If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve hit a point where you realize making a lifestyle change is a major mental challenge that requires stamina, rational thought, and emotional support. You won’t lose weight until you makeover your mind first. So we’ve developed a ‘mind makeover’ series where we’ll share my top seven mental strategies to keep your thought-life in check! In the final edition of our series, we’ll explain why you should keep it real and not lie to yourself on your weight-loss journey, and why failure does not equal weakness.
Keep It Real
One of the most challenging parts of a lifestyle transformation like weight loss is realizing most of your daily habits are not good for your health, mind, and spirit. To be successful along your weight loss journey, you must hold yourself accountable when you revert to old, unhealthy habits. Honesty during your weight-loss journey is just as an important as detoxing and drinking green smoothies. When we fall off track, we may try to make ourselves feel better by lying to our family, friends and loved ones who hold us accountable.. The thing we tend to forget is that we’re not on this journey to impress anyone and more importantly, there’s no reason to lie to yourself. You can’t promise yourself you’re going to workout when you have no real intention to do so. You can’t tell yourself you are going to do the full 10-day green smoothie cleanse the next day when you’ve already prepped for the modified version. It’s important to be real with yourself and establish actionable steps that are going to help you accomplish the goals you have set.
I hold myself accountable by keeping a weekly grade of my healthy habits. For example, on Monday if I don’t drink any smoothies but do tabata for 20 minutes, I’ll give myself a D. Tuesday might be an F and Wednesday and Thursday might be an A. At the end of the week, I’ll evaluate myself and if I get a C or below, that’s not good enough. I’m not a C student. When my grade for the week is not up to the standards I set for myself, I recommit to my weight loss plan and do better the next week.
Failure Doesn’t Equal Weakness
In a society that places such high value on competition and winning, everyone feels the pressure to succeed. It becomes difficult to discuss failure, because for a lot of people, it somehow translates into personal weakness or vulnerability. However, you’re not weak, you’re human! All of us on this journey have our days and weeks where we can’t seem to get right.
The people in my private VIP group who have lost 100 pounds doing the 10-day green smoothie cleanse can testify that failures are a part of your weight-loss journey. The difference between them and most unsuccessful people; they didn’t let a few setbacks stop them from pushing forward to their end goal. We all have a common struggle. The people who win are the ones who pick up the next day and aim to be better than the day before. If they fail, no worries, they pick themselves up and try again tomorrow.
I always talk about monitoring your thought life. The easiest way to ruin a good today is by dwelling on a bad yesterday. If I mull over every single bad day I’ve had along my weight-loss journey, I would’ve given up a long time ago. I have a rule that I always apply: I never allow my bad days to cause me to gain more than five pounds. Five pounds is a wake-up call for me to stop slacking and get myself together. If I don’t set that rule for myself, I gain weight so fast! Before I know it, five turns to ten and ten turns to twenty. As long as I’m within my five-pound range, I don’t stress too much. However, if I’m going over five pounds, that means I need to regroup because my habits are getting off track.
Just remember, every day is another chance to start fresh. If you’ve started your journey you are not a failure, you are a winner! By committing to lose weight and staying healthy,, you’re already steps ahead of those who are still saying “tomorrow.” You’re going to be better tomorrow, you’re going to be better next month and you’re going to be better next year because you made the decision to live healthier, and that’s all that matters. Until next time…
-xo JJ