36 Days, 3240 Burpees, 16 Miles, and Bargaining with Yourself

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Are you the type of person who has an inner monologue that you make bargains with?  “If I run a mile I can eat a slice of pizza.”  “If I get home before 5 I’ll do my workout, otherwise I’m just cooking dinner.”  Chances are the answer is “yes”, because you’re human (or you’re a dog who learned how to read, good job).  We all make little bargains with ourselves and while I’m using exercise and diet as examples, bargaining can creep into any part of your life.

The other day while driving through a snowstorm in Vermont, I listened to an episode of Radiolab (one of my favorite shows) called “Help!“.  They discussed bargaining and told a story of a long-term smoker who made a deal with herself to finally help her quit cold-turkey.  She had always tried to use the bargains of “it could kill me”, “it causes cancer”, “it makes my kids fear for me”, but all of those were easy to ignore because they’re in the future.  She needed something in the NOW.  The deal she made with herself was that if she ever smoked another cigarette she had to give $5k to the Ku Klux Klan, and her best friend had to keep her good to that promise.  Now, that might sound ridiculous but after a life of fighting for civil rights it was high enough stakes to make her quit.  I highly recommend listening to the whole episode to hear more.

I mentioned my weight woes the other day and I decided to make a high-stakes bargain with myself.  If I don’t lose 20lbs in three months I’m buying $500 in Monsanto seeds and gifting them to a local farm.  I can’t tell you how sick that idea makes me.  Not just the fact that I’d be giving $500 to Monsanto, but that I’d then have to do the walk of shame to present these to a local farmer and if the farmer doesn’t care that they’re from Monsanto I could potentially be polluting my local soil with GMO seeds.  Aaaaggghhhh!!

I’ve got to say, so far it’s working.  It’s gotten me to hot yoga, it’s got me running faster, and it has me picking up healthy snacks and tracking my calories with a fine-tooth comb.  After months of exercise and not seeing my weight drop, I’m FINALLY seeing the pounds start to go.  I’m on a fairly strict diet now of two-green smoothies a day, a healthy snack and then a healthy dinner, plus lots of water.  No food within a few hours of bed, no gluten, no dairy, no caffeine, no processed foods, no sugar.  These are rules I try to live by anyway but I’m not nearly as strict as I have been in the past week.  Wish me luck, because believe me the alternative is NOT HAPPENING!!

I also made my tastiest smoothie yet and I have to share the recipe with you!

ImageAlmond Green Fruit Smoothie

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup almond Milk
  • 1 scoop protein powder (I used Fat Flush Body Protein)
  • 1/4 cup frozen strawberries
  • 1/4 cup frozen peaches
  • 1/4 cup frozen mango
  • 1 cup raw spinach
  • 1 tsp flax seeds
  • 1 tsp flax seed oil
  • 1 tbsp unsweetened coconut flake

So. Friggin’. Good!!  It’s fruity and nutty and vitamin-packed!  Plus it’s only 394 calories and has a whopping 25g of protein!  This made me a very happy woman, I hope you love it!

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Comments

  1. facepalmword  March 6, 2013

    Ahhhh that’s hilarious!!