What's your anchor? What do you cling to when you want to quit?

We've all had days when we want to quit, when the thought of continuing is overwhelming.  How do you handle those feelings?  DO you handle those feelings or do you just ignore them?

Guess you've all figured out by now that this journey is not for wimps!  It takes courage, dedication, effort, determination, application and so much more....and all on a daily basis!  No wonder we feel overwhelmed sometimes and want to quit.  The secret to staying grounded though these frequent life-storms is finding your anchor: the object or feeling that keeps you safely moored in your harbor until the storm passes.

This week we're using a practical activity at WW to help us break down the feelings and guide us to our own personal anchors.  Here's my activity sheet.

1.  What's your trouble spot?  Just had a weekend full of "trouble spots" namely going to my Other Mothers house for 3 days to celebrate her 80th birthday.  It was sugar, sugar, sugar, and more sugar, everywhere you looked....and I caved big time.  By day 2 I had such a sugar hangover that I had to keep eating sugar just to keep going!

2.  How do you want to feel in that situation?  I would like to be able to say "No thank you" and feel in control.  I am an all or nothing person, if I can say "no" at the beginning I stand a much better chance of resisting for the whole weekend.

3. Conjure up a time when you had those feelings and you nailed it.   When I first started WW, I had some great success with saying "no".  And the fact of the matter is, once you say "no" and the decision to abstain is made, a huge weight is lifted from you.

4. Now pick your anchor.  I have a two-part anchor.  Whenever I've had a disastrous Way-Off-Plan time and have those feelings of being a failure and want to give up I've learned to: 1. Pause and take a moment to think and breathe and 2. Practice gratitude.

5.  Make the positive connection.  For me the "Pause is crucial.  That moment of quiet reflection gives me the precious few seconds needed to know I have a choice.  And I always choose to get back on Plan because I remember the years, and years, of heartache living off Plan.  And that choice takes me to one of the very best feelings in the world: Gratitude. I start looking and thinking about the WW plan with such gratitude: grateful to get back to working it, grateful to go to the meetings and interact with my fellow WW's...and grateful for how I feel when I'm back on Plan.  And that feeling of gratitude is my anchor.

6. Finally, practice using it as defense!  I've practiced gratitude so much over the past couple of years that it anchors me very quickly now...well, most of the time!  I still fall off Plan, and I imagine I always will at times, but it's less and less now, and most importantly, the time off Plan is much shorter.  And for that, believe me, I'm always grateful:)

Don't hate me if you think this is sappy!

Some of you may think this is sappy but try it!  

Try changing how you look at your at your weight loss journey and you will reap the benefits!

So, did you notice anything upon your reflection??

I reflect daily, hourly and, if there was such a word...minute-ly.  Yup, here's what reflecting over the past week has shown me: I need to lighten up!  I tend to think if I obsess about my problems they will go away. But that's not true is it?  How do I know that's not true?  Because I've been obsessing about food and my weight for 43 years and I'm still a slave to it!!! Well, that's not quite true, I am much better at managing my thoughts, obsessive and otherwise, so now when I start to obsess I think of this Tony Robbins quote: 

 "Identify your problems but focus on the solutions."

I practice turning my negative, obsessive, and ultimately destructive, thoughts into gentle, kind and positive thoughts with forward moving actions.  For example, I`ve identified a re-occurring problem of mine I like to call "Gateway Eating"; consuming foods that have always lead to uncontrollable binge eating!  For me, it`s anything white...white sugar, white flour, pasta etc.  When I`m in the WW zone, I can, and do, avoid these foods like the plague because my wise self knows the consequences.  But some days, hormonal days for sure, I can convince myself that eating the bun of my hamburger will be fine this time (Insane, you say? Yup.) That's what happened to me this past Sunday.  I had decided to use my 49 points for a lovely Steak Machine burger and normally would forgo the bun.  Even my husband looked at me as I ate the bun and asked if that was wise?  I assured him I would be fine.  Well, that "Gateway Bun" lead to making, and eating, a huge bowl, and I'm talking mixing bowl huge, of raw oatmeal, chocolate protein powder, peanut butter and lots of honey.....all before I took my sick upset stomach to bed.  Oh, and then I repeated it again the next day (because that's my pattern) but used canola oil instead of peanut butter.  At least I used a good oil:(

So what can I do?  I can obsess and beat myself up over it and swear it will never happen again, which would also be insane thinking on my part OR I can choose to accept it and identify the trigger and adjust. The trigger: our band played the night before, got 3 hours of sleep before dog James got us up. Then left the house to take him to the dog park WITHOUT a big proper healthy snack so I was STARVING, and really tired, by the time we visited Grandma so I (Oh ya, forgot about the first Gateway Food) shoved a bunch (8?) of stale cookies into my mouth before I even sat down....and it went downhill from there.

The solutions?  1. Be in tune with your body: when it's tired, our ability to make good choices drops drastically!  2. Important WW routine:  Pack a large on-Plan snack (and liquids) if you're tired.  3.  Get a good nights sleep and get back on track the next morning.

So how did your week go?  Did you reflect and adjust your actions if needed?  Were you pleasantly surprised at some of the amazing changes you've made?  I can honestly say I'm happy with my week too...it wasn't all that long ago that my little weekend episode would have led to weeks, or even months, off track. Now that's progress wouldn't you say??? :)

Are you worth 5 minutes a day?

This months routine is "Spend 5 minutes a day reflecting on how your day went on Plan" and while I think ALL the routines are valuable pieces of our individual goal-puzzles, this one is absolutely vital to our success. Why?  If you don't reflect on how your Plan day went, how can you adjust the good, the bad and the oh-so ugly? If you're not reflectin you're just floating along without direction and we all know how vital a clear direction is to any journey. Would you set out on a journey in your car without a clear set of directions? Would you consult your map daily to make sure you're staying on course?  Of course you would. This journey requires consulting your map daily too.
Do you think successful people get to their goals without daily reflection and adjusting as needed?  Let's look at these quotes from Tony Robbins and see how they relate to what we're talking about.

"If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten."
- If we don't take stock daily of how we're doing how can we determine if some of our actions, or lack of actions, are affecting our weight loss goals?

"One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power.  Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular."
-Taking a few minutes daily to reflect on "how we're doing" will help us direct our focus and stop "dabbling".  Do you think when we're just "dabbling" with the Plan we putting ourselves on a self-imposed plateau???

"How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I'm committed to?"
-Reflect on your day.  Did you live it in a way that brought your goal one step closer or pushed it farther away?

Just five minutes a day.  

Think about, or better yet, write down, the pros and cons of your day on Plan...

then adjust accordingly...t hat's what winners do...be a winner!

Hey Y'all!

Sorry I missed last weeks post y'all!  My husband and I took 40 people to Memphis and Nashville for 8 days.  I thought I'd have lots of time to write...HA....not.
On the food front I was on plan for breakfast and most lunches.....until the last two days and then went totally off, and I mean off, the rails!  Golden Coral Buffet, Cracker Barrel, Bob Evans etc....and of course...chips, beer and Memphis BBQ:)  Man, I was on salt overload...I could have carried my toiletries in the bags under my eyes!

In case you want to see where we've been and what we were doing, check out husband Freddy Vette's blog!  One day one I made my Memphis debut at Jerry Lee Lewis's Bar on Beale Streatt!  Not that I wanted to, but the singer was looking for some to sing the June Carter part to Johnny Cash's "Jackson" and Freddy, along with some of our group, made me get up.  It's not great, and my hair is flat, but an old man gave me $2!
http://www.cjbq.com/freddy/

What a fantastic time we had and....ooops...gotta go, the wagon just pulled up front of my house:)