Mental Heath Series - Weight Loss / Eating Disorder Issues

Making a change in your life, like losing weight, is not so much about the actual pounds you want to lose, but the change you are making in your life. Your attitude must be positive and you must believe in a positive outcome.

It’s much easier in the long run, to stick to a weight loss program if you have support. That support can come from your family, friends, commercial programs, clinics, behavior modification programs, and social support.

What helps is having the motivation to continue every day with the weight loss goals you’ve set for yourself. Always give yourself a reason why you can accomplish your goals.

It’s been said that no one is perfect. You don’t have to aim to be perfect, either. Just give yourself permission to be a little better today than you were yesterday.

Failure is not an option, and shouldn’t be for you either. One of the easiest ways to lose weight is to start walking. Walk in front of your house. Walk the length of your street. Walk one half a mile. Walk only what you are capable of and then walk a little further. Personally, I lost over 100 pounds just by walking. I started out walking less than one half a mile. I progressed every week, walking a little bit more, and a little bit more, until after a year, I was walking a mile or more. Then by the next year I was walking a few more miles. By the end of the third year I was walking eight miles a day. That’s all I did to change my lifestyle and lose weight.

Someone once said, “Success is not a place that we aspire to, it is a process in which we live by. Often the only ingredient being the ability to not quit.” That’s where you need to dig deep into your soul and know in your heart that this is truly a change you want to make in your life.

Keeping a food journal helps. Writing down everything that you eat, or the calories, or the amounts, whatever you want to track, will help you stay on that road to success.

Keeping a progress journal will also help. Write out your feelings, your successes, your frustrations, your emotions, and get them out of your head and onto paper. Give yourself the opportunity to reveal, in a journal, even if to n o on else, exactly what you’re experiencing as you go through this life change.

Buddy up with another person who wants to make the same changes in their life. It always helps to have someone you can motivate and who can give you the inspiration you need when you’re feeling like you can’t go on.

An Ashanti Proverb goes like this; you must act as if it is impossible to fail. Have faith. Believe with all your heart. Give yourself over to the change and live it, day by day.

In future issues, I'll discuss more about weight loss and eating disorders. Weight loss does not equal healthy eating, nor does being thin. Weight is just a number, diets are not recommended, a lifestyle choice is better. 

If you read previous posts, you'll find out about my struggle with a Binge Eating Disorder and how I've coped.