Tag: Brush Teeth

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Weight Loss Exercise

Use Small Victories to Fuel Success


Small victories are all that are needed to get to big success. I know that this may make sense from the outside but if we dig in it makes ever more sense.

Use Small Victories to Fuel SuccessI heard a story yesterday about the swimmer Michael Phelps. Phelps when he was training for year would have a very meticulous schedule. He would wake up and have a certain meal for breakfast. He would warm up doing the exact same warmup for the exact same time. Then it was time to get ready to swim and he would listen to an unchanging playlist on his ipod to get him ready. He would step up on the starting block, then step down, and then step up again, and get ready to race. The race itself is just the end of the whole process.

All of these little bits of very scheduled routine are actually building small victories, the schedule that has these little things involved will help your mind see them as victories which will give you the courage and belief that you can make bigger wins.

We all like to have a routine. A routine means that you don’t have to think about what is next because it is but if you think about the way you start the say. Get up, get showered, breakfast, brush teeth, leave the house, go to work. This routine is all a way to look at the easy and routine way to start your day. Why not make little changes that will start little victories yourself first thing in the morning.

Here are a couple of Small Victories to Try Now

As soon as you wake up, instead of dread or thoughts of tiredness, just think of five things that you are thankful for from yesterday or that you will have today. Start on the positive.

Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle
burn the fat feed the muscle is an exercise and diet program. My review of Burn the Fat shows that it is designed and written by an ex-pro natural bodybuilder but is a system that was written for regular guys and gals. Teaching you how to workout and eat to lose weight.

Or while standing at the kitchen counter and pulling out a piece of paper while you are getting breakfast ready. spend 60 seconds making a list of the most important things to get done today.

And one habit I have really made over the last few months in my morning routine is to listen to podcasts instead of the news on the radio. We get hit by news all the time but I learn in the car on the way to work instead and it gets my mind flowing.

Small Changes Can Have a Giant Effect

When you make these little changes in the morning, these small victories then when bigger things happen, like having to really push your workout, turn down cake or going out for lunch in the office, then these positive small victories are going to have made a big difference to your willpower and success

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General Weight Loss Tips

You Can Have What You Want,

…but you can’t have everything you want.

That has been my food mantra from the past several days. I’m trying to replace old habits with new habits and it’s hard. It’s hard because my old ones are so close. There are many days when I know that my habit to overeat is in a closet just a few steps away ready to be opened to rescue me from whatever uncomfortable situation I’m dealing with. Often that situation is telling myself “no” when so often I’ve said yes.

I know in the back of my mind that I can overeat whenever I want,  that option is always there.  I can throw in the towel and just eat more. When this happens my brain shuts off. There are few rational thoughts that happen when I transfer  food to my mouth. Often while the TV is on and I’m alone. These are habits that I’ve cultivated, rationalized, and made sense of in some way for many years. And now I’m left to immerse myself in other behaviors that are less self-destructive and bring me closer to my goals.

This is the hard part.

I’ve realized that action is not difficult for me. Counting calories isn’t the bear I’ve made it out to be. Making time for exercise everyday is possible, even enjoyable. But it’s often my head and my old habits that get in the way.

Right now, the lengths I have to go to prevent overeating may seem extreme to other people. So much so, that I don’t share. I don’t  starve myself, purge, or punish myself in any way, but I have to become someone I’m naturally not. Someone who plans.

My life  has become a game of chess. I know the next five to ten moves I’m going to make. I know what will trigger me and what I can handle. I can handle baking if I have a plan. Brush teeth, chew gum, clean bowl, put it away or in the freezer. I can handle having trigger foods in the house (which for me, is pretty much all food that is delicious) if I’ve had enough to eat, a plan, and positive actions throughout the day.

I know that if I don’t have a plan for my day, I overeat. I know that if my plan is to eat one cookie, and I eat two instead, I will eventually find myself full from and justifying my tenth cookie.

Interestingly enough my most productive days are easiest for me not to overeat. Overeating is not an isolated event. It’s my default when I don’t know what to do. When I feel lost, I eat. When I feel lost, I am sad. When I am sad, I eat. When I eat too much I become unproductive. When I become unproductive, I become sad and then I eat.

My days are filled, because making things happen distracts me. It gives me direction. It keeps my hands and my mind busy and happy.

There is a part of me that worries that I cannot sustain being so mapped out forever, and I don’t disagree. I’m using busy as a distraction for now. I have my still moments, writing this for example is stillness for me. Creating is stillness. My grand hope is that the more I create and cultivate these habits of not turning to food, the easier it will become. I will have created a new neurological pathway. I don’t need to coddle or protect myself as much as I think I do. I can be uncomfortable. Yes, I need to value and cherish myself. Take time for myself. Figure myself out. But, pushing myself to be better and healthier does not have to be unnatural or punishing. It’s okay for me to tell myself “no”. It’s okay to plan and give myself the best possible outcome everyday.

I’ve always believed, on some level, that not giving in to my every whim or desire was in some way self punishing. In some way against who I am. That I would lose myself if I tried to be different or tried to be better. But I’m realizing that the opposite is true. Who I am, at my core, cannot be found in destructive behaviors. I am not my depression. I am not too much food. I am not someone who doesn’t make things happen for herself.  I am not tomorrow, or next week, or next year. I am not procrastination. I am not my need to be comfortable.

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