You can't out run a bad diet..

Exercise is a huge part of becoming healthy and losing weight...but you can't out run a bad diet.   We want to believe if we work out we can eat more and when I say more I don't mean more real food, I mean more junk food.  

Dr. Mark Hyman said "we need to start thinking of junk food as recreational drugs".  Or even as alcohol. If we had alcohol for breakfast we'd all know we had a problem (except on vacation, then it's okay!).  But what about the fast eatable products we consume many or every morning or lunch?  And sometimes we have them AFTER we've just spent an hour in the gym!  We think the hour of sweat balanced the 3 minutes of eating a sugary-fat something.  It doesn't.  We know it, now we just need to accept it.

Time to stop fooling ourselves.  

We are what we eat...don't be junk.

And now this just because it's funny. :)

Self love: Don't wait until you've reached your weight loss goal to work on that.

The great thing about a personal blog is this is strictly my opinion, an opinion that does not need to be backed up with scientific studies.  All I need are quotes and memes to compliment my thoughts and I'm good to go!

I don't use the word "guarantee" much but I feel strongly enough about this topic to toss it into this sentence: If you do not love yourself as you are now, I guarantee that will not miraculously change once you lose weight.  The only thing that will change is your pant size, you'll still think some part of you is not good enough.  So how do we begin to change?  My first suggestion is to read everything you can until you find the words that resonate with you. Google "Self-Love" or "Self-Esteem" and start searching for solutions that make sense to you.  

This makes sense to me: Pay attention to your thoughts and question them.  We all have thousands of thoughts a day and they go unnoticed (and unchallenged) perhaps because we've lived with them our whole lives so we just accept them as being true.  Start noticing your thoughts, especially the negative ones.  You might be shocked at the negativity swimming around in there!

Once you've notice the negative thought, whether about yourself or a situation, question it....Why do I think or feel this way?....Why do I always blame myself for everything?....Why didn't I have a positive reaction?  The answer to all of the above is most likely, "Because that's what I've always done." It's the loop of negative thoughts your brain is on right now.  I find the questioning really helpful as it gives the logical part of my brain time to realize the negative thoughts are not based in reality, just habit.  Even if I really screwed up, that's still no reason for self hatred....I just screwed up, that's all. 

The good news is you can change it.  Just like you make changes in your food choices, you can make changes in your thought choices.  You know the food that's good for you so you incorporate them into your life.  Instead of having junk (negative) food you insert healthy (positive) food.  It's the same with positive thoughts.  When a negative thought appears, notice it, question it and then change it for a positive one.  You may think that's too difficult and you're right, it's not always easy.  How difficult was it to change your food choices?  Sometime easy, sometimes not so easy, right?  But the more you do it the easier it gets.  It's the same with negative thoughts....I guarantee it.

I imagine this applies to many of us.

So lets' try this...

Back from holidays and feeling very successful!

I don't think that is a phrase I have ever uttered, or even thought, before.  But when I was thinking about writing this entry I took a moment to really think about how I was feeling after 17 days on holiday and I truly have a feeling that I am not used to....the feeling of success!  

This is not to say that even though I ate on Plan and exercised every day that perhaps I didn't gain a bit (I weigh in on Friday), I may have but that's okay.  And that being okay is the source of my feeling successful.  Does that make sense?

As part of my continuing desire to grow into a happier and more peaceful person I had decided to start telling myself on a daily basis that I am doing exactly what I need to be doing to lose weight.  And that is what I did on my vacation. I told myself how fabulous I was (haha) and what great choices I was making:)  I said it out loud too....because after all, there was just me, the birds and the monkeys listening! (As usual, my husband had his headphones on listening to music).

One of the by-products of feeling successful throughout my holidays was I didn't have to deal with the inevitable feelings of failure when I got home!  Think about it.  How many times have you come back from being away, either on holidays, or work related, that you've felt like a failure because you did not stay on Plan?  Lots of times, right?  And where did those feelings of failure get you? Nowhere but mired in negativity and the need to eat your way out of it!  And, you have the feeling like you have to start all over again.  But if you feel successful all of the time you have no reason to feel like you have to start again.  

And, this bears repeating....being successful does not necessarily mean you lose weight, it means you set a plan of action and did your very best to make it happen.  We should never ask more of ourselves than that....remember, that's all we ask of others.  

So what are you telling yourself?  

How successful you are or how unsuccessful your are?

Think about it.