Indecision....

I cannot even convey to all of you how sore my body is today! I think I may have over-done it a bit with the strength training yesterday at the gym. My arms feel so heavy that even holding them up to tap the keys on the laptop keyboard takes some serious effort! Wow. Hope this means I built some muscle and got rid of just a little bit of my 'bat wings'. LOL

So, if you head on over to my Youtube channel this morning and see my vlog for today...you'll notice that I woke up in a state of indecision yesterday. I wasn't in a bad mood. I wasn't grumpy. I wasn't being lazy. I was just indecisive on how I was feeling and what I wanted to do that day. This feeling comes and goes for me. Sometimes I think it is just laziness trying to raise its ugly little head...but then again, I have been doing A LOT of work at the gym lately and I could definitely use a rest. So I'm forced to try and really listen to my body to really evaluate whether or not I can handle another workout. Well, in the vlog you will see that I DID end up going to the gym...even though, I genuinely didn't want to. I'm telling you, that feeling of indecision can be such a killer!

I don't know about you, but I'm a big Check-List Person. If I have a large task in front of me that I need to get done, like cleaning my house for example, (which is what I will be doing all day today and tomorrow) I will sit down and make a 'To-Do' List of all the things I need to accomplish. -*As a side note, I've been told that this type of behavior will DEFINITELY get me VERY far in the legal field in my career! YAY! - * But I have to say that I regard my work out regimen the same way. Every day before I walk into the gym, I've already formulated a plan, or a 'check-list' in my head of what I'm going to do that day. Very rarely do I ever stray and not complete those things on my mental check-list. I started out yesterday thinking that I would just leave my workout up to chance, I would just do 'whatever I feel like doing' when I walked in those doors to the gym. For me, this is a recipe for disaster. Which leads me to one of the MOST IMPORTANT things I have learned thus far, in my quest to become healthy and lose weight:

You have to formulate a plan and WORK the plan!

Have you ever heard those certain people who say, "I swear I've tried EVERYTHING! No diet works for me! I just can't lose weight!" ? Yeah, I know you've heard that line before, in fact, it may have even come off YOUR lips at one point. I'll be honest here and say that at one point in my life I said it too. But you want to know what the real truth is? The real truth is that these people are not WORKING THE PLAN!!! Now, I'm not a believer in diets. Personally, I'm not a follower of such things as Atkins, South Beach Diet, SlimFast Diet, etc. etc. etc. I'm not going to sit here on my high horse and say that these diets are stupid or don't work, I'm just saying that personally I would rather not go any of those routes in my own, personal, weight loss journey. In fact, in DEFENSE of those diets: You want to know why they often "just don't work" for many people? BECAUSE MANY PEOPLE DON'T WORK THE PLAN!!!

Here's the basics of what I'm saying. You have to sit down and come up with some sort of a basic outline (better known as a plan) for what you are going to do and what you are NOT going to do in order to lose weight. And then, YOU HAVE TO STICK WITH IT!!! Its okay to slip-up here or there (lord knows I have!) it's the "Dieter's Condition". We all screw up from time to time, but all-in-all, if we continue to make more healthy choices than bad, the weight will eventually come off. Make a plan, Work the plan. Make a plan, Work the plan. Can I say this enough?

I have so many people in my personal life (family, friends, etc) who seek me out and say, 'Julie what are you doing to lose the weight? What should I do?' I give them VERY basic ideas of what they COULD do or change about their lifestyles (I'm not a health professional so I'm not about to give outright advice on EXACTLY what to do, besides I think everyone has to figure out what works for THEM). So they'll change these things and maybe even do what I suggested they do. The next thing I know they're sending me a message, "Its not working! Whats going on???" Well, when we get deeper into the conversation they tell me, "Well yeah I did the plan for like 3 days this week, then I went out drinking over the weekend and ate McDonald's and pizza and blah blah blah blah blah....." GEE. I WONDER WHY IT DIDN'T WORK!!!!!

Make a plan. Work the plan. Make a plan. Work the plan.

I mean really, can I stress this enough?????