April 8th, 2018 How Long?

April 8th, 2018 How Long?

Today: I maintained the integrity of my maintenance calorie budget, I remained refined sugar-free, I met my daily water goal, and I stayed well connected with good support.

How long will this take?

That's a question a lot of people ask when getting started.

I get it. I did too.

At over 500 pounds it was very easy for me to get discouraged about the answer to that question. I allowed my impatience to ruin many weight loss attempts because I wanted the results now and if we’re not getting what we want we get frustrated, and when we’re frustrated it makes it unnecessarily difficult to stay focused.

But what I’ve learned has proven to me that time doesn’t matter.

If you allow yourself to get discouraged about the task at hand and more specifically, the time it will take to accomplish your goal, the energy and focus needed for your action steps might be in the wrong place. My best advice?

Forget about time and just start making the changes. Start as small as you need. Ease into it. Above all, be consistent.

Before you know it you’ll have made amazing strides toward your goal in surprisingly little time.

Because guess what?

Time doesn’t care if you do this or not. Time will keep moving with or without you.

So how long is this going to take? As long as it needs.

Because, ideally, this isn’t something you’re doing for a couple of months. The changes in perspective and the action steps you're building into positive and supportive habits will be with you the rest of your life. These kinds of changes--these shifts, give us the best chance for a long life in maintenance at a healthy body weight. It's a daily practice. It's never perfect and it's never guaranteed, but it gives us the best chance.

So how do we forget about time and still get results in a timely manner?

One word: Consistency.

It’s consistency.

In the past, I would do well three days, followed by off plan for four. Pick it up on Monday and do well until Friday, then eat like a madman on the weekend. This inconsistency severely crippled my results and it seemed like it was taking forever to get anywhere.

If you would have asked how I was doing during one of those countless attempts, I would have replied “doing great, it’s a slow process, but I’m getting there.” It wasn’t until I became completely honest about the consistency issues that I was able to realize such dramatic results. Cheating myself became truly exhausting.

Forget about time, embrace your unique plan and be consistent in your efforts and you’ll enjoy the most amazing transformation of mind, body, and spirit--in hardly any time at all.

As you make your way, look for things that continually threaten consistency. Staying connected with those in the "same lifeboat" can have a dramatically positive effect. Good accountability and support go a long way. At the same time, developing ways to act instead of reacting to stress and emotions, is imperative to keeping a consistent embrace of your plan. And speaking of the plan-- making it reasonable is important. If it seems impossible to remain consistent, it isn't a failure, it's a learning opportunity--an opportunity to make adjustments and proceed. This is often the place where an honest personal evaluation might reveal addiction issues with certain foods/substances.

This thing we're doing is a process. But we must allow the process to process. I can think of several times when my impatience discarded the process--then, I'd beat myself up for another perceived failure. Be kind to you, please. You're not a failure. You're a student. Not of me and what I do or anyone else--no...you're a student studying you.

Once you find your YOU PLAN, the one you can embrace consistently, then you can really let time do it's thing while you do yours. Suddenly you'll feel a confident patience. And in that place, it's much easier to dream a little as you envision the life-changing positive consequences of your actions.
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Mom was so disappointed earlier in the week when she wasn't able to be there for Phoebe's arrival. She met Phoebe this evening!

Mom is doing much better. Her two falls last Monday prompted extra care and attention and it seems that what they're doing is working. It also seems that it wasn't the new infection I feared. Courtney reports that Phoebe is sleeping well, eating well, and doing other things that babies do, very well.  She only lets out the cutest tiny cry in the history of tiny cries when she's hungry. Or, when I mess with her hair, which happened this evening. She was less than thrilled with Po Po. Less than a week old and she's all about the hair, already!

I really enjoyed having Noah this weekend. Courtney is adjusting to having three little ones at the same time, so this helped her--was fun for Noah, and a blessing to this Po Po.

Noah gave me the "not another picture" face!

Noah insisted I move my chair from the far side of the table to right next to him. "Sit by me, Po Po!" I was like, "Uh, we're three feet away from one another." And he gave me a look that reminded me how important the "sit next to me" thing is at that age. So I happily moved my chair and plate next to his. He's a great kid!

Thank you for reading and your continued support,
Strength,
Sean