This blog post is a current reflection of my own actions, habits and lifestyle; good and bad.

While looking back at my own health & fitness goals I gotta say, I'm on a pretty good path.  At least much better than I was any of the years before now.  I have found a good routine of maintaining my health & fitness which has taken me years to achieve.  Still... currently I don't seem to be moving forwards and I'm not moving backwards.  I'm comfortable; and being comfortable for me isn't comfortable!

I must admit my biggest hurdle for taking my health & fitness to the next level is drinking.  I LOVE MY MARTINI'S and I'm having an issue cutting back on them.  Hell it's taken me a few years to perfect my martini recipe, why would I waste all that time spent?!?  Ohhh they're so good and if you ever come over I'll make one for ya!  I still have the occasional beer or two but for the most part I try to stay away from them after reading this article (http://foodbabe.com/2013/07/17/the-shocking-ingredients-in-beer/).

Now to be fair to my little liquid friend the martini, he's not the full culprit of this story.  It's the decisions I'll make after having one of two of these suckers, usually leading me into some kind of late night crap food fest. It's a sad snowball effect.  Not to mention all of the other side effects alcohol has to your body that we rarely think or know about.


That all being said, one of my goals is to etch off those last few percentages of body fat, and this liquid heaven isn't helping.  I must say I've made some huge strides over the years.  It used to be that I would have 2-3 beers a night justifying my actions by complaining about the stress of my job or life in general.  It was an easy 'out' and it seemed to work, although I know there are much healthier ways to de-stress!

Now I keep my 'partying' to Friday and Saturday nights.  I'm not saying that I don't sway from that every now and then but it's kind of the deal I've made with myself.  So here's the problem, I'm a numbers guy.  If I'm drinking 2 nights of the week that's nearly a third of my week!  What the hell?!? How come the week seems so long and the weekends so short, yet somehow 2 days is almost a third of my week???  It sure doesn't seem like a third of my week is 'weekend time.'

What's also hard is that I love going out with my friends!  If you know me personally or follow me on Facebook you know we do some really fun and unique things almost every weekend!  The problem is many of these events include or have alcohol and I fall into peer pressure far too easily.  Okay okay I'll admit that I'm sometimes even the instigator!

So here's what I've come up with... I've created this card to help me with my goals.  I figure I can keep my schedule of 2 nights a week 2 drinks per night but that's it!  If I want to go crazy one night, I have to sacrifice a full night.  But the best part of this card (at least for me) is I won't want to cross off all the little martini's.  It's now a game and each time I cross one off I'm losing.   Also by having a visualization of what I could be giving up by having my little martini's, I'm hoping that will be enough to keep me away.  I'll let you know who wins!




I challenge you to this, if you're having problems quitting a habit that is keeping you from your goals do the same.  Track it, learn about it, and then come up with a plan to correct it.  You may not always win but progress is progress no matter how small.  In my example I turned my strength of loving challenges against my weakness the martini.  Do the same yourself.              

I don't have all the answers, I just take it day by day.  I look at the progress my own health & fitness has made over the past years and all I can do is be proud.  I know I'm on the right course and maybe by writing about this it will give me the push I need to do even better.  But in the end everyone has to make their own decisions and choices on what they want and what's important to them.

If you're having similar issues what are they?  And how have you found ways to overcome them?