Perseverance and persistence

Shawna:

Words and phrases can have similar meanings, but have different connotations. Perseverance vs. Persistence for example. Nelson Mandela said, “It always seems impossible until it's done.” [Perseverance] whereas Winston Churchill said, “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” [Persistence]. It is not just the day to day struggle, but the ability to maneuver through all of the obstacles which present themselves along the way. To persevere is to persist, even when it seems as though that is impossible. Gaining your strength from inside, instead of allowing it to be tested from the outside, will make perseverance that much easier. To be positive is a state of mind and just because you take a vacation to negativity shouldn't be criticized; after all, vacations are temporary.

I am not sure who ariverchild is, but I appreciate them and look forward to the comments. Hopefully, you’ll tell me soon!

Perseverance and persistence are two of the most difficult things to conquer. More often than not, I feel myself failing at both.  However, my ability to wake up and say this is a new day is both.

Since my snag last week, I have lost my enthusiasm while stumbling.  My feelings were hurt (from last week, still) and I felt myself emotional eating throughout the week.  Part of me really would like to blame my monthly visitor, Aunt Flo, my period, (I am having a hard time deciding right now, I don’t know who is reading this blog!! Whoops, sorry sort of.) but that’d only be excusable for the chocolate I need. Right? 

I have been logging everything I eat on myfitnesspal (slr315 if you want to add me) and not even leaving things out, I am totally keeping myself accountable and if you look at the bar graph for this week I am over EVERYDAY with the exception of one and I am ashamed to admit this, but yesterday I was 1000 calories over.  I was bummed about it, but you know what?  I’m going to take that as a victory.  I am aware and disappointed BUT I’d say three weeks ago, as embarrassing as it is, that happened a lot more often.  I don’t think people take into consideration how EASY it is to eat that amount of calories without batting an eye.

I know I’ve said it before and repeat it to myself often, this struggle is REAL.  I know that it is identifiable as well. We’re only human and food choices are what I’m working on.

This is a good way to discuss last night.  We had our first session of Healthy Eating with Feed the Soul with Etosha (MS, RD, CDN) and Wanda, an educator from Cornell Cooperative Extension.  We did a lot of paper work and talked about plating and how to properly portion things on it, so we aren’t over eating the bad things.  I’m looking forward to some more in depth conversations regarding food.

My only issue with this is when people talk about food and how to properly eat; there are always a few things that contradict each other.  Who do you believe?  They are all very qualified individuals!  I mean I get the general idea, but specific details have varied between BLRN, Feed The Soul and my own research.  I need to find my healthy balance for my healthy lifestyle!

Despite my laziness throughout the week, Sunday I hiked Black Bear Mountain with my friend Nikki for her birthday. 

 She is very much a nature child and I see myself as one most of the time, but a mountain is one of those things that I felt was out of reach for me but I still wanted to do it.  She had let me know she was coming home for the weekend, I knew she’d be busy but I asked anyway.  To my surprise it is what she wanted to do for her birthday anyway!  I was thrilled, I knew she’d take her time, listen to my whines and stop if I thought I was near death.  

We did some shopping in Old Forge before we headed to the mountain.  The view is beautiful as always and I’m looking at every mountain as I’m driving asking her which one she thinks it is as we are belting out songs.  We finally get there and I had spent a lot of the week mentally preparing that I can do this, bears aren’t scary, it’ll be fun! 

We start our hike and the trail is wide and beautiful, covered with all of the leaves.  We had a good

pace going on and all was well, I just had this assumption that we would be walking uphill the entire time.  We got spooked a few times but some animals, but never saw a bear.  It was tricky at times with the leaves covering roots and rocks, there was a tough uphill towards the top but we were so close!!  

It was BEAUTIFUL! Absolutely breathtaking, one of those "is this real life?" moments.  4.5 miles about 2.5 hours. I want to do it again. 

Parts of my legs were sore the next day and my feet a little achy from the uneven ground, but it was so worth it.  I think it changed my life and I can completely be a nature child with Nikki.

The fourth week is approaching quickly and that will be my best week yet.