JUST SAY NO

The safest choice right now for me is NO.  A BIG NO.  My hubby's go to philosophy for raising seven children is "If I have to give you an answer right now, the answer it NO."  The child beggar usually tries all the usual tactics.  You know, big eyes, sad eyes, desperate voice, wailing with tears, repetitive words like please,  exaggerated statements that imply the world will end, and lots of drama.  Really, all my children should all have their own disney shows.  

I won't point any fingers on where they might get their dramatic genes, but I have been telling my dramatic self that the begging , excuses, and wailing is not gonna work. NO not this time.  Like this morning.  My lazy drama queen self said to me that since I had worked out all week today I could take a break.  NO.  I told myself NO.  I hopped on the elliptical; 3.7 miles later I felt rejuvenated enough to continue the party downstairs with an upper body weight workout.  YES!!! YES to SUCCESS!!!   Later I wanted something unhealthy for breakfast and you guessed it, I said NO.  Below is the yummy healthy berry, spinach, avocado, and brown rice protein smoothie.  Can you see the green flecks in it? Minus the blueberries it looked a little like dirt.

Last night I thought I would like just a nibble of the chocolate angel food cake that I should not have picked up at Kroger for 99 cents (sale rack).  My first mistake was telling myself it was for the children.  They are not even tempted to touch it.  In fact, the idea of chocolate in their angel food cake scared them all.  Anyway, I told myself NO.  Absolutely NO.  

I guess treating myself like a child is par for the course right now, with lots of NO's included.  When I say NO now I feel so much better in the long term.  My smoothie is long gone, but I feel physically and mentally way better than I would have if I had given in to my unhealthy craving.  When I eat something unhealthy, the fun in that choice literally only lasts for a few minutes.  In fact, sometimes even that few minutes of "fun eating" is already turning sour by the guilt and discouragement I begin feeling while I am still eating.  Those few minutes of unhealthy eating are then followed my several hours of misery.  Misery because of the guilt, defeat, and discouragement I feel spiritually and mentally, and misery because of the tiredness, sluggishness, and just plain stupefied feeling I have physically.  Those feeling last a lot longer than that short and temporary high from the unhealthy food.  One thing in this book by Dr, Amen that I found interesting is that he always says unhealthy food will make you _____________, _____________, ______________, and stupid.  He often puts stupid on the end of his list.  I hadn't really thought of my brain and food making it more stupid before his book, but he has the patients and brain scans to prove it.

Sometimes No, and JUST SAYING NO seems hard.  The list for the opposite meaning of lethargic on the free dictionary online was:  spirited, active, alert, stimulated, vigorous, energetic, animated, responsive.  I want to be all those things!!!  I want to be spirited, active, and alert in all my choices.  I want to be stimulated and vigorous when I face my daily routine.  I want to be animated and responsive to my children and husband.  I don't want to live in a dull cloud (induced by unhealthy food) of depression, guilt, lethargy, and hopelessness.  This is my pep talk to me.  I want to remember how worth it the choice is when I say NO to unhealthy desires and YES TO SUCCESS!!!!