trials of marriage and family.

In my fifth decade I now understand, finally, that it is attitude more than anything which I can leverage to become better as a person. Finally, I get it. Attitude has been the key to every professional and relationship success I have enjoyed.

Attitude is what will see me succeed in my quest for wellness. Attitude more so than the technique I apply in my quest; more so than action plan I adopt, more so than the knowledge I summon to my cause; Attitude when embraced changes impossible into inevitable.

Tuesday has given way to Wednesday. Which of course is a good thing, we are still alive and opportunity awaits us.

Yesterday I performed well enough, no make that good enough, to earn my tonic water. However I was so busy after work yesterday, I forgot to have any. But fear not for I have a solution to that oversight; I grabbed a bottle and am taking it to work today. Yes, let the celebration begin!

Today’s challenge will be dinner. Oh not just any dinner, no, I am talking about the dreaded business sponsored dinner with clients. Such events come with the expectation to over indulge on someone else’s dime.

So while I believe I know how to handle such a challenge, let us pretend that I do not and I am in desperate need for your advice. Okay, not a lot of pretending that actually needs to take place here. Please do share any good nuggets you may have with Crush & I.

What challenges await you this day?

Hand over heart, I acknowledge that I’ve got to put more effort into getting my attitude set before I can expect to get this body moving towards healthier days again.

While I’ve re-engaged with blogging, reading, and doing many of the things one must do to lose weight, I am not yet behaving as I know I must.

Recent days have been better, but each has seen me also slip up somewhere along the 16-18 hours my eyes are open. Yesterday was a vending machine raid, the day before an ice cream dive. Better days, sure. But not good enough.

So, I choose to leverage other tools in order to move my actions in line with the attitude I’ve been speaking of.

My tool of choice; Tonic Water (diet of course).

More accurately, the tool here is to employ a  mini reward to amp up my  motivation to do whats right.

Ahhh tonic water; I love it! This past weekend I purchased two of those beauties you see there. As of today I have yet to open a bottle. And I have decided I will not until the day where my eating has been on target through dinner. If I’ve eaten on plan, then I’ll enjoy a glass of this most divine of elixirs. Otherwise, it stays in the refrigerator.

Off I go to earn myself a reward this day.

What are you looking forward to enjoying this day?

Certainly we can agree that a change from the status quo is needed to bring about a lasting result. We can agree on that, correct?

Change comes in many forms, and that’s good. A change that works for you, may not work as well for me. Or more likely to be the case, while the change may work just as well for me, I may not like that change as readily as you have come to like it. For example, if you want to lose weight going vegan, cool. I bet if I went vegan I would see results, but I would be miserable.

My point, is not to debate different types of changes we can adopt. But rather, to remind myself and anyone else needing a reminder, that change cannot be casual.

Change cannot be occasional.

Change cannot be uncommitted to.

Yes, try a carrot, our metaphor for change. We must try one. Or more, which we believe will make a difference. But after we’ve tasted it, taken it for a test drive; well then it is decision time!

Either we decide to now eat that carrot (adopt the change by committing to it fully), or, we put the carrot down and walk away (search for a different change that fits us better).

Regardless what change(s) we make, we must commit to it, or we will not get well.

Image Credit: http://www.glasbergen.com/wp-content/gallery/vegetarian-cartoons/veg-05.gif