Hello and Happy Monday!  Just a side note for those of you who didn’t have a chance to catch a read over the weekend, check out Faith, Fitness, Fun for my Self Love Reflection guest post!  And if you are a new reader thanks for reading, let’s be friends, K?

For those of you who are new I am apart of the FIre Up For Fall brought to you by Weight Wars.  You can read about the challenge here.

Today I have 2 inspirational messages, the first is more for my Monday:

This is the best message for me since I am getting back from vacation, and the first day back is always the hardest.  it doesn’t help that today is Halloween and I have to pass out candy.  It also didn’t help that I ate HORRIBLE for the last 4 days.  But I am putting that in the past and focusing on the future!

And my message for everyone else:

There is no such thing as instant gratification when it comes to weight loss!  Slow and steady wins the race.  I have to keep telling myself this every time I forget that this is a lifestyle change, and it is for-ev-er (insert kids voice from Sandlot).  Which is fine, I’ve come to terms.

Five Questions!

1. What have you done to help achieve your goals?  I’m not gonna lie.  Being on vacation my goals kind of took a backseat.  The good thing is that I have already made most of them and so I am thinking a reassessment is in order for next week.  I did go to the gym 1 day out of the 4 I was gone.  The gym I went to was disappointing, and no matter of me saying “suck it up” to myself made me go again.  No excuses, no B.S., I just plain didn’t go.    I should have adapted to the situation and just went.  Live and learn!

2.  What have you done this week to make yourself feel fabulous?  My hub’s bought me boots that I have wanted for about a year.  As I have mentioned in the past,  when I had the little munchkin a year ago, the hub’s and I didn’t make a budget, and ended up in some hefty debt.  We tightened up, and made some difficult (but good) changes and I am happy to report that we have dug ourselves out finally!  We had rewards credit for Nordstrom, and he surprised me by buying me the boots I have been wanting.  I can honestly say that the boots paired with my new jeans that finally fit make me feel fabulous when I look in the mirror!

3.  How do you pull yourself out of a slump, or prevent yourself from falling into one?  I try not to lose time on wasted emotions.  When I say emotions I mean feelings that are counterproductive, and there is nothing I can do about them. A good example is stress when sleeping.  I can usually turn my brain off if I have a conversation with myself like “its the middle of the night, there is nothing you can do to fix that problem right now.  Sleep is the best thing for this issue”.  This way of thinking usually prevents slumps.  For me either I am working towards my goals or I’m not.  I try not to get down on myself, because that just makes it worse.

4. Are you naturally positive, or do you have to work at it?  How do you keep yourself positive?  I am a naturally positive person, but I think it helps that my hub’s is always questioning everything.  One of us has to stay positive!  I believe positivity is the only way to achieve your goals.  Without it I would get nothing done.

5. If you could go anywhere in the world where would it be?  I have not been that many places in my lifetime, but I think my dream destination would be a European tour.  I have always wanted to go abroad, but just haven’t had the chance.

• What about you?  If you are not participating in FUFF, tell me an answer to one of these questions in the comments!