Fighting For A Life Worth Living

Day 35 - Get The Payoff

The first time I went to visit my aunt and uncle in Colorado we drove by a Dairy Queen and my uncle told me that is where they like to ride their bikes to. It was a decent way from their house and a nice bike trail took them straight there with little interference with traffic. When I looked at him strangely for rewarding themselves with ice cream; he told me something I will never forget.

"When you do the work, you get the payoff."

This is a great mantra that you can live by in all aspects of your life, today I want to look at it in the healthy lifestyle way. I have given my best effort for the last 35 days. I still have a long ways to go until I reach my goal, but that does not mean I haven't tried my best. As I continue to make my best effort my skills and willpower will increase. Trying my best is the work part of it. Today I received the payoff of my hard work.

It's strange to me how our taste buds can change. You don't realize how much salt or sugar something contains, until you cut a lot of it out of your diet. Only when you eat that food again and all you taste is sodium or sugar do you feel disgusted that you even put it in your mouth. This happened to me twice yesterday and I can not be more happy about it.

First, We had been out shopping later than we expected and decided to eat at Fazolis Italian Restaurant. I used to love their breadsticks, but now I can't stand them. I took one bite of a breadstick and all I could taste was the salt. I ended up eating 1 and a half, they didn't taste bad when I dipped it in sauce from my lasagna. This is a skill I need to work on, after taking one bite and not liking it I should have thrown them away or given them to my husband.

Secondly, I am hosting a couple of parties in July and I am trying to prepare for them. One is an under the sea theme and I found a recipe on Pinterest where you can combine 2 vanilla wafers to look like clams. You put frosting on one, place the other one at an angle on top, and finish by adding a pearlized sixlet. I tried one and all I could taste was sugar. It almost made me sick. The frosting has since been thrown away.

I may not be losing the weight at the rate I want, but I am doing the work and getting the payoff. Our bodies don't always reward us in the way we expect. The way I see it though, a reward is still a good thing and my body can reward me in any way it sees fit! I can not wait until the day when I am rewarded with more energy.