OWL Success Tip: THE POWER OF PLAY
Play and fun are powerful components of weight loss, or achieving any results, for that matter. Why?
…Because humans veer toward what’s easy, safe, and comfortable; and we resist what’s hard, scary, and painful. Since most people view change as hard, scary, or uncomfortable and since weight loss involves change, it’s understandable that most people cannot successfully release weight and keep it off permanently.
On the other hand, play is fun. When we play, we don’t want to stop. We look forward to the next time. We generate energy. We raise our spirits.
So how can you include the concept of play with your weight loss goals?
OWL Success Tip: Replace the word “exercise” to “recreation,” doing movement that you love, love, love. Or create your menu as a puzzle with all the pieces to fit into one day. Or make a game out of your project with rewards at every milestone. Or invite others with similar goals to play with you as in a team sport. A playful attitude is vital. What playful ideas do you have?
Another more relevant question is “How can you include more play in your life as a whole?” How we do anything is how we do everything. “Wherever I go, there I am.” So if weight loss seems hard, probably other areas in your life are hard. And if weight loss is fun, chances are you are having fun elsewhere.
Take a look at yourself and your life. Are you having enough fun? Be more playful everywhere, and see what happens.
To learn more about “The Power of Play” register for a complimentary Weight Loss Breakthrough session.
With Love,
OWL Success Tips: Celebrating Victories and Expressing Gratitude: A Success Formula
Did you know that celebrating victories and expressing gratitude help you lose weight?
OWL Success Tip: We have voices inside our heads that tell us what to do. All goes well unless the voices compete with each other, at which time the loudest voice wins or there is an impasse.
Example: The voice of Nancy Noitall says, “Stay on your food program,” and the voice of Velma Victim says, “No, it’s too hard and boring.” If Nancy’s voice is louder, you will eat according to plan. Otherwise, Velma wins, and you won’t. And if Velma does cooperate, she wants to be rewarded.
Nancy wants to be rewarded too. When we put our energies and time into a project, we must receive something in return; otherwise, we won’t continue for very long. Even self-discipline, without a payoff, is only a temporary motivator. It isn’t sustainable. A sustainable motivator involves pleasure. It pulls us forward. It inspires us to cross the finish line.
Recognizing our victories, big and small, and celebrating them is imperative to the success of any project. When we acknowledge our accomplishments, celebrate, and express gratitude, we recharge and empower ourselves toward the next step. We take action, celebrate victories, and continue. Wash, rinse, repeat!
To learn more about “Celebrating Victories & Expressing Gratitude” register for a complimentary Weight Loss Breakthrough session.
With Love,
OWL Success Tips: The Passionate Dieter
Have you ever considered the role your passion plays in weight management?
Webster’s Dictionary defines passion as…
- extreme, compelling emotion;
- intense emotional drive or excitement;
- strong love or affection;
- sexual desire;
- suffering or agony, as a martyr.
Do any of the above factor into why you did or did not lose weight or keep it off?
When I fell in love (with my husband or with Latin dancing or anything), the weight just melted away. And when I was in a miserable, agonizing relationship, the pounds appeared as a warm, protective insulation of my heart.
“Yeah,” you say, “we know how the love butterflies in the stomach replace appetite, and we know about emotional eating. So what? Those are temporary conditions.”
Here’s so what: I want you also to consider that when we live our lives intentionally being who we were meant to be and doing what ignites our hearts and spirits – passionately, we allow our authentic selves to be seen. We give ourselves permission to express. We give ourselves permission to soar. Acceptance of who we are and what we are here for dissolves the need to hide out beneath excess weight.
And I also assert that when we live our lives with “should’s” and “have to’s” while suppressing our true selves, we are more likely to turn to food as a distraction, comfort, or substitute for the real passion that yearns to be expressed.
OWL Success Tip: What lights you up? If chocolate and Crème Brule weren’t options and if excuses disappeared, what would you love, love, love to be and do? My advice is to take a step toward that, and another step. I would bet money that if you do, you will lose some excess weight and keep it off…effortlessly!
To learn more about “The Passionate Dieter” register for a complimentary Weight Loss Breakthrough session.
With Love,
OWL Success Tips: Feeding Your Real Needs
How many times have you found yourself eating and realized that you were not really hungry?
Or you noticed yourself eating something you did not really want? Or you realized that no matter how much you ate, you still felt hungry?
When food becomes more than fuel to us, we use it to fill all kinds of needs other than hunger. What needs? Over-eaters Anonymous asks us to look at the acronym H.A.L.T. – hungry, angry, lonely, tired – as a tool for distinguishing hunger from other needs. Ontological Weight Loss Program (OWL) adds an S for Stress – H.A.L.T.S.
Cognitive therapist Judith Beck asks her weight loss clients to abstain from eating and to feel the hunger pangs in order to distinguish physical hunger from emotional hunger. Transformational coach Anthony Robbins identifies six needs of human beings: certainty, significance, love, variety, growth, and contribution. Psychologist Abraham Mazlow in his 1943 paper, A Theory of Human Motivation, describes human needs as physical, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization.
Because we are so used to operating on automatic pilot, we don’t always recognize the needs underneath. If we turn off our auto pilot mechanism long enough, we may identify our real needs and may then empower ourselves to choose behaviors that support rather than sabotage a healthy weight.
- Simple example #1: If I realize I am tired, I can choose to rest instead of eat.
- Simple example #2: If I realize I don’t feel loved, I can do something kind and loving for myself.
- Simple example #3: If I realize I am stressed, I can call a friend, take a bath, meditate, or take a walk
It sounds easy, doesn’t it? The challenge, of course, is to have the willingness, self-respect, and courage to get out of the automatic comfort zone and move into the realm of possibility and transformation. Another challenge is to change ingrained habits.
O.W.L. Success Tip: If you’re up for it, stop before you eat. Notice what you are feeling. Identify your real needs. And take action to fill the needs with something other than food.
To learn more about “Feeding Your Real Needs” register for a complimentary Weight Loss Breakthrough session.
With Love,
You & The Sabotage Cycle
Have you ever been on a weight loss program, doing just fine thank you, when whammo!
You notice you have sabotaged yourself big time. Maybe you went off your diet. Maybe you stopped exercising. Maybe you allowed a small indiscretion to balloon into a full-out eating binge or exercise boycott. And then what happened? If there was a downward spiral that lasted a while, you may have been caught in the Sabotage Cycle!
I believe that we sabotage our best efforts and our commitments in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons. Sabotage takes us from power to powerlessness, keeps us from realizing our results and our greatness, and then is a tool to beat ourselves up. Ready to give up sabotage? Let’s do it!
First identify your sabotage cycle so that you can understand it and not have it run your life. In your experience of sabotage, what happens first? And then what happens? And what happens next? Keep going until you have made a full circle.
Here is my cycle as an example:
- I am empowered, being in integrity, and practicing good self-care.
- I have an unexpressed fear or a need.
- I don’t want to look at it.
- I stuff it or manage it, operating over the top of the fear of need.
- I do something to numb out, usually eat or play computer games.
- I beat myself up – self-criticize.
- I suffer.
- I decide to break the cycle.
- I break the cycle
- I am empowered, back in integrity and self-care.
Although I come back to empowerment, I have probably created havoc with my weight loss in the meantime. So the trick is to stop it mid-cycle. What does your Sabotage Cycle look like? Take a moment to make some notes. Once you have described it, then the following exercise can support you in the intervention.
Step 1: Notice the red flags signaling a fear or need. (If I am reaching for snacks when I have just finished a meal, it might be a red flag. If I do not like chocolate but find myself eating chocolate, that might be a red flag.)
Step 2: Name the voices inside your head. (Is Debby Denial saying, “I won’t think about this today.” Is Nancy Nazi saying, “You are a fat pig loser!” Is Ruby Rebel saying, “I’ll eat whatever I want!”) These voices are merely protection defaults. Whenever you notice them, you can bet there is an undistinguished need or fear underneath.
Step 3: Thank these voices. Be grateful that they are trying to protect you.
Step 4: Identify the fear or the need. (For instance, if I am preparing a speech and notice myself eating absently, I may be covering my fear of public speaking. Or if I feel lonely, I may numb the need for companionship with food.)
Step 5: Remember who you are and what is your commitment.
Step 6: Break the Sabotage Cycle with a tool such as these:
- See yourself with compassion
- Forgive yourself
- Recommit
- Get coaching or other support
- Review your plan
- Get back on program (or join the OWL program 🙂
To learn more about the “Sabotage/Entitlement” Sabotage Pattern and creating a Lifetime Plan, you will want to register for my “Weight Loss Jump Start”.
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9 Unconscious reasons you can’t keep the weight off and what to do about it
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9 Unconscious reasons you can’t keep the weight off and what to do about it
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