Love Yourself

Who is the most important person in your life?

For me, the automatic response to that question would be my husband and my children.  And the Savior.  Next would be the rest of my family, parents, sisters, brother, in-laws, aunts, uncles and cousins.  And my friends.

The one person that never comes to mind is Myself.

When those people we love aren't absolutely perfect, how do we treat them?  Do we beat them up over simple mistakes?  Or are we quick to forgive? Do we think less of them?  Or do we Love them unconditionally?  Why are we so willing to have unconditional love for others, but not for ourselves?

One lady at WW this morning told us that her mother used to say "If we treated our friends the way we treat ourselves, we'd have no friends.

 WW teaches us that our weight problems are not just about calories in and calories out.  We need to figure out why we are turning to food as a solution to our problems.  Sometimes we think we're not worth it, not good enough or don't deserve good things.  It's easy to love other people more than we love ourselves. 

Think about it.  Are you so hard on yourself that if you make a mistake you run to the cupboard to make yourself feel better?  I know I do.  Just this week I sat down at the computer to pay bills.  I had overspent.  What did I do to make myself feel better?  I ate.  And ate.  Until I didn't feel better, but the bills were done.

 So, here's a challenge for the week: Treat yourself better, give yourself some leeway.  When your not perfect, pick yourself up, and commit to doing better next time. And don't forget to love yourself.  

Music that speaks to me!

Hurry up and wait

So close, but so far away
Everything that you always dreamed of
Close enough for you to taste
But you just can't touch


You wanna show the world,
but no one knows your name yet
You wonder where and how you're gonna make it
You know you can if you get the chance
In your face as the door keeps slamming


Now you're feeling more
and more frustrated
And you're getting all kind
of impatient
waiting
We live and we learn to take

[ Chorus ]
One step at a time
There's no need to rush
It's like learning to fly
Or falling in love
It's gonna happen the way its
Supposed to happen and we
Find the reasons why
One step at a time


You believe and you doubt
You're confused, you got
it all figured out
Everything that you always wished for
Could be yours, should be yours, would be yours
If they only knew

You wanna show the world,

but no one knows your name yet
You wonder where and how you're gonna make it
You know you can if you get the chance
In your face as the door keeps slamming


Now you're feeling more
and more frustrated
And you're getting all kind
of impatient
waiting
We live and we learn to take

[ Chorus ]


When you can't wait any longer
But there's no end in sight
When you need to find the strength
It's your faith that makes you stronger
The only way we get there
Is one step at a time


[ Chorus ]

--Sung By Jordan Sparks


I love this song! It reminds me that I can do anything "One step at a time." I have listened to this song to get through visitation for my foster daughter. I don't know if she will be going back with her mom or if we will be adopting her. I get very frustrated, but it's my faith that makes me stronger and this song just reminds me to take it easy and wait for it to "happen the way it's supposed to happen" and find the reasons why later.

This song also relates to my weight loss. I get frustrated and impatient. When I need to find the strength, I have to have faith in the WW plan. I need to take it one step at a time, sometimes starting with just the basics again.

When you take it one step at a time "Everything that you always wished for could be yours, should be yours, would be yours" if you only follow the plan. :)

Major Motivation Today!! Woot!

So today I went shopping for clothes because everything I have been wearing is too big. Woot! I am so excited to find that my weight loss has been REAL! I REALLY wear a size 10!! Oh my gosh! Along the way as I have lost a pound here, a pound there, gained one here, gained one there, I have thought to myself...It is probaby just water. It isn't REALLY fat. So now, I am close to my goal and having a hard time sticking to the plan, but today I had so much fun shopping for clothes that I am totally motivated to lose my last 15 or 20. I just wish I would have been more diligent when I started WW last year, or even when I started it last decade! LOL! Now when I am wanting to eat because of my emotions or because I am trying to avoid doing something like cleaning, I will remember how much fun I had today, trying on clothes, and EVERYTHING fit!

Why Not Us? Why Not Now?

This is it!  2010 is the year that we are going to reach our goals. 

And this blog is going to help us MAKE IT HAPPEN!!

 I found an awesome weight loss blog written by Dr. Randy A. Gilchrist, a psychologist and family therapist.  He has great suggestions to help us deal with the emotional aspect of our weight loss (which for most of us is the core of our problem.)

In one of his posts called "The Pain of Fat" he says:

When people ask me, "how do you lose weight?", I have a simple answer: eat less and exercise more. True, but not very helpful. When people ask me as a psychologist, "how do you lose weight?", I expand on the answer. I explain that you need to change the psychological association you have with your eating and physical activity. A heavier person will be conditioned to associate pain to healthy diet and exercise and pleasure to poor eating habits and laziness. They might say things like, "I hate to exercise", or "I love chocolate". Hence, weight loss becomes a futile exercise in will power, frustration, and eventual failure. 

On the other hand, when people make their mental associations with healthy eating and exercising towards more positive, the healthier choices become much easier and the weight comes off. For instance, a person associating pleasure with healthy choices might tell themselves: "I have energy when I eat well" or "exercise makes me thin". 

Here is an activity he suggested to help us think of  nutrition and exercise in a positive light. I thought it would be a great place to start.

"So, to begin improving the psychological associations you have with healthy weight loss choices, take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the top left side, put a title that says, "the pleasure/good things I'll enjoy when I _____ (eat better, exercise more, etc.)". On the right side, put a title that says "the pain/problems that will happen if I don't _____ (eat better, exercise more, etc.). Then create an ever growing list of these polar opposites, study them, visualize them, and make them important themes in your life."

here is a link to Dr. Gilchrist's blog http://theweightlossmindset.blogspot.com/

 Good luck with your lists!  I can't wait to hear if this has helped.  I expect to hear how Pepsi, Dr. Pepper and Chocolate make us  ______.   (Ha Ha, I just had to throw that in there lol!)