If Deadlifts Were Easy . . .: Weekend recap

I've read a lot about the cumulative effect of healthy, positive choices, and specifically how over time a pattern of choosing to do the healthy thing actually will make it easier to make that choice again in the future. I feel like I am experiencing this effect in a very real way this weekend, and I am really enjoying it.

Willpower research indicates that the more decisions you make of one kind (healthy or not), the easier it is to continue to make those same decisions or kinds of decisions. Essentially, your brain likes patterns and pathways and will fire off neurons more easily in previously known/decided-on pathways. (If you're interested in reading more about willpower and cool neuroscience and psychology research explained a lot better than I did just now, Willpower: Rediscovering The Greatest Human Strength is a pretty great read, and entertaining too.)

(Side note #1: it is also true that it is challenging at first to make a lot of healthy decisions when you are very tempted by the unhealthy ones, and that exercising willpower to choose the healthy option actually does decrease your available willpower for subsequent decisions. This is one reason it's so helpful if you make the healthy choices the easy one to make. Once you are more in the habit of choosing the healthier option, the cumulative effect is supposed to kick in with a sort of snowball-effect.)

I just got back from an annual weekend-long lake house party with an incredible group of really amazing, wonderful human beings. This is the 11th year in a row that I've attending this friend-fest, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have this tradition in my life. That said, it has also been somewhat a source of anxiety for me for the past several years because it usually involves eating a lot of junk food, drinking a lot and generally trashing my body for a few days with not enough sleep, etc, etc.

This year I really wanted to be able to enjoy the weekend and connect with my friends and savor the relaxation and beauty of the party without ending it feeling bloated, gross and like a total failure for having spent 2-3 days directly counteracting all the hard work I usually put into my body keeping it strong and feeling good. I also didn't want to gain 5# in one weekend, which I have definitely done before (YAAAAAaaaayyyyyy . . . . not so much.)

Long story short, I went into this weekend with a specific plan from my nutrition coach (don't worry about meal timing and portions, just focus on eating protein and vegetables and some dietary fat, enjoy some drinks but try to make sure they're only consumed with protein/veg/fat because drinks+carbs = fat storage) and it worked out splendidly. Having some structure to guide me helped me eat well and not wanting to sleep terribly and wake up feeling worse gave me some incentive to moderate my alcohol consumption. It wasn't necessarily easy to change my behavior from previous years, but it also wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Keeping my own long-term goals in mind was definitely helpful throughout the weekend (i.e. would I rather eat that brownie or easily make my weigh-in for my October meet?)

I closed the weekend this morning by swimming across the lake and back with a couple friends, something I've always been too scared to do in previous years. I think I was able to make that swim partly because I was feeling strong and empowered and confident from the previous two days worth of positive decisions (and also because I wasn't nursing a wicked hangover.) Since coming home I have enjoyed a totally moderate and reasonable planned "off-plan" meal and felt good doing it. In past years I would have binged my way through this evening, figuring I had eaten so terribly all weekend, what could one more evening of bad behavior do? The snowball effect of decisions definitely plays out in my life, and for now I am enjoying the positive side of that effect, rather than the negative.

(Final side note, I made these sweet potato fries from Joy the Baker as part of my meal this evening, using a touch of coconut oil spray instead of olive oil to cut down on the fat, and without the egg white because I am lazy like that sometimes. They were delicious.