It’s early March, you’ve set big goals at the beginning of this year, and now you feel like your progress is slow, as in WTF IS GOING ON kinda slow. Maybe you’ve been using the same diet and workout plan for awhile or maybe you’re switching it up. Whatever, it doesn’t matter. What matters is what you’ve been thinking about while on this weight loss journey.
When I say to you, “God I just need to lose five more pounds.” How does that sound? Go ahead, say that line like you mean it and then ask yourself, how does that question make me feel? How does the question “Why isn’t this working!!?” or “Why does nothing I do ever work!?” make you feel? So many variances of the lines I used to say after competing and the mental battle I had felt with weight loss, but to get to the point– the answer is not great, AT ALL. Before I explain further, let me just say I have absolutely felt the frustration, the anger, the sadness, all the different emotions that often accompany such a journey. It wasn’t until I traded my expectations for acceptance that things slowly began to change. Let me explain further.
The Triad
Ok so you’re thinking the thoughts about why it isn’t working, why’s something wrong with you, why you need to try something else, why you’re going to treat yourself just this one time because you deserve it etc. etc. When you think these thoughts, how do you feel in that moment? Truthfully, how do you feel? Probably not great–defeated, fatigued, distracted, angry, tense–whatever the emotion is for you. And when you feel defeated let’s say, are you more or less likely to go to the gym or stay on your meal plan ? Probably less right? And by not doing those things, you don’t produce the results you want in your weight loss journey, almost internally gratifying yourself in the sense of See! I told you nothing works! We like to be right don’t we? Thoughts–>Feelings–>Action. Read more on this here: https://laurennanni.com/2020/07/20/the-power-of-thoughts/
If you’re a regular to what I believe and teach, the above probably doesn’t sound all that new, but what I want to do is focus on the feeling you’re producing specifically. Okay so why are your thoughts sabotaging your weight loss journey? Because they’re not only creating negative feelings that are producing low energy action, but because the feelings created by the thoughts are producing resistance within you.
Feelings
When you think the thoughts that bring your energy down, you typically arrive at the place of this shouldn’t be happening. You feel this frustration that you should be able to follow this plan and hit your goal or you should be able to drop the baby weight by now or you should be able to eat the pizza and have it not matter like it used to. The shoulds. A bunch of mother effers if we’re being honest. If you think you should and you’re not then you’re in resistance because you don’t like where you are and you’re not where you want to be. The result is constantly pushing back at one another, and to be clear–going literally nowhere. I’m sure your intentions were good though–putting so much emphasis on what you want while being upset with your current results so your body knows not to do it again. Trust me, I get it, but how many times has that worked in the long run? What if you accepted where you’re at, processed the emotions you’re feeling, released them, and then took that same level of energy and focused it elsewhere?
Focus
Your focus is messing with you. You’re focused on losing. The focus is on loss, or getting rid of, or what’s gone wrong, your focus is on weight! It’s your bod and it can feel hard not to notice, but what if you chose to shift the focus? What if your focus was on health, on having fun, on experimenting, on enjoying the journey? By shifting the focus onto what you can gain like your health and vitality, I would guess you’d feel more relaxed in the process. Tell me the truth now, if you want to lose weight and you haven’t and you think you should’ve at this point, you feel resistance and stress. Yea? Stress is raising your cortisol levels which can attribute to weight gain so stressing isn’t helping here! Focusing on the now, on the healthy food you’re putting in your mouth, for the beautiful body that moves, for the heart that pounds in your chest, will shift your energy. That shift will create a cascade of empowering emotions.
For the next week, are you willing to focus on what you get to do, what you get to eat, how you get to feel alive? When the tension comes up, when the resistance arises, can you acknowledge and become the observer? Be kind to these feelings, process them, and then let them go? Simple, but not easy….but worth it yea? Hitting your ideal weight is then a by product of these changes. Dropping your expectations for acceptance brings about a willingness to pull you forward vs. pushing against what is. Staying healthy, continuously hitting new goals, maintaining your ideal physique is a lifelong journey, might as well find a way to enjoy it and be kind to yourself in the process!
