Lesson 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21!
Lesson 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21!
I am catching up on some lessons all in one go tonight! I missed Friday as I was out in meetings all day and then I was just about to write on Saturday when my wee dog died right in front of me. So I have been very sad this last few days, and haven’t been able to write.
Here is a picture of my dog, his name was Vegas, we named him that because he was born when we were on our honeymoon in Las Vegas. I loved him, and I am finding it very hard to comprehend that he is gone. Thanks to everyone who sent me a wee message, all your support has been very much appreciated.
In this blog post I am going to cover some lessons that I hope will help you with your weight loss journey.
Lesson 17 “Sometimes it is OK, just to take a few days off!”
I took a few days off. Off work and off the diet. Not crazy off the diet, but I just had some healthy wholesome food. For me, I know that I am going to get to my goal, there is nothing that is going to stop me, I know in my heart I am getting there, and the race is only with myself. Sometimes I am OK to take the journey a little bit slower because that is what my heart and soul needs. So if you ever feel that way, do not beat yourself, but empower yourself to step into your new you and not slip back into bad comfort eating habits. It is the hardest times that truly test us, so be kind to yourself.
Lesson 18 “You are only ever one thought away from being OK”
I spent last weekend in Glasgow with Ali Campbell doing a course called Hypno Inside Out. Ali is amazing, and I am fully embracing the power of weight loss inside out and I want to make this an integral part of the new you plan, because we all know that weight loss and weight maintenance is more about what goes on inside our heads. One thing that Ali said last weekend really stuck with me. “We are only ever one thought away from being OK” Everything we experience in life is shaped by our thoughts. When life is bad, hard, tough, the only thing that needs to change for us to feel better is our thoughts. We have so much power inside us, that we do not even realise how powerful we really are! If you want to feel OK, just change your thoughts. You can do it, you have the power to do it! Choose to think thoughts that empower you and bring you closer to where you want to be!
Lesson 19 “Focus on the happy memories!”
We all have a life full of good times and bad times. I read a really cool analogy from a man called Eddie, who I met last weekend in Glasgow. I think this is an amazing way to think about life. It has helped me over the last few days, and if you find that you comfort eat because you keep replaying a bad experience, or bad memories, then I think this mindset shift will really help you too.
Imagine a photograph album,
filled with happy pictures of you and your life,
Where are all the bad photos??
The ones where someone is looking the wrong way,
or you see red eye from the flash,
or someone takes a photo of you with your mouth full of food,
Where are those photos??
They are not in the album,
maybe they are in a drawer
or even in the bin or trash.
That is because we keep the good ones and reject the bad.
Why then do we not do that with our thoughts??
And they answer is; we should.
The bad photos exist they are just not in the consciousness of your photo album part of your mind.
when the unwanted thoughts of the past enter your mind, let them wash through and remind yourself they are in the trash they do not exist.
The only thing that exists are those things in your present awareness.
Lesson 20 “If you feel bad, you have a dose of the sh1tty thoughts!”
How often do you feel bad? How you feel is an indicator of how you are thinking. This is powerful when you get it. If you feel a bit shitty, then you must be having some shitty thoughts!” Simple eh? So next time you feel bad, and reach for the fridge door, remind yourself that your feeling is a consequence of how you are thinking. They are directly linked. You can’t feel amazing and happy, and be thinking shitty thoughts. You can’t be thinking about positive, empowering, happy stuff, and be feeling shitty. Food will not change how you feel. It will simply distract you for a few minutes and then you will be left feeling the same, but worse, because now you have guilt and the slow weight loss to deal with. So next time you feel bad, think about why that is, and go about taking positive action to change how you feel with out turning to food, instead get to the core of why you feel bad, make the call, do the self care, whatever it is that you need to do, make it happen.
Lesson 21 “Stop the Glorification of Busy!”
I love this one. So many people just run about and say they are too busy. Too busy to exercise. Too busy to do the diet. Too busy to spend time on self care. Too busy for date nights. Too busy for evening walks. Too busy for all the “important stuff” because they are too busy doing all the “silly stuff”. Don’t let you life pass you by because you are too busy being busy. You win no awards for being busy. What is most important to you in your life? What are your values? Your health? Your family? Write our what is most important to you and then write beside it how much quality time you devote to that area of your life every week.
If your health is the most important thing to you, then you should be able to find the time to invest into your diet, into walking, into exercising, because nothing else should come before that. Make the time, and stop the glorification of busy that is stopping you from living the life you deserve. You have the power to stop it, you just need to start saying NO to the things that do not matter, and YES to the things that do. Don’t leave it too late.
[box type=”info”]Well that is me caught up with my lessons, I hope you enjoyed the lessons today, and I would love to know what one meant the most to you today! Please leave a comment and I will be responding to every one!! Thank you also to everyone who has sent me a message and supported me over the last few days, some of the nicest people I know are our customers, I truly am blessed to have so many kind people in my life and I cannot wait to meet you all at the end of month. If you are reading this and you haven’t got your ticket yet for the party, please know that you are very welcome and tickets are still available. [/box]
Love
Julz xxx
wow so many great points I don’t know where to begin! Think the most salient point to me right now is you’re only one thought away frm being ok. Had a tough day today n started to feel sorry for myself and that point really changed my mood. But it’s ok to have a crappy day, I won’t beat myself up too much about it, I have the confidence to know I can change my thoughts to positive ones when I want to!
Tks Julz!
Thanks Emer, yes that has helped me a lot recently too 🙂 xx
Hi Julz ….. You have been very much in my thoughts over the last few days …. Hugs zxxxxx I think your post about needing some time out and having a break from work and the diet is what struck a cord with me today. I have very much managed my journey with breaks for differing reasons , and for me this has worked . I don’t look upon the plan as a duet, I look upon it as a lifestyle choice now, and I am balancing eating,with the plan to maintain and lose weight as I feel able !
Today has been a dreadful day for me, the death of a very close friends mum…. A wonderful lady, has left me in pieces ……… Miss my own mum so terribly. I think sometimes we have to just clear our schedule and have a change in order to come back refreshed to start again.life is sometimes so hard to comprehend, the loss of those we love ….. Xxxxxxxxxxx
((((( Hugs Jasmin ))))
Yes I love your attitude to the diet and to life, you are on amazing journey.
I am thinking of you, sometimes we just have to go with the feelings, and let the journey of our emotions unfold. That is what life is all about.
Love you xx
Hi Julie-Ann,
I am so sorry about your little dog Vegas, it’s such sad news, you must feel really heartbroken. I used to have animals, dogs and cats, in the past and when I had to see them go I was heartbroken for a long time. But I want to say thank you for being so amazing and still encouraging us with your blogs in this difficult time! I totally understand when life just gets too much and you need to take a break, life is life and we are all human, but the idea is to learn from mistakes and move on and not dwell on things. Interesting about Ali Campbell, I’m having a CBT at the moment and I’m working through lots of issues, your thoughts are what leads to your behaviour, and if you can change your thoughts, you can alter your life, and we are all capable of this. Great analogy with the photo album, never thought of it like that! You have to feel congruent in what you think and do, otherwise you will be at war with yourself and something will have to give, and usually not in your favour. Lastly I want to share something with you about regret of not doing something about your life sooner, just a post I noticed on FB, here’s the link to it: http://www.newslinq.com/he-wasted-his-life/
Just copy and paste it! Don’t leave anything too late or you may have regrets for the rest of your life! Have a great night Julz, see you later. xxx 🙂
Great comment Monika, you really get it!! I have loved all your posts over the years, and love to see your name in the comments, thank you for contributing so much and sharing this journey with me! I will check out that link for sure <3 xxx
Lesson 18 meant the most to me today – I really do believe in the power of thought – so often I have been in a bad place and have physically stopped, taken a breath and made a conscious effort to change the way I look, or think about a situation – it is amazing to see how you can change the outcome. You are so right in that we are only ever a thought away from change – each time I think I am going to fail – I will change that thought and my destination – I will not fail this time xxx
Jackie I love this!! It is so true, we don’t realise our own power, we really can change anything we want!! It is empowering and we should all realise how much we are in control of our own destiny. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me today xx
huge hugs to you Julie-Ann, its not easy to lose a pet xx I love your posts as they are so motivating and keep me focussed on my goal – I definitely take the thoughts side of things as my biggest weakness although recently it has been so much easier to feel positive I think the diet has shown me I can do so much more than I thought – life is stressful but I now know I am worth all the work I am putting into myself – I have found taking photo’s every week also keeps me on track it is so much easier to see a visual of my journey as there are days when I have thoughts that aren’t good for me and I take a look at my pictures and the journal I have been keeping and my mood changes.
Thats a great idea Kathleen, I am so glad that you are enjoying my posts, I love to get feedback as it inspires me to keep writing, thank you for sharing with me today xxx
Great blog post you have been in my thoughts ,
I gained weight for a while through grief and then illness . Then I received some bad news about my Dad and my heart broke …I turned to my old friend food ..but that was only temporary and now I am gaining strength again to be strong for my loved ones and to support them through a difficult time ahead . Positive thinking is well recognised. Its so true you cant change what happens sometimes , but you can change the effect it has on you 🙂 Dad is still fighting illness and I cannot change that but what I can do is be there and with New You I have gained strength & confidence to live life to the full & to hopefully help others on there journeys too xx
Oonagh, I have been watching you transform yourself over the last 21 days you truly show me how much a positive attitude and daily discipline can really change your life. You are inspiring and you are always thinking of others! I am so glad you are coming to our party! xx
Thanks so much Julie-Ann xx
So sorry to hear about your Doggy, they are so precious. Thank you for your motivational lessons and for a great plan. New You has really helped me and when I oops I don’t feel like a total failure.
<3 thank you Leande x
Thanks Julie Ann -loads of good for thought there. Sorry again to hear the sad news about your doggie. I now how heartbreaking it is to miss a fur baby. I don’t know if you had only the one or if you think you could not get another. All I can say it was the best thing I did when my first went to doggie Heaven. Did not do it for a while but glad I eventually did. Take care x
Big Hugs Julie-Ann xxx
I couldn’t pick just 1! 19 is definitely the one I need to concentrate on doing at this moment 😉
#17 – Definitely need to give ourselves a break sometimes. I know I am harder on myself than I would ever be with any friend.
#18 – I so needed to do this on Monday & in to Tuesday. I had such a frustrating time with people messing things up & not responding to me when I’m trying to talk to them to get it corrected. Finally they agreed to correct it 24hours later.
I had been thinking, I’m sick of this, what’s the point in working so hard when others just mess it up, there is no point in me being here as no-one listens to me. This meant I couldn’t sleep and wanted comfort food.
What I should have thought was, its a good job I’m here, can you imagine how much things would be in a mess if I wasn’t here to resolve and have things fixed. Which would have made me feel empowered and confident 😉
#19 I definitely need to do that! That’s why I couldn’t sleep on Monday night as I was just replaying all the problems in my head.
#20 – Julie-Ann I feel like you have written all these for me!!! I so do this. As you say it distracts for a while but then you just feel worse, the original bad thoughts are still there plus the guilt of comfort eating (and depending how much, the lethargy & bloated etc.)
#21 My husband has spent years teaching me this one. Set your priorities & then make sure your time reflects these priorities.
I must say though the one thing I LOVE about this diet is that it actually takes less time than eating ‘normal’ food. Its so quick and easy and you don’t really have to think about it. Making time to do more of all that other stuff – exercise, walking, date nights etc.
Thank you XXX
So sorry to hear about your little doggie 🙁 When I lost mine it was the most heartbreak I have ever experienced. Well done for staying focused as it’s certainly not easy! & I love the analogy! I’m on day 10 100% and every day I’m trying to completely change the way I think about food as I do (did!!!) use it to deal with rubbish feelings and thoughts. I am finding thr satisfaction of being dedicated and losing the weight much more rewarding right now!
Really enjoyed that read julie-anne lesson 21 hits home . Only yesterday in work a patient was telling me how good I looked and she is struggling with her own weight and she used the words im so busy . I told her to stop using excuses and start thinking of her health and happiness lies within loosing some or all of her weight . Was only when it was out of my mouth that I realised I was talking not only to her but to myself too