Life Is About Choices

Love is in the air and today on Long Island it’s blowing around like crazy! Hopefully cupid has a steady shot – because he can easily mix up some arrows in this wind. Be prepared for the week and especially for tomorrow. Many of you waited to have your Cheat Day until tomorrow (so proud of you)! That was the smart thing to do when you know that you either have dinner plans or are weak when it comes to those heart shaped chocolates! For those of you who waited, you get to enjoy and not think about what you will order in advance!

If you had your Cheat Day this past weekend you made your choice and you have to stay 110% tomorrow because there is no free pass because it’s Valentines Day. If you are lucky enough to be “In Love” then that should be enough and food a distant second. If your “Love” is not enough tomorrow then you need to focus on what you will have and stick to it. Regardless of where you are going or what you are doing you can order a clean meal…and save your snacks for your drinks. There is always an on program option you just have to make it.

See, when it comes to weight loss it is all about making choices. The Cheat Day helps you do that. That’s why you can’t split them. You can’t have more than one and you can’t pretend it wasn’t bad because you only had “one thing off the whole day.” The whole idea of the Cheat Day is to choose what day is most important to you each week and enjoy it. It’s for you to understand and accept that you CAN HAVE IT –  just not everyday. And ONE DAY A WEEK should be more than enough for you. But it does require making choices. Because if you don’t take the time to think and make a choice – you are basically giving yourself freedom to have more than one Cheat Day. And that never works. So if  Valentine’s Day is important to you to cheat, then you should have waited and had a clean weekend and have your Cheat Day on Valentine’s Day. It doesn’t matter if you were going out to dinner on the weekend – it’s a choice. It doesn’t matter if you were only a “little off” on your Cheat Day – you made a choice. You make your choices and you know that Off is Off. If you were off for a day or a meal or even just a dessert – you made the choice to have your day and now you move on until next week. The cheat day only works when your other 6 days are a 110%. You have to make choices and those choices will reflect whether you lose, gain or maintain. You can’t just “wing it” and it just can’t be “a little here and a little there”. When you want to lose weight and keep it off it has to be one Cheat Day a week – no exceptions. Once you start writing your own rules and have a cheat dinner Saturday and then you do a cheat Valentine’s day – You have made the choice to be OFF TWO DAYS in one week…and that is no longer a weight loss week. And whether you maintain or gain will depend on how 110% the rest of your 5 days are.

One Cheat Day is what you get and you should be thrilled with that. When you make the right choices it can and should really work for you in a very positive way. If you really want to see your numbers go down you have to follow it 110% 6 days clean and 1 day off. It’s simple and it’s only when you start writing your own rules and making the choice that ONE Cheat Day a week is no longer enough for you is when you will start gaining. Choices are hard. But when we were young we were taught how important it is to make the right choices – and it’s what we teach our children – If you want success you have to make good choices. It’s time to start living what we teach and preach – and make the right choice that you know will work  for you. So when tomorrow rolls around and it’s  “Valentines Day”  and you already had your Cheat Day you have to make the choice – Do you want to lose weight this week? If you want to lose weight then you eat clean on Valentine’s Day and save your candy for your Cheat Day! If you want to gain weight or maintain then you have your Valentine’s Day dinner and candy and live with the consequences that it was more important to you then losing this week.

Life is all about making choices and when we do the right things and plan we can be amazing. I know it’s not easy. But it’s worth it. Because when you get on the scale you want to see that number lower. You want to feel good and lighter and one step closer to your goal. If you see the number goes up or doesn’t change from the prior week – I promise you that if you can even remember what you ate and drank to cause it – you will think it so wasn’t worth it.