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!)