The Art of Distraction

The Art of Distraction. If you're a parent, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Your child is fussing and throwing a fit, and you say, "Oh, look at the doggie!" Or "Wow, come here and look at all these pretty flowers" or "Come here and help me rinse the grapes." C'mon ... admit it ... LOL

And the funny thing is, the majority of the time, it works! At least it did for my kids ... now they're too old to get tricked like that LOL

So, what do you think about applying the Art of Distraction upon yourself? Say when you're facing a temptation or craving or your stressed out and the M&Ms are calling out to you ...



Green M&M: Miiicheellllleee ... eat me ... you know you want to ...

Red M&M: C'mon Michelle ... we'll make you feel realllly goooood ....

Yellow M&M: We'll make all your problems disappear ... and then reappear on your hips ...

Blue M&M: You know we won't melt in your hands because you'll inhale us to quickly to leave any evidence for others to see ...

Orange M&M: Heck, we won't even melt in your MOUTH because we know you don't even stop to chew ...

At this point it doesn't even matter what the Brown M&M will say because the bag is completely empty and devoid of all M&Ms. In fact, it's a record that I even waited until the Yellow M&M spoke! *cough cough* Not that this happens to me or anything. Like seriously ... LOL

So ... back to the Art of Distraction ...

When temptation calls, find something to distract you. Get up and take a walk. Drink a glass of water. Take up a new hobby. Come online and peruse your favorite blogs.

For me, my distraction was teaching myself to knit by watching videos on KnittingHelp.com. Knitting quickly became my new obsession - I fell in love with yarn and acquired quite the stash. The bonus was that knitting and eating don't go hand in hand very well. Knitting keeps my fingers busy, particularly in the evenings when I am most tempted to fall into old habit of eating to release my stress.

Here are a few of my most favorite projects that I've knitted:


Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban Gryffindor House Scarf


Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets Gryffindor House Scarf

Deatheater Dark Mark Scarf (now you see it ...)

Now you don't!

I haven't been able to knit for awhile, I've just been so busy with family and work and my personal training sessions, but I'm bound and determined to make time to knit every day. The new Harry Potter movie has me itching for new HP projects ... I found a pattern for a pretty silver/gray cap that Hermione wears in the new movie that I want to knit soon. I would LOVE to find some Twilight knitting patterns cuz I love me some Edward Cullen, but I can't really find anything as cool as the Harry Potter patterns out there.

Anyway ... try the Art of Distraction sometime and let me know what you tried and how well it worked (or not ... LOL)



I woke up bright and early dreading my cardio workout with CrazyTrainerGuy ... he briefly mentioned something about squats while on the elliptical machine earlier this week, and I was rather anxious to find out exactly what that entailed ... so imagine my surprise when I walked into the gym to see TrainerGirl waiting to work out with me!! Woot! TrainerGirl is my fave trainer - she pushes me just as hard as CrazyTrainerGuy, but it's like I'm working out with a girlfriend (or working out with Chef Devin Alexander) because we laugh hilariously throughout the entire workout and time just flies by!

TrainerGirl is the best - she gave me the choice of cardio or strength training today and of course I picked strength training! LOL I realize I'm only delaying the inevitable because I'll have to do cardio tomorrow, but I really wasn't in the mood for cardio today.

Today's workout was .... interesting. I've been really pushing my body hard this week, getting in as much training as I can for my tri. I realize I should probably taper off this week, but I didn't want to face the starting line wishing I had gotten one more swim, bike, or run in. All the extra training however really took it's toll on my body this morning. I was only able to eek out 2 sets instead of my typical 3, and reached failure MUCH more quickly than normal. It was really cool though, mentally my game is "on" and it's so empowering to know I'm pushing myself so hard - my mind is screaming I can't, my muscles are screaming to stop, but I push those voices away and focus on the voice that says "YES YOU CAN!"

So today's workout looked like this:

5 min warm up on elliptical

A1: Squat with bicep curl into overhead chest press with 15 lbs dumbbells
A2: Lat raises while in bridge position on stability ball 8 lbs dumbbells
A3: Captain's Chair crunches on bench
A4: Leg Curl with Hip Ups on stability ball (I just could not do this superset today. My calves were cramping up and it wasn't pretty. We separated them, and did a set of leg curls, then a set of hip ups to get through).
* Repeat this set 2 times

B1: Pushups
B2: Upright Rows on cable machine, 40lbs
B3: Crunches on Dyna Disc
B4: Lunges with overhead chest press on functional trainer (10 lbs)
* Repeat this set 2 times

All in all, it was a great workout! Tomorrow will be a cardio day, and Saturday will be a new yoga workout - I'm bringing Carrie and Jeannie with me to the gym, and TrainerGirl thinks a yoga workout will be perfect for us, it'll get us all stretched out before our tri on Sunday!

OMGosh, almost forgot!! I am so excited to share that my transformation story has been shared on Girl, Get Strong! I will be updating my progress there monthly, but of course continuing my daily posts here as well. Please be sure to visit Girl, Get Strong - it's an amazing women's online magazine and has really educational, flirty and informative articles. They have the best giveaways too!

xo,

"The man who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the man who is doing it." Chinese Proverb

10 comments:

Mommy Elephant Sarah said...

OH wow that is cool that Carrie and Jeannie get to meet Trainer Guy!!

And you know what I think of your AWESOME scarves!!

Anonymous said...

Your scarves are amazing! How/where did you learn how to knit the Deatheater Dark Mark Scarf? Ive never seen anything like that!

I should get back to knitting... I love how you use it to distract you from mindless eating.

You've just inspired me to lose more weight & knit again!!!

LOL!
@Losingmythighs

AzLinda said...

Michelle~ Wow, what a great post! Ok, first thing...how'd you know I had an M&M obsession? LOL! I have to have my hubby hide them if there are any in the house, or I will seek them down! LOL

You are so right on the whole "art of distraction" I am finding that I do that already with my 9 month old Gd. Already! If she starts fussing..I say...hey, look at what the birdy is doing, or hey, look at that..while looking at the tv....lol We all need to come up with a distraction to keep us busy...preventing us from overeating, or binging. Your distraction is brilliant! Love your scarves you knit, just gorgeous! Can't wait to see what you come up with next. I can crochet but not knit...something I've always wanted to learn to do, but just never took the time.

Oh, and I'm glad that I'm not the only one who dreads the ole cardio! I love lifting, but cardio...eh, not so much. Kinda got the love hate thing going on. I love what it does for my cardiovascular system, but hate the way I feel when doing it.

Congratulations on being featured on Girl get strong, that is quite the acomplishment and you deserve it big time gf! What an honor! You rock!

You take care and have an awesome Thursday!

~Linda

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Erica said...

I love this idea and think its very cool that you learned to knit! I often go with the full glass of water trick! Makes me realize whether I'm actually hungry or not!

Trina said...

Cool scarves. My distraction is blogging!

Marcelle said...

Why do the bad things in life always call one by name?????

Great creative scarves...at least u have kids to knit for...I can knit anything that's plan give me a design and I'm lost.

YOu sure do train hard...I do my own thing at gym, think a trainer would push me and being a trainer myself back in the days I would just tell them straight * not in the mood for that, too hard * LOL

Have a good weekend Michelle

Its cold and raining here in Germany

Deanna @ The Unnatural Mother said...

The art of distraction... i LOVE IT!!!!!

Mesha said...

great workout. i finally hit my 30 minutes on the stair stepper today. WAAHOO! very liberating. the M&M dialogue made for a great laugh. You are training like a champ - and you ARE a winner! :) i so love reading your stuff and hearing from you, definately encouraging.

Amy said...

Those scarves are super awesome. I need to learn to knit!

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