Healthy lifestyle starts with a healthy mindset. As I scroll through social media, which can be quite depressing these days, I see a long list of resolutions. New Year, New Me! This is the year I lose the baby weight. This is the year I get healthy. Do any of these sound familiar? All of which are great in theory, but I can’t help to feel hesitant. The reason I’m hesitant is because when people set these resolution the first place they start is “I need to lose weight.” If I just lose the weight, I will…..(fill in the blank). I’ve heard it all, feel better, feel more confident, be back to the old me!
Here’s the thing, some of you may not be familiar with my journey. As I sit here today I am down 75lbs from where I was just a little over a year ago. I am about 20lbs under what I would consider my “norm” which is where I spent much of my adult life. Losing and gaining weight is not something new to me, but this time it was much different.
This time in my journey I turned my focus to my mindset rather than the scale. If I could start to see the good the bad would go away. This is when I really buckled up and started my gratitude journal. I simply write down five things I am grateful for that day. Then I took it a step further and challenged myself to carry that gratitude into my daily life. As I stare into the pile of laundry that sits on the floor, I think how fortunate am I to have all these clothes.
I wish that I could say gratitude would simply do the trick but it is just again one piece of a much larger complicated puzzle. Another practice is positive self talk. We often get swept up in this idea that we aren’t enough. This is reflected when we talk to or about ourselves. “ I am such a failure, I didn’t get all my workouts in this week.” This is a prime example, the number of workouts you do in a week does NOT define your worth. “I was able to do two workouts this week and you know what, I am going to do all three next week”. Receiving compliments is another common area , Friend: “You are looking great” Me: “ Yeah. but I didn’t reach my goal this week I only lost 2lbs”. Flip the script Friend: “You are looking great” Me “Thank you so much, you know what I feel great too”.
The last tip to creating a healthy mindset is positive affirmations. These are just positive statements about yourself to really beat down that inner critic that likes to plant the negative thoughts. These statements need to mean something to you personally. I keep three of them on my phone screensaver just as a reminder when I doubt myself. My daily affirmations are I am healthy, I am worthy, I am confident. These help fight off that inner critic and take me back to the place of a better mindset.
I am going to leave you with this last piece. Love yourself NOW don’t wait. Love the body you see in the mirror, embrace the body you see in the mirror. Confidence is not something you are going to gain by losing weight. As a person who at one point was 75lbs heavier than I am today, I want to tell you this, when I look in the mirror I see that person. Physically though you see a change, I don’t. This is what happens over time, people don’t remember the “old” you they just see you as you are today. If you don’t embrace the “you” you are today, how will you embrace the “you” you want to be in the future.