Posts in Motivation

Tanya was in a panic! Over the past year, she had lost nearly 100 pounds, and for the past few months, she had maintained her new weight just fine. But recently, she’d started overeating, and couldn’t seem to stop.

“My wedding is in two weeks!” she wailed. “At the rate I’m going, I won’t even fit into my dress. I feel awful physically, but even more, I’m scared that all the work I’ve done over the past year will be wasted. How do I get back in control?”

As we sat down over coffee, I started by reassuring Tanya that she was NOT going to gain all her weight back.

I was confident that she could stop her current pattern and get back to the healthy lifestyle she’d followed so carefully over the past months.

“First of all,” I began, “I want you to know that you are NORMAL. Often people will do great for a long time, the hit some major stress and suddenly feel like they’re losing it. Whether you’re facing a big event such as your wedding, your need to feel emotionally safe, nurtured and in control goes sky high.

Other stresses such as doing your taxes or applying for a new job can have the same effect. During times like this, what you need is some emergency intervention for your spirit.”

Get a Healthy Day Hat

Here’s what I suggested to Tanya. Pretend that you put on a Healthy Day Hat.

Every day, do at least 5 things that will help you label the day as being a “healthy one.”

1. The magic glass of water
Each morning, start the day by drinking a glass of water. (That’s one down already.) This immediately demonstrates that it’s a healthy day.

2. One healthy meal
Eat a specific breakfast that you can count on as being healthy. (eggs and toast, oatmeal and fruit, etc.) After you’ve eaten ONE healthy meal, you’re more likely make good choices for the other meals in your day.

3. Do a little bit of exercise
Even a short walk or a few minutes on a treadmill will work. I like the idea of pushing yourself to do 10 minutes. Then you can either stay with it and keep going, or quit for the day. Either way, you’ll feel like a success.

4. Eliminate the food fix
Every time you head for the refrigerator or cupboard, but know you aren’t hungry, immediately STOP and tell yourself, “It’s not in here!”

Remind yourself that what you really need (nurtured, calmed, etc.) is NOT going to be fixed with food. Sure, it’s kind of soothing, but in the long run, you’ll just be upset and feel worse.

5. Instant nurturing
Make a short list of things that will calm or nurture you, such as sitting down with a cup of tea or a diet soda and forcing yourself to slow down a bit. Or take a 5-minute walk a couple of times a day.

By doing these 5 things, you’ll hang the “healthy day” sign over your head, and it will inspire you to stay with your diet or maintenance program successfully the rest of the day.

If it helps, actually wear a hat of some kind to remind yourself of your healthy day. This photo at the beginning of this post was taken at a restaurant in Colorado where they made each person a hat with their name on it.

I love this hat, and it makes me feel happy to look at the photo. I don’t own the hat any more, but today, I’m pretending I’m wearing it to remind myself of my healthy day.

Passion! What a strange word for a weight-loss program.

If you’re struggling with motivation, passion is the last thing on your mind.

Maybe you’re still trying to revive your exercise program after weeks of being sloth. Or you started back on your diet plan but it feels like drudgery, certainly not passion!

Passion and motivation go hand in hand. When you feel one, you’ll notice the other as well. But just like motivation, passion doesn’t appear out of the blue. It has to be created.

Whether your goal is losing weight or maintaining your current level, once you build more passion in these areas, you’ll be amazed at your level of success.

Stand up!

Right now, while you’re reading this, I want you to stand up. Notice a difference in your energy?

Creating passion begins with you taking action. Even the smallest micro movement can get you unstuck and moving toward a renewed sense of hope and accomplishment.

Passion does a lot of things:

• Makes you excited about life
• Revives your energy and helps you accomplish new things
• Provides day-to-day zest and enthusiasm for all areas of life
• Gives you a sense of hope and encouragement
• Gets you out of the doldrums and pumps up your dreams
• Extends, pushes and challenges you way beyond your usual efforts

Where do you need passion?

Think about places where you need more passion. Maybe you’re discouraged because you overate during a vacation or holiday season.

Or maybe you hate exercise and can’t get yourself out the door for a walk.

Perhaps you feel overwhelmed because you need to lose a lot of weight and don’t know where to start. Wouldn’t it be great to have passion instead of discouragement in all of these areas?

So how do you find passion? The answer is… you don’t! You create it. Passion comes as a result of giving extra focus and attention to specific areas in your life.

Like a tiny spark that creates a roaring fire, passion grows when you give it fuel. The more you focus on it, the stronger it becomes.

Passion takes courage

Creating passion requires that you live from a place of energy and confidence, not fear and insecurity.

To build passion, you have to take ownership of your life. You have to fire up your own actions and in some areas, push yourself a little harder.

Make this your PASSION year

Pick one or several areas of life, then pour some energy and focus into making progress. You might choose a physical goal such as your exercise program.

Or take your current diet plan and figure out how to get excited and passionate with planning special meals or trying new recipes.

You can use the passion theme for your job, your family, even your pets. All it takes is deepening your commitment and focus to your chosen area.

Dream big!

Maybe you yearn for a new job or a fresh relationship. Perhaps you want to build stronger connections with your children or spouse.

Write down your ideas, then pick one specific area to focus on this week. Plan how you’ll build your passion in this area, then strike the match and light your own fire.

Each day, give this goal extra attention, energy, focus and love. By the end of the week, you’ll be amazed at how differently you’ll feel about that area of life.

If you’re like most dieters, you start out strong and highly motivated, but then something happens. Demanding kids, needy friends, even a new puppy can wear you down. Maybe you start feeling lonely or depressed or discouraged.

Once you slip off your diet, you may have a hard time getting back on track and eventually, you say, “Forget it! I simply can’t do this right now.”

If you tend to start and stop every time you diet, you may want to look at the difference between being interested and being committed.

No matter what

When you’re just interested in losing weight, you tend to stay with your plans only until “something better” comes along. So when the brownies show up in the break room, you decide you’ll wait and start your diet tomorrow.

In contrast, when you’re committed to your weight-loss plan, you stick with it no matter what.  That means you ignore the ice cream that beckons after a rough day, and instead, put on your workout shoes and head out the door for a walk.

Do it anyway!

Sometimes we don’t feel like eating right or exercising. But is that reason enough to let it all go? You don’t usually wait until you feel like doing it to go to work. The same thing is true for visiting your mother or changing dirty diapers.

Because these areas are important, you do them regardless of how you feel at the moment. In the same way, you don’t have to feel like working on your weight-loss plan to stick with your program.

Learn to focus on your actions, not your feelings. On days you’re not in the mood for eating right or exercising, tell yourself to do it anyway.

Then skip the leftover chocolate cake and eat your fruit instead. When you’re committed, you make these choices regardless of whether you actually feel like it.

Trust that results will come

With interested, you depend on results to keep you motivated. So on days the scale doesn’t move, you assume your diet isn’t working. And if you hit a plateau, you get frustrated and throw your program out the window.

Instead of needing results to keep you on track, practice working on your motivation even when you don’t see any visible progress. When you’re committed, you learn to trust that as long as you stay motivated, results will eventually follow.

It’s up to ME

When you’re interested in losing weight, you expect other people to help you make it happen. So when you fall off your diet, you blame the friends who ate potato chips in front of you.

Or you blame life by saying “if only I had more time, more money, a new job or a supportive spouse, then I’d be able to stay on my plan.”

In contrast, when you’re committed, you don’t blame other people or circumstances for your struggles. Instead, you stay on your diet in spite of not having enough money or time or supportive friends.

Challenges don’t stop you

When your life gets overwhelmed and filled with challenges, do you give up on your weight-loss efforts? Committed people use strong self-talk to help them stay focused during challenging times.

Create a mantra or phrase that you say every day (maybe even every hour) to remind yourself of your commitment. Perhaps you’ll say “I’m not giving up. I’ll stick with my plans until I reach my goal. I’m determined to feel healthy and strong in the years ahead.”

Stay committed!

From time to time, ask yourself the question, “Am I interested or committed?” Then demonstrate your commitment by staying solid on your weight-loss plan, no matter what!

Are you feeling stuck in your diet or weight-loss efforts? When motivation leaves, it’s easy to get stuck and lose hope of things ever being different.

Perhaps you keep promising you’ll change, but you never follow through. Maybe you set goals, but can’t seem to ever get started on them.

When you’re stuck, everything comes to a stand-still. You may even wish for a crisis of some kind, because you’re convinced it’s the only thing that will get you going. [Read more…]