A country singer named Justin Moore has a fun song called “That’s Why We Drink.” I think the lyrics explain why many of us have struggled with our weight this summer.
Just change the name of the song to “That’s Why We Eat” and you’ll have the answer.
That’s WHY we eat
‘Cause it’s Friday
‘Cause it’s Monday
‘Cause it’s a charcoal burnin’ Sunday
‘Cause we ain’t gonna get to one day
That’s why we drink/eat
‘Cause the sun’s up
‘Cause it’s sundown
‘Cause my wound up needs a little unwound
‘Cause we’ve been workin’ all day but we’re done now
Yeah, that’s why we drink/eat
The song goes on to list a few more reasons such as because it’s hot (or cold) out, the sun is shining, it’s cloudy, it’s raining, it’s not raining. We could go on and on with these great reasons why we eat, and it seems like that would explain our struggles.
Lately I’ve been eating a lot of my favorite foods of cookies and ice cream. As I looked more closely at my eating patterns this summer, I realized I had slid into some of my unhealthy habits from the past. So I pulled out one of my favorite tools for getting back on track.
Success somewhere
When you get overwhelmed in life, it can seem like everything goes wrong at the same time. Because work has been crazy for weeks, your exercise plan falls apart. And your house is a disaster so you keep ordering pizza because you can’t get to the grocery store.
Maybe on top of everything else, your car breaks down, and you don’t know where you’ll get the money to fix it.
During times like this, don’t assume you need to fix all areas of your life at once. You just need to get ONE thing to work. From that tiny success, your energy will overflow into other areas, helping you improve them as well.
To make progress in one area of your life, choose a place to start and pick out one task you know you can accomplish. For example, maybe you could get back to your exercise program by doing a 10-minute walk after you get home from work.
That small success motivates you to eat something healthy for dinner. Suddenly you feel stronger about planning changes at work that will help cut your stress.
The power of ONE success
I decided it was time to tackle my recent habit of eating a cookie (or cookies) every afternoon. To change that pattern, I went back to something that worked for me in the past. I purchased some low-carb protein bars and set them out so I could see them.
I also put one of the bars in my purse so that if I was out running errands and decided to stop for coffee, I had my solution with me. Within a few days, I no longer hunted for an afternoon cookie, and I celebrated having “success somewhere.”
It feels good to have made that change and it inspired me to set goals on some other things as well, including getting back to my daily walks and my strengthening exercises.
Any time you have a day when nothing goes right, simply break the pattern. Choose one small activity or task you know you can do well, then do it. It might be a simple as clearing off the kitchen counter. Once you finish, commend yourself mentally, then move on to another goal.
Each time you successfully complete a task, you reinforce a belief that you can do more. After you achieve a few small successes, you will find it easier to sustain momentum with your other goals.