It’s all part of the process.
I catch my thoughts and define them…
Toxic (crazy-ass) thought: “We are going to starve in the one-inch blizzard.”
Pick a new thought: “I can stock up on a few extra healthy meal supplies.”
I’ve devised a game plan about the pushback I’ll get from my kids, too.
No Bigfoots were harmed in the writing of this post.
I have my one-on-one clients send me their food journal. In that journal they write what they ate that day and what thought triggered them to overeat.
The journal asks, “Why are you going to eat?”
The answer I’m hearing a lot this week is, “Eh… Why not?”
What the Wha!?! You have hired a weight loss coach. You have told me on your pre-work that on a scale of 1 – 10 that losing weight is a 10. And your thought is why not?
I could ramble off a long list of why they shouldn’t over eat, but frankly that’s not what they are really thinking.
That’s not the real problem.
Here’s what’s really going on:
“Why not” is just a cover thought.
It’s a thought we tell ourselves when we’re ashamed of what the underlying thought really is. These are thoughts we don’t even want to admit to ourselves.
The underlying thought might be, “I don’t think I can really lose weight.” Or, “I don’t want to feel this feeling. It’s too uncomfortable.” (That’s a big hairy thought.)
“Why not” comes from a mind that thinks that losing weight is done with grand gestures.
I want to tell you that it is the little actions that make the long-term impact.
It’s putting on your running shoes in the morning so you at least walk out to get the paper. (Yes, some of us still get the newspaper.)
A little action like planning what you are going to eat rather than reacting to your environment changes your path.
Taking a moment to breathe deeply and calm yourself before you blindly reach for the chips on the table can make the difference.
You don’t have to go on a crash diet or a cleanse to lose the weight. (Although that’s okay too.)
When you make small changes, and when you change the way you think, you will change the trajectory of your entire life.
What’s one small change you can make today?
Give someone you love (including yourself) a gift you can’t buy.
Give them the gift of meaningful experiences.
Here are a few ideas:
- Give a homemade holiday dinner. My friend Jacki was running low on money for holiday gifts to give to our large group of close friends, so she invited everyone to an incredible four course dinner served by her, by candlelight on fine china and silver tea service at her home. I am still talking about it 25 years later.
- Give a hike. Include gorp for the walk. Do all the planning and get directions. Find a nice little diner where you can end the excursion so you can rehash the climb and where you can post your summit selfie to Facebook.
- Give the gift of story. When my daughter was 10, she wrote a story for each member of our family. In his or her story, she made each person the hero. One person was a good pirate, swashbuckling around to save the day. Another was an astronaut. She included all of their hobbies and idiosyncrasies. That made each one a treasure.
- It’s time to make a coupon book. But fill it with 12 months of meaningful experiences. Your pick.
- 12 months of love letters to your squeeze. Knowing ahead of time they are going to receive one each month gives them something to look forward to. Get creative with the containers they come in so there is an element of surprise.
- Give a pledge of no cell phones or screens for the hour during and around meal times.
- I’m loving this pledge idea, so how about a pledge of doing the other person’s chores for a week. Their choice of weeks.
- Give a gift of computer lessons to your mother. She gets 10 free anytime phone calls when she can’t turn on her computer. Or forward a message. Or buy something online.
- Give a playlist. For those of us not into Spotify, give us a playlist for different times of our lives so we don’t have to laboriously listen to and search for songs. I am thinking that relaxing songs, tunes that make you dance, and old favorites would be great lists. Or pick out songs that mean something to the two of you. I love to laugh more than about anything, so I would personally love a list of online links to really funny things.
- Give a year’s membership to the National Whitewater Center if you are in Charlotte. Or a package of passes to one of those trampoline places. I have wanted to take a trampoline exercise class. How about adult ice skating classes? I have wanted to take a knife skills class at Whole Foods. It would be even better if the gift given took the class with me.
- A tour of your own city. By bike or moped or Segue would be even cooler. Personally, I want to take the walking tour of Charlotte public art. You can download the docent on your iPod.
- A massage. Or chiropractic adjustment. Or tarot card reading… Something off the beaten path.
And then, FOLLOW THROUGH. Don’t give the gift of an experience and then never give the person the actual experience. Bah humbug.
Give yourself a gift too. Take the pressure off of your loved ones to guess what you want. Buy it or do it for yourself.
Merry Christmas,
Happy Hanukah,
Happy Kwanzaa ,
Happy New Years!