Today I struggled with saying no to the flaming hot Cheetos that live in the vending machine at my job. Why? Because for some reason every week since I’ve began my health and wellness journey again no matter how much water I drink or how many meals I prep those chips seem to call my name every single time.

The first few weeks I thought it was happening because I was working on becoming more self-controlled in my decisions so I gave myself permission to slip up once. Then once became twice and now every week no matter how good I’m doing with sticking to my plan my mind tends to wonder what those flaming hot Cheetos would taste like if I were to substitute them for one of my meals. I’ve even begun to accept the calorie count on the back of the bag as me just needing to exercise a little more. Although I have been able to continue to lose weight, I struggled with the guilt that I could’ve done more if I would’ve followed the plan.

So when it happened again today, I decided to talk to my trainer and ask him “Why am I struggling with wanted to eat something other than what’s on my food plan?” and his respond was “because you are stressing about reaching your goals so much that your mind is telling you to eat something else to deal with the stress.” Aha!! This ring of some truth and makes a lot of sense to me as to the reason why this is continuing to come up for me. For me when I understand why things happen to me I find comfort in my decision going forward.

So will I have more struggles? Of course, but today I choose to work on stressing less on the scale’s number and going back to enjoying the journey towards the finish line.

What are you struggling to finish in the next hour, day or year?