Cause and Effect

We all know this. Learned about it in high school economics class, if I remember correctly. Or was it Psych 101? No matter, it holds true where ever you learned it. There is a cause, and it's effect. You do something, and something happens afterwards. You want the AFTER thing to be a good one, right? Here are a few things that you should think about the next time you are about to do something.

• Cause: You are tired and just got home from work and eat a cheeseburger and fries from a fast food joint, washed down with a big, icy Coke. Effect: You retain water for 3 days, feel sluggish and wieghed down the next day, and your stomach is giving you a LOT of problems. Also, you had restless sleep that night.
• Cause: You are tired and just got home from work, so you grab a quick protein bar and go for a jog around the block, get back and grill some fish and vegetables. Effect: You feel leaner the next morning, and energized for the day. You had great, relaxing, refreshing sleep too.

• Cause: You are invited out after work for happy hour, so you go and bitch about your boss with your co-workers, drink 3 margaritas and mow through a basket of chips and salsa, and when you get home you are hungry and a little tipsy, so you eat a frozen t.v. dinner before you pass out on the couch. Effect: The next day at work you are 15 minutes late and worried about some of the things you may have said in your boozy bitch session about your boss and hope your colleagues can keep their mouths shut. You also have a pounding headache, which is helped by drinking 3 cokes and a handful of asprin, and driving through a fast-food window for lunch, which makes your stomach reel a bit. You feel bloated and skip your evening work-out session because you need to rest.
• Cause: You are invited out after work for happy hour, so you go and have one margarita and a glass of water with lemon, and a few chips, then order a chicken salad with the dressing on the side. You listen to your colleagues bitch about your boss, and smile at the stories, but you keep your opinion to yourself because you know that tomorrow you have to go to work and see that very same boss, and so do they. You go home and take your boyfriend/husband/best friend for a walk and relay the events of the evening while enjoying the fresh air. Effect: The next day at work your happy hour buddies are all late for work, and your boss makes note of your prompt arrival and gives you a raise. You feel great, you eat your home made lunch of salad and grilled chicken, and then you go to the gym after work and come out feeling like a million bucks.

• Cause: You go out of town for the weekend and hit 5 bars on friday night, because Hey! You are taking a cab back to the hotel! You find a spot that has late night appetizers still being served and share Spinach & Artichoke Dip with your friends, as well as a Quesadilla, Buffalo Wings and a Chocolate Souffle. Effect: You stumble back into your room and accidentally sleep on top of the bedspread, and wake up in the morning unable to go down to the pool because the sun hurts your eyes, and you are way too puffy to put on a bikini. You somehow make it through to Saturday night, but you have to go back to your hotel at 9:30 because you are so wiped out from last night. Your friends regale you with stories on Sunday morning about the amazingly good looking men they met last night after you went to bed, and how they had the best time, and it was too bad that you overdid it on Friday night.
• Cause: You go out of town for the weekend and enjoy sight seeing and stopping in to a few bars and restaurants. You make it to your 8pm dinner reservation and enjoy the tasty meal, accompanied by 2 glasses of wine. You walk around town before heading back to the hotel. Effect: You wake up early on Saturday morning and put on your running shoes and take a jog down through the beautiful hotel grounds and stumble upon a pretty park where you take in the scenery. When you get back you throw on your teeny bikini and hit the pool, where you are admired by all the guys, and get a golden tan. After showering you meet back up with your friends and try the restaurant that the hot guy from the pool told you about and he is there, not surprisingly. You dance the night away and look great doing it. At Sunday brunch before you head back home, you swap stories with your friends and are thankful to have had such a great time.

See, you can take any cause and creat the effect you desire. The same situation can go many ways, it all depends on you and how you want to live. Put your health and well-being at the top of your list, start making good choices and see what happens!

Be eXcellent! - Ms. X