Fear can be paralyzing… or fattening

I had a rough food day today.  Sugar is my kryptonite and there was plenty of it in shape of cookies and chocolate.  At first I was really down on myself for letting it get the best of me, and then I started to try and figure out why today was any different than yesterday or the days before.  At first I was thinking how I was in a daylong meeting and the food was just sitting in front of me, but I’ve had plenty of meetings like that in the past 5 months that I made it through with flying colors.  I realized my problem was fear.

Not a physical fear like fear of spiders, germs or heights that a lot of people experience.  It’s a fear of change.  I’ve written about my tough week last week and how I was working through it, but that was on the intellectual side of my brain.  I was still feeling a lot of anxiety, so I went and talked with a counselor to try and get some tools to help me emotionally cope with the change.  I learned something very interesting… This is the first major change in my life that I didn’t plan out or see coming.  I’m petrified of what’s on the other side of this change.  I’m excited for it as far as career opportunities, but how am I going to fit in with this new group, am I going to like my new projects, am I going to be able to be myself?  These are all worries that logic cannot answer.

I have been so consumed with working through this change at work to address this fear, that the rest of my life has been paralyzed.  I’ve been slacking on everything I want to do for Pampered Chef.  This means I don’t have the number of shows booked, or sales that I want.  (If you want to help me with this, feel free to order at www.pamperedchef.biz/jprug :)).  I’ve also slowed my motivation to keep to my Paleo way of living.  I’ve been slacking with allowing chocolate in and then today, BAM.  The sugar just got the best of me.

So what am I going to do?  Be mindful.  One of the new tools I’ve learned is to just take a few times a day to be mindful.  That’s when you focus on only what you’re doing in that very moment.  How many times do you eat dinner in front of the TV, or eat lunch while working, or read while working out at the gym.  I already do this at Crossfit.  The only way to make it through the WODs (workout of the day) is to be focused on every movement I need to make with the proper form.  I always feel exhausted, but calm after these workouts.  My body is at peace.  Now I’m going to pick 3 more times during the day to be mindful.  I already know that one of these times is going to be at lunch tomorrow!