In this holiday season, many of us tend to eat more than might be optimal. I posted on my LoseIt page about my upcoming Christmas Dinner and a friend named Gordon responded with “Enjoy….no guilt!”

And I thought, “I never feel guilty about what I choose to eat.” And why should we feel guilty? It is our choice to eat (or not eat.) No one else sets the rules about our dietary choices. We aren’t breaking any laws, other than the laws we impose upon ourselves.

If we choose to eat too many calories (or maybe the “wrong food”, although I disagree with that concept), we are making a choice. And with every choice comes consequences. If we choose to stick to our budget, we enhance weight loss. If we choose to exceed our calorie budget, we will slow our losses (but only temporarily, unless we never get back on track–which is another choice!)

Try to remove the guilt from our already-too-difficult-journey. Make sensible choices. Eat the food you love, but strive to eat the correct portions.

Enjoy life! Don’t put yourself into an emotional prison, with walls and bars constructed of your own guilt.

The choice is yours!

Photos via Pixabay, but TryJimmy (Prison Cell) and Geralt (Guilty)

All photos published on Pixabay can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and non-commercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible.

_________________________

Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com

Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen.

Success is the result of finishing a task. But the ability to finish a task is dependent on whether we work toward our goal consistently, and if we enjoy what we are doing to reach that goal. That applies to weight loss, writing a book or running a marathon. If we don’t enjoy the process, we are unlikely to stick with it long enough to see the results we hope to achieve.

And one way to help ensure “working consistently” is to make good habits. Find a process that works and habituate yourself. For example (and this will sound truly trivial) when I sit down to create a podcast cast episode, I need to make coffee first. The ten minutes it takes helps me get into the right mindset for creation. So I always start a production day by making a pot of coffee.

It’s my habit and because I really like coffee, it works for me. When I start my day by following a routine–a routine that has always helped me find success–it becomes easier to continue finding success.

What happens when the ideas fade and I cannot connect with my muse? I wander out to my birds and just relax for a little while. Usually, that brings me back to a place where I can work.

In that photo of my studio, you can almost see some of the vintage items we collect. I have hundreds (actually, 594 by actual count) of vintage beer glassware. These are the glasses that relate to that “high quality” beer, more popular in the 60s and 70s, “malt liquor”. Again, it is something like this that helps calm down and reorient to creativity. Yes. I know, it’s odd. I’m okay with being “odd”.

Photos are mine, and cannot be used by anyone else.

All photos published on Pixabay can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and non-commercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible.

_________________________

Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com

Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen.

We trap ourselves with our beliefs. We let our previous stumbles define our total capabilities. Weight loss is hard, and it never ends. We sometimes find ourselves stepping on the scale and seeing a number that our mind says “Nope! That’s it! We can’t lose more!”

And you don’t lose more.

You have reached your limit, based on your previous limits. You are now a trained flea.

Break that training. We need to redefine our goals and not stop until we get them, even if “not stopping” means we take purposeful pauses.

I don’t know how many pounds you want to lose, but let’s break past your previous training. Let’s stop being trained fleas. Reset your goal for 10 pounds, and the rate of 1 pound a week.  You should reach that goal in 8-12 weeks (unless you are only 10 pounds away from your ideal weight.)

When you hit that 10-pound “interval goal”, set your plan to your maintenance budget, and stay on maintenance for as long as it took you to lose those 10 pounds. Keep active and don’t eat your exercise calories (you probably won’t need to  because your budget will be 500 calories more than you are used to.)

 

After that “rest period” reset your goal for the next 10 pounds at 1 pound a week. Keep doing that until you reach your ultimate goal.

You may need to lose 100 pounds and that is a lot of weight. And deep in the recesses of your mind, you might hear a voice saying, “You can’t lose 100 pounds!” That voice might be right.

But you know that you can lose 10 pounds. That is a simple goal. You’ve probably done it several times. So now you are going to just lose 10 pounds at a time, taking a break between each 10-pound segment. No stress. No worries.

You KNOW you can lose 10 pounds! Even a trained flea can lose 10 pounds!

Photos via Pixabay by DougandPeteGardening (Believe) and 5182824 (Push-ups)

All photos published on Pixabay can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and non-commercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible.

_________________________

Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com

Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen.

Are you good enough?

How about your weight? Is it “good enough”? Are you quitting?

“Good enough” implies that you are complacent now and that any further progress is not worth the effort. And if that’s the case, then just say “I’m done”. To do anything else is to play word games with yourself. You are better than that!

Now it may be that you have reached a point where success eludes you and you truly are satisfied at your current point. Then just say “I’m done. For now. I may restart later.” Our words define how we think, and our thoughts define who we become.

So. Are you “good enough”?

Photo via Unsplash by HelloImNik

All images from LoseIt are mine, and cannot be used without permission.

All photos published on Unsplash can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and noncommercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible.

_________________________

Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com

Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen.

“Wow! You’ve lost a lot of weight. I think you might be getting too skinny!”

“Huh. Sure, I suppose YOU are going to just eat a salad while we all eat real food!”

How do those comments make you feel about yourself, about your progress, about your self-worth? Your friends and family might actually think they are making helpful statements but in reality, they are sabotaging you. And if you don’t challenge them, you have chosen to let them continue their subtle sabotage.

Yes. By staying silent, you are telling them they are right.

Now, I don’t want you to throw your salad in their face and scream “Shut up!” (Although, if you are like me, you’ve thought about it.) Try for a more assertive yet firm response. For the first statement:

“Thanks for noticing my hard work. Weight loss has been a lifelong challenge, and my goal is to become as healthy as I can be.”

For the second statement:

“You are right, I do enjoy salads, but when I pay attention, I can–and do–eat the same food choices that you eat. I just will probably eat less than you because I eat only the number of calories that my body burns each day.”

Be assertive. You know your own body. Most people think they are helping when they “give you good advice” but you know what you need to to.

 

Photo via Pixabay by jamesoladujoy  (Two men talking) and geralt (Woman) All images and videos on Pixabay are released under the Creative Commons CC0. Thus, they may be used freely for almost any purpose – even commercially and in printed format. Attribution is appreciated, but not required.

All images from LoseIt are mine, and cannot be used without permission.

_________________________

Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com

Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen.

Photo via Pixabay by Avantrend (Potato Chips) DanaTentis (Woman with Ice Cream), Geralt (Woman with Liquor Bottles)

All images and videos on Pixabay are released under the Creative Commons CC0. Thus, they may be used freely for almost any purpose – even commercially and in printed format. Attribution is appreciated, but not required.

All images from LoseIt are mine, and cannot be used without permission.

_________________________

Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com

Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen.

Winning a race and setting a record does not happen by accident. Without the proper preparation, planning and the ability to choose the environment–and reject unhealthy environments–success will not happen. And even then, usually success only occurs after at least one failure.

Roger Bannister set a new record in the one-mile race on May 6, 1954, but only because he failed two years earlier and then he used what he learned to get better.

Racing spike photo via Wikimedia. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Woman stretching is via Pixabay by Skeeze.

All images from LoseIt are mine, and cannot be used without permission.

_________________________

Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com

Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen.

In this show, I am not talking about just any food, but food kryptonites. Those are food that will trigger a binge. These are foods that you truly cannot “eat just one” because once you start it as though someone opened the floodgates of hunger and you won’t stop eating until it is all gone or you become physically ill. (In my case, I am talking about potato chips. Or “crisps” if you are in the UK.)

If you have food in your home that causes uncontrolled cravings and temptations, the remedy is simple. Throw it away. Really. Pitch it in the garbage and then don’t buy it again.

But you probably will not do it. I know that there are two basic objections:

* You paid money for it and don’t want to throw money away

* Other people live in your home and you don’t want to be selfish.

Since you’ve already paid for it, the money is gone whether you eat it or throw it away. You don’t get a refund for eating it. You will only get fatter. So why eat it and unravel any success you may have achieved just because you’ve already spent money on food that is causing your problems?

The second objection is more difficult, but not really. Again, I’m not talking about all the food in your house (I hope!) but rather one specific food. Let’s assume your trigger is ice cream. And you live with others–maybe your significant other, or children or parents. And they like ice cream, too, but don’t struggle with it as you do.

Throw it away.

Be selfish, in the good context. Take care of yourself. We are talking about a food that is not vital to life. And we are not saying that you go to your local supermarket and demand that all ice cream be removed. Just get it out of the house. If your family members really want ice cream, they can go buy some for dessert. (And if they are unwilling to make a separate trip to buy it, they really didn’t want it too badly, did they?)

But here is a comparison. It is not a great comparison, but it will suffice.

Let’s make an assumption that you discover someone in your home has a bad drinking problem. It’s affecting their health, their job, and everyone’s life. Would you dump al the beer, wine and liquor in the home to help them?

I’d guess that you would.

Well, in my earlier example, ice cream is having a similar (albeit much slower) effect on you as the alcohol on your family member. As we gain weight and get older, we will become more of a burden on everyone around us. Obesity makes other diseases worse, and can actually cause diseases (heart disease and diabetes to name two.) If you would willingly give up all alcohol to help a family member with a disease, can’t you ask them to give up ice cream?

It’s not like they can never have ice cream, just as you could still go out for a wine after work. They just can’t bring large containers of ice cream home.

Like I said, it is not a totally equivalent comparison, but I think you understand my point.

Photo via Pixabay by Avantrend (Potato Chips) DanaTentis (Woman with Ice Cream), Geralt (Woman with Liquor Bottles)

All images and videos on Pixabay are released under the 

We plan our work days and work weeks months in advance. We keep our calendars with us at all times. In the “old days” we used paper day planners (remember the big “Franklin planners”?) Now all of our calendars are on every digital device we have.

Why?

It’s because we are busy! We have so many demands on our time that trying to remember everything is a guaranteed way to forget something–and it probably won’t be a minor “to do” list item. Our time is precious and limited. Our time budget is not infinite and once a minute is gone, it is gone for good Most of us know how we are going to spend almost every waking minute.

So why are we so flippant about our calorie budget? We log our food. (Sometimes.) We measure our food. (Sometimes.) We weigh ourselves and take action based on the scale. (Sometimes.)

I think it is because weight loss is something that can be started over. And over. (How many times have you started over?)

So start making decisions earlier! Preplan your meals, just as you preplan your work week. And have a decision on how you will handle the unexpected situation, such as the totally-expected “Hey, it’s my birthday so have some donuts!”

And at home, take pre-emptive strikes. Purge all tempting food and then don’t bring it back in. If it isn’t in the house, it’s harder to “accidentally” eat it.

Photo via Pixabay by rawpixel

All images and videos on Pixabay are released under the Creative Commons CC0. Thus, they may be used freely for almost any purpose – even commercially and in printed format. Attribution is appreciated, but not required.

All images from LoseIt are mine, and cannot be used without permission.

_________________________

Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com

Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen.

Photo via Pixabay by rawpixel

All images and videos on Pixabay are released under the Creative Commons CC0. Thus, they may be used freely for almost any purpose – even commercially and in printed format. Attribution is appreciated, but not required.

 

All images from LoseIt are mine, and cannot be used without permission.

_________________________

Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com

Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen.