A few changes mean so much....

So I'm gonna cover a few things here. First welcome to my new weight loss friends who are on the same journey as myself. A few have you have inquired and made comments on how I have done this and been successful. Do I stay home and never do anything social? No I have been to going away parties, birthday parties, dinner with friends and even on a mini vacation/girl's weekend. The first thing I did that was the key is I began to love myself more. Not to say that I didn't love myself before but I didn't love or even like myself enough to know that I deserved to be happier and healthier. Once I realized that it was like flipping a switch, everything else came easy. I will say a single session of hypnotherapy had an amazing effect on this. I talked to the doctor about what my issues and concerns were. I knew that my ability to say no to sweets and fast food had become out of hand. So that was my focus for my session. That was in January (2 1/2 months before I started my diet) and I have had no fast food since then aside from El Pollo Loco makes a skinless chicken breast meal that comes with steamed veggies and a salad. And all the rich luxury desserts are no more, if I choose to have something I make a smarter choice. For example last night I wanted some ice cream (I live in the desert where its 95 degrees at 10 at night....ice cream craving? shocking huh? LOL) So I got online and looked up Cold Stone Creamery cause I know they are yummy!! I also knew they had some healthier options. I had the like it (small) Sans Fat Vanilla Cream with strawberries and blueberries. Damage? 170 calories, 0 fat, very little carbs from sugar and best of all 6g of protein. And I was very satisfied and felt no guilt what so ever. Cause I deserve it and I'm not being bad (actually I pat myself on the back for seeking out the right choice)!! Another example I went to Chili's the other night and was trying to look up the nutritional info on my phone but felt like I was taking forever so I tried looking at the menu. Now Chili's has a healthier section on their menu but nothing there was appealing to me and I knew there had to be something else on the menu that would be ok. So I asked the waiter if he had something with the nutritional information on the other items. And he happily went and got it printed out for me. Thank you Nancy for being patient with me. Generally I will look up this information before I go but had not had a chance. Good friends and family will understand that you are trying to be healthier and still be social. The key is to let them know when you are starting this journey that you need their support. The scary thing was once I made my decision I looked over the info and saw the stats on my former choices of what I would eat when I would go before...OMG!! SCARY!! When I went on vacation I made sure I had a hotel room with a microwave and a mini fridge. I packed a cooler of food and maintained my diet while on vacation. (including eating out a few times) When I went to a birthday party I snacked on the veggie and fruit tray and ignored all the other naughty choices, even passed on cake. I don't make excuses for why it will be ok for me to have this one thing this one time because I know this will lead to several bad things. 1. guilt even if I gave myself permission I knew I would have guilt about it, especially if it effected the scale 2. the gateway to more excuses of oh I'll just have this one thing this one time 3. more guilt 4. more excuse are you seeing a trend here?? I refuse to do that to myself because I don't deserve that. Now some people have the power to cheat from time to time and if that works for them then so be it but I know for me it doesn't work. If you find yourself repeating that cycle then it probably doesn't work for you either. Honestly if something seems so strong that I feel like I have to have it I stop and ask myself. . . Is this going to be available to me once I have achieved my goal? Why do I really want this? How am I going to feel about myself later if I eat this? If I can reasonably answer these questions and still feel like it's ok to have it then I will. This has yet to happen. The key to success is preparing yourself for any situation. If you are going to an event where you will be tempted by foods that will be bad choices you have to prepare. 1. carry something with you that you can have if there are no choices that you can have (such as a protein bar, a banana, an apple etc) 2. mentally preparation is just as important- visualize yourself at the event and visualize how good you will feel when you are able to turn down the bad choices knowing you have stuck to your commitment to yourself. (you do not have to eat bad to be social)
Some of you have been here from the get go and some are new to my blog. Those that are new I recommend going back and reading through my old blogs if you haven't. I think I have had some good blogs and revelations but I also have great friends who have been so supportive and have given great advice. Every time I post a new blog I email my friends to let them know I have posted something new. My friends always either comment or email me back and I find this to be very helpful. So email friends and family and get them involved in your journey they will support you, who knows you may even inspire someone else to become healthier with you. My mom told me the other day that I have inspired her to try to eat healthier....wow how great is that?
The other thing I find to be helpful is inspiration from positive things. Ironically when I started this blog Oprah came on and it's about the Law of Attraction: Real Life Stories. (a rerun) A few things I can personally recommend are The Secret (you can get the book or download the video version), anything Louise L Hays (You can heal you life is amazing) does, Wayne Dyer is great as well. You will quickly understand why some of the things you say and do are so unknowingly self destructive. It can be a little hard to grasp at first but I can personally swear to how well it works. I must say just saying something doesn't make it happen. I can say something positive but if in my mind I am doubting it or doubting the power of believing that this will work then it's not going to work. Negative energy can be so much more powerful than positive. I am really getting better with this but still struggle with the battle of negative does creep up from time to time. I can't say enough about manifesting.
On an exercise and health level there is a great book that I am about half way through called Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle and it is really enlightening. The funny thing is this book kept popping up in my life over the last few years and I kept ignoring it for some reason. Heck I was even getting emails occasionally from where I had checked some information about it online and still was ignoring it. Then one day on fitnrg.com I saw some amazing before and after pics on someone's profile and thought WOW! how did she do that....and guess what it was from using the guidelines from Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle. I finally got the hint and thought hmmmm maybe I should check this out. I swear sometimes the universe gives us subtle hints and we just ignore them. (Like last week when I thought I should go see George Carlin and I decide oh I'll wait till next time. Now there is no next time because he passed away....RIP George you were a blessing I truly enjoyed) Ok I think I have rambled enough but was feeling like I needed to write this. If you are interested in the Burn the Fat ebook contact me and I'll get it to you. I hope you all have a very blessed and positive day.

p.s. I had one of the most stressful days I have had in a long time yesterday. The height of it happened right before lunch. In the past I would have been in the EDR pigging out on the buffet of gourmet desserts we have available daily. Not today, actually the opposite happened I could actually hardly eat. I did make myself have something knowing that I had a snack bag in the spa if I got hungry later. Just goes to show some serious changes have occurred mentally becuase I had no urge what so ever to reach for the sweets it didn't need to be my crutch. I actually wanted to get on a treadmill and work out my frustration. : )