…or beads in this case! Today, I updated my motivation jars…
There are now 234 beads in the ‘lost’ jar, and 219.5 (okay, 220!) beads in the ‘to lose’ jar…I cannot describe how good it feels to see the ‘lost’ looking fuller than the ‘to lose’!
Despite how fabulous I feel now, I really never truly believed that I would make it this far when I first walked through the doors to my Slimming World group. I was there because I felt like I had to be there…the weight loss surgery team wanted me to lose weight and, as I had lost some with Slimming World before, I thought I would give it a go! Fast forward from February 2012 to now…amazing. My life has turned around and I am now trying to wriggle my way off the surgery list.
The thing is, our mind is pretty powerful and we can achieve so much more than we think we can. I never imagined that I would climbing a waterfall in Scotland when last year I had to sit in the car whilst others explored. I never imagined that I would be trying to get out of surgery when I so desperately wanted it – I was convinced that I could not do it without the aid of a surgeon. I never imagined that I would be joining a gym again, or standing up and presenting to a room full of people again. But I started to believe…and slowly but surely these things have happened.
You have to find ways of trusting in your ability again. As a kid you will have believed that you could be anything you wanted to be, and could do anything that you set your mind to. And you can – trust me! Life gets in the way and we all have constraints – whether they be physical, financial, logistical – but take some time to think about what could be achieved regardless of these things…the list will be longer than you imagine!
I received some kindly advice from a chap who had seen my jars today…”Good idea, but just do some exercise. Training and diet will lead to the success. Keep doing and don’t give up!” So exercise and diet will lead to success…’no shit Sherlock’ was almost my response until I reined myself in. The biggest issue that my fellow losers face is that of purely focusing on diet and exercise. The importance of the mind is often overlooked yet it is bloody crucial to success…why do you think athletes and business execs spend so much time working with NLP specialists and mind coaches? It is because they know that this can be the difference between success and failure.
Of course, making pretty fecking jars and sticking them on the mantlepiece without a change in diet and lifestyle is not going to work miracles. The jars would stay pretty static and just gather dust! But if you seriously think that you can achieve lasting success with diet and exercise alone then be my guest – go for it…just don’t get pissed off with me when I say, ‘I told you so!’ as your weight creeps back up. Our habits and lifestyle need to be addressed in order to achieve our goals – it is an holistic approach rather than just selecting one or two elements to focus upon.
No ‘diet’ will work if your mind isn’t in the right place. On the flip-side, most ‘diets’ will work if it is – sustainable diets…the faddy crap never works. Even the current golden chalice of weight loss – surgery – will not work if your mind is not there. Why do you think that you have to see psychologists before being approved for surgery? It is to ensure that you realise that your habits need to change and that the mind needs work. The chap that I saw told me that the most common misconception is that losing weight is all about moving more and eating less…if it were that simple then he would be out of a job.
So do yourself a favour…before excitedly choosing which eating plan to follow, and which exercise classes you are going to sweat it out in each evening, take some time to consider what you are going to do for your mind! Carefully think about what it is you want to achieve, break that down into manageable chunks, and try and put in place some motivational techniques to help you. And if you need some suggestions then get in touch!
It has been a rather busy day – with three hours of project work this morning, followed by housework, followed by collecting my other half from the station, a trip to the horses, a trip to Asda, and a trip to the shops for additional birthday pressies for my niece. I of course had to see her too – her 5th birthday! Then it was onto some work for HOOP followed by a catch up with the HOOP crew…during which I managed to drop my phone into a glass of water…which promptly ended my participation in the call. It has been a long day and dinner is still cooking at 10.15pm…not good!
Breakfast: Banana, orange and noodles.
Lunch: Burgers! (2 x HEB, 2 x HEA and 4 syns).
Dinner: Linda Mc sausages with sweet potato chips and jerk seasoned veggies.
Snacks: Christmas pud HiFi bar (6 syns) and a packet of crisps (5 syns).
A good food day…but boy have I got a hungry head on today! Noodles were needed for brekkie as that was what I was craving. Lunch was my gorgeous burger combo. Dinner was some fried veggies with jerk seasoning and sweet potatoes stuck in the Tefal – and the lovely Linda Mc rosemary and red onion sausages which are delicious.
Exercise: Not a sausage…although I did try my swimsuits on, so that’s progress! One of them came complete with padded cups that swamped my tiny boobs; it was hilarious. The other is passable but squashes them down so I resemble a watermelon in gingham lycra!
Thank you for reading,
Weight Loss Bitch xxx