The road less travelled!

Happy Friday!

I was thinking this morning, how staying the course and being TOTALLY OP, versus doing it 90% or 98% or 'except for' (insert whatever you're eating in addition here).... is like choosing from two different mountain trails.

Both paths APPEAR to be going in the same direction....over the mountain and to the gorgeous, sunny beach with pristine white sand and clear blue water, just waiting for us....complete with a hammock swung between two trees, the birds singing and no one else around to spoil the view.

But looks can be deceiving.

To begin with, it seems pretty obvious that the 'easy' path you always walked before isn't going to work. No diet pills for you this time, they don't work in the long run. Neither are you going to do some 'fad' diet or juice cleanse or something drastic like that...NO sir, you've been there, done that and you KNOW that it backfires and you wind up eating everything that isn't nailed down LOL.

NO, you KNOW what the RIGHT choice is....it's the 5/1 and THIS TIME, you're going to STICK with it, 100%! WOOHOO!

You're all psyched.....you can see the 5/1 path and it looks...harder than the path you used to take, but that's OK, because you know that this new path leads to that gorgeous BEACH.

Whereas the old path? It just leads you around and around and you wind up RIGHT BACK WHERE YOU STARTED.
UGH. No, thank you.

So off you go.

But then...along the way...things happen. You get stressed. You run out of time and can't get your MF breakfast in. So you stop at Starbucks. And then you've had a mocha frappuchino for some strange reason (you just opened your mouth and somehow you were ordering it) and now you're jonesing for MORE sugar and fat....UGH...and it's hard to stay OP....and you say "Why not restart tomorrow?" and you're eating junk again. Just for today. TOMORROW you'll get back on the stick.

So you veer off the path....and you wind up on that same path you've been on before, so many times before, the one that leads right back to where you were.

Sometimes you can get yourself BACK on the right path....but OH, now it's HARD! It's so much HARDER! Look, it's overgrown, there are weeds and thorny bushes and it goes STRAIGHT UP THE MOUNTAIN at one point, how in the world are you going to be able to do that, you're not strong enough, it's TOO hard....but you persist....
And the whole time that OTHER path, the EASY path, is right there, offering you a 'way out' at any point in time. It looks easy....well-trod....well maintained....and it DOESN'T have all those thorny bushes and it doesn't go straight up, it looks like it goes AROUND the mountain! Hey, that's GREAT! I don't HAVE to do it the hard way...I can take this easier way....maybe it'll TAKE ME LONGER but I can do this....I'll just have an extra lean, and one, no wait TWO, extra snacks a day, after all I work out SO HARD I DESERVE them, and it will be fine, this is how I have to eat forever anyway, I'm training myself.....I'll still lose weight but just not as fast.....

....and before you know it you're off the hard road again, onto the easy path....and you're...

going NOWHERE. Again, you're right back to where you started.

The bottom line is, in order to REACH that gorgeous white sands beach?
You MUST take the hard road.
You MUST!
Every other road is just a LIE, a TRAP, a long path that goes in CIRCLES and GETS YOU NOWHERE!

The hard road...complete with the thorny bushes and the uphill climbs and ALL of it....WILL, if you're strong enough to STAY THE COURSE and STAY ON IT.....get you to that beach. I PROMISE.

When you STOP making excuses and START staying OP....and I mean ALL THE WAY on program, not 'just on weekdays' or 'except for my favorite (insert food here)' or you NEED extra 'whatever'....you WILL reach goal. You WILL lose the weight.

It's like magic. Only NOT! You KNOW when it's working. You KNOW when you're OP....and you KNOW when you're OFF program.

All the excuses and 'just this once' and all that other crap is just that. EXCUSES. Reasons NOT to do what you know you must do to reach goal.

NO, the path isn't easy. But remind yourself that you get to eat SIX TIMES A DAY....!!....and you get to eat BROWNIES and CEREAL and MASHED POTATOES and SOFT SERVE ICE CREAM and GINGERBREAD and PRETZELS and...you get the idea.
All these foods are terrific, and they are ALL Medifast meals...perfectly balanced to support you nutritionally while you lose the weight.

So stop telling yourself there's an easier, faster way (or a cheaper way, i.e., 'off brand' products, perhaps?)....
Stop making excuses.

Stop doing the program "90%" or even "95%". Do it all the way. No, I'm not a condiment dictator....but I DO believe in eating 5 MF meals a day plus your L&G and that's ALL. MAYBE an extra 2 ounces of lean IF you're exercising HARD...but ONLY if you're exercising.

And I DO believe in drinking ALL your water. All 64 ozs. of it. If you drink your water, it makes the rest easier to follow, because you don't have an empty stomach! Plus you're well hydrated.

Water is the single most important thing you can take in.

The rest? Pick your 5 MF meals every morning, plan your L&G for that night, and DO IT. Just put your head down and do it.
Stop thinking about what you "can't" have and be committed to yourself, and to that HARD path, all the way to goal.

YOU CAN DO IT. It IS possible. I don't care how many years you've been overweight and don't tell me you're too old, or too young, or you're 'different', or you can't lose weight....believe me I used ALL those excuses and more.
If you work the program, the program WORKS. Period.

Besides, you're NEVER too old to learn how to eat properly. And that's what this program can do for you if you follow it through to completion.

No games, no challenges, no # of days OP, no weighing in every other day and stressing because you gained .2 lbs, NONE of that.

Just put your head down and STAY OP. ALL THE WAY. Weigh weekly, at the same time, same scale, same clothes....but realize that the BIGGEST change is IN YOUR HEAD. Is the fact that you are making yourself STRONGER...internally. Learning to handle your emotions and LIFE without the 'crutch' of food. And feeding your body RIGHT. For the first time, maybe, in YEARS!

YOU CAN DO THIS.

Keep on keepin' on!