So I have had a couple of really hard days… and it reminded me of something I heard once (I wish I could remember who said it so I could give credit)… When I finally quit smoking, I quit cold turkey… from almost 3 packs a day to not even a puff… and it was so hard. But I still believe that if I had a single drag off a cigarette today that I would be smoking 2 packs a day in less than a week… it is much easier to not have any than to have a little… I’m sure that is true for drug addiction also.

It would be easier to just quit food… having to eat little amounts is way harder that quitting cold turkey (no pun intended). So as I had my ‘rough’ days I was tempted to not eat, which I knew was not a good choice.

To make the right choice to stay on the program and eat right I went back to something that I was told by a life coach a couple of years ago. Scott Chesney (www.scottchesney.com) made it clear how important gratitude is and how important it is to reflect on that every day. Now when I first heard that I thought “I am thankful for many things everyday already”, but that it so different than ‘actually’ reflecting on your gratitude. For a period of time, I wrote daily what I was grateful for. That is much harder than it sounds… but it really does matter.

So on the rough days I sat and really put some effort into thinking about what I am grateful for.. the obvious ones are easy… my wife and kids… my friends… my home business… having a place to live, in a wonderful and safe city… and then you have to start digging deeper.. and deeper… until at some point you can’t think of any more… when I did this one thing that came to mind was how grateful I am that I am in a position to be able to improve my health, appearance and life… and that lead to being grateful for a program that I have been able to see results with… so when I was sitting there hating being on a diet and hating exercising, my mindset did a 180… I am actually grateful that I am able to exercise and diet and see results from that.

So from that I was re-energized and focused and made it through to fight another day.  This one little thing that Scott requested from me that most of us assume we already do made a huge difference… I urge each of you to take 5 minutes at the beginning or end of each day and write down what you are grateful for… there are no right or wrong answers… just take it in and feel grateful for every little thing you have… and keep going!

Steve