Hi Journal & Friends,
I was blog-visiting yesterday, and landed on one site that set me to thinking. It's a wonderful blog by Vickie, at Baby Steps V. (her blog is now private) She has reached her goal weight, and been in maintenance for about 4 years. That made me think of Mary, at Chronicle of Mep's Reconstruction. She, too, has reached her goal and has been in maintenance for about 4 years. There is so much to learn from them!
(Edit to add: Oops, Mary has been in Maintenance for 2 years. My mistake. But that's still pretty darn good! And she can now be found at Wistful Nebulae.)
I have such a long way to go still... it is hard for me to imagine saying "oh yeah, I've been at maintenance for 4 years"! I appreciate being able to benefit from the wisdom and lessons these Maintainers so generously share. I don't want to forget that I am still ON the journey... I am certainly not an expert, and I SURELY don't know it all!
I am still learning... tweaking... making course corrections along the way. I want to be teachable, and open to suggestions and corrections.
So what I am about to share is just where I'm at NOW. Who knows, it might change topsy-turvy by next month! LOL!
Here is what I'm doing, the simplistic version (in my first two or three months of this blog, I covered these in more detail).
A large portion of my program came from Dr Phil's book, The Ultimate Weight Solution. I have added to it to meet my needs and preferences.
The program I cobbled together for myself covers these areas of health:
- Spiritual
- Mental
- Emotional
- Physical
- Nutritional
For SPIRITUAL health: I recognize my Rock, the source of my strength is God. Many times I have felt like giving up on this long journey, but He never gave up on me. So, here I still am, resolved to NEVER QUIT.
My spiritual input includes things like Bible reading, talking to God, church, and great music, great books and great internet sites. I don't shove it down anyone's throat, and this is not a "Christian" weight loss blog. That's just the way mine is... and it's fine that others approach it differently. I welcome everyone with open arms, and respect their right to their own beliefs.
But bottomline, for me, even though I don't talk about it every post, God is my Rock, my foundation, and my source of strength.
For MENTAL health: The battle is won or lost between the ears! As we think, so goes our life.
I try to get motivational, encouraging input EVERY DAY. It is SO easy for me to lose focus, and I need to be reminded every single day of my goals, of my WHY.
I love to read success stories. I have a group of women on this same journey that I am committed to... and go blog visiting regularly. I cherish the new bloggie friends I have made!
I believe it is crucial to have POSITIVE input. One favorite quote is: "Don't join an easy crowd, join a successful crowd where the expectations are high and the payoff is great." --Jim Rohn
For EMOTIONAL health: Yep, I WAS an emotional eater. I am changing that. I used food as a "drug of choice", for everything. What I want to use it now for is NUTRITION, for regaining health.
Dr Phil's book has an excellent chapter on emotional health, titled Healing Feelings. I highly recommend Dr Phil's book: The Ultimate Weight Solution. He put together a comprehensive program that covers it all, in an easy to follow format full of action-oriented steps, covering seven major components of permanent weight loss. Lots of programs cover some of them, but he put it all together in one book. I still read from it often.
For PHYSICAL health: For me, this refers to movement...exercise. When I started at 460 lbs, I could only lay in bed and do exercises to music on the horizontal. When I went anywhere, it was in a wheelchair.
Now, I have progressed. I am on a mission to strengthen my legs, and get my mobility back. I have a condition in which my muscles and connective tissue are susceptible to injury, but have decided that is no excuse! I exercise carefully, 6 days a week right now. I have exercise DVD's, a mini-trampoline, resistance bands, and my little pink dumbells. And I plan on mastering my hula hoop soon, too! In my imagination, I am an "athlete". LOL!!
For NUTRITIONAL health: This one is all tied up with the others. Boy, did I have issues with food and diets!! Been on a gazillion "diets" since I was ten years old! So, for me, I KNEW I just could NOT do another "diet" approach.
I wanted a permanent change, the "lifestyle" approach. Not a diet you go ON, then later OFF, and regain all the weight. So, my main thing in this area is: whatever I do, it will be for life.
This time around, I cut out all sugar and flour. Reason: they set off crazy cravings for MORE of the same. That has been the single most useful thing I have done in the food category of my journey. My goal is to eat healthier and more natural, lots of fruits and veggies, lots of water, lots of "superfoods", and normal portions. Still working on all that. :-)
Being overweight all my life, I was WAY off base as to what a "normal" portion was!! To help me reign in the food, I added calorie counting in November of 09. That was the second most helpful thing I did. I was shocked at how fast it adds up! But tracking the calories has been so helpful in teaching me what normal portions are, and keeping me focused and aware. It's a tool, and one I appreciate.
Of all the aspects of this journey, I really believe that after the spiritual foundation is in place, the most important is the MENTAL. What we think, what we believe to be true, determines how we feel and how we act. And that will make or break our journey.
Overall, I just want to be the person I was meant to be.
