Three pounds in two weeks! What am I doing differently? Overall, not much. My exercise and eating habits are about the same as the last 18 weeks. I’ve even lowered my exercise goal recently. Though I started out with the goal of something like 5 hours a week, I increased that to 10.5 hours a week so as to get in the 90 minutes a day that many experts say is ideally the minimum. Within the last few weeks, I decided that a day off is a good idea and is more sustainable. So I lowered my goal to 9 hours a week. (See my previous post, “The Virtue of A Day Off”.)
That brings me to the second small change I’ve recently made – I have generally stopped asking myself to accomplish so much in a day. My expectations of myself have been really off the charts. Only 8 months into a new marriage, a blended family with teens, and a new-to-us-home, there is an amazing list of “things to take care of”. I find myself feeling incredibly stressed about it at times. A few weeks ago, I began the process of mapping out my time, day by day, hour by hour. After must-dos like sleep, shower, eat, etc. and the bare minimum of parenting and household chores, there really are precious few hours for the optional things like reading, socializing, or anything. That was a great reality check for me and, while it’s still a work in progress, I’m taking stepsto make my life smaller, simpler, and more manageable again. I have no doubt that it will still feel like a lot to manage but the simple shift of expecting myself to accomplish less in the day reduces the stress that I feel. (Maybe a topic to expound upon another time.)
Thirdly, and what I really had in mind to write about, is visualization. You’ve probably heard that great athletes spend time imagining themselves making the perfect shot, swing, or stride. Visualization works! Even if it’s only in our mind’s eye, seeing ourselves accomplish anything helps make it so. The main idea is that our brain largely doesn’t know the difference between something that we imagine in great detail, movies where all that our eyes take in is the result of someone else’s imagination, or a real experience. It reacts and our bodies react as if the event were true. Don’t believe me? Watch a scary movie sometime and notice how tense your body feels. Visualization is a big part of the magic behind The Law of Attraction, too.
What have I been visualizing? Myself fit and slender. I remember what it felt like when I was at lower weights, when I was more fit, when I felt skinny. I see my body in that state, see my scale registering a specific number, and experience the thrill of accomplishment and feeling great. I try to do this 3 times a day but succeed an average of twice – once before I get out of bed and once when I go to bed. Taking advantage of the powerful hypnopompic and hypnogogic states makes my visualizations even more powerful, I believe, as that’s a time when my conscious mind is less likely to step in with the thought “but you’re not really there yet”. In my mind, all things are possible.
Next…Powerful Thinking
Here are my current stats:
Starting weight: 164 lbs
Current weight: 156 lbs
Goal weight: 145
End of Week: #19
Weight loss this week: shed 2 lbs
Total weight loss to date: 8 lbs
How I did today:
1. Sleep - 8.5 hours last night
2. Exercise - 15 minutes brisk walking
3. Strength training - none
4. Yoga – nope
5. Meditation – 10 minutes before bed
6. Food – 4 fruits, a pile of veggies, some tofu and beans, 2 servings of chocolate (can you say PMS?)
How I did during week #19:
1. Sleep – average of 7.64 hours (goal is average 8.5 hours)
2. Exercise - 9 hours (goal is now 9)
3. Strength training – 5x w/Jazzercise (goal is 3 times per week)
4. Yoga – 0 (goal is twice a week)
5. Meditation – 20 minutes (goal is 10 minutes a day)
6. Food – better apparently, started moving toward soup or salad for dinner
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