Sunday, September 29, 2013

Danger: Success + Exhaustion + No Food = Three Brownies

Post Number: 27
Days of Tracking: 1/2
Days of Points Calculated: 1/2

The variables -
     Success: Weight loss for two weeks
     Exhaustion: Pushing hard through many responsibilities with time limits, late nights and early mornings
     No Food: First food of the day was at 3:00 pm.

The setting - Finally home after a long day so far. Kids all together in the upstairs bedroom. Fresh brownies on the stove

Result - Three brownies, scarfed with much pleasure. My sincere gratitude to Asian Red fox for the kid-less kitchen and fresh brownies. From now own, brownies get baked after a meal, not before.

I may have the points to be able to eat three brownies, but it was a poor choice. I need to have ready-to-go zero point snacks (most fresh fruits and veggies are zero points). In the end, what matters most is that I acknowledge the responsibility for this mistake, skip the self-flagellation (it takes too much effort amid my current exhaustion anyway), and make the mental changes to adjust my decision making process in the right direction right this minute to put an end to the poor choices.

And I need to slow down. A seminal moment occurred in my day today that I hope will become a seminal moment in this stressful transition and prepare me for future transitions. For my church, I teach older teenagers. After class, one of the fathers of my students insisted on shaking my hand. He complimented me on my teaching effort on behalf of his son because our gospel doctrine topics discussed in class had led to discussions at home. What made it a seminal moment is that I had intended to thank him and move on. I had my own stresses to deal with that were foremost in my thoughts. But I stopped and paid much more attention to him once I realized that this was not a short compliment. I paused, took a breath, and paid attention. I did thank him. It is the sort of compliment a teacher wants to hear. It was wonderful to know that I had produced an interest in the topics I was teaching that lasted beyond the class. Had I been appreciative of the moment and the good being done on my behalf, I would have willingly waited and accepted the entire compliment from the beginning. And I hope to recognize the good surrounding me with greater appreciation for the joys that abound in my life.

Yours in the joyful life that is made for each one of us,

Eliot

P.S.: For the hard-core athletes that may be reading this that are burning off calories in large quantities, I just realized something. Asian Red Fox figured out a way to burn off 3840 calories in 18 minutes. That's 213 calories per minute, or one Oreo cookie every minute. How'd she do it? We bought several Papa Murphy's pizzas a couple weeks ago and she burned the first one. It was a Gourmet Chicken Garlic.

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