Good 'Ol Elbert

Entry #16 " There is no failure except in no longer trying." (Elbert Hubbard)

I found this quote on a little calendar I bought last year. Every day there is a quote by a famous and sometimes not so famous person. I looked Hubbard up on Google and found he was an author in the 19th and early 20th centuries. He founded a school for creative types that drew people from around the world. He and his second wife died when their cruise ship, The Lusitania, was sunk by a German u-boat in WWI.

The quote is a good one for anyone trying to achieve a goal. It's especially good for me as I view trying and not succeeding right away as failure after which I usually give up the effort. But as stated in a previous post, perseverance is now one of my favorite words. Good thing, too, as last night wasn't a rousing success.

My mom and I went to dinner at a Chinese place. I was actually very good about what I ordered and ate at the restuarant. We ordered honey walnut prawns, mu shu chicken and pork fried rice. I ate two mu shu pancakes, about a cup of rice and one of my mom's prawns. I ate until I was satisfied and stopped. I decided to take the leftover chicken mixture and a half cup of rice home to add to scrambled eggs for a couple of breakfasts. So far so good.

Now, I don't know if the old saying that Chinese food doesn't stay with you is true or not, but along about 9:00 I was feeling hungry. Since my calorie allotment for the day had been used and exceeded by about 50 I decided I wasn't going to blow my diet. Yeah, well I should have gone to bed right then and there. I was online reading different weight loss blogs and at around 9:30 decided to go to bed. As I was passing the kitchen the thought of having "just a bite" of the chicken floated through my mind. I took a bite and then another and another and, well I think you probably know how that ended. Good thing there was only about a cup and a half of the stuff left.

But my indiscretion didn't end there. Earlier I was tempted to eat a Skinny Cow ice cream bar (100 calories) even though I knew my calorie bank for the day was depleted. Well, now that I'd already gone way over 1200 calories, why not just go ahead and have that darn ice cream bar? I didn't even pretend to put up a fight. So yesterday's calories hovered between 1400 and 1500 calories.

Now for the good news. Today I got up and pretended that last night never happened. I was able to go back and eat a good, low calorie breakfast and lunch. I had to, because tonight I'm going to a friend's 40th birthday party. At this time I've got about 650 calories left for the day, so if I am careful, I can enjoy some good food choices and stay at 1200 for the day.

I am so grateful that I can view last night as a couple of mistakes instead of a failure. Elbert is right. There is no shame in trying and not making it. The failure comes in not even trying for fear of failure. The not trying is a failure in itself. It's a failure to put myself out there and risking whatever comes my way. Hopefully, those days are in the past for me. I know I will continue to pray and trust that God has good plans ahead for my life.