Making good choices

Today was great. My sister, Jen, and I played so well in our tennis match. I've learned that sizing up your opponents during warm-up isn't always the best way to approach a winning strategy b/c you usually wait to pull out your secret weapons until the match begins. The other team seemed tough and unbeatable, hitting their ground strokes with ease and grace during warm-up. I kept thinking that our work was cut out for us, and the match would be longer than I hoped for. It's always nice to win in two short sets! Surprisingly, we cruised through the first set, with a score of 6-2, which almost seemed too good to be true. I should have followed my instincts from warm-up because we let up in the second set. The score was the same, but not in our favor (darn!) We got our "mojo" back in the third, and this is where the battle began. The evaluation I came to during warm-up kept proving itself right. We were always up a break, but they came to break us back. The inevitable part was coming, a tiebreaker for the set AND match. The outcome didn't favor us, but we played our hearts out. Little did we know that the team lost only by ONE game...the tiebreaker teetered not only our doubles match, but the team loss too, bummer!! Oh well, my racket has seen better days. It couldn't have been a prettier day to be outside playing and getting in some good exercise, so needless to say, I was still satisfied, despite the score!

After all that running around, I was starving. As a team, we headed to lunch, and by then I could eat a horse. For me, when I get to the point of shaky starvation, it is so hard for me to make smart choices and eat healthy. But being so inspired by my good friend, Christene, and her quest for healthier living, I couldn't just throw away all the calories I burned chasing after the little yellow ball for two and a half hours!! So thanks Christene! Even under the pressure of my growling, no, roaring stomach, I managed to choose cottage cheese over french fries, and a tortilla wrap instead of the bread. This is just one of my weaknesses, making healthy choices when I can't think straight. But today, I did it, and I felt so much better about myself. I'm so glad I didn't wallow in disappointment of losing the match in some fatty french fries!!! I hope this is the start of a perpetual cycle for good choice making. Thanks Christene (and all the others who inspire me to strengthen my weaknesses; I will have to take time out to share about those who help me in different areas some other time!) Her example is giving me lots of courage to eat better!