MEMEORY OR REALITY?

Hi Everyone! I hope you have all had a fantastic week and are looking forward to the weekend as much as I am! It seems as the year draws to a close there is this last mad rush to get everything done and the weeks just fly by! It’s been a hectic week, so I am looking forward to my 2nd 10km road race tomorrow morning early (training for the 2 Oceans Half Marathon in April 2012!) & then it’s time to chill with friends & family and re-charge the batteries for next week!

So, are you also looking forward to the weekend or are you dreading it? For some, the weekends are a difficult time to stay on track with their weight loss journey. The certainty & “safety” of the weekly routine is gone and this is often the time when people feel deprived and resentful.

If you do feel like this I would like you to consider this …….

Is this the REALITY of the situation or a memory of what USED TO BE? Are you deprived or are you making smart healthy choices to turn your dreams into reality.

I discovered very early on in my journey, that my weekends revolved around socialising with friends & family or just enjoying a braai with my fiancé …… ALWAYS accompanied by an excess of food & drinks (wine/coolers/fizzy). It seemed to be a licence to over indulge!

 I’ll be honest, my 1st 3 weekends I was quite miserable! I was determined to stick to the program and lose this weight that had weighed me down for SO long, but come Friday afternoon my brain seemed to turn to mush and my perspective changed! I would go shopping on a Friday afternoon for the weekend and find myself reaching (but not taking) for all the “forbidden” foods.

The same foods I had walked past quite happily during the week!

I remember the 1st Saturday of the Challenge standing in the queue to pay at Woolies with my tummy grumbling so loudly that the man in front of me turned round and jokingly asked if had forgotten to eat breakfast that morning! Why was that happening ….. because I didn’t have the rusks/muffins/hot cross buns/jelly babies/slab of choc/ wine in my basket!

 Instead I had salads,veggies & lean meat & chicken in my basket!

 I had a MEMORY of how weekends USED to be! I had a MEMORY of how I used to behave and now I couldn’t continue that behaviour if I wanted to lose the weight! As I have said before, I had to behave differently in order to get a different result! Had eating that way kept me slim and healthy or had it contributed to my overweight state! It was a “reward” for being “good” during the week … crikey how blind could I be! I was just undoing any good I had done during the week and some!

I am happy to say that I toughed it out, stayed focused and committed and by the 3rd weekend things were a whole lot easier. It takes 21 days to break an old habit and form a new 1! By the 3rd weekend I had found ways to enjoy my weekends – the HEALTHY Slender Wonder way!

I would liquidise 100g of strawberries/paw paw into my shake on the Sat or Sun morning for breakfast.

Find other ways to “reward” a good result or behaviour – NOT FOOD! If you really think about it, how can you “reward” eating healthy/sticking to the program/having a good weigh in result with something like a chocolate which is what got you overweight in the 1st place!!!

So, do YOU reward yourself with food? Do YOUR eating habits keep you from being slim & trim? Are you behaving like a robot, behaving the same way day after day, weekend after weekend? Is that behaviour getting you closer to or further away from the happy, healthy, slim, sexy, and confident YOU?

Become aware of how your behaviours are driven by memory rather than reality.

That glass of wine/ beer at the end of long day is perhaps something you enjoyed. Your mind is a very powerful thing! If it can make you miss something because of the MEMORY of it, then surely it is also powerful enough to create a new, smarter habit, based on reality.

What is the reality? You are overweight and not happy about it, which is why you have decided to embark on the Slender Wonder PROGRAM. So make sure the choices you make and the way YOU manage your mind support that decision and action.

Can you go back to having that glass of wine? Sure, in moderation, not every night and once you have reached your goal weight.

MY reality right now is that I have reached my goal weight and lost a little more. So now I can have the odd glass of wine, piece of choccie, slice of fruit cake etc. It is so easy now to manage my weight because if it does go up a little it is so easy to lose it again. But when you have 20kgs to lose, your behaviour has to be very different.

So, be aware of the power of your memories to influence your behaviours. Commit to making new, healthier memories that will support your journey back to health and happiness and be proud of yourself that you took the decision to do something about your weight and then took action.

I wish you all a relaxing, fun, fabulous weekend and may your REALITY keep you focused, committed & on track on your exciting weight loss journey. No MEMORY could taste as good as I FEEL right now!