Inspiring Myself

Sep 26, 2014

If you have ever successfully lost weight, then you have likely experienced that initial momentum, that glorious feeling of catching the wave and having it carry you effortlessly right up onto the sand. You’re absolutely bullet proof…for a while.

While that momentum might have felt like fairy dust arbitrarily sprinkled down from on high, in actuality, you took the series of actions that generated every iota of that motivation. It happened through you, not to you…your very own self-generated magic.

When I review with a client their past weight loss successes, they invariably recognize all kinds of seemingly inconsequential, small actions that had kept them staying the course. “Oh right”, they will say, “that was when had a pot of that Weight Watchers everything-but-the-kitchen-sink vegetable soup in the fridge all the time”.

So, ask yourself: When I was really cruising, what actions did I use to catch that wave?

Was I parking further away as part of my commute, forcing a morning walk?

Was I eating protein for breakfast, ensuring the biochemistry of prolonged appetite management?

Was I listening to a health related book on CD in my car (there are tons free from the library) to remind myself of the why? Left to my own devices, I still want to believe that “those nutrition people” are being awfully goody two-shoesy. The science brings me back.

Was I inspiring myself by going to a farmer’s market over the weekend and, in self-defense, prepping all my veggies for the week?

I had always had it backwards, thinking I had to wait for inspiration to take action. Sometimes that was a long wait and that inspiration came in the form of forty extra pounds. Now I realize I can act myself into inspiration. My history holds the keys to what incentivizes me. So does yours.

What is one small step you can take today to inspire yourself?

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Susan L. Holmberg, MS, CNS is a Nutritionist with twenty years experience empowering individuals to solve their unique weight challenges.