6 rules I Lived by on My Journey to Lose 131 Pounds
A few years ago, I began a weight loss journey…for the hundredth time. I had tried and tried again but the weight always found its way back, but this time I was determined to do something different. And I did. I lost 131 pounds, found my confidence along the way, and never looked back. Here are six things I learned along my weight loss journey that you can use to guide you on your way.
#1 Remember Your “Why”
Continually ask yourself, why do I want to become healthier and change my life? The closer you are connected to your why, the easier it will be to muster motivation and stay on course toward your goal.
To reconnect with your why, give this exercise a try:
On a clean sheet of paper, draw a circle and write in the center of it your biggest “Why” for wanting to transform your body and your life. Then draw an arrow from the left to the “Why” in the center and another from the “Why” going out to the right.
On the right hand side of the page, make a list of every negative thought, every bit of drama, every phone call you are holding onto, and every negative thing that is not productive or not moving you forward. Those things are taking away from your “Why.” See if those things are more important than what you wrote in your circle. And if they aren’t, let them go. The goal is for the left side of your “Why” to be happily unbalanced.
On the left side of the page, list everything that is helping you take care of and achieve your “Why.” Each day, choose how much time you are going to spend on each side—those things adding to and those things taking away from your “Why.”
This exercise will help you stay focused on putting energy into the positive side of your life’s equation!
#2 Never Compare Yourself to Others
No matter what shape you’re in, how much you weigh, who loves you, or what you’re doing with your life, you will always be able to find some people who are worse off than you are and some people who are doing better. There is no reason to compare yourself to anyone. The only things you should keep in mind are your own goals and your own progress towards those goals—one step at a time. Those are the only things you can keep in check, the only things you have control over.
Remember that you’re winning even if you fall off the wagon and fail now and then. Desiring your goal enough to get up and move toward it tomorrow, no matter what happened today, means that you’re learning something new about yourself every day. You gain strength, courage, and confidence from every experience that makes you stop, look fear in the face, and do the very thing you think you cannot do.
#3 Be Grateful for Who You Are
Focusing on your weaknesses is a sure path to failure and despair. Instead, concentrate on your own gifts and strengths. For gratitude, I am a big proponent of using pen and paper. Grab a sheet of paper, a notebook, or a napkin for that matter – whatever you have – and remember to write down ten things you’re grateful for every day and read them over.
Don’t envy what others are doing. Focus on your own natural talents and gifts and work those! Think of the things that you know you do well and surround yourself with people who appreciate those gifts and can help you grow even stronger. Find other people who are strong where you are weak, so that they can teach you how to overcome your own weaknesses. Surround yourself with grateful people and positive energy as often as possible. Focus on what you have and what you’re grateful for.
#4 Accept What Comes and See the Positive
Success happens in different ways and at different times for everybody. You have to be ready to accept what comes to you. You have to give yourself permission to be more than what you are right now. You were put on this earth to thrive and have a prosperous life and to help others, too. Allow yourself to have it and enjoy it. You deserve it.
My kids and I play a game that we call, “What’s great about this?” One Christmas Eve, I was running around trying to get last minute things done before a party I was giving at my house that night. My two youngest children were ages two and four. I ran to the store, and when I walked back out to my car I realized that I had locked my keys in the car. I wanted to cry. Instead, I took a deep breath, went back into the store, finally found a locksmith that would come on Christmas Eve, put my kids back in the cart, and went to the toy department. We went and looked at every toy in the whole store while waiting for the locksmith.
My kids were so happy that I stopped rushing and spent quality time with them. We sang Christmas songs all the way home. So, when something happens, good or bad, stop and thank God for your blessings, and say, “What’s great about this?” Sometimes it may be hard. I know you’ll learn a lesson in every situation. When you break a glass bottle on the floor, at least every speck of the floor gets clean, right? See the positive or at least the lesson in the situation. After all, learning from a situation is a positive step forward.
#5 Distract Yourself When You’re Down
Many negative thoughts stem from fear. When you’re having a less-than- stellar day, push the negative thoughts away. Nothing conquers fear faster than faith and taking action. Pick something on your vision board and make a move toward it. Have a list of simple, daily actions handy so that you can pull them out and pick an activity when you’re feeling blue or discouraged: walk the dog, pull weeds from the garden, write a thank you note to somebody who has helped you, clean out that hall closet, or help a friend. Any activity that makes you feel productive and better about yourself can go on that list!
No activity will make you feel better than serving others. I feel service is the best way to distract yourself and be blessed at the same time. We become so caught up in the business of our lives. If we just step back and take a good look at what we’re doing, we may find that we have immersed ourselves in the “thick of thin things.” In other words, too often we spend most of our time taking care of things that don’t really matter much at all in the grand scheme of life, while neglecting those more important causes.
When I was focusing every day on what I was going to eat next, obsessing over what diet I was going to try or how much I was going to weigh the next day, I was only thinking about myself and not others. When we aren’t living in our best bodies, we tend to dwell on ourselves and usually aren’t in a place to be of service.
I love the scripture that says: Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. (Luke 6:31). Make that your motto to live by and it will be easy to distract yourself when you’re down.
#6 Be Where You Are
Nobody is perfect. Your life will still be full of mountains to climb as well as unexpected potholes in the road. A perfect life would be a boring life!
Instead, be willing to take risks even though you may fail. Do what you can with what you have, and there you are! Savor the journey as you learn more about yourself and the world each day. Everyone who has ever reached any kind of success has felt inadequate and embarrassed and wanted to quit at some point on their journeys. Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all. The people who succeed are the ones who always pick themselves up, learn from the past, and keep going.
We learn to be resilient only by failing, accepting our failures, and trying again. Remember, your journey should be about your progress, not about being perfect! You are worthy of getting up and moving forward. Just remember to learn something from the process along the way. You grow when you learn from your missteps. You deserve to keep growing.
Are you on a weight loss journey? What have you learned along the way? What rule should I add to the list? Comment below and let me know.
In case this is the first time we’re connecting, I’m Jill, an entrepreneur, speaker, author, and leader inspiring other women to live out their God given purpose by helping them overcome physical, mental, and financial hardships. If you liked this blog post and want more where that came from, here are a few ways we can work together:
Improve your health and lose weight with Zallevo products, the purely sourced supplements that helped me finally experience my own health transformation.
Pursue a work from home income opportunity surrounded by other servant leaders. I’ll coach you on how to grow a wildly successful 1099 business sharing health & wellness products that actually work.
Learn how to overcome food addiction, improve your health, energy, and confidence, and master your mindset through one of my self paced courses.
