Creating Change in your Life: 4 tips for starting on the path to better health
I am moving into the 11th month of my commitment to living a healthier lifestyle and working towards my goal of losing 50lbs. Its now pretty obvious that I’ve lost weight so I get asked all the time what I’ve been doing. I really wish I had a simple answer for anyone that asked me this question but the truth is I really had to change my entire life. While it has been a lot of hard work it has also been the most amazing journey of self-discovery and worth every bit of effort. I was thinking today about what was different this time versus all the other times I have tried to lose weight and thought about these 4 things that seemed to be in place this time before I even tackled what I was eating.
1. Learning Self-Acceptance
Before you can actually start on the work of losing weight you need to love yourself and be happy with who you are right now. Stop beating yourself up for all the times you have failed in the past and start to talk positively to yourself about the person you are right now. I was given a necklace from some very thoughtful friends early on in my journey and it simply said “Believe”. This one word sums up exactly what you need to do – Believe in yourself and love yourself. The rest is just choices…
2. Put yourself and your health as your number one priority
This is a very hard thing to do. Especially when you have commitments with family, friends, work and children. I was naturally a very giving person and would rather make the people around me happy than worry about myself. Learning to say no and putting yourself first is the only way you’ll achieve success.
3. Surround yourself with people who support you and challenge you
You have to eat and so does everyone else. Everyone has an opinion about what to eat, how much to each, when to eat to lose weight. You simply need to find people who just let you figure it out and who don’t derail your progress. The reality is that you can’t always go out for dinner, indulge in the treats or not get good sleep. If you have people around you that pressure you to be the person you where in the past you’ll never become the person you want to be.
4. Have a vision of yourself in the future then get really passionate about everything involved in getting you to become that person
You have to keep a positive attitude the entire way through, you can’t focus on what your not doing or eating but rather focus on the great choices you are making now that will help you get closer and closer to the person you want to be. I decided to tell myself everyday that I loved vegetables even when I really didn’t believe it and eventually I fell in love with eating veggies. You’ll notice that none of the above tips involve food or exercise. The truth is you need to get your head in the right place before you can make any major life changes. Losing weight and keeping it off is a major life change that takes effort in areas beyond what you eat to achieve success. Once you’ve done the work on your mind you are ready to start focusing on what you are feeding your body and how much you are moving.
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