I'm trying a new thing...I'm not always eating the moment I feel a hunger pang!

Today is Boxing Day and I'm trying to get back to normal everyday food.  It's a bit difficult as there's still some holiday food around but oddly enough each and every time I did not eat the moment I felt a hunger pang I did not die.  This is a revelation to me.

Here are my post Christmas tips:

What to do with the nutritious holiday leftovers?

And accept reality, this ain't never going to happen!

A couple good condiment solutions!

Here are two of my favourites each 0 SmartPoints for 1 tbs.  I also order my Zeroodle pasta here too (Zero SmartPoints!).  I use this website all of the time. It's a store in Scarborough (which is fun to visit too!) and if you order $100 of food the shipping is free.  I have no problem ordering $100 but maybe some of you can place an order together.

http://www.lowcarbcanada.ca/collections/condiments/products/heinz-one-carb-tomato-ketchup-13-oz

Have a wonderful, peaceful and on Plan holiday!  

You can do!  We can do it together!

Is your glass half empty or half full?

That old adage came to mind as I was thinking about how you all might be doing with the new plan. It's the old are you an optimist or a pessimist idea.  Are you optimistic that the new changes will not only be great for your weight loss but also your cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure?  Or are you pessimistic about the plan because the changes have made your favourite treat 4 points higher and your weekly extra points less?  For me?  Honestly at first I was a bit of both.  I love striving to be healthier and age well but I was also pissed that my pie and chocolate would cost me a lot more! In the end however, my constant goal to be my healthiest self won out: the changes are worth it to me. As for the 49 weeklies?  I could never eat all my 49 weeklies and lose weight anyway so I had already lowered them.

Yup, I am a problem solver too.  I won't spend the points on pie because it is not worth it to me, but  I will find sometime else in the "dessert" department that is worth it.  And someday pie may be worth it to me again, but not right now.  It gets in the way of getting to my goal, so nope, not worth it.

If you're feeling "half empty" I urge you to let it go and move toward "half full".  How do you do that?  First of all accept that the plan has changed, being upset/angry about it will do you no good at all, in fact non-acceptance will just mire you down. Secondly, the health benefits are undeniable and isn't that fantastic???  Embrace that and love that, it will lift your spirits! And thirdly, none of your favourite indulgences are off the table completely, the new plan just asks you to look at them in a new light and decide how much and how often they are worth it.  Maybe that new light will be candle light at a weekly dinner instead of the light thrown off nightly by the TV.  You get to decide.

Or beer.  

Or a nice piece of chocolate, or peanut butter! 

Why do we fear change?

My fear driven brain has always been fearful of change but thankfully something inside of me was greater than that fear.  Actually, come to think of it, what made me overcome some of my fears was just a greater fear. Doesn't sound like someone who needs therapy? Actually I've been in therapy a couple of times and found it very helpful, I highly recommend it!

We fear what we don't know, we fear what we do know.  Many of us were brought up by fear-driven parents.  Parents who lived through tough financial times and really had to work hard for everything and feared losing it.  At least that's how I grew up.  I let fear rule my 20's, 30's and some of my 40's. I'm determined my 50's will be different and part getting rid of fear is saying "yes" to change.

I think back to all of the times I said, "No, I'm not doing that" for fear of what could happen, usually a fear that I wouldn't be good at something.  And I'm talking about easy things or simply saying "yes" to trying something new, not jumping out of a plane or fighting a woman eating tiger!  So quite often I made nothing happen.
So if you are locked in fear one simple, albeit not always easy, way to move past it is to start saying "yes"to small changes in your life.  Saying "yes" opens doors and allows the fear to move on.

What are you allowing your fears to take from you?

What are you perhaps missing out on every time you say "no"?

What would happen if you said "yes"?

It could be something great and 
even if it's not so great this time, 

chances are you won't die...
unless there is a tiger involved, 
then you could die.

Your goal: what is it worth to you?

When it comes to weight loss most of us can easily name our "whys" bing, bang, boom. But knowing "why" is just the first step in your success plan, you have to figure out "how" you can make your goal become a reality and THEN, and here's the rub...you have to figure out how you can make yourself do the "hows" you have decided you need to do!!  Whew!!! Perhaps this is why many of us just don't get to where we want to be?  

I've been thinking about a criteria we could use to help us do our "hows" and this is one that came to me on my walk this morning, "You have to decide what it's worth to you and that will help you decide what you are willing to do, or give up, in order to achieve your goal."  Make sense?

For example I am planning to continue to be sugar free for the holidays.  Because any amount of sugar sends me on a slide I have decided it is worth it to me to have none.  But that extreme attitude may not be worth it to you.  I think it's fair to say ALL of us want to set limits on the goodies we eat at Christmas time.  So what are your limits going to be? Would you say it's worth it to you to have no goodies until Christmas dinner?  Or is that too strict?  Would it be worth it to you to just have goodies if at an event?  Would you say in order to limit goody gobbling it's worth it to you to not bring random goodies (goodies that are not for a specific purpose) into your house?  Would you say it is worth it to you to indulge as you please during this time?  

Where do you want to be in your weight loss journey come January?   

What is it worth to you?

Decide what you want.

Decide what is worth doing. 

Then write it down and remember to be specific!