What's Around You

"Surround yourself with positive people and situations, and avoid negativity" 

- Doreen Virtue

When aiming to live a positive life, it really helps to surround yourself with positive elements.  This applies to relationships, activities, and environments.  But how do you identify what's positive?  And do you have the courage to cut out the negative?

While it is tough, I have limited my contact with negative people.  The biggest challenge with this is when there are mutual relationships that are strained, and even damaged or ended, as a result.  In the grand scheme of things, I've never regretted limiting my exposure to the negativity of  other people.  It does take a lot for me to fully cut someone out of my life.  I'm not going to kick someone to the curb just because there's some negativity - in those cases, I'll give feedback or just avoid those topics which tend to bring up the negative vibes.  I am amazed at how better I feel about things when there's a positive vibe around me and, by contrast, the weight of negativity and how it drags me down.

When managing my environment, I'm always trying to have positive things around me (translation - things that motivate me, make me feel good about myself, and make it easier to work toward my goals).  In the basement I've tried to create a rewarding environment for exercising, with the Tivo set-up so I can watch my favorite shows and Netflix streaming for other programs.  I'll download music and audiobooks to listen to while exercising.  I treat myself to cute workout clothes so I'll know I'm looking good while I'm huffing and puffing away and dripping in sweat.  I'll stock the fridge and the pantry with flavors and tastes that I enjoy while supporting my clean eating - delicious teas, flavored yogurts, marinated chicken.

Now, in this book that I've been reading (remember the one that leaves me feeling angry and irritated?), the authors advocate for surrounding yourself with all the foods you could possibly want to eat.  This included having not only one bag of M&Ms but ten or more.  The intention is to never feel deprived or that anything is off limits to you.  When you're not feeling deprived, you're going to feel better about yourself and when you feel better about yourself you're going to make more positive choices for yourself.  I understand the concept behind it, but the implementation doesn't click with me.  If I have M&Ms within reach, chances are I'm going to reach for them over the yogurt and vegetables.

If I'm striving to implement specific behaviors that are designed to help me reach my goals, why would I intentionally introduce elements that would undermine those efforts?  I'm not saying that M&Ms may never enter my home, but I think it would be more conducive to meeting my goals if there needed to be some intentional effort for me to access said M&Ms as opposed to being able to mindlessly reach for them.  The best that I can do for managing my environment is to have it where my mindless choices are going to be positive ones by default and any potentially negative choices are ones that require intentional action on my part. 

The key to creating this positivity is that it's a choice.  The goal is something that's meaningful and relevant to me.  It's not being imposed by some outside force.  If I don't truely embrace this, it's going to color my interpretation of positive efforts and I won't view these environmental changes as desirable or positive.  I'd be more likely to see it as deprivation and denial.  So the first step in surrounding yourself with positivity is to determine what constitutes positivity in your life.  Then you can work at identifying specific goals and how to structure your world in helping you get there.

Food Log:

• Meal 1: 
• 3 egg whites
• 30g dry cream of rice (cooked in water)
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• Meal 2: 
• 0% plain Chobani Greek Yogurt with cinnamon, vanilla, and Splenda - YUM!
• Meal 3: 
• 3 oz chicken
• Green beans
• 1/2c cooked rice
• Meal 4: 
• 3 oz chicken
• Green beans
• 1/2c cooked rice
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• Meal 5: 
• 0% flavored Chobani Greek Yogurt
• 1 tbsp coconut oil

Exercise:

• Time:  60 minutes on elliptical
• Level: Level 1 for 1 minute; Level 2 for 58 minutes; Level 1 for 1 minute (legs were tight)
• Calories:  650+
• Average HR:  137 (lower because I sat around for a while after done exercising)
• Max HR:  157
• Distance:  5 miles

Weigh-In:  148.5 / 146.7