First Things First, Get Your Head Straight!!

"Thoughts are things" was etched on a small, round, polished stone that my new boss had given me. How true those words are...with everything in our lives. In the last 19 years, I have been on too many fad diets to count. I have taken pills, eaten only cabbage, grapefruit, completely removed sugar, pasta, carbs from my diet... you name it, I did it. Only to fall off the wagon and gain everything I had lost back and then some. Then about eight months ago, I was reading a book called "The Power of Intention" by Dr. Wayne Dyer and a thought occurred to me.


If I am what I think about, what is my mental image of myself? I thought of myself as chunky and unattractive. After having two kids and being in my late 30's, it is what normally happened to a woman. I am just getting older, my thyroid is slow, and this is just the way it is. Deep down, my attitude was that I would never be successful at being fit and healthy again, since I had so much working against me. However, I slowly realized that until I changed my mental image of myself, I would never be able to change the external image of myself. This was my first breakthrough.

No diet worked for me until I made this connection. Here is how I did it:

1. Without trying to change my internal dialogue, I started to jot down the thoughts that crept up throughout my day. For instance, without hesitating, I would put on my clothes in the morning and almost always say to myself "God I look fat." Or when talking to my friends, I would make comments like "I feel so fat, I really need to lose weight." I didn't realize all the negative, self-defeating inner dialogue that was going through my head until I started to really pay attention.
   
   
2. Once I identified my negative self-talk, I worked really hard to replace it with a positive inner dialogue. I'm not saying it's easy, but with persistence, it works. Every time I caught myself saying something self-defeating, I would replace it with a positive thought.



3. I became a big fan of positive affirmations. "I am getting healthier every day," " I AM losing weight at a healthy pace," "God made me in His image, I am perfect just the way I am." I started to focus on all the positive and just don't think about the negative ( I know, easier said than done.)



4. One tool that helped me tremendously was my $40 Ipod that I got at Walmart. Itunes ha some great affirmations that I downloaded for free. Every morning when I went for my 45 minute walk, I would listen to these affirmations over and over again. With time, my self image did change. This was fueled by a higher initial weight loss, but it helped me to keep going. I made sure I was listening to my positive affirmations every day for at least 45 minutes.

By February 1st of this year and only after three weeks of my positive affirmation "therapy," my positive self image improved. Not only that, but I began to feel as though I could REALLY do this. I started to notice women in their 40's, 50's, even in their 60's and 70's who were in great shape, worked out, made healthier eating choices, were full of energy and I said to myself, "why not me too?" When I finally internalized this, I knew this time was going to be different. I KNEW I would be successful.

My goal then became not just to drop those extra pounds, but to be healthier, more energetic, and to prevent disease. The word "diet" then dropped from my vocabulary and instead, I was inspired to change my attitudes for some truly long term healthier habits. However, reality hit.

Don't have time to cook good, healthy meals all the time. Well, I did find some good processed foods that helped me at first. I even learned how to cheat eating at fast food restaurants. Tune in next week for tips on cheating and on the processed foods that helped me along the way....

Introduction

OK-Sorry for the lame title to my first article. It's just that there is so much I want to cover on this blog that I couldn't even come up with a decent title to it! My weight loss journey has been a long one, full of hopes and disappointments. At one time or another in the last 28 years, I have always been either trying to lose or feeling like crap because I wasn't losing. Then came kids, long hours at work, the work related dinners, drinks, donuts, you name it and I gained even more.

Now, don't get me wrong; it's not like I ever gained a ton of weight. Mine crept up a few pounds per year at a time. In September 2007, I weighed myself at a scale our office manager had bought and was shocked to see 150. I am 5 foot 4 inches tall and at the time thought I was around 140lbs. In the grand scheme of things, most would say that this wasn't so bad, or that that they had much more to lose. However, no matter what the scale says, the feelings are the same. I felt like I was fat, unattractive, unsexy, ugly, my clothes didn't fit, etc.

These are feelings that I have had to wrestle with all my life, regardless of my weight (I was always thin.) I remember going into a shop when I was 22 and asking the girl if the dress I had just tried on came in a smaller size since the one I had tried on was big and she said, "sorry, we don't carry anything smaller than a size 0." And no, I didn't have an eating disorder, I ate whatever I wanted but I danced at nightclubs three to four nights per week, I had two jobs, went to school full time, etc. At the time, I thought I looked fat, ugly, ...all the same things I thought about myself when I had gained some weight. Now I see pictures from when I was younger and I think, "Good Lord, I was beautiful!! Why didn't I see that back then!?" But then again, all that negative self-talk was still with me until six months ago.

SO, here's where this blog comes in. In the last year, I have been doing some major soul searching. In the last 5 months, I have managed to lose 24 pounds without feeling like I was starving myself. Understand that I only have a total of about 30 lbs that I wanted to lose, results vary from person to person but generally, the heavier you are the more you will lose. Somewhere along the way, I have managed to learn a few things about dieting...and life. I want to share them with you. If I can help someone, anyone out there, make a change for the better in their lives, all this effort will have been worth it.

Please understand, I am not a psychologist, nutritionist, or doctor. However, I have done extensive research and can share with you what I have found out about supplements, diet pills, tricks even, that have helped me lose this weight. But more than that, my lifestyle has changed dramatically. Deep down I have a feeling I will never be the same again after this journey, and I am full of joy and gratitude that the change is for the better. So please join me on this blog, and I will show you how I lost weight without joining a gym, by eating whatever I wanted, without buying expensive exercise equipment.

Today, I weigh 125lbs, am fitter than I have been in over a decade, have energy to do what I need to get done during the day, am sleeping better, feel better about myself, and on and on and on...but I will get more into these details as we progress. In the mean time, a caveat:

While I do have tons of personal experience, I am no expert so please consult with your doctor whenever you undertake a new lifestyle change! Please look out for my next blog: "First Things First, Get Your Head Straight!"