Celebrate Everything!

We are coming out of a season of celebrations. Many of us are celebrating that 2009 is behind us, and a beautiful, clean, fresh, and exciting new year is just beginning. We’ve made our resolutions, set our goals, created a vision of ourselves and our future in 2010, and now we begin to live our life.

If your resolutions involve any attempt at self-improvement, whether it be losing weight, eating better, exercising more, or getting more rest, I would invite you to think about how you will celebrate your progress.

Celebrate everything you do that moves you in the direction you want to go. If you went for a walk on your lunch hour, celebrate that! If you took the stairs instead of the elevator, celebrate that! If you chose an apple rather something from the break room’s vending machine, celebrate that! Give your attention to appreciating and acknowledging each thing you do that moves you in the direction of your desires.

During my weight release journey, I knew that I was going to need lots and lots of rewards and acknowledgement, because I was changing deep-seated behavioral patterns and beliefs about who I was and what I deserved.

I knew that I was going to have to continually reinforceevery positive behavior, every positive change I was making.

And yet, for so much of my life, I celebrated my successes with food. Finishing a big project at school definitely called for dinner out. Winning an award at work definitely required ice cream. Finishing a long week definitely called for a weekend movie, and that weekend movie called buttered popcorn, candy, and soft drinks.

But I knew, as I was releasing weight, that I was going to have to celebrate my success without turning to food. I knew that I was going to have to find non-food ways to reward myself for releasing weight, for moving my body, and for eating healthfully.

For releasing weight, I chose to reward myself for every five pounds I lost. For intentionally being active and for eating healthfully, I became the the queen of stickers. And when I achieved my weight-release goal, I took a trip! Non-food rewards (flowers, notecards, pretty things, clothes, shoes, magazines, etc.) played a huge role in keeping me motivated through this intense journey.

What are some changes you’re looking forward to celebrating this year? And what will be your non-food ways to reward yourself?

Up Next: Food--Fuel or Love?

How to Motivate Yourself to Go for a Walk in Cold Weather

“I just need the motivation to drag myself out in the cold to walk,” one of my friends said yesterday.

Let me tell you, I hear that. I so get it. I know just how he feels. So. . . here’s what motivates me to be physically active outside during the coldest months of the year.

Gratitude. Every day, I express gratitude that I am alive and am healthy. And moving my body is one way that I thank it for being there for me over the years. Last year, for a few weeks, I wasn’t able to run outdoors, and so when I did to return to the pavement, I felt enormous gratitude and thankfulness. It’s funny. Sometimes being told you “can’t” do something makes you want to do it all the more. And every day that I run is a day that I’m grateful.

Accomplishment. I like to get things done. And when I’ve walked (or run) outside, I feel like I accomplished something. It makes me proud. Especially in the winter, when snow, ice, wind, drifts, and cold make me feel that I’ve achieved something special.

Invigoration. Running outdoors in January really gets the juices flowing, and I’m not just talking about my circulatory system. Running outdoors clears my head, gives me time to think, and it helps me become very focussed on what is precisely in front of me. It helps me focus on the here and now. When I’m navigating a little patch of ice, or enjoying a freshly-shoveled sidewalk, I’m not thinking about what happened yesterday or what is going to happen tomorrow.

The reward. For me, my post-run reward is a warm bath, a hot beverage, and warm fleecy clothes.

Fun. Believe it or not, running outside in January is fun. I’ve now been doing this running thing outside for an entire calendar year now, I’ve discovered that winter running is so much easier and satisfying than running in brutal heat of August. The invigoration, the challenge, the “me versus the elements” is exciting and maybe even a little dramatic, and drama and excitement can be very, very pleasurable!

Up Next: Celebrate Everything!

"Drop Up To 17 Pounds Without Trying"

“Is Your Thyroid Making You Fat?”

“Increase Your Weight Loss By A Whopping 70%”

“Drop 2 Dress Sizes In Just Minutes A Day.”

“Discover the Natural Fat Loss Magnet.”

“Lose Up to 25 Pounds In Just 6 Weeks”

These are the subject lines of e-mails I’ve received in the past few weeks.

My favorite? “Drop Up To 17 Pounds Without Trying.”

We want things to happen fast.

We want things to be easy.

And we want dramatic, miraculous change with little or no effort on our part. “Without trying” we want to shed the result of years of poor choices (and poor thinking) in “just six weeks.”

What we want is a miracle, and the desire for a miracle pushes us to look for miracles in the form a pill, or a berry, or a shake, or a diet, or a surgery, or a reality television program . . .

And while those miracles can create amazing, fast, and dramatic transformations, in many cases, those transformations are external. However, for people who are successful in releasing excess weight and living their life in a lighter body, the biggest transformation is not an external one. It’s internal.

The biggest change happens when we change our thinking. The biggest change happens when we realize that nothing outside of ourselves can really give us what we want. Sure, some of those things can provide a quick fix, but the most lasting path to healthful, lasting weight loss happens when we change our thinking, when we change our beliefs about ourselves and our worth and “deservingness,” and it happens when we intentionally begin to say kind things to ourselves and treat ourselves as we would our best friend.

The secret to successful weight loss? It’s not about transforming your body.

It’s about transforming your thinking.

It really is a inside job.

Up Next: How to Motivate Yourself to Go for A Walk in Cold Weather

How I Came to Love the E-Word

For much of my life, I hated exercise.

The more I hated it, the more I ate. And the more I ate, the larger I became. The larger I became, the harder it was to move. And the more difficult it was for me to move, the more I hated even attempting exercise. Of course, I knew physical activity was good for me. I knew that regular exercise would reduce my risk of diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, high cholesterol, cancer, etc. Knowing what to do was not the problem. The problem was that I simply didn’t like doing it!

I also knew that creating a healthy relationship with my body was important. In fact, I felt it to be one of the most profound lessons of my life.

I wanted to get in the best possible shape I could, and paying attention to what I put in my mouth was not the only thing I was going to have to do. It was time time to bite the bullet, and do what I hated to do--exercise.

But I also knew that I had to make it fun if I was going to stick with it. I had to find a way infuse exercise with pleasure and joy.

Because we experience pleasure through our five senses, I began to make my exercise time a sensory experience. I started walking very slowly, 15 minutes in one direction, and 15 minutes back. But on those walks, I intentionally engaged all of my senses. On those walks, I really began to look at my environment--the squirrels playing, the dogs yelping, the ducks in the creek, and the camels behind the fence at the children’s zoo. I started paying attention to smells, whether it was the barnyard smell of the ponies, or fresh cut grass. And I began to listen for sounds that I normally ignored, like cicadas and crickets or the chatter of squirrels.

Each walk became a sensory experience.

A funny thing happened: I started to enjoy my walks. Then I started look forward to them and take pleasure in them. And the more pleasure I found in them, the more fun they became, and the more fun they became, the easier they were to do!

And before I knew it, walking morphed into running! And now running is one of the great pleasures of my life.

But it started with the decision to infuse pleasure into exercise.

How can you infuse pleasure into your New Year’s Resolution to be more active?

What can you do today to make exercise fun?

Up next: “Drop 17 Pounds Without Trying”

On New Year's Resolutions

I have no shortage of “resolutions.” Goal-setting comes easily and naturally to me. I write my goals down. I share them with other people. I visualize their being accomplished. And I attach a time frame to them.

And for the next few days or weeks, many of us will be on a honeymoon with our resolutions. We’re going to be enthusiastic. We’re going to be motivated. We’ll be at the gym six out of seven days. We’ll be eating lots of celery and apples and carrots. We’ll shed those unwanted pounds once and for all. This year, we really will get in shape and be fit. We really will look better and feel better. And this year, we’ll be different! This year, we’ll stick to all of our resolutions.

Then life happens, and the dog throws up, the kids scream at each other, your spouse snaps at you, and your boss throws you a few surprises. So when you get home, all you want to do is sit on the couch, turn on the TV, and eat.

Resolutions are wonderful, but what will bring those resolutions into reality is this: having a plan for the tough days, for when the road is rough, when the course is challenging, and when the ideal and the real collide. And here are a few ideas that may help.

Take the middle way. Embrace the middle ground. Shun all or nothing thinking. Know that slip-ups are normal, and that we seldom progress is a continuous, straight line. Unplanned brownies can suddenly appear in front of you, and it can feel like you have no choice but to eat them. Unasked-for donuts may call your name from the break room. A surprise pizza may materialize in a meeting. So, if you eat a brownie, a donut, or a piece of pizza, enjoy it. Relish it and take delight in it. And as soon as you feel thoughts of self-recrimination and guilt, begin to forgive yourself for slip-ups and treat yourself with patience and love.

Look at the big picture. When I feel frustrated that my resolutions aren’t happening as fast as I’d like, I purposefully review where I was last year, or five years ago, or even ten years ago. This helps me realize how far I’ve come, and it reminds me that minor setbacks are simply that. Minor.

Embrace “Plan B.” This is a hard one for me. I like to accomplish things, and I must admit I tend toward perfectionism in some areas. I like things to go my way. Unfortunately, the way I “think” things should go isn’t always the way things always turn out. So, if the scale moves up when I think it should go down, I simply say to myself, “That’s good information to have,” and I consciously think about everything that went right for me in the past week. For me, a big part of “Plan B” is focussing on the good.

And so, approach your resolutions with moderation and patience. Look at how far you’ve come. And have a back-up plan. With this three-pronged approach, next year at this time, your resolutions may no longer be resolutions. They’ll be accomplishments to be celebrated!

Up Next: How I Came to Love the E-Word

Running on Ice in January

I went for a run today.

While the rest of my city quietly slept off New Year’s Eve, I was climbing what seemed like Himalayan ice mounds and maneuvering my way over partially-shoveled sidewalks.

It was cold. Eleven degrees above zero. My nose started running almost as soon as I stepped outside.

And throughout the first half of this run, I kept thinking, “Man, why am I doing this? Most sane people are indoors right now. Why the heck am I out here? Yahoo weather says it’s eleven degrees above zero. This is a drag. The wind is really gonna be tough on the way back. Do I have enough layers on? I sure hope I don’t fall. Why couldn’t those people shovel their sidewalks?”

Those were my thoughts. I was whining pathetically about being out in the cold. Then I remembered what an experienced marathoner told me last July. He said, “You do know that running is 99 percent in your head, don’t you?” I just nodded. But today was the day that I knew that running is way more mental than physical. I knew that, if I was going to complete this run, I had to adjust my thinking. I knew I needed to remind myself the real reasons for my suffering through the pain of wintertime running.

And so I started talking to myself. Instead of whining about the cold conditions, I began to think about what I really want out of my running.

My most immediate reason for “doing this” is that I’m preparing for a half marathon in sixteen days, and I want to stick to my schedule. I want to do as well as I possibly can and I want to achieve my goals for this race to the best of my ability.

My second reason for “doing this” is that I like a challenge. Running outdoors in the winter can be a challenge. Right now, it’s particularly challenging because the snow from last week’s blizzard hasn’t melted, the north wind is brutal, and the overall temperature is really, really cold. So after each run, I return to my apartment feeling exhilarated, knowing that I really accomplished something!

But finally, running is fun, regardless of the season. And that’s what I focused on today. “Running is fun. Running is fun. I like to run. Running is fun,” were the words I said to myself, over and over and over. And fun it is!

It’s fun to cross paths with other runners and feel like we’re part of an elite club--the few, the proud, the January runners. It’s fun to enjoy the snow men (and snow dogs) in people’s yards. It’s fun to think about where I was 45 pounds ago, and where I am today, and to know that running has played a big role in achieving and maintaining a healthy body weight.

Someone said, “Running tells us the good news about ourselves.” That’s true.

Running makes me feel good.

Running makes me happy.

Running makes me smile.

Up Next: On New Year’s Resolutions

How to Get What You Want

 

Many years ago, I came across F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “21 Pieces of Advice to His Daughter on Living.”  His simple yet profound list concludes with the suggestion, “Think about:  what am I really aiming at?”

Those six words--What am I really aiming at?--have stayed with me for the past two decades.  And during my weight-release journey, I found myself continually focussing, then refocussing, then refocussing again--on what I was aiming at, on what I really wanted, and on what my deepest desires were.  And I made some discoveries along the way.  

Here are a few: 

1. 1.Write down what you’re aiming at.  Most people don’t take the time to do this.  But this simple action is one of the most powerful things you can do.  And the good news is that this concept doesn’t pertain solely to releasing weight.  It pertains to life.  
   

2. 2.Tell somebody what you’ve written down.  When I finally figured out, at age 45, what it was I was aiming at (to get in the best shape of my life), I sat across from one of my closest friends in a coffee shop, and read her my list.  And she read me her list as well.  Having a consistent support and encouragement along this journey is a key component in being successful.
   

3. 3.Be your own best friend.  Pay attention to how you talk to yourself.  Speak to yourself affirmatively.  Immerse yourself in “I am” statements.  The more you talk to yourself in a positive, loving way, the more lovingly and compassionately you will treat yourself.  And these “I am” statements will lead you toward taking the action that will get you the results you want.
   

Figuring out what it is you’re aiming at, writing it down, telling somebody about it, and repeatedly affirming your goal or desire to yourself in a positive way are the most powerful, most effective, and most lasting ways to release weight through pleasure.  

For more information and a complementary 30-minute weight loss consultation, contact Dr. Kristin Heslop at 402-438-0108 or nannerl123@yahoo.com.

Up Next:  What Happened to My Willpower?