Deciding to Lose the Weight Forever!

Neither of us has ever been good about setting personal weight loss goals or, for that matter, setting any type of goal!   We've also never been any good at deciding to lose weight AND  keeping the weight off, however, we excel at putting it on.   One thing we are really great at is coming up with new ideas or things to do.   For example, we both get really excited about doing stuff like painting our fireplace black or knocking a wall out. . .who knew it was to the outside!! Or, one of my favorite "great" ideas, "Let's get another puppy!!". We usually come up with these grand shenanigans while sitting in our Adirondack chairs enjoying a Martini or a couple of glasses of wine. . .or worse yet, we do both!!!  I mean how do you think we ended up with 4 large dogs and a new door to our house!!!!

Reflecting on Goals

So, when we decided this time we wanted to lose weight it had to be different.  We couldn't do the things we've done in the past.  This wasn't going to be a diet.  We needed to focus on our lifestyle and set some goals.   They had to be realistic and attainable. And, of course, we had to make sure that whatever we did there were going to be laughs. . .tons of laughs.

Realistic & Attainable

Because of how we approach everything, our weight loss focus had to be realistic so we would stick to it, and attainable so we wouldn't get discouraged, plus, we needed to keep the fun in our lives and, of course, have lots of laughs.

Step 1, We knew we had to cut the stress out of our lives! Well, as much stress as possible. Stress is one of those things you can't live with, but, unfortunately, you can't live without it. . .it's impossible. The stress we cut out was what we can control For example, no one should cry every day because of their job or relationship. Sure, some days at work, even the strongest person wants to cry, but when I noticed I was crying every day as soon as I got out of bed before even taking a shower.... I knew I had to change something. I don't know about you, but the first thing I turn to when stressed is food. So, because of the work stress and then just the normal stress, the pounds were packing on.

I know some people would say, "Pull up your big girl britches and take control!". But Hey, it isn't that easy! For me, I kept trying to act strong and think everything was A-OK! It's like a snowball, and everything keeps getting bigger and bigger (including my waistline!). So, we knew it was time to melt that snowball and start new.

After all, adding on pounds is uncomfortable! Not to mention, the added depression, aches and pains, and just overall unhappiness.

Focus on Health, Not Weight

So, once we decided that we were going to focus on getting healthy. . . feeling healthy, we knew weight loss had to happen!  We had no idea how much better we would feel even after just losing the first 10 pounds.  It's like we were new people. We wanted to do things again, and small errands no longer seemed like such a chore! And this was just 10 pounds!! We both started thinking, "Can you imagine how good this will feel when we hit our goals?". It's exciting, and reflecting on how good you feel keeps you motivated.

We know this is going to take time to make it last.  Why push something to happen overnight when it took more than "overnight" to get here?  I'm usually so good at getting mad at myself when things don't go right.  In fact, I'm my own worst enemy, so staying motivated will have to be one of the key factors in this journey as getting my "self-talk" under control! By, "self talk", I mean, that little voice in your head that can sometimes be your best friend or your worst enemy. Why do we say things to (and about) ourselves that we would NEVER say to another person? I would never talk to a friend the way I sometimes "talk" to myself. Shouldn't we save the best compliments for ourselves? Don't we owe it to ourselves? After all, you only get one YOU, so why not love it? I know, pushing aside the "self-talk" is easier said than done, but we both knew we had to, at least, start being nice to ourselves if we were going to make this journey a success.

KEY LEARNINGS: From our Weight Loss Journey

Don't get down on yourself if you don't stay completely on schedule with your goals.  And don't stop your plans if you happen to get off track.   Just because we didn't lose weight or maybe gained a few pounds, it's not a reason to completely give up on our ultimate goals.  We all get off track sometimes in everyday life.  For example, what happens if you spill coffee on your favorite outfit?  Do you stop drinking coffee? Just think about when you were a kid and fell off your bike.  Did you stop riding just because you fell off the bike?  Why do we always think the diet is over when we eat the wrong thing or we ate too much or had too many glasses of wine?

So what if you went buck wild at a restaurant or at a party? (Unless you were wearing a lampshade at the party - that's a whole other issue!)  Just be good for the next meal. "Shake it off", treat yourself to an at-home spa day, and remember the big picture. . .and how good you feel.  If you get down on yourself it just snowballs (and we know what happens to waistlines when things snowball) and is easy to slip back into bad habits.  Remember it takes 21 days to build a new habit and only a few days to slip back into that old familiar way.

It's easy to keep those old habits and not change. Speaking from experience, it really is so much fun to build new habits. Just think about it... building a new good habit takes 21 days to be an everyday occurrence. Think about the big picture of life, 21 days is 3 short weeks! Just 3 short weeks can help make a big difference in your well-being and happiness in life.

What we need to do is step back and remember how GREAT it feels when losing just a few pounds.   Think back, when was the last time you were proud of yourself? Or happy for yourself, like you are for other people?