Forget Yesterday

That's what I realised as I stood on the scales this morning, and smiled in satisfaction.

The danger of "yesterday" is that is can far too easily sway you from your path for today.  We remember the day before, and assume that that has an impact on tomorrow, and it doesn't.  Today has an impact on tomorrow.  Today is what we can change, mold and influence.  Yesterday has been and gone, and we can never alter the past.

Yesterday, had an impact on today, I'll grant you, and it's that small and subtle difference that causes me problems.  If I had a good day yesterday, then I feel good today.  Maybe the scales have dropped, or I feel slimmer.  And the temptation then is think I'm already sucessful and slack off my efforts.  Or maybe, the scales haven't moved, and I start thinking they won't, so I slack off.  And what if yesterday was bad?  Well, it's all ruined isn't it?  There's no point in being good today, and trying.

But that's wrong, all totally and utterly wrong.  Whatever happened this morning at the scales, if I want to see it tomorrow or the day after, then it's today that I must make the effort.  The past is irrelevant, as soon as it has happened - in dieting terms at least, because there's no turning back the clock on what we've eaten and done.

This goes a long way to explain why I'm proving excellent at maintaining my loss within certain boundaries, but not doing very well at the consistent weight loss, over .... oooooh .... the last 18 months.  I have a good day, maybe two, maybe a week.  The scales start to move, and I stop.  I think I've already put the work in I needed to.  Hell, I did it this morning:  I did ok yesterday, and the scales slid down a couple of lbs this morning, and the temptation was to take it easier today.

So, yes, I hit my 29 points yesterday, as promised.  I did it in a slight unorthodox way - but hey, I need to sweat these things a little less.  I had another hard, hard day in the office - at my desk from 7.50am and working clean through to 6.30pm with virtually no break.  I gulped my lunch down whilst mid-conversation with work colleagues trying to unravel a knotty problem, and my only escape from desk all day was to run out to Tescos towards the end of the afternoon to grab a couple of drinks and some orange squash.  15 mins away from my desk.  I survived cakes in the office and stress, which just goes to prove I can when I choose to overcome it.  I ate when I was hungry.  After work, I'd promised I'd run errands for my friend Bec who's getting married in October.  She's trying to source her last pair of bridesmaid shoes and they've gone into the sale in Monsoon, so she's struggling to get the right size, and I'd promised I'd try and get to the shop in Cabot Circus after work to see if they had any.

All of this didn't leave much time for dinner, as I wanted to go to the cinema in Cabot Circus too for my usual Tuesday night cinema club.  When I thought about it, I wasn't really hungry, but I did want my usual little sweet treat at the cinema.  Normally, it would be unheard of for me to not have a proper dinner, but a) I had no food, and b) well, I wasn't hungry!  I ended up just grabbing a small bowl of cereal, and then have a bit of pic'n'mix at the cinema, and it was the right choice because I never did get hungry.  And I got my 29 points bang on.

I don't want to let up on this, so I've challenged myself to 29 points again today, heeding what I've said above - yesterday no longer matters, today is all that counts.