The single biggest lesson I gained from losing 100 lbs is that when we start a new “diet”, we habitually bite off more than we can chew and we should all over ourselves!
- I should be able to always take the stairs.
- I should be able to drink 80 oz of water a day.
- I should be able to fly without a seat belt extender.
- I should be able to restrict my eating and lose weight.
- I should be able to exercise for an hour, 5 days a week.
- I should be able to cook all my meals at home from scratch.
- I should be able to walk up a flight of stairs without losing my breath.
- I should, I should, I should!
Good news alert! Good news alert!
You can lose weight. And you will! But not overnight, sweat pea! The same way it took weeks, months or even years to gain weight is the same way it’s going to take weeks, months, or years to lose it. Why? Because it took you time to modify your behavior that caused the weight gain and it will also take time to modify your behavior to lose the weight.
So you graduated college and exercised less because you’re no longer playing a sport. Or life happened and you realized in order to get the promotion and salary increase you wanted, you spend far more time working than you do on your health and wellness goals. And here we are, with the promotion and pay increase, but you’ve suddenly realized that… Wait… WHO IS STARING BACK AT ME IN THE MIRROR?!
We agree that perfection does not exist, yes? And yet, we hold ourselves to an unreasonably high standard, just shy of perfection, but certainly not perfection because we mutually agreed 0.02 seconds ago that it doesn’t exist! While I should be able to make healthy food choices 100% of the time, I might be excelling at it 80% of the time but I’m giving myself so much grief for that missing 20% instead of praising myself for the progress made!
Even the best laid plans get derailed at times: we make awesome choices, we make mistakes, we make more awesome choices and from time to time we make an unhealthy or unexpected choice. All the while, battling internally with ourselves, against the resistance to change to let a new habit take root and the old habit to free us. You will crush some of your goals, but sometimes, oftentimes, you’ll allow your “mistakes” to overshadow your hard work.
So through it all, take time with yourself, be kind to yourself, speak love and life over yourself, and always Extend Yourself Grace™️.
