Motivational Monday – How Are Your Resolutions Going?

Alright guys, it’s time for a heart to heart. It’s February, 10 days after we finished the Whole30. The first 5 days were informative. I slowly reintroduced things a little at a time. Learned that:

• Soy is out. Even when it’s just a little amount in things like whey protein powder or soy lectin in chocolate (Thank god for Enjoy Life chocolate. It’s soy free, dairy free and gluten-free)
• Wine (at least red wine) is out. It was one of the first things I tried after I finished the Whole30 and woke up crying with fibromyalgia pain at 4am
• Fake dairy in the form of Daiya tapioca cheese is in. Friend of mine went out of his way to make gluten-free pizza with the Daiya cheese (we found it at Whole Foods) and I felt completely fine

And I called my doctor to tell her about my asthma disappearing. She was amazed and excited. Mostly because she’s the type of doctor that loves to solve puzzles. And after so many dead ends, this was a new clue. She immediately asked me to come in for food allergy tests.

But…then life happened. I got sick Thursday and Friday and didn’t really feel like cooking. I felt excited that now “I could have” things like cookies and chocolate. So I let myself have some. Because, why not?

Nathalia Melo shared this cartoon on her Instagram as her explanation of why she doesn’t have cheat days. I died laughing as soon as I saw it. This is me. This might even be you. You know what I’m talking about. When you’re good, you’re good. You can meal plan, and bring your lunches to work and stock your fridge with real whole foods. But that moment you say “it’s OK to eat X now” or “I deserve it.” Bam. It’s over.

This weekend Jake went out to the suburbs for a friend’s birthday party. In exchange, our friend’s wife came to spend a girls’ weekend with me. It was so much fun hanging out just the two of us. And at dinner I mentally said to myself, “I’m going to eat a burger. With cheese. And a bun. Because I deserve it.” So I did. And it was delicious.

Then I was the one that suggested we grab some ice cream on the way home (because really, who has a girls night without icecream?) And we had some. And it was delicious.

However now it’s 10pm on Sunday and guess what’s back. My fibromyalgia pain. And my asthma. I’ve already had to use my inhaler twice tonight. I didn’t have any red wine. Maybe had a tiny bit of soy in the ice cream (it’s the very last ingredient on the list). So clearly it has to be either the gluten or dairy (or both).

So, what’s my point? My point is I’m going to bet $5 you just did the exact same thing. Maybe this weekend you told yourself that you “deserved” to eat something? Or maybe this past week you were too tired or too busy to go to the gym?

Gold’s Gym put out a press release on February 1st. They analyzed three years of membership data and concluded that February 7th, 38 days after New Years, was the day people stopped following their New Year’s resolutions. I had thought people dropped out a lot sooner, maybe sometime in January, so when I made it to January 30th I felt so proud of myself. Nope. Turns out I’m just like the rest of them.

So what are we going to do about it? Are we going to keep telling ourselves that it’s too cold or we’re too tired to go to the gym? Are we going to start buying processed foods again because “we deserve it” or “it doesn’t really make us that sick?” Or are we going to dust ourselves off, realize we can’t change what we did this past meal (or weekend or week) and remind ourselves why we started this in the first place?