Taking Control of our Lives

“When we take control of our lives, the habits we adopt, and the choices we make on a daily basis, we can achieve whatever we dream and think possible.” Josh Perry

Josh Perry (check at bottom for a link about Josh) is a former Pro BMX Rider who has survived numerous brain tumors to become a public speaker on brain health, eating healthy and taking control of our own lives.

You’ve made the choice to do a low carb or a keto lifestyle. LIFESTYLE being the appropriate word here. For many of us we beat ourselves up a lot if we cheat a little or get knocked off our “DIET” by life events or stress or sickness. This is where taking control of your life comes in. It all comes back to mindset and not allowing life to change our mindset and our goals of where we want to get to.

When it comes to food that means sticking to your meal plan. But if you can’t for some reason, you start over again the next day or one of the things that I have done is meal prep. If I make two different meals on Sunday afternoon for the week, then I have something different each day for lunch and something different for dinner. This helps eliminate temptation for me because I’m prepared and not bored with my food. When my meals are already planned then I can go to the refrigerator and get my lunch instead of being tempted to go to the cafeteria and buy something that may or may not be on my eating plan and I don’t have to think twice about it.

I struggle sometimes as well with what to eat, how much to eat, being bored with my food, etc. I will say though, that one of the things that I have realized is that if I take control and have planned the rest of my day and week, I need to plan what to eat as well. This saves me a whole lot of heartache later on and I’m not as nasty to myself when I cheat a little.

We, especially us women, are extremely hard on ourselves about cheating at meal time. We know what we want as far as our goal, then we know what we are supposed to eat, but if you’re stressed or had a fight with the spouse or kids or your mom responsibilities seem like they never go away, we tend to cave and one little bite won’t hurt and then afterwards when one little bite wasn’t enough – we beat ourselves up for days sometimes. Been there done that. I can hear the old words in my head “You can’t stick to anything, you’re weak, you can’t do anything right”. STOP with this cycle and realize that tomorrow is another day or meal two of your day is another meal and go right back to your new lifestyle. Don’t spend days hating yourself and giving yourself the excuse to go back to your old habits. Be a big person and accept what you did and move on immediately.

I’m great at planning everything else in my life and sticking to it, but when it comes to food I am tempted. Even still today. But the big difference for me today is I no longer beat myself up which gives me a much healthier outlook on life and when stress comes along and I can’t say no to that one little piece of sugar free candy that turns into three pieces (LOL) I can legitimately say that tomorrow is a new day and forget about the three pieces of candy and move on.

This is when you start getting a healthy mindset toward food instead of using it as a crutch or excuse. I know I’m a stress eater, so during stressful times I have to stop and be really conscious on what I’m doing instead of just moving in a fog. And I no longer beat myself up internally for what I have eaten. When you live a keto lifestyle, if you pay attention to your body and only eat when you’re hungry, you’ll realize that most of the time when we eat – we eat out of habit, because it’s that time of day, or a I don’t want to be rude because someone brought in a special desert, or your mom made your favorite food. If you choose to take control of your life – then choose that you will allow yourself some cheat time without beating yourself up.

Yes it may take an extra day or two to get back into ketosis – unless you’re taking a supplement, but STOP with the self critique and self hate and self loathing. YOU ARE IN CONTROL!

Check out Facebook video on Josh Perry. https://www.facebook.com/JoshPerryBMX/videos/207887376676897/?v=207887376676897

So until next week, take control of your life and have a fabulous week!