February 28th, 2019 With Or Without

February 28th, 2019 With Or Without

Yesterday was another 5-star day: I maintained the integrity of my calorie budget, I remained refined sugar-free, I met my daily water goal, and I stayed well connected with exceptional 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.

Thank you for reading and your continued support,
Practice, peace, and calm,
Sean

If you're interested in connecting via social media:
I accept friend requests on MyFitnessPal. My daily food logging diary is set to public.
MFP Username: SeanAAnderson
My Twitter: SeanAAnderson
Facebook: www.facebook.com/seananderson505
Instagram: SeanAAnderson
Also--I'd love you to subscribe to my podcast Transformation Planet! You can find it in Apple Podcasts, in the Google Play store for Android, and listed wherever you find your favorite podcasts! If you haven't listened before, you'll find 20 episodes waiting for you!

Have you listened to the unabridged audio version of my book? Get yours today!

With a donation of $20 or more to The Daily Diary of A Winning Loser, You'll receive the entire unabridged audio version of my book, Transformation Road-My Trip To Over 500 Pounds and Back-narrated by me on mp3 disc!! This includes shipping. Increased donation increments of at least $20 will include an additional mp3 disc of the unabridged audio version, perfect to give as a gift!
Also, the two-hour recorded YouPlan Workshop is available for a minimum $25 donation.

To donate, send an email request to transformation.road@gmail.com, and I'll send you a secure invoice.