What will I do?After a break to let you know about the new book “Acts of Compassion,” I’m returning to the lessons from Life is Hard, Food is Easy. Today I will review highlights from two chapters. Here is one of my favorite sections from Chapter 11, What will I do? Return to What Works
The secret to your future may lie in your past. Think back to previous times when you’ve accomplished goals such as losing weight or exercising regularly. What helped you stick with your program? How did you keep yourself on track, even through difficult times?
Use theses questions to remember what helped you before:
• What was I doing that made my efforts successful?
• Which factors are the same today as back then?
• Which ones are different?
• What helped me stay on target when I was struggling?
• What didn’t work? What caused me to lose focus or quit?
Look at similar goals you want to accomplish now. Can you recall any techniques or creative ideas that would work for you again? Even one small solution from the past can boost your progress with your current plan.
What about situations when you managed your emotions without using food to cope? How were you different at that time? Were you less stressed? Not as angry? More comfortable with your body?
Even if your life has changed, you can still draw on what worked for you in the past. Simply pull your best strategies off the shelf and actively pursue them again.
Maybe you laid your exercise clothes out at night or kept a water bottle in the refrigerator so you could grab it easily before you started your walk. Recall the tiniest details that helped you stick with your efforts, then use those as a foundation for your current plan.
Make a list of things that worked for you in the past. Decide which of those things you can go back to or continue doing. Use those ideas to create a new plan for right now.
Reverse New Year’s Resolution
To do this exercise, pretend you’ve already achieved the goals you want. Them mentally fast-forward to one year from now. Picture how you want to look, feel and live, now that you’ve met those goals.
In your notebook or on a piece of paper, write “The date now is _________, and here’s what I’ve accomplished.” Then fill in the blank with today’s month and day exactly one year from now.
For each of the following statements, write an answer based on what you’d like to see happen in your life.
• I now weigh: (record the weight you desire and believe is realistic one year from now)
• My body feels: (use words such as strong, healthy, slender, thinner, toned, flat, etc.)
• I’m exercising by: (examples include walking, biking, three to four times per week)
• I’m pleased with: (perhaps expressing emotions, self-nurturing, body changes, new attitude)
• I’ve learned: (such as how to cope with stress, ways to manage emotional eating, etc.)
• One sentence that describes my life today: (Dream big on this one!)
Read it out loud!
After you complete your statements, read your resolutions out loud. How do you feel as you hear yourself describing your future? Does it sound possible? Wonderful? Scary? Are you skeptical this outcome will ever happen?
Of course, you have work to do between now and next year, but the picture you’ve just created can absolutely come true.
For the next week, keep your Reverse New Year’s Resolution list where you can read it every day. Each time you read those words, you’ll reinforce your potential to make them a reality.
Chapter 13 – The Five Steps in Action
To finish this section of lessons, I am attaching the entire Chapter 13, The Five Steps in Action. It gives you a summary of the five steps along with several examples of how to use them. I realize it’s out of order but it feels like a good place to summarize your work.
In a couple weeks, we will work on one of the most important lesson, chapter Twelve, Unstuck and Motivated. I will be covering the remaining book chapters over the next few months.
If you haven’t done it yet, read Chapters 11 and 13 in Life is Hard, Food is Easy, then work on the exercises in those chapters.
Use your own notebook or journal to record what your thoughts and insights.