One of the things that is most helpful for me at staying motivated and on track is planning an event in the future where I know I want to feel/look great. It could be family photos or a vacation or a work event where I have to be on stage in front of a lot of people. Maybe it's my birthday or anniversary coming up that I tell myself "you can be super strict until this date and see how much progress you can make." I don't even change anything radically but that upcoming event might help me not grab an extra piece of cheese or it might motivate me to add some fasting. It can also make saying "No" in the moment to a treat easier because I have a specific reason Why that's outside of internal motivation. It's a way to raise the stakes! (no pun intented)
Ideally long term we just gain the mindset that we want to feel healthy and look great all the time and we don't need these external motivators but I think using these more short-mid term goals is helpful in building that "motivation muscle" and creating long term healthy habits.
When I was first starting I would start with something in the next week or month and now I find that having a date/event 2-3 months out is a good mental driver for me.
What about you? Are you just motivated to be healthy always? What is an event or situation 1-3 months from now that would be a great motivator for you to stay focused on your goals and help avoid temptation?
*Let's do a livestream tomorrow (Friday) at 11am PST 2pm EST
Cheese is good! I ate a block of chipotle oven baked cheese with lunch yesterday and it was divine. I love it, but know that it halts any progress I'm making, and will even trigger eating in excess to where I'll gain weight. It's sad but I have accepted it. If I eat it in small quantities with a meal, it's ok, but I really have to work to keep it in check.
What's your favorite cheese? How do you incorporate it? Do you see negative results when eating it?
Happy Sunday! Sharing a video today from our week, one of the highlights. This was Wednesday evening church, normally they have a more casual prayer meeting where someone plays the guitar, but they were doing some construction in the fellowship hall so they had their prayer meeting in the sanctuary. No one was there to play the piano so my my Grandma did it, she's been playing the piano in church for probably 80 years.
For context, she's 88, she had a really bad fall 5 years ago now and hit her head and ended up with a lot setbacks, similar to having a stroke. She has a lot of dementia like symptoms also (I am sure related to her Type 2 diabetes), she really can't read music anymore, and she has trouble seeing well, and she needs to wear hearing aids to hear but hates wearing them, so on this night she didn't want to wear them. My 93 (almost 94) year old grandpa takes care of both of them on their farm. Anyway, on this night she sat down on the piano and led worship as people called ...
Happy Saturday! I hope you are all doing well. I know some people in the group have had some recent tough news for themselves or family members. It really puts the day to day issues we face into perspective, and reminds me to just focus on doing the best I can to be as healthy as possible. To those who are having a hard time, we are all here for you and sending you some prayers and support. 🙏🏼🙏🏼 Just focus today on doing the best you can and remember that food isn't going to bring you the comfort you are looking for.
Here is a little video of Penelopes performance from her piano recital l last night, she's been taking lessons for about a year and a half. 🎹🤍🖤
*Livestream Monday night at 4pm pst/7pm est
Happy Friday!! I finally got back to walking yesterday. Our entire week in WV I didn't get many steps in, we took some walks in the woods but not a lot of miles. Since I came back I've been so busy and tired, at least that's my excuse, but really it's just hard to get back into the routine after not doing it for over a week. That's the hard part for me about exercise, the more I do it the easier it is to keep doing it. But as soon as I have a few days in a row where I don't make time to exercise, I just lose all motivation for it. However yesterday I got back to it!! 💪🏼💪🏼 I walked about 6+ miles during the day while working and hit 15k steps. Today is going to be very busy but I plan to get started early in the day.
How are you planning to get some movement in today?
Happy Thursday! I am all thrown off this week on what day it is. 😂 It's been good to be home but busy getting back into our routine. Chris and the kids started getting things organized yesterday to kick off their school year. They always start by setting some goals for the year and mapping out a plan on how to accomplish them.
Normally I like to focus on short term goals and daily non-negotiables, but I thought it might be fun to set a longer term goal for the rest of this year.
What is one thing you want to accomplish still in 2025?
Started my 7 days off yesterday. Today we are in Lafayette, California. I feel every time I am off, I have to travel somewhere else. 2 weeks ago was Texas. Today is California. Not long ago it was Missouri. This is not over yet. In 2 weeks is back to Texas and from there to Colorado and Back to New Mexico and Arizona to work.
I gave myself a headache typing that.
The thing is, it's really hard to keep it Carnivore when you're on the move. So I followed @Lauraespath's advice and packed some beef jerky and beef sticks to keep me loyal. For meals out I have been eating burgers with no bun. Just mustard and cheese. Delicious no matter where. Specially when you're hungry. Now, I need to say this. What is the meat in California made with? $30 a pound!!!??? And I thought NM was expensive.
I left pics of Lafayette's reservoir and the kids.
Oh well. I hope everyone is having a good week.