I often give Allie the, “you need to make good choices” lecture in nearly every aspect of her life. Whether it is following directions, eating right, or cleaning up after herself. She told me the other day, “I try to make the right choices, but sometimes my brain doesn’t want to make the right choices. It’s really, really hard, Momma.”
Isn’t that the truth? Sometimes my brain does not want to make the right choices either. Leave it to a six year to break it down into the most basic truths!
The past few months have been wonderful! I have made so many steps in the right direction in my life. Healthy living is hard. It is about making conscious choices every minute of everyday, all while accepting that I cannot always be perfect.
My boot camp coach has a philosophy that we need to be 90% good and 10% bad when it comes to nutrition. He urges us to plan for mistakes because they happen. What we do after we make those mistakes is what really counts. I have been picking myself up and moving on more lately. It makes all the difference. Trying to be perfect is setting myself up for failure. I am not perfect and I have no one to prove perfection to. Knowing that I can make mistakes and move on, instead of beating myself up for it forever makes everything more enjoyable.
I can choose to beat myself up or I can focus on the many changes I have made in my life. I don’t know if I have quite reached the 90/10 rule yet. Perhaps I am closer to 80-85% good. There is room for improvement, however it is much better than the 50/50 rule I had previously.
After my seven weeks as Mamavation Mom, I let a lot of things slide. Bad habits slowly began creeping back in. Now, the good habits are returning. I have noticed a great improvement in my overall fitness over the past few weeks. My nutrition has improved and I PLAN for mistakes. I know that sounds strange, nonetheless I do plan for mistakes. They are bound to happen. Now, I have a plan. No more of this, “Tomorrow I will eat right. Tomorrow I will exercise. Tomorrow I will plan for meals. Tomorrow I will…” Too many tomorrows have come and gone. Change is happening now.
My coach has the most positive attitude. He does not leave room for excuses or a bad attitude. Some days I do not want to get up in the dark to work out for an hour. I do it anyway, because I want the feeling I have when I leave everyday. Each day, I leave boot camp feeling refreshed, renewed, and ALIVE! I cannot even express how much this attitude adjustment has changed my perspective and outlook on life.
God knows, I needed an attitude adjustment!
Laura Lohr is a wife, mom to a precocious six year old, a runner, a writer, and a dreamer. She met and fell in love with her best friend when she was 21 years old. She began blogging in 2004, when she embarked on the journey to her first marathon. 
