Due to many years of yo-yo dieting, struggling to lose weight, struggling to keep weight off after losing weight, seeing family and friends work on losing weight, etc. I originally thought that the hardest part about losing weight was just not being enough. Not motivated "enough", not dedicated "enough", not exercising "enough", etc. I now know that the hardest part about losing weight is letting go of the beliefs that we have about food and eating. These beliefs are ingrained in us from childhood. We are surrounded by these beliefs in our homes, in advertisements, in the media. We spend our lives scheduling around when you can eat, where/what you are going to eat, who is going with you to eat...
Americans typically have food beliefs such as, "Clean your plate", "Don't waste food", "Eat and you'll feel better", and so much more. One of my biggest issues has always been eating because it is time to eat. It is lunch time so I must eat. I may not get to eat later so I must eat now.
The best part about the Naturally Slim program that I am doing through my job is that I am working very hard to change my beliefs about food and eating. I am feeling GREAT. It all just makes so much sense to me. I feel like if I would have known all of these beliefs are not true and don't work for me then I would not be part of the 2/3 of Americans who are overweight or obese.
I am really enjoying this program and learning about hunger and fueling my body. I am making smart decisions about food. I am LISTENING to and paying attention to my body's hunger signs. I am eating when I am truly physically hungry. I am eating healthy snacks (hunger savers) that will satisfy my belly until I am able to eat my meal. I am chewing slowly, I am not rushing through my meal. So much of our lives are spent celebrating with food, socializing with food, coping...with food. "You earned that cupcake!" "Hey, you've been good ALL week, you can eat whatever you want on the weekend and just get back to it on Monday." I am striving to consciously eat, not mindlessly eat. Changing your beliefs is hard. The hardest part.
I have been setting movement goals for myself and I am blowing them out of the water which increases my endorphins and encourages me to continue. I set a goal for myself to reach 5,000 steps daily before leaving work. I have been doing well with this goal for a couple of weeks now. Earlier this week, I decided to increase my daily work step goal to 6,000. On the first day, I left work with 5900 steps after multiple surprise walk-in appointments. I would have completely reached my goal if it weren't for that! The next day, I left work with over 7,000 steps. Today, I am just shy of 4,000 steps before 11:30am. See how you can be your own best motivator? It also helps that some of my colleagues have seen me walking the halls and will say things like, "Getting your steps in?" or they will ask me how many steps I am up to. This is encouraging for me.
My biggest struggle, so far, is also adding in ADDITIONAL exercise for at least 30 minutes a day. I am not beating myself up about it. I am primarily focusing on my food beliefs, eating well, and increasing my movement. I am seeing the scale decrease daily. I am a structured person. I do very well all week long, but I have to really make an effort to increase my steps on the weekend (other than wandering around cleaning the house). I also have to really focus on making sure I drink enough water all weekend.
I am enjoying the Healthy Wage challenge that I am in with my co-workers. I think the time is perfect since I started the Naturally Slim program the week before the Healthy Wage challenge. I do not plan to update my weigh-in until the end of the month although I am weighing in weekly for both programs.
I am also still working on the Blue Zones Project for my job site. This is the wellness initiative for making our community a "healthier, happier place to live, work, and play". I am enjoying working on the project and making sure that my job site is a healthy work place. I look forward to getting some of my co-workers included in the project soon.
For anyone struggling to lose weight, I highly recommend the Naturally Slim program. I am only on week 3 of the 10 week program and look forward to what I will learn over the next 7 weeks.
Best,
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