There has been a lot I have had to learn about myself throughout this journey. It has taken me a while and I am still in the process of learning about ME. I just want to share with you some of the things I went through and experienced at the beginning of my journey that have helped me to remain successful.
Write it down
Being able to look at what exactly my goals were in plain blue and white helped a lot. At the very beginning of my journey I took the time to write down what my goals were, and not just how much I wanted to lose but what I wanted to look like, what my health goals were and the little things I wanted to accomplish. I also took the time to write out WHY I wanted to lose weight. WHAT my reasons for losing weight were/are and HOW I was planning on accomplishing this. I spent about two weeks journaling and reading what I had wrote. It was important to me to make sure that I had a clear picture of what I wanted so that when I needed a reminder I would have an easy reference.
Learn your past
This was not the first time I had attempted to drop some weight. Numerous times in the past I attempted to lose weight and none of those attempts was successful. I wanted this time to be different so I took the time to think about what went wrong during my previous attempts to drop my unwanted weight. I had to think about things I had done and didn't do, come up with things I thought should be done differently and also think outside the box for completely new ideas. I also had to think about the things that triggered me to binge eat and figure out what I could do to tackle the issues.
You're not alone
Seek help, seek someone to take the journey with you and keep you accountable to your process. In the past I have had accountability partners and none of them worked. So I decided to take a different approach, I decided to seek a counselor. Someone that did not know me but was trained to work with and help people that had things they want to overcome. In the past I asked close friends and family members to help by being accountability partners and in the beginning it would always work but then life would get in the way, they would become softies or let me bully them into letting me do what I wanted and hence I would "fall off the wagon". Be creative in your thinking, finding an accountability partner can be as easy or as difficult as you make it.
Seek medical advice
During my previous attempts at dropping some weight I never thought to speak with my doctor and see if they could give me some guidance. I was watching a show late one night and a woman was talking about how her doctor helped her by giving her a plan and monitoring her progress. At that moment it was like "ah-ha" and "duh" at the same time. Why had I not spoken to my doctor, shoot he was the one that was always telling me to lose weight and get healthy, he should be the one to tell me how to do it. I visited my doctor and together we came up with a plan and so far it has paid off.
Accept failure
There are going to be days when you eat what you want, skip working out or just fall off all together. It happens, but it is important to know that at that moment you make the decision of whether or not you will get back up and keep working or if you beat yourself up and fall back into your old habits. There are many days when I will skip a workout or eat something I shouldn't and I don't beat myself up, I just wake up the next morning and get back to the plan. We are human and we will do what we want but as long as you keep your plan in mind you will be ok.
This is not an overnight thing so stick with it!
This is not an overnight thing so stick with it!
Be sure to ask me questions or comment.
Nyki
